France is leading the way to censure the
Syrian regime for violations
of human rights. Obama and Secretary Clinton spoke profusely of
the Syrian regime’s culpability in shooting and killing civilians in the cities
and suburbia of Syria’s
hinterlands. Britain
and the rest of the Western Hampshire democracies have joined the chorus
purportedly defending Arab human rights.
The
same chorale preached the human rights charade and succeeded in passing a
Security Council resolution allowing the use of military force against Libya.
Today Libya
is being destroyed under the pretext of human rights. Meanwhile, the same
countries were bashful in response to public protests in Egypt
and Tunisia
or disappeared from the radar screen in Western backed non democratic Arab
countries.
To
avoid any confusion, let’s clarify that the rights of Arab masses, collectively
and individually, to demand democratic change in their countries has
long been passed due. Safeguarding human rights must be universally cherished
value, enjoyed by everyone, everywhere, and censuring must equally apply
against all violators,
no prejudice, and no exception.
Palestinian human rights have been denied for more than 60
years with complete inaudible Western silence; one and a half million
Palestinian have been under economic siege in Gaza for more than five years; Israel
has continued to violate the Western own driven “road map” for peace by
building Jewish only settlements on occupied Palestinian lands. Nevertheless,
the same Western chorus defending Arab human rights in Syria and Libya has conspicuously ignored the
same for Palestinian
Arabs. It is even worse since Western powers have empowered Israel
financially and politically to carry on with these abuses against the
Palestinians.
One
important observation worth mentioning as we watch the Arab Democratic Spring:
the West must have been caught by surprise and was unable, or didn’t want to
interfere in the uprising against Western backed regimes in places like Egypt and Tunisia. Inadvertently though, this
may have helped the march towards democracy in these two countries arrive
successfully to its final destination with the least damage.
However
in other places, where the West attempted to influence the Arab Democratic
Spring, mostly in non-Western friendly nations like Libya
and now in Syria,
the Democratic march took a more bloody turn. Unlike Egypt
and Tunisia,
public protests have turned or are turning into armed revolutions. These
countries will spend years in nation building before they can stand on their
feet.
Not
being a person who was big on conspiracy theory, I wondered however, if the recent
arrest of allege Israeli spy, who reportedly attempted to drive a wedge between
the demonstrators at Tahrir Square
in Cairo and
the army, was part of a larger Israeli conspiracy. Could this have been part of
a failed plan, to turn the peaceful protests into an open confrontation between
the protestors and Egyptian
Army? Could Israeli spies be doing the same directly or via their
influence on Western powers in Libya
and Syria?
Israel has the
most to gain from turning peaceful protests into war zones. Western Democracies
crocodile tears over human
rights violations, albeit true, are belied by their failure to
stop financing human
rights violation in occupied Palestine.
The
West’s irrational duplicity remains the heart of the mistrust between Arabs and
Western countries. Hence, the West failed to convince the Arab street
of its altruistic motivations.
