What is it about the Arab-Israeli conflict that makes it evoke emotion on such a global scale across such a diverse set of populations? I don't dispute that for Muslims, Jews and concerned citizens of the world, the Arab-Israeli conflict genuinely induces powerful reactions. But I often wonder about the magnitude and scope of this global outcry and why it seems to dominate other more local grievances like unemployment, restrictions on civil liberties, and corruption.
We all know the arguments. On one side of the spectrum, we hear about the fear and horror of daily rocket bombardments on Israeli cities and villages. We hear the traumatic stories from families who have lost love ones and live in fear of belligerent rocket fire and threats of suicide bomb attacks. On the other side of the spectrum, we are reminded of a stateless people who are living under difficult economic and social conditions. There are no shortage of heart-wrenching stories about the challenges Palestinians face in both the West Bank and Gaza. With the outbreak of the recent violence in such a densely populated area, Palestinian civilians have been caught in cross-fire. And, of course, there are those who blame both sides, arguing that the Palestinian and Israeli leaderships are responsible for perpetuating conflict that has claimed the lives of innocent civilians.
The diversity of views that exist is acceptable to me, but there are aspects of the global reaction I find perplexing. At times, I have remarked to friends that the further one goes from the epicenter of the Arab-Israeli conflict, the angrier people seem to be about it. Why do young people in Algeria, unemployed and living in poverty, tell me that their primary grievance in life is the fact that the Palestinians do not have a state? What makes 10,000 Indonesians march against violence in Gaza, but not Indonesian casualties at the hands of Jamaa Islamiyya or Al-Qaeda? I don't understand why thousands of Syrians take to the streets to support "freedom" for the Palestinians, yet not a single protest in Damascus pushing the regime for their own civil liberties? In Lebanon, the Al-Qaeda group Fatah al-Islam waged a deadly campaign inside of the Nahr al-Bared Palestinian camp, yet despite it taking place on Lebanese soil, I don't recall floods of protests into downtown Beirut. In Pakistan, thousands will amass in front of the U.S. consulate in Karachi with bricks and slogans against violence between Israel and Hamas, but not the almost weekly Al-Qaeda assaults inside their own borders. Why are Bangladeshi and Pakistani immigrants living in the UK angrier about the Arab-Israeli conflict than events in their home countries or the integration and inclusion challenges that more directly affect them? And why are tens of thousands of Persian Shiites in Iran filling out surveys and registering to wage a jihad in the predominantly Sunni Arab Gaza?
How does one account for the double standards, inconsistencies, and lack of similar activism around local issues that are illustrated by these questions? There is no single answer, but perhaps certain trends and contexts that help explain the phenomenon. The media is an obvious starting point. Al-Jazeera, Al-Manar, and other Arab media outlets are flooding the airwaves throughout Muslim communities with images from Gaza and the West Bank. The media plays on identity presenting these images to touch the hearts and minds of Muslims and non-Muslims throughout the world. Most of the people seeing these images do not live in the heart of the conflict and thus have a certain luxury to protest and demonstrate. For Muslim communities in Europe, this is particularly the case. Far away from home and poorly integrated into mainstream society, immigrant populations in Western Europe often struggle with the issue of identity. This challenge has led to a metaphorical feeling of statelessness that many immigrants experience. The imagery they see in newspapers, online, and on the television screen offer a visual connection between them and other Muslim communities. The outrage we witness via media is a convenient way for grievances to manifest themselves. This is not exclusive to immigrant communities in Europe; the same can be said for Muslim populations in Venezuela, which may explain why thousands marched in Caracas against Israel last week.
The barrage of images in the media, particularly during a period of fighting, ensures that the Arab-Israeli conflict is at the forefront of people's minds. There is no shortage of entities that seek to exploit this. Governments like Syria and Iran face serious economic, political, and social challenges at home. Fearing that any of these vulnerabilities could catalyze rebellion, insurrection, or protest, these regimes employ corrupt, autocratic, and repressive tactics to deprive their populations of rights and opportunities to mount any serious challenge, including a viciously controlled media. It is not surprising that these regimes view the Arab-Israeli conflict as an opportune issue that can divert attention away from their domestic shortcomings. The repressive leadership of these countries actively distract from their domestic deficiencies by pushing their population to focus anger, frustration and rage externally. I am sure Bashar al-Assad in Syria prefers the sound of "Oh Mubarak, listen, listen, the Arab people will not kneel down" to open critiques of his own regime. The Arab-Israeli conflict casts a convenient shadow of cover over their dubious activities.
This conflict is not a hard sell to the people of our world as the images seen on television are impactful and Muslims around the world identify with the plight of the Palestinians just as the Jewish people around the world have a similar reaction to images and news of rocket attacks and suicide bombings. Of equal importance is the fact that populations in repressive countries--normally restricted on freedom of assembly and speech--are permitted to speak out about this issue. In this sense, the conflict takes on a double meaning as the state often encourages such mobilization against Israel. In Syria, for example, the Assad regime does not permit freedom of assembly or speech, yet in the wake of the Israel/Gaza conflict, the regime relaxed these restrictions to create room for the population to speak out against Israel.
Where States do not stoke the organically felt sentiments in Muslim communities, non-state entities play the role of flame-thrower, agitator, and mobilizer on what they view as a winning issue. In places like Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Indonesia, groups like Al-Qaeda, the Taliban, and Jamaa Islamiyya use the global outcry in ungoverned spaces, urban slums, and impoverished rural areas to piggy-back on the emotion and recruit new members. They care not for the Palestinian people, nor do they advocate a peaceful solution; their sole interest is in seizing an opportunity for exploitative recruitment.
An amplified global outcry has led to a misperception that all the world's problems will be solved if the Arab-Israeli conflict is resolved. While this would be a tremendous achievement that would allow the world to move forward beyond a conflict that has perpetuated for decades, it is not the silver bullet solution. A Palestinian state will not create jobs in North Africa, it will not reduce poverty in South Asia, and it will not help Muslims in Europe integrate. By making the Arab-Israeli conflict a lynchpin for all the world's problems, we only fuel an inclination to use Israel and Palestine as the scapegoat for unrelated and local challenges across the developing world.
Read more posts from the Dorm Room Diplomacy series.
Jared Cohen | January 15,2008 - Jared Cohen | ColbertNation.com
YouTube - Jared Cohen "Children of JIhad" on BBC Morning Show
They were not demonstrating day and night every single day for the last 6 decades, plus they were occasionaly some demonstrations in some Arab countries against their regime, it's just not being covered in the news.
For Arabs, their biggest issue in their lifetime is the suffering of Palestinians, more than their lack of free speech at their country, that's why, that's the simple answer to the author question.
This is the age of internet, no matter how strong the Israeli propaganda can be, the images and videos that are reaching people all over the world tell it as it is. A massacre is being committed by the IDF, and people finally realized what is going on over there.
http://www.shoebat.com/
It's even more hypocritical that the media hyperfocuses on the civilian deaths caused by Israel, and not the civilian deaths caused by Hamas putting them in harms way.
Palestinians have been offered NUMEROUS opportunites to reach a diplomatic resolution and even to form their own nation. 1919, 1947, 1978, 2006 and each and every time they have torpedoed or ignored the negotiations. Every time.
So please tell me why I should care if more Palestinians are dying. Obviously they dont want to put their rockets and human bombers away and talk peace so why should I care as an American who is neither Jew nor Arab if a few more Palestinians must die because Hamas is too stupid to negotiate? Lets face it. For every 10 Israeli's that die 1000 Palestinians will die so if you fools think you are WINNING this conflict take a look at your crappy neighborhoods, occupied territory, high body count on your side and then please tell me how Hamas is WINNING this for you.
Soon the plug will be pulled on the "Blind Support For Israel" of previous US administrations.
If not Obama then someone else, perhaps the global economic downturn will signal the end of foreign aid to Israel or perhaps high oil prices.
Either way Israel will soon have to pay the piper, right now its just digging the hole deeper.
Russia, China, and Asia are the emerging superpowers and they don't share the US zeal for Israeli policies...
Have a nice day...
Russia ( most) and China are in Asia. Basic geography knowledge should come before opinions on complex geopolitical matter.
Have a nice day.
The isolationism movement in US has been eliminated on December 7, 1941.
Bush tried some of that nonsense in his election campaign( we're against Clinton's nation building). But 9/11 disabused him of that real quick.
U.S. is and will be involved in Middle East until the oil last. And U.S. will continue to support nations it is allied with or has common interests with.
Have a nice day of learning.
It is no longer the 'arab-israeli conflict'. It is now only the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Pan-arabism died in the late 1950s-1960s. By the 1970s, arab states began detaching themselves from the conflict with Israel and began focusing onimmediate, internal issues and policies and left it up to the newly formed Palestian Authority.
Oh really?
I suppose that;'s why Syria hosts Hamas, Egypt allows weapon smuggling into Gaza.
That's why and Arab states are unwilling to give status to Palestinians who were born and raised in their countries.
That's why entire Islamic world awash in vile Antisemitism bordering on hallucinatory.
Because there' no more conflict. Think... think....
Granted, Arab countries are no longer willing to engage in direct military conflict with Israel, having been beaten time and time again. But the conflict is still there.
And to answer Jared's question as to why the bizarre and vicious global response, it's just anti-Semitism pure and simple. The fact is that the I-P conflict is one of the least violent of recent decades, with total casualties way, way below those of many other conflicts that get very little attention. If you ranked the conflicts of the past 60 years in terms of deaths and wounded the I-P one wouldn't even make the top 50, maybe not even the top 100. But people are using it as a way of diverting attention from their much, much worse violence. Anyone decent person can see how hypocritical is to demand prosecution of war crimes of Israel for killing a 1000 people while not doing the same for the US and UK for killing a million Iraqis.
Thank God Israel is winning.
I am totally ashamed to be an American now. I have a feeling of hopelessness when I see the continuation of our old wrongful ways. I admire the South Africans for their miracle, but doubt its happening with the Israelis and Palestine. And I don't see America ending its vile ways. On the other hand, I never expected it to happen in South Africa either, so maybe (hopefully?) I am wrong.
No matter, we must keep trying. Even if we never win really, we must keep trying -- for the sake of our own sanity.
And people all over are concerned with justice. They recognize certain facts. It must be for all or it is for none.
Justice is not the same as law. A bad law is not just.
When there are conflicts to be settled, there are three ways of settling them: by free negotiations, court action, or power acting arbitrarily.
Whenever one party is stroing, it tends toward power. But no power remains strong enough to ignore world opinion forever. Eventually, that power will fail.
We all recognize right. Wrongful reliance on unjust laws or courts does not fool anyone. In its early days, the UN was dominated by US and UK power. So some actions then were not just. The world knows that although some refuse to see it.
No people has any right to abuse another, to take from that other its homes and properties, to subject another to its arbitrary whims, to dispossess another, to deprive another of the means to live freely as human beings, to malign, torture, oppress and murder another.
To allow such only breeds hatreds to plague the future. South Africa has shown how the way out. Both must recognize the claims of justice. And the injured party must be prompted to renounce vengeace.
We are united under the threat of pre-emptive strikes,shadow prisons and Two Ton cluster Bombs.
We are united against polluters and bank robbers that control our world.
We are all united and we are strong, Gaza is our fight against militarism and state Terror.
We shall overcome, We shall overcome
Israels actions are contrary to American Constitutional values of DEMOCRACY and EQUALITY, so those actions should be carried out without Americas support. Shame on those Americans who enjoy the benefits of the Constitution yet do not defend it out of cowardice.
America owes nothing to the world but to stand by its Constitutional values.
If the foreign aid we send to Israel and the weapons we provide were a matter that we American citizens could vote on, I personally would vote against providing Israel material, monetary, even diplomatic support. Israel would then find peaceful, non-racist, palestinian-integrating, solutions to its problems right-quick.
In the end, the entire region (including Israel) WILL BE a majority Arab region and these same Arabs have a RIGHT to govern themselves in any way they see fit. All this bloodshed and misery is just an effort to mitigate Arab influence as Americas economy erodes and its values crumble under the weight of the shame of disgrace.
Ah, the old Arab revanchist dream.
Re."Shame on those Americans who enjoy the benefits of the Constitution yet do not defend it out of cowardice."
Exactly, those who support oppressive fundamentalism of Hamas vs. democratic Israel SHOULD be ashamed.
"MY government." Obviously not:
rasmussenreport:
(55%) of Americans blame Palestinians or the current situation in Gaza,
13% -- blame Israelis
(67%) support Israel's military action,
30% favor diplomacy.
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/general_politics/americans_closely_divided_over_israel_s_gaza_attacks
Ipsos/McClatchy Poll
1/6-12/09
Do you think that the use of force by Hamas has been excessive or is appropriate given the circumstances?"
Excessive 57%
Appropriate 18 %
I'm glad that you view Israels actions in the same light.
The difference is that the US does not provide support and DOES publicly condemn the actions of those groups and should do the same with the actions of Israel.
Good day.
I support US aid to Israel. Everyone in the US military who I've ever spoken to says the US gets more for its investment in Israel than it does for its investments anywhere else.
We American citizens should have a say in Israels policies if we are going to foot the bill, something that thus far we don't have.
You can quote polls all day long but Americans are about as ignorant about Israel and the middle east as they are about biblical history and biblical archaeology. But once the American Citizen is educated about this issue they will share my view, just as many other nations.
about that, was not going to defeat Israel, they turned in varying degrees to ISlamic Fundamentalism.
Violence is the norm, and escape is impossible.
Lebanese conscript soldiers... armed with M16 rifles, stand guard at the checkpoints leading into the camp.
Positioned behind them are fortifications made from tires and barrels filled with sand. They inspect the ID cards of everyone going in or out of the camp.
....Journalists, NGO workers, and foreigners have to get permission from the Lebanese military intelligence just to get inside the camp."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/jun/12/syria.israelandthepalestinians
Anything wrong with this picture,. In a country controlled by defenders of ( some) Palestinains--Hezbollah?
mostly tho...does it matter...since abbas suspended the palestinian unity gov't?
hamas beat the heck out of fatah - a power struggle - sent fatah packing to the west bank while hamas settled into controlling the strip.
13 days ago hamas was killing fatah in gaza city - killed 8. is this why fatah stays back? they know hamas is wrong and they can't do anything about it...why the foot dragging by arab neighbors? they seem to understand hamas better then we do and want to avoid them as much as possible.
why do the gazans allow them to exert such evil control or are the gazans hostages to hamas?
why is there never talk of the dissolution of the gov't? no talk of the 2 palestines and 2 parties and a perfect willingness to destroy each other for their parties?
FROM 1948 until 1967 ARAB CONTROLLED GAZA, WEST BANK,JERUSALEM, NEGEV AND GOLAN HEIGHTS.
WHY NO PALESTINIAN STATE WAS FORMED?
Answer this question truthfully and the whole conflict become clear.
Thank you for mentioning the Palestinian ghetto/prison camps in Lebanon. Good job!
"The Palestinians' Lebanese camps became ghettos as the Palestinians were barred from citizenship, finding jobs, traveling abroad, obtaining education, benefits or medical help, even in emergency."
"Palestinian refugees in Lebanon face specific problems. They have no social and civil rights, and no access to public social services."
http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/05/21/lebanon.camps/index.html
EVER TOOK ISSUE AT THAT? NO? Oh, defender of (some)Palestinains.
Oh, righteous defender of ( some) Palestinains.