More than 3 decades ago, in 1989 to be precise, Thomas Friedman, an American journalist who had spent years in the Middle East, published this book that is considered by many as a reference on the region. I remember being skeptical about another Jew's opinion on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict which had numerous repercussions on my country and left plenty of deep scars and traumas we still have to deal with today. I was majoring in political science and so I read this memoir, more than once. It had won the National Book Award and was recommended by several professors. I couldn't help but perceive the author's opinion as a little simplistic and one-sided when it came to that warfare. And given what is happening today, Friedman came to my mind again. Today, it is not the PLO who is fomenting unrest. It is a more radical armed faction. But how can Friedman be surprised by the Hamas retaliation? The current situation was summed up brilliantly by someone online: "For one day, Israelis got a taste of what they have been inflicting on Palestinians for 75 years ... and they apparently didn't like it". It is a fact that Gaza is an open-air prison. In reality, it is more of a concentration camp. The Israeli "masters", who don't waste an opportunity to shove the Holocaust up our faces, with all the inflated numbers and exaggerated propaganda, have been imposing worse treatment on the Palestinians. The Holocaust can in no way justify the barbaric and inhumane acts of terrorism Zionists perpetrate against Palestinians: civilians are being sequestrated in ghettos, tortured in prison cells, and brutally killed in various ways. They are deprived of the right to their original lands and Jewish settlers are usurping them of that right. Their food and water are controlled by the occupying forces. I am not taking the side of the Palestinians here. I am just surprised that a so-called expert on the Middle East and its conflicts like Thomas Friedman can be unaware that Israelis feel entitled to kidnap other people from their homes, traumatize them, and perform an ethnic cleansing, all in the name of their safety! How about the safety of other people? People that Israel has been abusing over and over again since 1947... Threatening to "flatten Gaza" is proof that the arrogance of Israel has not been tamed and it has obviously learned nothing. And Friedman's "From Beirut to Jerusalem" will just portray Yasser Arafat as a factor of change and claim that the Palestinian people need to "work" for peace. How is that accurate when Palestinians already lived in Israel before the first Jewish immigrants were promised a land of "milk and honey" that belonged to someone else? At the moment, the media is constantly feeding people false information and staging a chess game to breed fear and anger among the viewers showcasing Arabs and specifically Palestinians as terrorists and Israelis as the victims. How on earth were those para-gliders able to slip through Israeli defense and surveillance, which is reputed to be one of the best in the world? It is time to finally comprehend that people are being manipulated into a grander scheme. Because we know that violence cannot breed peace and that any human life is equally important, regardless of gender, race, and beliefs. What matters to me is leaving Lebanon out of that warring two-sided and multifaceted equation. It is enough for my people to support refugees of any country and we certainly cannot afford to remain the platform to launch a regional geopolitical strife. I hope the Hezbollah will outsmart the nasty game it is being served. And Mr. Friedman, you better open your eyes and see things for what they truly are. A gigantic mess at the moment, where all parties have muddied themselves, and not necessarily the way you depict them...
