Due to its important geopolitical location (linking Asian, African
and European continents) and to its diversified rich natural resources
the indigenous inhabitants of the Middle Eastern region had been
subjected to multi-forms of colonial campaigns since the beginning of
ancient times. These inhabitants were subjected to ruthless military
occupations, genocides, persecutions, oppressions, enslavements, and
ethnic cleansing. Yet the people never surrendered nor gave up. They
struggled for their freedom and independence and fought all colonial
powers one after the other. Since the beginning of 2011 we are
witnessing their latest regionally-sweeping fight against local ruling
regimes that are subservient to foreign powers. This has become known as
the Arab Spring. Unfortunately, like all their previous struggles,
there is a poisonous snake in the background, which covertly is
directing and orchestrating this Arab Spring to reap its fruits for
itself.
Their most previous sweeping struggle, similar to the present Arab Spring, was the famous
Arab Revolt
of June 1916 kicking the colonial Ottoman Empire, known as the “Sick
Man”, out of the whole Middle East. The poisonous snake then was the
United Kingdom, who pledged to recognize Arab independence throughout
the whole Middle East if they join the British in their fight against
the Ottoman Empire; an ally to Germany during WWI. This pledge was
officiated through what is known as
McMahon/Hussein Correspondence
(1915 through 1916). Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Arthur McMahon was the
British High Commissioner in Egypt from 1915 to 1917 and Hussein bin Ali
was the Sharif of Mecca. The British confirmed their pledge, again,
through the January 1918 letter by Sir Mark Sykes carried by British
Commander David Hogarth to Hussein. British weapons were shipped to Arab
fighters through T.E. Lawrence (known as Lawrence of Arabia), who also
coordinated the war efforts between the two parties. After the defeat of
the Ottoman Empire the British broke their pledge to Sharif Hussein.
According to their May 16
th 1917 secret
Sykes-Picot Agreement they divided the Middle East into French and British colonies, and according to their
Balfour Declaration, November 2
nd
1917, they promised Palestine to the Zionists. Sharif Hussein was
ousted from Mecca to exile by the British supported Abdul-Aziz bin Saud,
who established the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
The military struggle continued within each separate Arab state until
independence was achieved. Before quitting and leaving their Arab
colonies, France and Great Britain raised some of their local cronies to
become heads of states in order to keep the country dependent on the
occupier economically, politically and even culturally. Some of the Arab
countries, especially in Northern Africa, still use the occupier’s
language next to Arabic as a main daily language.
There exists in the world a very wealthy and very influential group
of people; the wealthiest 1%; a Power Elite, who exerts tremendous
influence on world events. This Power Elite value themselves above all
other nations. They had developed a kind of political theology that
exalts them as the elite of all elites, the divinely chosen group, the
architects of this world, the crafters of all religious, political and
social ideologies, and the destroyers and builders of nations. It gives
them the right and the duty to move nations and lead them into reshaping
their political regimes through revolutions and wars to make these
nations subservient to their own agenda. They spend their days drawing
global projects and dedicate all their resources for their execution.
They were responsible for all major wars around the world, for
revolutions in many countries, for economical crises and for most major
events in the history of this world. Through their wealth they control
heads of states, all media outlets, military and intelligence
organizations, and the world economy. Looking at the present global
financial crises affecting many countries, one could not help but ask:
who is this debtor, wealthy enough to hold many countries and their
whole economies in his debt?
This is not any longer the farfetched conspiracy theory they are
trying to ridicule those who try to expose it. It is a fact. After all a
conspiracy is defined as “evil, unlawful, treacherous, or surreptitious
plan formulated in secret by two or more people”.
For those who doubt that nations could be blindly and irrationally
driven to acts against their own national interests and welfare, I would
like to remind them of the drastic opposing effects of the famous
speeches given by Brutus Albinus and Mark Antony to the Roman citizens
after the assassination of Julius Caesar. The Romans, won by Brutus’
speech, were immediately converted against him within few minutes by
Mark Antony’s speech. The famous proverb states that “people are just
like a ball kicked from one corner of the field to the other by
politicians.” Thus the political term “the ball is in one politician’s
court.”
Iraq, Syria and Iran were the main obstacles to the Power Elite’s
primary colonial Zionist Project of establishing Greater Israel to
control the Middle Eastern region. The Power Elite came up with the “New
Middle East” and “fighting global terrorism” projects to augment their
Zionist Project. Intending to move southward they started with the
occupation and destruction of Iraq. Although the Iraqi occupation was
carried out under the banner of weapons of mass destruction and
spreading the American democracy, it was faced with huge global
political opposition not to mention the large financial expenses.
After failing to manipulate the IAEA and UN to isolate and to break
the Iran/Syria ally, who supports Lebanese Hezbollah and Palestinian
Hamas in their resistance against Israeli occupation and expansion, the
Power Elite came up with the perfect scheme of “New Order through Chaos”
erroneously dubbed, later on, as the Arab Spring. It involves
revolution from within to topple the ruling regime and to incite
conflict and struggle between the different religious and ethnic groups
to divide and to weaken the country in order to make it easier for them
to interfere, under the pretence of protecting minorities and/or of
economic aid, to virtually control and re-organize the country. This way
the Power Elite would present itself as an ally rather than an
occupier, would gain the approval of the international community, would
sidetrack all global political opposition and criticism, and would avoid
the huge expenses incurred by the revolution. Their first attempt
during 2009 Iranian election failed to topple the regime due to the
relatively small size of demonstrators. A proven precedent with a strong
credibility was needed to convince larger masses into revolting. The
Power Elite was ready for a “controlled sacrifice” in order to win the
ultimate prize, similar to a chess player, who is ready to sacrifice his
queen in order to check-mate his opponent’s king. The goal is a
controlled election in an American style democracy in some of the
“non-friendly” Middle Eastern countries.
Tunisian
Zine El Abidine Ben Ali
was the first sacrifice. Tunisia was a French colony from 1883 to 1956
when Habib Bourguiba established the Republic of Tunisia. Bourguiba made
the fatal mistake of nationalizing foreign land holdings and Christian
religious institutions. This infuriated the Italians, who brokered what
is known as the “medical coup d’état” deposing Bourguiba and installing
the head of security forces, Ben Ali, in his place. This was declared to
a 1999 Parliamentary Committee by
Fulvio Martini,
former head of Italian military secret service (SISMI). Ben Ali was
perfect local foreign puppet. He has French and American military and
intelligence training. He had close working relationship with Bush’s
(Junior) administration and was a partner in fighting the so called
global terrorism through the Trans-Saharan Counterterrorism Initiative.
Contrary to the claimed cause for the 2010/11 Tunisian Revolt its
economy was considered the best in the African continent and was
projected to even improve in the coming years. The 2010-2011
Global Competitive Report (Davos World Economic Forum) ranked Tunisia as first in Africa and 32
nd
out of 132 globally. In an attempt to fight potential terrorism through
economic assistance Ben Ali established a National Solidarity Fund that
slashed Tunisia’s poverty from 7.4% in 1990 to 3.8% in 2005. The
Oxford Business Group stated that Tunisia’s economy was likely to grow starting with 2008 due to its diversified industries.
Tunisia was chosen for its vulnerability to the West. Its security
intelligence was penetrated through its cooperation in NATO’s Operation
Active Endeavor, and its military and economy were compromised through
the American military and economic assistance programs. Although the
Power Elite supports its local puppet rulers they also support, to a
lesser extent, opposition groups just in case the ruler gets out of line
they would use the opposition groups to get rid of him.
The revolution started with Wikileaks exposing the large extent of
Ben Ali’s corruption. When Mohammed Bouazizi lit himself aflame the
opposition groups were already primed for mass demonstrations. As the
head of state, and through bribery, Ben Ali could have sent the army and
thugs to crush the demonstrators, as we have seen in Libya, Yemen,
Bahrain, and Syria. The country’s army chief withdrew his support to Ben
Ali after his consultation with the Obama’s administration as was
rumored. Ben Ali flew out to Saudi Arabia that has become known as the
refuge for all deposed dictators of the region.
The many political parties formed before the Tunisian election is an
indicative of the prevalent division and confusion among the people. The
inexperienced Ennahda Islamist Party, who won the October 23
rd election, could become a very easy prey to foreign long experienced political interference and to economical manipulation.
Egypt was the litmus test that would propel the rest of the Arab
nations, particularly Syrians, into revolting against their ruling
regimes. Hosni Mubarak was chosen for he was the most hated, although
very influential, Arab leader of the most important Arab country. He was
hated by his people for his tyranny, his oppression, his corruption,
and his cheap privatization of Egyptian natural resources to foreign
investors among many others. He was hated by the majority of Arab
nations for his pro-American/Israeli foreign policies, for supporting
the American invasion of Iraq, for his opposition to the democratically
elected Palestinian Hamas, for his sabotage to all inter-Palestinian
reconciliation efforts, for his partnership with Israeli Gaza siege, for
his opposition to Hezbollah’s and Hamas’ armed resistance against
Israeli occupation, and for his support to Israel’s 2006 war against
Hezbollah and Israel’s 2009 war against Gaza. He was the queen to be
sacrificed in the chess game.
“US groups helped nurture Arab Uprisings”
was the title of an article in New York Times, which exposed that young
Egyptian activists had received technical training on the use of social
networking and mobile technology, and were financed by American groups
such as
International Republican Institute,
National Democratic Institute and Freedom House,
National Endowment for Democracy and
Project on Middle East Democracy.
It is inconceivable that Mubarak, the wealthy ruthless head of state
for thirty years and with long history in military service, did not have
any loyal subjects in the army, who would help him crush the
demonstrators. For the last thirty years the Egyptian army had been
virtually armed, trained, and financed by the US. The army did not crush
the protesters because there were strict orders not to do so.
Comparatively the same army had crushed protesters and even opened live
fire at them after the revolution (Maspero Massacre of 9th October,
here and
here).
The Supreme Counsel of the Armed Forces, who seized power after the
revolution, had re-instated the emergency laws and is slapping in
military courts prison sentences to young activists, who started the
revolution. This Counsel stood watching thugs attacking and destroying
many government buildings. The latest attack this month was on the
Supreme Court while judges were in a meeting. Egypt now is divided with
religious conflicts (Christian Copts vs Muslims) and non-functioning
government.
The American chosen next president is already primed and ready for
the proper time to grab presidency. As for Mubarak, he had served the
American/Israeli interest well for the last thirty years and would not
be let off empty handed. According to Egyptian weekly “
Alanbaa Aldawlia”
the Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere (CARE)
organization, with 14 million members and specializes in the monitoring
of money laundering schemes, had reported to the FBI that for 10%
commission President Obama and 17 other American officials, including
both former presidents Bush (father & son), Hillary Clinton, James
Baker and others, with the cooperation of Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu and a high manager of Deutche Bank in France, had
been involved in the money laundering of Mubarak’s $700 Billion from
Deutche Bank, Barclays Bank and HSBC Bank, to Israel’s Bank Leumi and
other banks in China and Taiwan. According to Anat Levin, the branch
manager of Israeli Bank Haboalim-Swiss branch, she was authorized by the
Israeli government to transfer $20 Billion from Mubarak’s account to
Saudi King Abdulla Abd El-Aziz’s account and to UAE president Khalifa
bin Zayed Al Nahyan’s account. The weekly also reported that Christine
Legarde, while still French Minister of Economic Affairs, had submitted a
report to the Interpol requesting thorough investigation into the
management of Deutche Bank in France.
Libyan revolution was actually a civil war brokered by Western powers
(US, UK, and France) and some Arab Gulf countries (Egypt, UAE, and
Qatar). After paying reparations for Lockerbie bombing, abandoning his
nuclear program, and giving Western energy companies (Royal Dutch Shell
and BP) access to Libyan oil fields in 2004, Gaddafi had ended enmity
with the West. Although he had a type of grandeur illusions Gaddafi
attempted in the past to unite Arab countries, and upon failing he
recently attempted to create an African Union which threatened the
re-colonization plan of Africa by AFRICOM. The decision to get rid of
Gaddafi, once and for all, came when he
vowed to expel
Western energy companies from the country and replace them with oil
firms from China, India and Russia. Gaddafi’s second fatal mistake was
his plan to convince African and Muslim counties to create a new
currency,
the gold dinar, to rival the American Dollar and the European Euro, in oil trade.
Libyan revolution was totally militarized. It was revealed that
Egypt and Qatar
were the main arms suppliers to the Libyan rebels. Under American
pressure Arab League urged UN to impose a no-fly zone over Libya, and
Qatar offered to cover all expenses of NATO forces to bomb alleged
Gaddafi’s forces. Libyan rebels were civilians without any military
training and were no match for Gaddafi’s well-trained and well-equipped
army. It was revealed by Walter Fauntroy, member of US House of
Representatives, that while in a self-sanctioned peace mission to Libya,
he witnessed
French and Danish troops
coordinating NATO bombings and raiding Libyan villages, and giving the
credit to Libyan rebels. At the end Gaddafi was ordered murdered rather
than captured for fear of exposing all his shady dealings with the West.
Two unplanned products of the Arab Spring were the Yemeni and
Bahraini revolutions. These are genuine popular peaceful revolutions
against Yemeni Saleh’s 33 years oppressive rule, and against Al Khalifa
family virtual 191 years rule. The two countries have strategic
locations in the region and are of important interest to the American
Administration. Yemen is located on the southern entrance of the Red
Sea, through which all east/west marine traffic passes. Citing the
October 2000 USS Cole bombing, the 2008 attacks on US embassy, and the
October 2010 bomb packages incidents, allegedly linked to Anwar
al-Awlaki, as proof of
Al Qaeda in Yemen,
Obama’s administration and Saudi Arabia justified sending money, arms
and troops to help Saleh fight terrorists, and to crush the 10 months
old demonstrations
The US has possibly the largest
marine/air force base
in Bahrain, where the Fifth Fleet provides support to all war ships of
the US Naval Forces Central Command (USNACENT) to patrol the Persian
Gulf and the Indian Ocean. To keep the status quo in Bahrain Obama’s
administration encouraged Gulf States to send the Peninsula Shield Force
to Bahrain to
crush the demonstrators. Saudi Arabia, Qatar and UAE were happy to oblige and send their troops to Bahrain.
Syria is the main target; the prize; the king to be checked-mate.
With American money and with the cooperation of some Arab officials,
paid operatives incited some Syrian citizens, motivated by ethnic and
religious background, to demonstrate in the streets demanding reform and
regime change. These demonstrations took place in the easy accessible
small towns on the borders of Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey. Yet
these demonstrations were dwarfed by millions of other Syrian citizens
who demonstrated in major cities in support of the regime. To intensify
the conflict these operatives, dressed in Syrian army outfits, started
killing some citizens and accusing the Syrian police and army, and at
the same time attack police and army personnel to force them into the
defensive.
Compared to Tunisian, Egyptian, Yemeni and Bahraini peaceful
demonstrations, Syrian demonstrations are totally armed with heavy
weapons; machine guns, propelled missiles, anti-tank RPG, mines and
heavy explosives, and are directed and orchestrated by military experts
from other neighboring Arab countries as exposed by Al-Alam and Syrian
TVs.
Heavy weapons and military experts were smuggled in through Lebanon,
Jordan, Iraq, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia, as reported by the Lebanese
Arabic
Assafir.
Turkey
had also played a major role in pressuring Syria and had harbored and
encouraged armed Syrian rebels called Free Syrian Army. In successive
televised interviews the former Lebanese
MP Nasser Kandil
had exposed in details including names, dates, and places, the
conspiracy of destroying Syria as a country not just a regime change.
The Saudi Bandar Ben Sultan (dubbed Bandar Bush by the Bush family) was
named as a
major conspirator
with the Americans against Syria. It was reported that He was arrested
in Syria while under cover smuggling money and weapons to Syrian
operatives. It was also exposed that the American Ambassador Robert Ford
and French Ambassador Eric Chevallier
(in Arabic)
to Syria had smuggled sophisticated satellite communication and
surveillance equipment to the Syrian rebels some of which were seized by
Syrian police.
Media outlets had also been manipulated to pressure Syrian government
and to inflame the demonstrators. After gaining credibility in
reporting Tunisian, Egyptian, and Libyan revolutions Al-Jazeera and
Al-Arabia TV channels had almost totally ignored the 99% popular
Bahraini peaceful demonstrations and concentrated on Syrian
demonstrators, less than 40% of the population, in a biased unconfirmed
and more hostile reporting against the Syrian government. Every Thursday
one could notice heightened reports about civilian casualties and
ruthless attacks of the Syrian army in an attempt to incite more people
to join Friday demonstrators. Syrian news would top every news broadcast
even though there might be more important news in the region.
Al-Jazeera repeated broadcasting phone video clips of the same
demonstrations from different angles, and of alleged civilian victims,
some of these clips proved to be of old Iraqi troops abusing citizens.
The victims were always reported as civilians while there was no mention
of Syrian soldiers being killed. Unlike Tunisian, Egyptian, Libyan, and
Yemeni army defectors shown on TV declaring support to the people, the
media failed to show one Syrian army defector while they keep announcing
wide defection. Al-Jazeera had established a special war room planning
anti-Syrian propaganda as reported by some Al-Jazeera’s prime reporters
and directors such as Ghassan Ben Jeddo and Luna Al-Shibl among many
others
(Arabnews in Arabic), who submitted their resignation in protest of such unprofessional politically biased reporting.
The US and France, particularly, had pushed for many harsh sanctions
against Syria through the UN. Fortunately they could not obtain a
military interference under the excuse of protecting Syrian citizens, as
was done in Libya, because of the Russian and Chinese veto threat. So
the Arab League, a Western tool, was pushed to play pressuring active
role in Syria. It seems that many Arab leaders, especially Gulf leaders,
who cynically call for democratic regime in Syria, have forgotten that
they, themselves, employ family autocratic dictatorships in their own
countries. Despite this fact the Syrian government had accepted the Arab
League plan. The oppositional Syrian National Council rejected the plan
and intensified its violence against the Syrian army inviting harsh
retaliation. So the Arab League suspended Syria’s membership and
threatened economic and political sanctions. Such are illegal actions
contradicting the constitution of the Arab League that had never made a
decision benefiting any Arab state, but legalized the many Western
military interference in the Middle East such as in Iraq, Palestine,
Lebanon, and Libya. We should mention here that the Arab League had
refused to receive a petition from the slaughtered Bahraini people
requesting protection. Thousands of people within different Arab states
demonstrated against the decision of Arab League in front of Qatar’s and
Saudi Arabia’s embassies.
It has become obvious that the Syrian oppositional groups are divided
and have different aspirations some of them are conflicting and
confusing. This division and confusion are due to the background of each
oppositional group. The Western paid groups are armed seeking violent
regime change and call for foreign interference the same as in Libya.
The genuine oppositional groups reject any foreign interference fearing
the same fate of Libya, and seek drastic reform through dialogue.
To obtain peace, real democracy and prosperity in the Arab World, ALL
the present Arab leaders and regimes need to be abolished, starting
east with the Gulf States all the way west to the Atlantic Ocean
through the northern Arab states of Africa. This would give a chance for
an Arab Union to develop under one real democratic regime with one
united economy. Such a strong Arab Union would rebalance global power
and put an end to Western re-colonization schemes of the Middle East.
We should remember that permanent changes happen through the
evolution of human consciousness not through violent destructive
revolutions.
*********
Dr. Elias Akleh
Dr. Elias Akleh
is an Arab writer from a Palestinian descent born in the town of Beit
Jala. His family was first evicted from Haifa after the “Nakba” of 1948,
then from Beit Jala after the “Nakseh” of 1967. He lives now in the US,
and publishes his articles on the web in both English and Arabic.
At
the end of 2010 and the beginning of the 2011, a series of
demonstrations and protests began to rise in the Arab world. These
protests have become known as the "Arab Spring" (Ashley 2011), or, as
someone else called it, the “Arab awakening” (Aljazeera, 2011).
Unemployment
in the Arab region is also a major source of economic insecurity and
for destabilization of any political system. According to Don Tapscott,
"twenty-four percent of young people in the region cannot find jobs"
(Guardian:2011). This percentage of young unemployment is very high and
the Arab countries in the region have not been able to change this
situation and create new jobs, especially after the world financial
crises.
The
geographic position of many Arab states protagonist of the “Arab
Spring" lead us to analyze also the International causes of these
revolts. Egypt is the biggest Arab state and it is the first state that
signed a peace accord with Israel. At the same time Cairo during Mubarak
regime enjoyed a solid alliance with the United States in addition to
the high influence on Palestinian parties. To understand better the 25
January revolution in Egypt we have to focus on the relations between
Israel and Egypt before the revolution. The best vision on the relation
between the Hebrew state and the Pharonic one is the article of Benn
Aluf, Israeli journalist, published on Haaretz.