In its attempt to justify the latest US wars, the American media has kept asking the question: “Why do they hate us?” It is time for us, the Arabs, to ask ourselves a similar question: “Why do we hate each other?” This would be far better than burying our heads in the sand, a practice we have perfected over the years while pretending to be living in harmony and echoing such empty phases as “mutual respect” and “brotherhood.”
Some thorough soul-searching would probably enable us to diagnose the disease. It would then be relatively easy to apply the medicine that leads to healing; at the same time, we must realize and admit that no attempt to improve Arab relations and ultimately put the Arab house in order will succeed unless it is done with complete openness and frankness. Otherwise, the same sort of bashing will continue as will the division of Arab countries into progressive and reactionary regimes — those who by chance are rich without deserving those riches and those who by chance are poor because it was their fate to be so.
Why we hate each other is the question that every one of us should ask and try to answer. We must find the answer so as not to saddle coming generations with this same heavy and increasingly unbearable burden. We must have the courage to admit our mistakes and to be frank with each other. For how long must we have to live under the illusion that we love and respect each other? For how long will we continue with the meaningless talk of brotherly relations while every one knows that such talk evaporates almost as soon as it is uttered.
Just look at what Arab satellite channels are telling us. Arabs are attacking and cursing their Arab brothers. Inter-Arab relations have reached a point where we and everyone else are fed up with our feuds and quarrels. Our friends feel sorry for us while our enemies wait quietly for further — and certain — deterioration in our relations. Let us give joint Arab action its true meaning by working to change the bitter reality. Let us not disappoint our children who may one day discover the falseness of the kind of life we lived.
Arab News From the Local Press 10 April 2003
