Trading weaknesses

Weakness is an important tool used to generate the sympathy of others and get their help. This is not only used by individuals but countries as well. There are those who do not have the will to work and make a living through their own hard work and others who suffer from disabilities that prevent them from working. There are also those who professionally lie and deceive people by portraying themselves as weak.

Psychologists have noticed that people, in general, are emotional and they empathise with the concerns of others, and some are willing to sympathise in one way or another and help the weak and disabled. The emotional reactions of people may be in the nature of humans, but we do not know for sure.

Culture of begging

We can see in most countries that many beggars try to portray themselves as weak in order to gain people’s sympathy in order for them to give them money or food. Beggars who do not suffer from a disability resort to tying back an arm or a leg or pretending they are unable to work or walk. Some even pretend to be blind or suffering from a mental illness, based on their belief that acting weak or disabled will bring them kindness and charity.

Some cry and shed tears in order to give the impression that they are living a tragedy that can only be relieved by the charity of others. The means and methods differ and there are some individuals who are excellent at deceiving others and capable of generating great sympathy.

Beggars have no dignity and this is the focus of people’s confusion, even if they show compassion. Those who beg despite being capable of working are especially villainous, and such people do not have any self-respect or dignity. They are willing to bear humiliation, insults and offensive language and would open their doors to the scum of the earth.

If we compare between such individuals and thieves, then we would find that thieves have a lot more courage than beggars because they are willing to sacrifice their lives and freedom in order to have money, and do not necessarily have to sacrifice their dignity and country. Thieves plan and work hard, trying to make an illegal and immoral living through hard work, while beggars are liars and cheats and do not work hard or make an effort.

Countries that beg

There are a number of countries that beg on an international level, based on claims that their people are hungry. However, a number of countries, including Arab countries, are corrupt and they waste the people’s money. The leaders of these countries have no desire to work towards progress and advancement, instead distracting themselves with their desires and persecuting citizens.

Given their corruption and failure to abandon their whims and desires when ruling, the people’s productivity falls, along with their income and the country’s income. This causes a severe shortage of food and important services. At this point, governments in these countries resort to crying and weeping in the international arena and asking for economic and financial aid. The citizens of some of these countries are subject to hunger and destitution, causing an international media sensation that pressures countries that make efforts towards advancement. These corrupt countries use the poverty and hunger of their people as excuses for begging and solicitation. They are similar to individuals who deliberately disable their child in order to make it easier to beg.

A number of rich countries encourage begging in some form or another in order to achieve national interests, such as economic domination and stripping others of political will. Other countries encourage corruption or overlook it in order for countries with corrupt leaders to continue to beg and lose their political will, which has and continues to occur in Egypt.

The Western countries crippled Egypt by means of their financial aid and allowed the corrupt rulers to run rampant in order to dominate Egypt’s decisions and preserve Israel’s security. The Western countries have also crippled the Palestinians when they remained silent in the face of the PA’s corruption, leaving the Palestinian people in the West Bank and Gaza under the burden of financial aid. The Palestinian people acquired the culture of begging because they receive money without having to work for it in exchange for abandoning their political will and inalienable national rights. Matters further deteriorated, especially in the West Bank, reaching the point where the people are co-existing with the Israeli occupation.

Israel and the Western countries that provide the funding faced the question: What is more financially and economically feasible: Leaving the Palestinian people to their own devices in terms of making a living, or financially controlling them and stripping them of their political will? Leaving the Palestinian people to their own devices is more costly as it will cause security issues for Israel and will add to the Western countries’ security issues. These issues are very costly. It is more feasible for them to give small amounts of money in order for the situation to remain calm and willing to support Israel’s security.

Trade with weakness

We have noticed that the Arab countries are trying, as much as possible, to play the role of the dove of peace and to cooperate in the international arena. They do so in order to prove to the world that they are peaceful countries that do not want to agitate or aggravate, regardless of the attacks and violations occurring.

For example, these countries have allowed for American domination of the Arab decisions and wealth in order to please the Western countries. However, they are also willing to wage a war on Iran to please the West. The Turkish army has repeatedly violated Iraq’s sovereignty for years by militarily violating northern Iraq, but the Arab countries stood by and did nothing. Now Turkish forces are violating Syrian territories without the Arabs mobilising against this. Meanwhile, Israel has taken every opportunity to humiliate the Arabs, challenge their decisions and push them towards surrender.

Israel repeatedly violates Muslim and Christian sanctities and makes sure the status quo on the ground in the West Bank deprives the Palestinians of their rights. However, the Arabs continue to extend an olive branch and doves of peace. The Arab countries have not even used their weapons against Eritrea, which occupied the Yemeni Hanish islands on the outskirts of Bab Al-Mandab, leaving the ICC to defend Yemen.

There are some Arabs who buy weapons worth billions of dollars every year, but who are they buying them for and who will they use them against? Some Arab countries have enormous military forces and it seems that these weapons only come out of their stores in the war against Yemen. The Arab weapons are not used against Israel or the Western domination over the Arab’s political decisions and the Arab League is not provoked or angered by any of the violations against the Arab world.

The Arabs have not been able to win wars and they are often defeated, and therefore, they have been unable to achieve peace. They continue to portray others, especially Israel, as an octopus capable of surrounding its enemies in order to highlight and stress their weakness and inability to defend themselves. They constantly ask Western countries, especially the US, to pressure Israel to accept the Arab surrender proposals. Arab leaders continuously shuttle to Washington and other Western capitals in order to complain about Israel’s stubbornness and their usual violations and actions in Palestine.

The Arab governments generally try to emphasise their commitment to international legitimacy and international law, which a number of them violate, as well as to stress their respect for UN resolutions. Meanwhile, others use the UN as a tool to pass their policies.

The Israeli occupation violates international law and international legitimacy, but the Arabs are looking for someone to get revenge against Israel on their behalf. The Arab countries constantly cry and weep in the international arena because of the Israelis’ arrogance, and they keep stressing their deep love for peace and desire for world peace. They are keen on showcasing their weakness to the world, while the world ridicules the Arabs and wonders about this Arab “giant” that does not stop weeping over the measures and actions of a scarcely populated, geographically small, mini-state.

The Arabs try to gain the sympathy and compassion of others, but the others know that the Arabs are not country-makers. Instead, they are merely leaders using their power to achieve personal gains, and the Palestinian leadership is no different than the rest of the Arabs.

The Palestinians who reached an agreement with the Israelis committed to resisting the resistance and to the security coordination with the Zionists to protect Israel’s security. They are committed to prove to the world that they are peaceful, even though they display villainy and subservience. Their president takes every chance to stress his adherence to Israel’s interests at the expense of the national Palestinian interests. He is constantly cozying up to the Zionists during his television appearances and he confirms that he does not want to return to his hometown of Safed. In addition to this, he constantly emphasises the sanctity of the security coordination and his commitment to the security of the Zionists.

Despite all of this and his attempts to gain compassion, the Zionists do not give him any attention and continue to exercise their usual policies against the Palestinians. The Israelis believe that anyone who cannot wage war cannot make peace and that those who exhibit their weakness are inviting others to take more advantage of them.

Some Palestinians argue that the Zionist movement used sympathy to gain more international support and that it is successful in doing so. They believe Israel was capable of establishing a state due to the support of many Western countries. This is true, but the Zionist movement did not solely rely on compassion, but it developed a number of methods and means to establish its strength, thus forcing others to listen to them.

The Zionist movement developed a strong organisation on an international level and earned itself large media presence. They wormed their way among the international leaders by means of money and women, and they pushed the Freemasonry organisation forward. They also established programmes to implicate leaders, intellectuals and big capitalists, thus gaining themselves media, financial and intellectual influence. This means that the Zionist movement did not give in to its weakness or use it for trade; instead it constantly worked to gain strength.

As for the PA, it constantly works on destroying the people’s strong points to prove to the world that the Palestinians are very weak and they deserve help. The greatest evidence of this is the PA’s persecution of the resistance and the uprisings, and their strong efforts to weaken Palestinian producers, destroy the Palestinian economy, exhaust the people with taxes and fees, and the war on freedom of opinion and expression, as well as the right to participate in decision making.

The Arab countries have tried to trade with weakness, as the Palestinians have, and they are always the losers. Those trading with their weakness always expose themselves and confirm to others that they do not have the energy to defend themselves. Perhaps this is a good time to quote the Argentinian president, when he challenged Britain, saying he isn’t Arab but is willing to fight.

Weakness generates the greed of others, and it is no wonder that nations and organisations flock to the Arabs and subject them to various forms of humiliation and blackmail. Weakness is not a winning bet and the weak cannot be saved from their weakness.

Translated from Al Jazeera, 12 June 2016.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.