Yemen Times, Yemen

For What are the People of the Middle East Yearning?

By Hassan Al-Haifi*

From 11 to 13 February 08

Yemen - The Yemen Times - Original Article (English)

While no one can ignore the awesome American influence in what is going on in the region, or rather what is not going on, it goes without saying that as the Quran says, "God does not bring about change in a people, until they themselves bring about change within themselves". In other words, it is unquestionable that if it wasn't for the way the Arabs are conducting themselves, as individual states and as a nation, they would be really in a whole different ball game.

Surely, the Israelis and their American backers are finding the environment just as they would love to have it, with governments ruling the region that have almost little concern for the welfare of their people or the defense of the interests of the Arab Nation. Not only that, it is almost astonishing to find that most Arab regimes are conducting themselves with little regard, if any to their people's outlook on life, and on their political future. Thus, one cannot simply lay the blame on the United States and its vassal state in the region, Israel, for all the dichotomies that are prevalent in the region from the Atlantic to the Gulf of Oman.

In almost every country in the region, one is baffled by the conflicts that exist in the social contract, with the general population getting the short end of the stick in the relationship that binds the governments of the people and the people the latter profess to rule. In some of the countries, the governments have placed themselves on a perpetual war footing that does not seem to let up no matter how many peace agreements are signed (look at the notorious situation in this respect that exists in Yemen and in the Sudan). One is flabbergasted by this perplexing animosity between the state and the constituents of that state and all that it has brought upon the region, in terms of headaches and ongoing failure to achieve rapport with the people before even attempting to achieve peace with an enemy that will never give them any peace of mind, namely the Zionist state, which has never had it so good.