There is the story about the psychiatrist who is unsuccessful in treating a patient with an inferiority complex. The doctor tells the patient, "Maybe you don't have a complex. Maybe you're really inferior." Israel is the one with the inferiority complex, and like the patient, is actually inferior. No one likes it, and it responds with what makes people hate it even more. I put together translations of the Israeli press from the weekend, and found an item in Maariv, saying that Israel decided to start a fight with Qatar because of its growing anti-Israeli activity in the world. The item focused on the huge legal and political support offered by Qatar, as the chair of the Arab Follow-up Committee with the Palestinians, to demand recognition of an independent Palestinian state in the General Assembly of the United Nations next month. Thus, the leaders of the Foreign Ministry, headed by Avigdor Lieberman, and with the knowledge of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, decided that "Qatar is leading anti-Israel activity on the international stage and we cannot continue to act as if the relationship is normal." The relationship was never normal. When Qatar accepted to open a trade office for Israel in Doha as part of the peace process, the goal was to encourage Israel to take part in this process. However, Israel today is ruled by an extremist, right-wing mafia that is racist and fascist; Qatar expelled Israel's representative in 2009 after the attack on Gaza. Two employees remained, but Israel closed the office in March, so that Qatar would not use it as a means of pressure against it. The Israeli news item quoted a secret Foreign Ministry document saying that it would halt all of Qatar's activities in Palestinian territories (all of it is Palestine), such as building the Doha stadium in Sakhnin, and other projects, including the Fakhoura project in Gaza to help students calling for lifting the siege (this is only a crime in Israel), helping Hamas-affiliated charities from receiving around 100 million euros from Qatar every year, and the funding of legal cases against Israel for attacking the Turkish peace flotilla. Israel objects to Al-Jazeera because it broadcasts harsh statements against Israel and criticizes the country, and because it hosted a conference on religion, sponsored by the Emir, in which Israel was criticized. Thus, Israel decided to halt Al-Jazeera's activities in Israel and ban its correspondents, just as it banned all activity by the Qatar Foundation, which is sponsored by Emir Hamad bin Khalifa, from providing social and educational assistance. I once wrote a column about Israel's prime ministers from Ben Gurion to Netanyahu and explained that they all, without exception, changed their family names because they were of "no origin," as we say. Today, the war criminals Netanyahu and Lieberman, the Moldavian bouncer, confronting Emir Hamad bin Khalifa and Prime Minister Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabr. The Israelis are immigrants to Palestine, descended from murderers and thieves, while the Qataris are sheikhs from a family that has ruled its country for hundreds of years. The Israeli inferiority complex is justified. No one likes Israel, and the reasons for this are as clear as day. However, people like Lieberman have the nerve to believe that an Arab country wants to have positive ties with Israel, as it occupies, kills and displaces people; they do not see that this country tried to push Israel toward peace. Qatar is not alone. Without going back too far, I can say that the campaign against Qatar coincided with a campaign against Egypt. The Israeli press says that Egypt warned Israel over a new war against Gaza, after the recent armed confrontations in the Strip. Egypt said that if Israel did such a thing, the Egyptian government might not be able to halt the popular response against Israel. This was translated as meaning the great majority of Egyptians want to end the peace treaty with Israel. At the same time, an Israeli diplomat who once worked in Turkey said "They (the Turks) hate us a lot." Moving from countries to individuals, I read an attack on two friends. The first is Professor Jack Shaheen, who I have met between Beirut and the United States. He has done the best job in cataloguing the attacks against Palestinians in Hollywood films. The second is the British-Egyptian novelist, Ahdaf Soueif, whose "Map of Love" sold a million copies; she was attacked for sympathizing with the Palestinians and criticizing Israel. Once again, what could the position of a professor of Lebanese origin, and writer of Egyptian origin, be, other than opposing Israel's crimes and those who cover them up? I am not a psychiatrist and I do not have an inferiority complex. Speaking plainly, I can say that the reasons for hating Israel are completely justifiable. [email protected]
