The Zionist state, its objectives and savage history have been the subject of much in-depth analysis. Its bloody, genocidal and illegitimate "birth" speak for itself daily.

Aside from serving as a state for Zionists, it's purpose in the Arab World has been to act as a destabilizing western bully in the quest to dominate the Arab and Muslim world. Not necessarily with direct physical and military occupation but with economic, cultural and political domination; which are more lasting, harder to resist and easier and less costly to maintain than military occupation. As for military power, it is the cowering factor used to impose Israel's and assumingly by extension western will on the region. It often does so without a real fight.

Besides an almost useless public relation exercise not much is gained by the Arab media, intellectuals and "regimes" continuously blaming Israel and the West for our miseries. To the contrary, it helps to perpetuate the situation, hinder our progress and dilute true accountability for our regressive situation. It is astonishing how much time and effort we dedicate to analyzing the main symptom of our weakness, which is Israel and Western domination while we give very little attention to its root causes.

Any display of Arab apathy, shock or indifference over Israel's' more recent savagery in Palestine is a testament to our utter failure in keeping our recent history live in the minds of our masses and younger generation. Any mild comprehension of the atrocities and savagery with which Israel was established would have lulled any sense of shock over its more recent behavior in the 2nd Intifada.  It would have compelled the Arab street to demonstrate a stronger and a more lasting commitment to the one issue which will significantly define them, their children and their children's children  more than any other issue.  How can anyone be shocked with Israel's current atrocities if one knew or had not forgotten the Israeli practice of killing fetuses in mothers womb in Dier Yaseen massacre of 1948.  The late Israeli PM, Menachem Begin - may his soul rest in hell - and the ironic recipient of Nobel peace prize, lead and directed that massacre.   To remove any doubt of such heinous crime being an accidental or un-intended savagery, Begin bragged about it as being the single most responsible act for the establishment of an exclusive Zionist Jewish state.  It did that through terrorizing the indigenous population into fleeing their homeland.

How can any Arab be shocked at today's bombardments of Palestinian homes, schools, mosques and churches if one remembers that in Qibya, the current Israeli PM, Sharon rounded up the terrorized fleeing villagers and forced them back into their houses only to dynamite their homes over their heads. How can any one be shocked when one remembers Sharon's cold blooded killings of Egyptians prisoners of War or his planning and execution of Sabra and Shatila massacres.  Let us not be shocked, really. Let us take off this self imposed naiveté and not burry our collective head in the sand as the hunter is ready to pull the trigger.

It is about time we get over being shocked and instead face up to our impeding bleak future if we continue in this path of indifference, regression and lack of accountability.  Let us instead, as we must, face up to our challenges with integrity, commitment, honesty and sacrifices. We need to waste no more time nor do we need more proof of what Israel is, nor what its true objectives are.  Instead,  we need to dedicate our time and effort in coming up with a credible strategy of dealing with this cancer in our midst in the only way it can be dealt with.

It is about time our intellectuals, mass media, thinkers and, I hesitate to add, Arab regimes go beyond mostly blaming the enemy for our self imposed weakness and backwardness and instead focus on how we can strengthen ourselves and deal with the enormous challenges ahead.  In addition to the Zionist design to control and subjugate the Arab and Muslim world; There are the issues of misuse and robbing off of our God given natural resources; The usurpation of our God given individual freedom; misuse of human resources; the negligence of the environment; the rampant poverty; the critical water shortages, mostly caused by our weakness; The absence of democracy; last but not least the raising, education and cultivating of the individual who is capable of meeting these challenges instead of breathlessly chasing after the latest empty western trend to acquire a facade of respectability or even humanity. Who is being served in neglecting all these critical issues!

This bring us to the third player and their role in this ongoing tragedy, the Arab regimes. Most if not all of these regimes have tied up their lot with that of their Western and American masters and their indirect, and sometimes not so indirect ally, the Zionist state. All in the interest of preserving their miserable power and privileges. If and when the US and Israel powers are diminished in the area, the Arab regimes will follow and many will collapse. In that regard, the PA has proven to be no different from the Arab regimes. If anything, and judging by their record they appear to be significantly worse.

It would be almost impossible to overcome our economic, social and political problems with the current setup. It is simply not in the interest of these regimes' survival to have free, liberated and uncorrupted subjects with strong will-power, which is the basic ingredients to our eventual liberation and development. Such liberated, free-spirited, inventive and creative subjects threatens their total control on power which is their highest priority and where their interest meet with that of the Zionists and the West.

As such, these regimes survival is often in contradiction with that of national Arab aspiration.

When they have to choose between the two and they often do, they naturally elect their miserable rules and privileges over national interest. The West including the US and Israel are well aware of these regimes priorities, after all, they are the main architects of their setup. Naturally, they are only happy to preserve such setup where they can have their way with the areas natural resources in exchange for ensuring or at least not threatening the survival of these miserable regimes.

These regimes are mostly controlled and run by cronyism, selfishness, greed and incompetence that borders on treason where the national interest is dead last if at all considered. Under the circumstances, it would be wishful thinking to expect any real progress under these regimes except in the most limited, artificial and technical sense. They seem to mainly occupy themselves with suppressing internal dissent and holding endless meeting and summits that shamelessly does nothing except come up with hollow worthless announcements and tired old rhetoric. One can not help but be amazed at how any people on earth would allow themselves to be ruled by such miserable, grossly incompetent and irrelevant lot.  I can not help but think that under any other nation, other than the Arabs, they would have been long gone.

Korea, India, Taiwan and even China, east, west, north and south countries are becoming more democratic, more progressive, more developed and hence more respectable and with increasingly more hopeful and brighter futures for their citizens, except the Arabs. Why? and for how long?

Mr. Salah Musa is a Palestinian activist and IT strategist.