Israeli Nervousness

While the Arab Spring may signal liberation and democraticization for Arabs, for Israel, it would be an understatement to call it a major cause for concern.

Few historical chronologies of the twentieth century are more complex than that of the seemingly unresolvable conflict between the predominantly Muslim Arabs and Jews of Israel.  Suffice it to say that significantly few Arab states recognize Israel as a legitimate state, since it was established in 1947, not through any military conquest of its own, but rather through legislated resolutions issued by the then newly created United Nations.  From a western perspective, the establishment (or re-establishment, some would say) of Israel served to provide a place of refuge for the many Jews throughout the world displaced by anti-semitic conflicts.  From an Arab perspective, the establishment of the State of Israel is effectively an enduring and expanding occupation of Arab Palestine.  Objectively, given the nature of the hostility exhibited by both parties throughout the years, neither the Arabs nor the Israelis are entirely blameless for the ongoing conflict.

But this year's Arab Spring alters the balance of power in the region.  Emboldened by increasingly favorable Arab sentiment globally, as well as by President Barack Obama's implied endorsement of a Palestinian state in a speech back in May, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas is pursuing a vote for full Palestinian statehood by the United Nations Security Council, despite warnings from the U.S. State Department that it would veto such a vote. 

In the Palestinian pursuit of statehood, Abbas explains that "we are not going to annul Israel's legitimacy, [...] we wish to isolate Israel's policy." However, Israel is not swayed from a defensive postition, and has increased its military presence around certain Jewish settlements, fearful of violent demonstrations by emboldened Palestinians.  Although the Palestinians pursue an independent Palestine drawn from the pre-1967 borders, Israelis are concerned that, once a legitimate state, Palestine may then resort to the International Criminal Court in the Hague to prosecute Isreal for the illegitimacy of these Jewish settlements.  The vote for Palestinian statehood is next week, but tensions are already running high.

The Arab Spring

In mid-December, 2010, in the city of Sidi Bouzid, Tunisia, a well-known and reportedly generous 26-year-old street vendor named Mohamed Bouazizi was confronted, as he had often been, by local municipal officials, ostensibly for not having a permit to sell fruit in the street.  Lacking the funds to either obtain a permit or bribe the officials, one particular female official publicly humiliated him by slapping him, spitting on him, confiscating his scales, and tossing his fruit cart aside.  Angered by the confrontation, he attempted to lodge a complaint with the governor's office, and to ask for the return of his scales.  When the governor refused to even see him, he promptly acquired a can of gasoline from a nearby gas station, and in the middle of traffic, after reportedly shouting, "how do you expect me to make a living?", doused himself with the gas, and lit a match.  Although the flames were ultimately extinguished, the burns he suffered over 90 percent of his body caused him to slip into a coma, and 18 days later, he died.

Bouazizi's self-immolation would set off a series of mass protests, strikes, marches, rallies, and riots by the endemically unemployed and disaffected youth across the Arab world, first in Tunisia, then in Egypt, then in Algeria, Libya, Yemen, Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine, Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Morocco.  Some of these uprisings, as in Saudi Arabia, would be subdued by governing authorities; but others, as in Tunisia and Egypt, would lead to outright revolutions; still others, as in Libya, would lead to civil war.  And as of this date, it's not over.  In what is being called the Arab Spring, young Arabs, angered by the economic decline and political corruption in their respective countries, are taking to the streets in what some have called the "fifth wave of democracy," so called, as it brings to mind the "third wave", experienced throughout Latin America in the '70s and '80s.

To be sure, and the reason why we post this text, the United States is not immune to being the object of such protests as the Arab Spring is generating, as the sentiment of it begins to extend beyond Arab borders.  On Sunday last, while we were paying our tributes to those lost in the 9/11 tragedy, about 100 or so Arabs in England were burning an American flag in protest.  Yet, although many of us in the west are oblivious to the import of the Arab Spring, (after all, we have our own economic decline and political corruption to deal with), those of us who know our history can certainly empathize with democratic uprisings.  Hence, we are sympathetic to their cause, if only by necessity, tacitly so.

Sunday Summary

Few people who were alive back then will ever forget where they were ten years ago today, when they heard about the 9/11 tragedy.  This author was just walking into a college political science class, when he noticed the classroom television on, a live report of the burning world trade center, and the words, written on the chalkboard next the television, "Pearl Harbor II".

Most of the historical facts of the event are fairly clear after ten years:  On the morning of September 11, 2001, 19 Islamist militants coordinated the hijacking of four passenger jets taking flight from several airports on the east coast, with the intention of flying them into several economically and politically significant buildings.  Two of those planes were each flown into a tower of the World Trade Center; another smashed into the Pentagon in Arlington, VA; and the fourth crashed into a Pennsylvania field, after passengers attempted to take control from the hijackers before they could reach their intended target.  Both towers of the WTC collapsed, significant damage was sustained by the Pentagon, and after all was said and done, nearly 3,000 people perished.

Despite an investigation and report by a congressionally legislated commission, some of the other facts of 9/11 remain murky, at best.  A significant number of individuals and groups, both as witnesses and researchers of the tragedy, assert that the explanations of the events offered by U.S. government, the 9/11 Commission, and the mainstream media, are inconsistent to a significant degree, which suggests either a cover-up of the authentic causes, or complicity by, if not the explicit responsibility of, those in power at the time.  These individuals and groups have, for the past several years, called for a new investigation of the events.

Though all the facts may never be known, or at least publicized, what is most clear is that 9/11 changed daily life, as we knew it in the United States, if not the world, and in some ways that are not insignificant.  Most significant, is western civilization's perception and fear of "terrorism", put in quotes here, as the term itself has become so politically and emotionally charged, as to lose a clear definition.  Ostensibly, 9/11 was an act of "terrorism" as most of us understand the term, today, and because of it's tragic nature, security officials go to extreme lengths, if not, at times, pushing, if not exceeding their constitutional authority, in order to ensure that anything like that never happens again.  Hence, if we're not fearful of another "terrorist" attack, we are fearful of being investigated, interrogated, or searched as a possible "terrorist" ourselves.

To be sure, and from a historical perspective, living in a state of fear is not really new to the American populace.  For that matter, it is nothing new to civilization, itself.  For a time, the Romans lived in fear of the Carthaginians; Europeans lived in fear of the "Black Death" of the Plague; during WWII, British citizens lived in fear of being bombed by the German Luftwaffe, while Americans citizens lived in fear of another attack by the Japanese Navy; after WWII, pretty much the entire western world lived in fear of communism.  In fact, historically, civilizations have most often lived in fear of something.  What changed on 9/11 was the object that fear, namely, "terrorism", and although acts of "terrorism" were certainly nothing new ten years ago, for the first time, it had a direct and lasting impact upon a significant number of American people.

Such impact is the reason why many of us are likely to take time today to reflect upon the horrific events of this date, ten years ago, and to remember the lives we knew back then, that were suddenly and forever lost to us.