As we roll into this holiday season, there is a bit of good news on the horizon...
I'm quoting now from a couple of prominent Arab news analysts — commentators — who are accusing their own Arab readers of being hypocritical on Iraq. Imagine! Someone admitting the truth...
Writing in the London daily Arabic newspaper Al Hayat, Salam Nimat (search) says Arabs are condemning free elections for Arabs in Iraq and in Palestine wwhen that is precisely what Arabs everywhere need.
Mr. Nimat writes...
"It is outrageous and amazing that the first free and general elections in the history of the Arab nation are to take place in January: in Iraq, under the auspices of the American occupation, and in Palestine, under the auspices of the Israeli occupation."
Where are Arabs getting free elections except in Arab countries occupied by foreign forces, Nimat asks? The answer, sadly, is nowhere... only in Iraq and Palestine.
The director general of Al Arabiya TV wrote in another London-based Arabic newspaper that the Iraqi regime — Ayad Allawi (search) and the rest — is more legitimate than most other Arab regimes in the region.
Egyptian writer Nabil Sharaf al-Din (search) said the following of Al Jazeera (search):
"We are not being fair to the current iraqi government... these people are establishing the first democracy in the Middle East. This country (Iraq) will be a platform for liberties in the whole region."
This is coming from Arabs... and these arguments are being made in the open in the Arab media for all Arabs to hear.
Good. Now if Western Europe could just catch up with the Arabs, we'd all be grateful.
By the way, my thanks to Memri.org for the translations. Memri is an invaluable resource for anybody curious about what they're saying in the Arab media.
That's My Word.
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