Amazing article from SF Chronicle

Credit where credit is due: Out of the loony left coast comes an article that is actual reporting, even if it is in the op-ed section. The author looks beneath the surface of the Arab hysteria over Israel and discovers that many Arabs see through the facade.

Arab blogs that fight for reform

Frida Ghitis

Sunday, July 9, 2006

When Israeli forces entered Gaza in late June, the news media in the Arab world spared no adjective to describe the "Zionist aggression," as the Syrian News Agency labeled it, or the "crazed racist extermination war," in the words of a writer in the Palestinian al-Ayyam paper. No observer of the Middle East would find that degree of invective and bitterness surprising.

However, buried below the furious, raging surface, a different sort of commentary flowed through the Internet.

In Arab blogs and deep inside the Web comment pages of some major news organizations, a few people dared to disagree. In fact, some Arab advocates of political and social reform saw recent events in the Palestinian territories as ammunition with which to criticize the dictatorial regimes they want to change in their own countries.

The Israeli incursion, with its controversial bombing of a Palestinian power plant, came less than three days after Palestinian militants dug a tunnel into Israel and captured 19-year-old Cpl. Gilad Shalit. About one year ago, Israel had completed a withdrawal from Gaza. This was the first major Israeli operation on that strip of land since the withdrawal and since the coming to power of Hamas, the Islamic Resistance Movement, considered a terrorist organization by Israel, the United States and the European Union.

Many -- though not all -- in the Arab blogosphere sharply criticized Israeli actions as excessive, but they saw in the fury of the Israeli government something lacking in their own: concern for the life of a single citizen. "They will turn the world upside down to get that soldier back," wrote Sandmonkey, who describes himself as 25-year-old Egyptian living in Cairo. "I kind of envy how much they care about their own." The sentiment was echoed by Isis, at BigPharaoh.com, wishing that "our government had half the respect" for its citizens' lives "that the Israelis have for theirs."

Lebanese bloggers found bitter irony in the failure of their leaders to accomplish very much and yet find the time to rhetorically blast Israel. Lebanonesque (lebanonesque.blogspot.com) printed a local news item about a meeting of the country's National Dialogue, which "failed to solve any of their own country's problems ... but they did manage to agree that the international community should step in to halt Israel's offensive in the Gaza Strip." A contributor noted sadly that "Arab 'leaders' are following in the grand tradition of posturing and emitting hot air while unable/unwilling to deliver bread to their own people."

Several progressive Arab blogs quoted approvingly from the comments page of the satellite news channel Al-Arabiya. An article titled "Where is the Arab Brain?" and signed by "A Wise Muslim" beseeched Arab leaders to stop supporting terrorism and start helping their own people. "The Arab leaders cheat and lie their people and make them holocaust fuel to their wars with Israel to divert their people from their national and democratic rights," the writer argues, adding, "Continuing the war with Israel is an advantage for Arab rulers and not their people."

Syrian democrats also maintain that their government should stop supporting terrorism, particularly by playing host to Hamas leaders. After Israeli jets entered Syrian airspace and flew low over the home of Syrian President Bashar Assad, someone identified only as Fares wrote at amarji.blogspot.com, a Syrian reformer's blog, "Now even myself for the first time ever I applaud an Israeli action. ... Israel by this action has shown that it does not want to harm Syria. ... (It is) time for Syrians to pick the message up and stop supporting radicals and terrorists."

A recurring theme among many who want regime change in their own countries is a demand that their leaders stop supporting terrorists.

Hamas itself came under withering fire from several writers, including many who expressed impassioned support for Palestinians. In the Al-Arabiya page, someone asked, "What did Hamas expect" when it took the Israeli soldier? With concern for the Palestinians and little sympathy for Israel, he cries out, "the people in Gaza have enough troubles than to be occupied again due to the stupid, irresponsible actions of Hamas idiots."

Hamas leaders fall into the same category as other regional governments that "enrich themselves and enlarge their external bank accounts" while speaking about the "glories of Jihad and martyrdom," was the sentiment in an article quoted in the blog "Free Michel Kilo Now," a site named after a Syrian writer taken prisoner by the authorities in a recent crackdown against the opposition.

The majority of the writing on Arab blogs and other Internet commentary was in support of the Palestinians and highly critical of Israel. Still, Arab democrats are increasingly noting that, however much anyone sympathizes with Palestinians, there is little doubt that Arab autocrats, dictators and assorted rulers-for-life have long used the Palestinian cause as a thick cloak to cover up the deficiencies of their rule.

The Internet, it seems, is slowly drawing the threads off that cloak, making it transparent enough to reveal the ugly truth. This time, even an Israeli crackdown in the Palestinian territories has provided an opportunity to bring more attacks against Arab regimes.