Weil allzu oft der Eindruck entsteht, die arabische Öffentlichkeit bestünde bloss aus ressentimentgeladenen Stimmen, stelle ich hier immer wieder auch selbstkritische Autoren vor, die leider viel zu wenig Gehör bei uns finden. In diese reihe gehört auch Abdul Rahman Al-Raschid, der Chefredakteur von Al-Arabiya TV und ehemalige Chefredakteur von Asharq Alawsat, der größten panarabischen Tageszeitung.
Abdul Rahman Al-Raschid
Dort fragt er zum 40. Jahrestag des Sechstagekrieges, was die Araber eigentlich ohne den „zionistischen“ Feind machen würden. Können sie sich einen Frieden überhaupt noch vorstellen? Die gesamte arabisch Politik mit all ihrem verhängnisvollen Fehlern, schreibt Al-Rashed, beruht auf der Möglichkeit, alles auf den Palästinakonflikt zu schieben:
So, having based their existence, positions, leaderships and literature on the enemy, how can we imagine that those institutions can adapt when the day comes that we no longer have an enemy?
We have nursed animosity to the extent that anything else is almost impossible. Animosity has developed into a complete institution without which survival is not possible. It is not concocted animosity considering that Israel is not a peaceful state and has forced itself into the occupied territories in front of the world that it has defied for over four decades. Israel itself is benefiting from the state of animosity with the Arabs by unifying Jews and profiting from Western support in the name of confronting the Arab enemy.
We can understand Israeli adherence to animosity as it wants to keep the stolen land, retain the US $3 billion in annual aid from the United States and continue to receive Jewish support from around the world. These are all real Israeli gains that justify the invention of a scarecrow enemy even though it could sign a peace agreement that is based on returning occupied territory and ending the entire crisis in one day rather than 40 years.
However, we cannot understand the Arab wisdom behind maintaining such animosity. The Arabs have neither fought to liberate their territories nor sought peace to regain these territories and continue to call for confronting the enemy. Therefore, territories in three states have remained occupied, with one million people in camps and another two million displaced people in different parts of the world suffering on a daily basis. Today, 40 years after the Six-Day War defeat, we can find no logic for those rejecting peace and no reason for blaming all these sins on the [Palestinian] issue and the [Israeli] enemy.