Who’s The Villain?

In the tradition of this blog, it is giving space to a very faithful reader who, to put it mildly, doesn’t share the author’s perspectives. Please welcome Ali’s take on my last post, and respond constructively with arguments, not insults.

[Mustapha] seems bothered that an Arab country is getting an aid package
from Iran, but it does not seem to bother him that Israel has been
getting billions of dollars of weapons and money and everything else
you can think of to make it the most powerful army in the region, for
decades now.

[Mustapha] says that the Israelis are convening to discuss the
“Iranian threat!” Are you serious? A country with a nuclear arsenal,
backed by the most powerful army in the world, feeling threatened?
Israel has been “afraid” all its illegitimate life (I would too if I
were a thief and a murderer, although I don’t think THEY feel any
remorse), and keeps touting that its very existence is at stake, yet,
oddly enough, has over the years and wars, killed more Arabs and
confiscated more land, and keeps getting richer and more powerful by
the day. Very peculiar indeed for a country under constant threat.

Syria has been making overtures to Israel for many years now, but it
is the Israelis who have no interest in giving up the Golan. If they
are interested in peace, why didn’t they accept the King Abdallah
overly generous peace initiative a couple of years back? Could you care
to comment?

It is about right and wrong, no? Is Syria occupying Israel? Or is it the Israelis who are occupying Syrian, Lebanese and Palestinian lands? I understand your angst against the Syrians, and as Sami mentioned, we all suffered under the Syrians, but this blog has become notorious for its anti-Syrian, anti-resistance hysterics and the free pass, if not the downright defense, that it keeps providing to Israel.

[Keireddine] I think you are yourself confused and need to decide where you stand on the regional issues. Lebanon is not an isolated problem. It is a part of the outer struggle that pits a couple of Arab/Muslim countries and some Nationalistic resistance movements against a hegemonic superpower lusting for ME oil and its religio-racist, expansionist satellite in the region (with a few Arab dictatorial lackeys to boot). I find a lot of what Syria and Iran unpalatable, but I just cannot see how you will not even consider the basic issue of right and wrong here of who’s invading whom, who threatens whom, and who had has done more damage to whom over the last few decades and now.

The way [Mustapha] intonates his views, you’d think it is the Arabs who have gone over to Europe and the US, have invaded their countries, killed their people, taken their land and built offensive military bases intheir midst to bully and intimidate them, and lay seige of their natural resources. You’d think it is the Iranian fleet browbeating and harassing the people of Texas in the Gulf of Mexico! If you were Iran, what would you do if a hegemonic superpower invaded the two neighboring countries next door, took them over, and built military bases all over the map around you? Would you not feel threatened? Would you not make provisions to be strong and defend yourself and seek allies in the region and everywhere you can? And you say it is Iran that is a threat?

Come on guys, be real. You’ve lost all perspective. I am sorry to say that what Sami wrote in his first post is exactly where we think you guys stand on all these issues, your token patriotism notwithstanding.

Ali believes that this blog lacks balance and represents only one side of the Lebanese spectrum. Maybe that’s true; it is in the interest of the readers to always know the opinions of both large camps in Lebanon. This is why, I Mustapha, am publicly inviting Ali, with all my readers as witnesses, to become a regular contributor to this blog. I am impressed by his English language and I believe his biases pretty much compliment mine. His contributions would make interesting reading for my like-minded yet discerning readership . If Ali agrees, he’ll send me an email. If not, we will all move on.