The past and Angela Merkel
On Sunday, after a breakfast with Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, German chancelor Angela Merkel spent about half an hour at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial. Before leaving, she wrote in the memorial's guest book: "Humanity grows out of responsibility for the past."
The past… a four letter word with a huge impact on generations…
We in the Middle East understand, we feel, we live, and we suffer from the acts of the past…
We in the Middle East live in the past more than in the present or the future…
The Israelis want to find the Temple that was destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD…
The Muslims want to go back to the Prophet’s times to revive the greatness of Islam…
Christians in Lebanon think they are Phoenicians and not Arabs…
Turkey will never be able to enter the European Union until it admits its responsibility of the Armenian genocide of 1915…
Palestinians want to bring back their refugees to the land lost in 1948…
Syria wants back a land that it lost in 1967…
And the dates are endless…
Rarely will you hear somebody in the Middle East talking about plans or demands for the year 2020 or 2050 or 2100…
We all live in the past…while we are losing the present and who knows what future we will have…
The past… a four letter word with a huge impact on generations…
We in the Middle East understand, we feel, we live, and we suffer from the acts of the past…
We in the Middle East live in the past more than in the present or the future…
The Israelis want to find the Temple that was destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD…
The Muslims want to go back to the Prophet’s times to revive the greatness of Islam…
Christians in Lebanon think they are Phoenicians and not Arabs…
Turkey will never be able to enter the European Union until it admits its responsibility of the Armenian genocide of 1915…
Palestinians want to bring back their refugees to the land lost in 1948…
Syria wants back a land that it lost in 1967…
And the dates are endless…
Rarely will you hear somebody in the Middle East talking about plans or demands for the year 2020 or 2050 or 2100…
We all live in the past…while we are losing the present and who knows what future we will have…
posted by Laury Haytayan at 6:19 AM
1 Comments:
Being a first generation American of German descent, I understand completely. If more Americans would only understand how much the past plays a part in the Middle East, just as it does in Germany.
Rarely will you hear somebody in the Middle East talking about plans or demands for the year 2020 or 2050 or 2100…
Hitler Rose to power in Germany at a time when the public had little hope for making a better life. From the stores I heard from my family, the times after WW 1 were horrible there.
I believe this is where American/Western foreign policy in the Mid-East has gone horribly wrong. Instead of making demands and rattling sabers (unless we're speaking of Israel, who can do no wrong), we should, as the richest nation in the world, be offering them hope for the future.
Instead of propping up the Oil Kings, offering them security as they build palaces to themselves while their people live in hopeless desperation, we should be exploring ways to return the power to the people, to let them have a hand in shaping their own future.
Too bad AIPAC, Halliburton, and Big Oil make policy here.
Post a Comment
<< Home