Diverting attention

There is a scramble in the Middle East to divert attention from what matters - attempts by the oppressed people of various countries to protest against their governments and the latter's brutal suppression of those protests. It got to the point when even Western "liberals" and the media (but I repeat myself) have noted that there is a great deal of brutality in those countries and that Israel and the Palestinian issue are not what the protests and demonstrations are about. (I put liberals in quotation marks as I cannot see anything liberal about supporting Hamas or Fatah, both oppressive, authoritarian and bloodthirsty against the one Middle Eastern country that is, with all its faults, a democracy.)

Anyway, something had to be done and it is being done. Naqba Day is being prepared by Israel's neighbours.

Many residents of Arab countries in which anti-government protests abound have used social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook to call for a third intifada on May 15, the Palestinian day of mourning over the establishment of Israel.

In Lebanon, 500 buses have been enlisted to shuttle Palestinians from refugee camps throughout the country to its southern border with the Jewish state. Al-Akhbar reported that protest organizers had increased their order by 200 buses due to the abundance of participants.

Well, that'll keep them out of mischief, that is protests against their own governments. Once again we have to ask why all these Palestinians are still in refugee camps in Lebanon but I think we all know the answer. Because their Arab brethren have no desire to help them or even let them help themselves; because they are needed as the diversion from the problems in Arab countries.

But what, I hear some of you say, is Naqba Day? Glad you asked that. It is a day of mourning for Palestinians because of the founding of Israel 63 years ago. Does anybody really believe that the problem about peace in that area has to do with Israeli settlements or Benjamin Netanyahu when Israel is surrounded by people who do not acknowledge its right to exist?

Here is Joel Leyden's take on it:

It's not about Palestine or the Palestinians. What the world is about to witness is event marketing at its very, oil funded best. Iran, Syria, Libya, Turkey and Qatar are now funding a PR diversion away from the hundreds of murders in Syria and Libya by government forces against pro democracy citizens and focusing on Israel.

Whenever Arab states are forced to confront poverty, disease and a total lack of basic human rights in their own countries they always use the Palestinians. They pour millions of rich oil dollars into PR campaigns to deflect from the suffering in their own totalitarian states to discredit the only free democracy in the Middle East - Israel.

The interesting question is whether the events of the so-called Arab spring, which is now turning to summer, will change attitudes in Arab countries or outside them.