ISTANBUL, TURKEY ””mdash; For as long as I can remember,
but especially after Sept. 11, 2001, whenever I would tell people
of my plans to visit family in the Middle East for the summer, I
was sure to encounter at least one person worried for my safety.
I’ve always laughed in response ““ the image of death,
destruction and M-16s firing at random is as foreign to me as to
any of my well-wishers.
When Hezbollah abducted two soldiers and Israel responded by
firing back, I was in Amman, Jordan.
I was far enough away that the tragedy and the chaos could not
touch me, but I would hear and see the aftermath and the spillover
into neighboring Arab countries ““ much like being in
California during Hurricane Katrina.
I was there to see the nervousness and the prayers for my great
uncle, who caught a flight into Beirut to drive his daughter and
two grandchildren to Syria.
I was there to hear that they watched the car in front of them,
loaded with another family trying to escape, be blown apart.
I met two children who couldn’t sleep because they thought
nearby wedding fireworks were bombs.
I watched grown men turn to brush away tears after seeing images
of children pulled from rubble.
I was in Turkey making pancakes and French toast for breakfast
when my family turned on the TV to see the latest news on Sunday
““ the bombing of the civilian building in Qana, Lebanon
““ followed by the protests turning ugly at the Lebanese
United Nations building.
I wanted to write about the difference between the Arab news
here and the news coming in from the Western world at first ““
I had noticed the general tendency for Arab news to focus on the
Arab angle and the Western news reaching me on satellite (mostly
BBC World and CNN International) to focus on the Israeli angle.
I was going to describe my initial shock of moving from
on-the-ground images of destruction of Lebanon in Arab news to the
skyline views of untouched buildings on BBC World. But the images
of small, unnecessary corpses in Qana emphasized this split in
focus.
It was disheartening to see that while the Qana bombing and its
aftermath made the news on the Arab stations, what made the BBC
World news were the protests about Qana.
For Western news, what bleeds does not lead ““ after all,
protests turning violent are easier to condemn than corpses.
Israel’s free exercise of defense has caused more civilian
deaths and destabilization of peace than the peace it claims to try
to ensure, and the failure of an unconditional cease-fire has
ensured the continued destabilization of the area. These are the
feelings making up the general mood of those I have met and talked
to here in the Middle East.
Here, you’re not safe anywhere from a conversation about
the situation. Even while I was buying fish for dinner, the
stand’s owner stopped to break it down for me: We can’t
count on the so-called democratic Western world, he said in
accented but fluent English. It does what’s in its best
interest. Arab countries must instead unite and stand for justice
because the West is dividing and conquering.
After a few hours of news, my family will turn off the blaring
television or will change the channel, or go on some pleasant tour
around Turkey.
In Jordan, the people I know are still living their day-to-day
lives. Beyond the flow of people who have left Lebanon for the
safety of nearby countries, the only difference between being here
in the Middle East and anywhere else is the sadness for their
neighbors and cynicism towards diplomacy.
Hashem was the 2005-2006 Viewpoint editor. E-mail her at
nhashem@ucla.edu. Send general comments to
viewpoint@media.ucla.edu.