Idiosyncrasies of the Arab World

Few days ago, I sat down to watch a World Cup game between Germany and England. A game where someone has to win to move to the next stage. Historically, the English and the Germans battled in two world wars just in the last century but on the field they battled many times. As the game unfolded and Germany showed that it was the more likely team to win, a goal was denied to the English, a very justified goal but the game went on. Finally, the game ended with a big win to the Germans. However, I was struck by the players on both teams who went to shake hands, exchange shirts, offer a few words of encouragement. The same phenomenon occured in other games over and over. I was also really struck by the Spanish team whose players went to cheer up some of the Paraguayans after their loss.

I then recalled qualification games between two Arab nations. In November of 2009 Egypt and Algeria battled almost to the death on the field and outside between the fans. Now, these two nations speak the same Arabic language , practice the same religion of Islam and have never fought against each other. In fact, they call each other « brotherly nations ». Yet, on a game of soccer the fans almost killed each other in a qualifying game in Sudan and the players exchanged few spars on the field as well. After the games ended, there was no hand shaking or hugs or exchanges of shirts. No, it was pure hatred. This was definitely not good sportsmanship. After all it was just a game of football or soccer.

But then I thought well this is not really a surprise. Let us look to the citizens of all the Arab nations. They loathe anything that comes from Israel whether near or far. They hate the Jewish people wether they are from Israel or anywhere else in the world. Jewish people are like the devil to them. To give a simple example, when an Egyptian player wanted to go to play to a football team in Belgium that happen to have a player that is Jewish, some people in Egypt wanted to take a way the Egyptian citizenship from that player. Some even called him a traitor ! I am sure, not every Arab hate every Jewish/Israeli person but there is a big majority. Now the question is why ?

It all started back in 1948 with a war between Israel and the neighboring Arab nations and defeating them. Of course, the Israeli had support from the western world but nonetheless Israel won thereby starting a war that has not ended. Israel and the Arabs (mostly Egypt,Syria,Lebanon,Palestine and Jordan) fought several battles and wars. Egypt was successful in gaining all its territory by 1981 but Syria, Palestine, and Jordan did not have the same success. In fact, the Arab nations were mad at Egypt for quiet sometime because of that. Mostly Palestine has been the one who fought the longest with Israel and that is because Israel is occupying its territory.

But, I am not here to argue who is wrong or right because that can take forever due to the complexity of the situation. Before I go on, I must say that Palestinians have every right to be upset with Israelis. However, I also blame the Palestinians because they have not been able to negotiate a settlement. In fact, they rejected a very settlement that was offered by president Clinton back in 2000. Of course, some Palestinians or Arabs will say that they should not negotiate the rights to their own land. Well, you need to wake up to reality. Israel is not going anywhere. Israel is much more powerful and you should take whatever you can get your hands on. Sure, it is not fair but is life really fair ? Look at the native indians in America or the Tibetans in China or many other examples throughout history. All these people did not get their land back but life moved on. You don't see the native americans waging wars against the U.S.

The problem is that the Arabs always blame the others for their failures. If anything goes wrong in their country they blame it on the west or on the « jews ». When there was a wave of terrorist attacks on Egypt back on the 90s people said that this was a conspiracy from the west and Israel to destroy Egypt. But the sad thing is that people believe it. People in the Arab world believe anything that is said to them by the government.

When I asked a few people from the Arab world about what they think of Israel, I was astonished by their answers. Some said that Israel has a plan to conquer the Middle East. Others said that the « Jews » want to conquer the whole world. Some argued that Israel controls the US because of the strong Jewish lobby that controls all of the Senate and Congress. When I asked about their sources or where do they get this information they said that this what everyone says. I asked if their opinions is based on any facts and they acknowledged that it was not. One person however said that it was based on facts and that all the « Jews » do not like peace. When I asked them if they ever spoke to a person from Israel and they said no !! One person stated that they talked to one who seemed nice and they did not even know they were Jewish. So, without any facts and without ever meeting someone from Israel they were able to determine that Israeli people are bad.

Going back to Europe and its rich history I wondered how many wars were waged between those nations ? The French and the English, The French and the Germans. The Germans and all of Europe. The French and the Russians. The Russians and the Germans. The English and the Spanish. The Spanish and the Dutch. The Dutch and the Germans. Evidently there has been hundreds and hundreds of wars with millions and millions of victims on both sides yet these people do not hate each other. These people do not think bad of the others. Sure, there are the normal stereotypes but that pure hatred that exists between the Arab world and Israel does not exist.

I believe that is due to the fact that the Arab world is still living in the dark Middle Age period. They are still beheading, cutting hands, having their constitutions based on religion, waging holy wars and having monarchies with Kings and fake presidents that never go away. But the biggest joke is when the Arab world make fun of the west because of its uncivilized manners or corruption due to media, lack of religion or even fashion ! I am sorry my friends but you need to look up the date. It is 2010 and the world has moved on to better and bigger things. True, we are all still not as civilized as we should be. True, we all make mistakes but at least we do not argue when we are going to the bathroom wether we should step in with our left foot or the right foot due to superstition!