The Other Gaza

This post is not about the brutality of Israel. It's also not about the irresponsible acts of Hamas. It's not about the civilians killed here and there. It's not about Gaza, nor Palestine.

The Other Gaza
It's about the other Gaza, the one that lives everywhere here in the Arab world. It's about the governments who use the existence of Israel at our borders as an excuse for the lack of democracy and human rights. It's not the right time for democracy new, can't you see that we've been busy in the last fifty years fighting Israel and we have no time to think about democracy nor development now. It's about the media that loves the Palestinian-Israeli conflict that offers them daily content for free. It's about song writers and movie makers who make living by writing songs and shooting films about the conflict.

Abdel Nasser
In the early fifties and sixties, the Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser used the conflict to reach the hearts and minds of the people here in Egypt and in the whole Arab world as well. The Egyptian influence and Soft Power on all Arabs was at its best then. The wholes Arabs use to admire and look up to Egypt as leader country in the region, thanks to our media then, and for sure thanks to Abdel Nasser's speeches that made the best use of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. People across the whole Arab world loved Abdel Nasser and Egypt, although we lost the six days war in 1967, and a significant parts of our countries were occupied.

Sadat
The following president of Egypt, Anwar El Sadat, fought in 1973 to liberate our occupied land, and he succeeded in getting it back. But he was not as skilled as Abdel Nasser in the Palestinian-Israeli Game. He wasn't skilled in giving speeches to attack Israel in the media day and night in order to appear as a national hero. He knew how to deal with USA and Israel, and failed to deal with his neighbors. And Egypt lost it's leader role then, becuase it focused more on getting its rights back without paying attention to the media game that captures people's minds.

The Media Game
And since then, people everywhere started learning how to play this game. Saudis, Libyans, Sudanese, Moroccans, etc. They all learned how to play that game very well. Even someone like Saddam Hussein was considered as a brave hero by some Arabs only because he cursed Israel once or twice. They all knew that "Israel is the opium of the people". Political leaders learned very well that they are not supposed to focus on solving the conflict, getting the Palestinian rights back, or even show the whole world that we are deprived from our rights. The knew that it is useless to focus on such stuff. All they have to do is to give speeches and portray themselves as heroes and the ones who are sympathizing more with the Palestinians. And be all here, I mean everybody, including Egypt. We all stopped caring about solving the problem and now we are caring more to show everybody that we care about solving the problem.

Some nations now know how to play the game well, while other like Egypt for example are not that good in it nowadays. And though they all are useless and do not offer any real help to the Palestinians, the ones who are skilled less in the media game now, are the ones who are being blamed the most.