By  Mowahid Hussain Shah

August 08 , 2014

Tyranny of Today

 

What seems like a thousand years ago, I took an early morning flight on an empty Eastern Airlines jet from New York to Washington. The plane was completely empty except for a lone passenger sitting at the back. When the stewardess served breakfast, I beckoned him to join me.

“From Jordan?” I queried. “No, from Israel,” he answered.

Swiftly the conversation turned to the Arab-Israeli conflict. With a triumphal gleam in his eyes, he was dismissive of Arab fighting prowess. He said, “Arabs could never take on Israel.”

Well, less than 10 weeks later, Egypt and Syria attacked, whereupon a faltering Israel was bailed out by President Nixon.

There is no such thing as a Final Solution -- a message and lesson that Israel, of all nations, has neither heeded nor comprehended.

In Washington circles today, there are constant reminders about the

Holocaust. But it is easier to condemn the excesses of the past, from the comfort of the present, when there are no consequences to be faced in condemning past tyranny. But it is a different ball game to speak truth to power today, when one could immediately face the consequences of one’s actions.

For pummeling Palestinians, Israel is not alone to blame. Here, the Arab Establishment stands tarnished as an unindicted co-conspirator.

The pusillanimity of US officialdom makes a mockery of its super-power status, which Senator Fulbright had so presciently ascribed to being “a crippled giant.” The United Nations, which was supposedly founded to prevent wars, is, in effect, an aider and abettor under the meek Ban Ki-Moon. Pope Francis I, for all his public empathy for the oppressed, is as quiescent and ineffectual as his predecessor, Pope Pius XII, was during the butchery of humanity during World War II.

A harsh question inescapably comes up: if what is happening to the children of Gaza were happening to pups and kittens, would the Western public have stood by and cheered?

And, as for the US Muslim elite, it refuses to be insulted, as most recently exemplified during the White House Iftar where the Gaza slaughter was endorsed in the presence of the Israeli Ambassador who, too, was invited. A simple walk-out would have restored self-respect.

On a plane ride over Munich on a sun-lit afternoon, the fields below looked placid, neatly ordered, and lush green. It was hard to fathom that the vicious embers of vengeance, stoked here in the aftermath of World War I, would devastate the world, leading to 60 million deaths.

It is instructive to watch an Oscar-nominated Israeli documentary, “The Gatekeepers”, which culls exclusive insights of former heads of Israeli intelligence, who are unanimous in stating that Israel’s iron-fisted approach to the Palestinians is by itself putting Israel on the road to perdition.

Those blinded today by Pharaonic arrogance may refer to Shelley’s immortal 1817 poem on the temporariness of power, “Ozymandias”:

“‘My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!’ Nothing beside remains. Round the decay of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare, the lone and level sands stretch far away.”

 

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PREVIOUSLY


Election 2004: Decisive but Divisive

Muslim Youth & Kashmir in America

The Big Picture: Wealth without Vision

Oxygen to Global Unrest

Punishing the Punctual

Change without Change

Don’t Be Weak

Passionate Attachment

The Confidence of Youth

The Other Side of Democracy

Campaign of Defamation

Pakistani Women & the Legal Profession

A Pakistani Journey

Farewell to Fazal

Mukhtaran and Beyond

Revamping the OIC

7/7 & After

Nuclear Double-Standard

Return to Racism

Hollywood – The Unofficial Media

The Sole Superpower

The UN at 60

A Slow Motion World War?

Elite vs. Street

Iqbal Today

Macedonia to Multan

Defending our Own

2006 & Maulana Zafar Ali Khan

Error against Terror

The Limits of Power

Cultural Weaknesses

Aggressive at Home, Submissive Abroad

Global Storm

The Farce of Free Expression

The Changing Mood

Condi & India

Xenophobia

Looking inward

Re-Thinking

A Tale of Two Presidents

Close to Home

Flashpoint Kashmir

The Spreading Rage

Confronting Adversity

The Illusion of International Law

Other Side of Extremism

Five Years after 9/11

The Educated Ignorant

The Decline of Humor

Icons

Six Years of Insanity

The War Not Being Fought

Munir Niazi

Compliance & Defiance

Counter-Message

Miscast

The Goddess of Wealth

The Meaning of Moderation

The Tora Bora of Fear

Clash of Civility

The Early Race

Challenge & Response

Will & Skill

Zealotry

Movie-Media and Pakistan

Hug with a Thug

Quest for Integrity

Unconquered

Vanity

Bringing Back the Past

Stuck in Iraq

Islam, Science and the West

Turmoil over Turkey

Leaders versus Leadership

Might Does Not Make Right

Kursi First

Vision & Will

Battle of the Billionaires

Assassination Alley

Extremism and Change

Rosy Expectations

Short-Term Gain, Long-Term Pain

Not Winning

Beyond Baghdad: Five Years after

The Hijab of Democracy

Hate, Fear & Hope

Weapon of Words

Hide N’ Seek

Yanking in the UN

Obama’s Breakthrough

Let Lahore Be Lahore

National Mood & Sports

Flirting with Fire

Trips Abroad

Georgia on the Mind

Duel for the White House

Zia to Zardari

Palestine: Avoiding the Unavoidable 

Not Working 

In the Ring 

Obama’s America

Smiles & Dreams

Quiet Deeds of Good

Crime and Indifference

Journey of Understanding

VIP-hunting

Terror via Counter-Terrorism

Umpires or Vampires?

The Long Road

Yesterday’s Reminder

Appeasement and the Real Threat

Israel’s Washington Agenda

New Challenges

Cairo and Beyond

Re-fighting Old Battles

America ’s Super Villains

Activism in America

Style without Substance

Overcoming Barriers

Ashes to Afghanistan

The Looming Change

Fear and Possibilities

What Is Not Debated 

Hired Guns

Rampage at Fort Hood

Manmohan in Washington

The Long Duel

Green Nukes

Vision and Division

Avoiding Why

Striving to Matter

Shame-proof

Anxiety and Opportunity

Putting Iraq in America

The Right Strategy

Looking Beyond

Rot at the Top

Strategic Folly

Daring & Caring

Over-Stepping on Turkey

Sudan : Perils of Provincialism

Old Fears, New Target

Europe ’s Stain

The US-Pakistan Enigma

The Status Quo Is Unacceptable

9 Years after 9/11

License to Steal

US Muslims at the Crossroads

Tumor of Terror

An Arab Voice

Disastrous Decisions

Double Game

Sticky Wiki

What Quaid Was Not

Money Conspiracy

Pharaohs & Pirates

Greed and Cricket

Change & Challenge  

Forty Years after 1971

Abandoning Our Own

Rewarding Failure

Osama and Obama

Tsunami of Tolerance

Representation and Presentation

Meek and Weak

Change or the Same?

No Easy Exit

Nation to Non-Nation

10 Years after 9/11

Shining India?

Big Power, Small Politics

Rule of the Gun

Proxy of the Powerful

Fight for Fairness

Republican Race

Actors or Directors

Speaking out

Professional Sycophants

More Provinces?

Too Much Information

Soft Separation

Soft Poison

Unemployment & Over-Population

Seize the Day

The Arab Awakening

Ben Bella

At University of Gujrat

Good People Behaving Badly

Playing Over-Smart

Do Less

Resisting the Resistible

Performance, Not PR

Home-grown Havoc

Salutation to the 65 th Year

Plague of Provincialism

USA Elections 2012

Rage

Fight or Flight

Rift and Drift

Obama II

Me and We

Small Role or Small Actors?

On Losing

Who Will Guard the Guards?

Loyal to Their Loot

Prevail or Fail

Perceptions and Reality

Toll of Occupation

Re-think, Re-examine, and Self-correct 

The Washington Tribe

Voice and Vision

Moral Slump

Wall of Illusion

Under One Banner

Bitter Harvest

Gallows and the Throne

Scent of Power

At a Standstill

Leaders and Leadership

The Deadline

Fighting Darkness

Distant Connections

Governance: The Long View

Discussion in DC

Darkness in the Mind

Killing Kennedy and Liaquat Ali

Yahya Khan Speaks on 1971

Quaid & Xmas in Washington

150 Years of FC College

Tyranny of Money

50 Years of Ali

A Dose of Truth

Little Guy, Big Impact

A Reassessment in Washington

Crimea & Kashmir

Democracy or Oligarchy?

Afghan Elites: Blaming Pakistan

Pitfalls of Intervention

Arabs in America

Never Give up

German Journey


2001

 

Editor: Akhtar M. Faruqui
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