The Times newspaper recently published an article on the Middle East war as seen in cartoons from both the Israeli and Arab papers.
The Israeli cartoons emphasized the alliance of Syria, Iran and Hezbollah. The Arab cartoons all had a single theme: Disillusionment with the international diplomacy and the United Nations.
One cartoon showed the UN as an old man stooping to “tailor” a resolution on the waist of a huge Israeli soldier, a cynical reference to the subservience of the organization.
Another showed a dustbin with the Book of Human Rights in it. And yet another showed two Arab ministers, themselves with broken legs, carrying a stretcher with the wounded body of Lebanon on it. Some of the cartoons are subtle and some are not so subtle. What they have in common is a total disappointment and lack of faith in politics and politicians on the international and the national levels.
This dissatisfaction is widespread in the Arab street; virtually everyone who watches the news these days in the Arab world encounters the same cynicism and incredulity that anything good can come out of diplomacy or the endless meetings and pointless handshakes between world leaders. At a rally in support of Lebanon, Egyptian actors asked the secretary general of the Arab League to step down and suggested also that it close since it is so powerless and ineffective.
The usual response of the Arab street to any UN or Arab meeting now consists of sarcastic comments about the nonstop “condemnations” and “vetos” that come out of each useless meeting.
And yet the politicians don’t seem to get it. They carry on and simply don’t get it at all. What separates them from the street? People, it seems, are ready to go along with Hassan Nasrallah, even if they do not agree with him or believe in his “cause” just because he does what he promises to do.
A Lebanese colleague commented, “Nasrallah never gives a promise and fails to deliver.” Even if we don’t agree with Nasrallah, we have to admire the kind of confidence — which is often totally lacking in other leaders — he inspires in people.
The Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi commented rightly on growing Muslim contempt for the UN because of inaction over the civilian deaths or the massacre in Qana or ironically, the killing of UN observers.
The PM’s comments are very true, especially considering the UN resolution that gave the Lebanese nothing and did not even condemn the killing of their children or destruction of their homes. The UN resolutions these days mean nothing because they are distanced and biased due to the use of the veto.
Worse still are the cold and passive comments from the Arabs or the Arab League, asking for a cease-fire, condemning Israeli atrocities and entreating the world to do something — all expressed in the same worn-out phrases we have heard for decades and which have achieved not one thing.
I suppose it is time for many of these groups either to dismantle themselves or act according to the principles they were founded on.
Quite frankly, nobody cares what they do or say and if Nasrallah’s way gets results, then people will follow him; indeed a recent New York Times article noted that support for Nasrallah was growing on the Arab street.
An Arab News editorial this week said, “The UN’s political impotence has tainted it in Arab eyes.”
This is true beyond a shadow of a doubt. The question s what — if anything — the world body can do to regain the trust or is it doomed to remain impotent and useless?
The paper continued with an honest summary of the general Arab mood “For 58 years it (the UN) has been unable to protect the Palestinians; it failed the Iraqis and now it has failed the Lebanese.
“US vetoes to protect Israel along with the Jewish state’s unpunished refusals to comply with resolutions as well as Washington’s unpunished illegal invasion of Iraq have robbed the Arabs of any enthusiasm for, or faith in, the world body.”
The alternative to the world body is frightening but it may be even more frightening that any so-called world body wields so little real power.
