Ayman Who? Take Two
Is the current 'Lebanon crisis' part of the war on terror? President Bush seems to think so, or at least, would like it to be. That's why he has essentially given Israel a green light to rampage in southern Lebanon. So too, it would appear, does Ayman al-Zawahiri, who has been desperately trying to sustain Al-Qaeda's relevance against the greater interest being paid to insurgents in Iraq, and Hamas and Hezbollah. In his recent entreaty to Muslims around the world, Zawahiri, like Bush, attempted to cast the regional conflict as a global war. He said Al-Qaeda views "all the world as a battlefield open in front of us." Bush and Zawahiri's fantasy is, to a degree, mutual. Both would like to instrumentalize a regional conflict for their own gain. Bush's scandal-ridden war on terror, and now widely unpopular Iraq adventure, has been in need of some new sources of righteous indignation, which Bush seems to be seeking in the reflected glory of Israel's attack. The actual existence and staying power of Hezbollah appears to give more substance to Bush's war on terror than the practically non-existent face off with Al-Qaeda.
Zawahiri's gambit, however, is even more desperate. In little over a month, Hezbollah and to a lesser degree Hamas, have been able to garner far more popular support amongst Arabs and Muslims than Al-Qaeda ever has. As this editorial in the Mercury News notes, over the past days:
"Al-Qaida feels upstaged...At large demonstrations in the Arab world, many people were carrying pictures of Hezbollah's leader Hassan Nasrallah, celebrating him as a hero in ways that Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden never has been."
Indeed, Al-Qaeda's increasing irrelevance is reflected in Zawahiri's attempt to make his organization seem more inclusive: "religious puritanism and sectarianism were no longer topics; instead he called on ``all the weak'' to unite against ``injustice.'' Zawahiri was even forced to (rhetorically) abandon the narrow Wahhabi basis of Al-Qaeda, and to call for Sunni and Shia to join together in a holy war against the United States. These lame attempts at hoisting Al-Qaeda's wagon to the engines of more popular movements elsewhere are doomed to fail. Where Hezbollah and Hamas have made an effort to represent actual constituencies in an existing conflict, Al-Qaeda has done the opposite. And its political philosophy, such as it is, is oriented more towards spectacular media events and apocalyptic global visions, than political results and popular mobilization. Behind Al-Qaeda's once exaggerated sense of its own importance, is an awareness that the war on terror has moved on. Indeed, one interesting aspect of the war on terror itself is that today Al-Qaeda plays such an insignificant role.
Zawahiri's gambit, however, is even more desperate. In little over a month, Hezbollah and to a lesser degree Hamas, have been able to garner far more popular support amongst Arabs and Muslims than Al-Qaeda ever has. As this editorial in the Mercury News notes, over the past days:
"Al-Qaida feels upstaged...At large demonstrations in the Arab world, many people were carrying pictures of Hezbollah's leader Hassan Nasrallah, celebrating him as a hero in ways that Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden never has been."
Indeed, Al-Qaeda's increasing irrelevance is reflected in Zawahiri's attempt to make his organization seem more inclusive: "religious puritanism and sectarianism were no longer topics; instead he called on ``all the weak'' to unite against ``injustice.'' Zawahiri was even forced to (rhetorically) abandon the narrow Wahhabi basis of Al-Qaeda, and to call for Sunni and Shia to join together in a holy war against the United States. These lame attempts at hoisting Al-Qaeda's wagon to the engines of more popular movements elsewhere are doomed to fail. Where Hezbollah and Hamas have made an effort to represent actual constituencies in an existing conflict, Al-Qaeda has done the opposite. And its political philosophy, such as it is, is oriented more towards spectacular media events and apocalyptic global visions, than political results and popular mobilization. Behind Al-Qaeda's once exaggerated sense of its own importance, is an awareness that the war on terror has moved on. Indeed, one interesting aspect of the war on terror itself is that today Al-Qaeda plays such an insignificant role.
2 Comments:
Your entry seems to imply that Hamas and Hezbollah play a major *political* role in the current conflict. It has become clear, however, that they are not political entities but militant groups in the sense that they will not (in the case of Hezbollah) and cannot (in the case of Hamas) lay down their arms and participate in any internal or external political discourse or become functioning political entities with the goal of ending conflict, as opposed to armed ones seeking to continue the conflict.
For whatever else the Hezbollah may be criticised, its military actions are not of a "terrorist group" and its war is not a "Jehad or an Islamic War". The Hezbollah is simply fighting a war against the illegal military occupation of its country by Israel, just as Iraq is and the Palestinians are.
Even in the case of "kidnappings" they have all been soldiers-fair game, if one might say so, to be exchanged for their own comrades in arms.
Let us remind ourselves that it was Israel which first kidnapped two civilians from Gaza, a doctor and his brother on June 24; of course you are surprised, you never heard about that did you? and it was to release them that the Hezbollah kidnapped two soldiers-not civilians.
It all comes back to the Holocaust anti semitisim, and genocide; historically it has always been the European nations who have had pogroms against the Jews, dating as far back as the middle ages and even earlier. The Spanish, the French, the British, the Polish, the Russian, the American and most recently the Germans have all had their fair share of genocide and pogroms against the Jews. On the other hand it has been the Arabs, Turks and the other Muslim people who have lived in tolerance and friendship with the Jews.
Lets just take Turkey as a case in point: During the pogroms of the 15th and 16th century in Europe, it was the Ottoman Empire under Beyzid II who gave shelter to the fleeing Jews.
Until around 1880 Ottoman Jews formed a majority of Palestine's Jewish population and they became a majority in the city of Jerusalem in about 1860. They enjoyed full citizenship rights and were able to purchase shops and land in the area. Ottoman Jews in territories which had been under the authority of the sultan until their loss in the nineteenth century were treated as equals to Muslims and were allowed to settle freely in Ottoman territories until further Jewish settlement in Palestine was prohibited on 29 July, 1899. This order was largely rescinded in 1907. During the period 1862-1914 approximately 120,000 Ottoman Jews migrated into the Ottoman Empire. (Wikipedia: History of the Jews).
It is this huge Jewsish migration and the discovery of oil, which are the two most direct causes for the trouble in Palestine and in the rest of the Middle East.
Since it is the European nations which have been the most consistent in torturing and raging against the Jews, why is it that the Muslim world has to pay for their sins? If the west is so concerned about the well being of the Jews, then in repentance and in goodwill, why does it not carve out a seperate Jewish homeland in Europe?
I will tell you why they will never do so, because even till today a large section of the European people still harbour deep seated hatred and antagonism against the Jews and they would fight tooth and nail to prevent the creation of a Jewish state in their own backyard, whatever may be their democratic and liberal pretensions. This hatred spills out soon every now and then, in its anti muslim variants in France; anti hispanic and anti black in the US.
If the Hezbollah and the Hamas were not there, the US and Israel would be sitting in Ramallah and in Beruit right now.
The fight by Palestine and Lebanon to regain territories occupied by Israel are reported as a muslim "jehad", but Israel occupying land in Palestine and Lebanon is part of the "war against terror".
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