- How did we fall? Can we get up
at all?
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- A place in the Middle East,
written on Valentine’s Day. - As I looked out the window
over the ancient graceful hills, so similar to those of
Jerusalem, I thought of what Valentine’s Day meant to me.
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- When I was a child growing up
in my native America, Valentine’s Day was fun because my
mother had to go out and buy for me cards to give to each
kid in my class. It was a school ritual, passing out and
receiving valentines from fellow classmates. The gathered
cards became my pile of treasures, hoarded and cherished by
me until I tired of them. Eventually such treasures,
diamonds turned tin, ended up in the trash bin and became
fuel for some remote incinerator that would puff out into
the winter sky, the remnants of Valentine memories. I was
not old enough then to receive from a dashing admirer, a box
of chocolates or a red rose as a symbol of what life was
supposed to be all about.
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- Since my carefree childhood
days, many Valentine seasons have come and gone. What
mattered to me then is of little significance to me now.
Valentine’s Day is just another day to me, nothing
special. I see it for what it is, a day that passes, a day
that other people may or may not express their feelings of
love for another human being.
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- What puzzles me though, is
that while American tax dollars provide the most
sophisticated weapons to Israel, the army-state, to shoot,
to bomb, to massacre, to carry out ethnic cleansing, to
demolish homes, to uproot trees, and to assassinate those
that the Israelis deem fit to die, Arabs in surrounding
countries are worried about emulating a day celebrated
mostly by those who encourage or financially support the
slaughter of unarmed Palestinian civilians.
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- In Arabic newspapers, poetic
expressions splash across pages and pages of verbosity,
advertising the perfect Valentine’s gift or that special
cozy dinner for two at the best restaurants in the
respective town where the publications are distributed.
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- Radios all over the Arab world
blast out songs of celebration and messages of love and
exchanges of gifts while not so far away, in the streets of
Palestine, little Palestinian Davids are shot down by
Israeli Goliath sharpshooters, and other little Palestinians
are orphaned by Israeli hit squads.
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- On Valentine’s Day, Mossud
Ayyad, 50, a man close to Palestinian President Yasser
Arafat, was buried. He was slain when an Israeli helicopter
gunship fired a volley of rockets at his car north of Gaza
the day before.
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- Not long after Ayyad was
assinated, Bilal Ramadan, 13, was shot in the chest and
killed when he was walking home from school. Just before he
was buried, Bilal’s little sister Sausan bent down to
plant on her brother’s forehead, a final farewell kiss. No
one told little Sausan that today was Valentine’s Day. No
one told her that it was a day of love and red roses. No one
told her that she and other Palestinians had to bear their
pain, suffering and deaths alone while Arabs in happier
countries celebrated a day that meant nothing to her.
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- South of Gaza, near the Jewish
settlement of Gush Kitif, Palestinian children who were
playing in the street near their homes ran for cover in Khan
Younis refugee camp from shelling by Israeli soldiers.
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- Also in Khan Younis, the
Israeli army not only shelled civilian targets, but also
threw tear gas tainted with nerve gas at the civilian
occupants of the camp. More than 40 people were treated for
gas-related injuries and another 50 were hurt by flying
bullets and shrapnel when the area was under the Israeli
bombardment.
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- While the Palestinians
continue to die, Arab foreign ministers met in Jordan, just
before Valentine’s Day, to "prepare" for next
month’s Arab summit. Naturally, nothing was accomplished
but empty words, more verbosity and a lot of rhetoric. It is
like a wimpy person with a wimpier dog, telling his dog to
attack the thief who is trying to rob him. Because the dog
is wimpy, just like his owner, he barks a faint, "bow
wow." The thief pays no heed to the dog or his owner
because he knows neither poses a threat to him.
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- The majority of Arab leaders
care only about preserving their power and securing their
authority. They pay lip service to the Intifida and cry
crocodile tears at the Palestinian casualties, but they love
the status quo, you know, "keeping the Palestinians in
their place." An example of this is when the Bahraini
prince, Sheikh Hamad, asked his people to decide by voting
whether he should declare himself a king or remain a prince.
What people seem to be missing here is that it makes no
difference what his title is, he takes it all anyway
regardless of what people call him.
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- Israel knows that the Arab
leaders are like foam on water. They are useless, greedy,
selfish, and could care less who dies wherever in the world
as long as it is not them or their families. Israel knows
that these leaders are encouraged and supported by the
American government to remain tyrants, to discourage freedom
and democracy and to keep things just the way they are. If
one Arab country was genuine about cutting ties with America
and helping the Palestinians and encouraged other Arab
countries to do the same, Palestine would no longer be a
killing ground for the most oppressive army-state in modern
history.
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- The blood of these innocent
Palestinians stains all our hands, for in our silence; we
are accessories to all the crimes committed against the
indigenous inhabitants of Palestine. We are mute as we watch
like spectators in a Roman theater, Palestinians led to the
slaughter. We witness and do nothing about the Palestinian
Holocaust. How did we fall? Can we get up at all?
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- Happy Valentine’s Day.
Source:
by courtesy & © 2001 Edna Yaghi
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- by the same author:
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- Reproduction in whole or
in part without permission is prohibited.
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