‘Salaheddin as a role model’

The uproar of Zionist-backed media against Kamel S. Abu Jaber’s op-ed in The Jordan Times, titled “The big Zionist lie and the task ahead”, was probably as much the result of Abu Jaber being a member of the Jordanian establishment as of the article’s content.

For that very same reason I commend Abu Jaber’s article, though he may have been restrained by this fact and did not go far enough.

Here, I will try to plug in what was missing in his article and point my reservations about his conclusions.

I will first point out that Abu Jaber’s use of the phrase “Our Arab-Muslim civilisation”, coming from a Christian Jordanian Arab, speaks volumes about Jordan’s tolerance, in particular, and Arab Muslim tolerance, in general, about coexistence and harmony among Jewish, Christian and Muslim adherents for many centuries.

Forget about the geopolitically induced interfaith and sectarian struggles of the recent past.

The op-ed did not go far enough to elaborate on the biblical, Talmudic myth of the “chosen people”.

This myth actually became embedded in the Judeo-Christian culture, which is described in the Wikipedia as such: “The deep roots of Judeo-Christian values go back to the Protestant Reformation…. In the American context, historians use the term Judeo-Christian to refer to the influence of the Hebrew Bible and New Testament on Protestant thought and values, most especially the Puritan, Presbyterian and Evangelical heritage. These founding generations of Americans saw themselves as heirs to the Hebrew Bible…. 

“These ideas from the Hebrew Bible, brought into American history by Protestants, are seen as underpinning the American Revolution, Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution. Other authors are interested in tracing the religious beliefs of America’s founding fathers, emphasising both Jewish and Christian influence in their personal beliefs and how this was translated into the creation of American institutions and character.”

It may come as a surprise to many that the great grandfather of two American presidents with the same name “George Bush” was a Hebrew language professor at New York University.

He wrote in 1844 a book, about 50 years before Theodore Herzl came up with his Jewish Zionism.

As quoted in Michael Oren’s book “Power, Faith and Fantasy”, Bush wrote in 1844 a book titled “The Valley of Vision; the Dry Bones of Israel Revived”, calling for the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine.

Such a state, Bush said, would provide a link between humanity and God.

Thus, Christian Zionism is more fanatic than Jewish Zionism and existed much longer before it.

In the United States alone, Christian Zionists number over 70 million.

The mass corporate media are mainly owned and run by Zionists.

In my book “Oil Crusades: America through Arab Eyes” (published by Pluto Press, UK, and The University of Michigan Press, US, in 2007), I named five major media conglomerates that control most of the American and international media owned or managed by Zionists.

As for Abu Jaber’s statement, “What is needed is a counterforce, be it military, political, economic or the oil weapon”, I would say that the only viable option seems resistance movements. Let us not be shy to say Hizbollah is a good example.

Arab armies are not equipped to do the task, and the military doctrine of the Israeli army is not equipped for defensive wars.

Let us call things by their real name. You cannot create a counterforce with a Palestinian entity that is working as a security contractor for the occupation.

And finally, how can one make peace with those who believe they are God’s chosen people and the others, the Goyim, are created to serve them?

Peace is a mirage that collides head on with the “chosen people” myth.

The real father of Jewish fundamentalism, Vladimir Jabotinsky, Likud’s godfather, said bluntly: “Either us or them.”

Eighty years later, Ariel Sharon said the same thing.

One cannot counter Zionism by the rhetoric of a roving ambassador.

Harvard University invented the case study method of education whereby a case defines a problem and possible solutions.

May I propose Salaheddin Al Ayyoubi as a role model?

He liberated Palestine and Jerusalem after about 100 years of occupation. So we still have time!

Christians fought with him to defend our holy land where the first qiblah of Islam and the most sacred shrines of Christianity exist.

The writer is a petroleum consultant and author of several books in English and Arabic. His book “Oil Crusades” was produced as a documentary by Al Jazeera TV. He contributed this article to The Jordan Times.