Dr. Mohieddine Amimour is an Algerian friend and partner in the conferences, seminars and lectures. He is a doctor and a former minister of communication and culture who later on assumed the post of director of the Foreign Relations and International Cooperation Committee at the Algerian Council of the Nation. My continuous traveling during the last few months allowed me to read a number of books I had placed on a small table by the bed to remind me of my shortcomings. Among these books were two written by Dr. Amimour, the first being "Four Days that Corrected the History of the Arabs" in reference to the four days extending between 14/11/2009 and 18/11/2009 and the famous football match between Egypt and Algeria, and the second being "Us and the Colonel: The Rise and Fall of Muammar al-Gaddafi." I found the first book to be a reference on the topic. Indeed, the author's unique position allowed him to speak about Algerian-Egyptian relations, knowing that prior to his political post which rendered him part of these relations, he studied medicine in Egypt and graduated from the Ain Shams University. We are aware of the fact that the relations between the two major Arab countries are exceptional, considering that Egypt played in essential role in supporting the Algerian revolutionaries until the independence and that the post-independence Algeria supported Egypt in each crisis or confrontation which emerged afterwards. This is true. However, Dr. Amimour registered numerous underlying and sensitive political disputes, mentioning for example that Gamal Abdul Nasser's Egypt backed up Ahmed Ben Bella in the confrontation which ended with his toppling and the rise of Houari Boumedienne; and when Abdul Hakim Amer visited Algeria while accompanied by Muhammad Hasanayn Haikal and asked to see Ben Bella, his request was turned down under the pretext that what happened was a purely domestic affair. The book featured important information, some of which I had never read in other sources, about Anwar al-Sadat and the "megalomania" that affected him following the 1973 war. It stated that Al-Sadat perceived President Hafez al-Assad as being "my Mussolini," quoting an expression originally issued by Hitler and reflecting the fact that the Duce had started to constitute a burden to him. However, my friendship with Dr. Amimour does not prevent me from saying that his book "Us and the Colonel" attributes accomplishments and acts of heroism to Colonel Gaddafi, which even if they are not exaggerated, dissipate when compared to his crimes against the people of Libya, his support of terrorism around the world, his insane rule and the disappearance and killing of his prominent oppositionists and ordinary citizens. I found that Dr. Amimour supported Al-Gaddafi against President Hosni Mubarak who wanted an international intervention to liberate Kuwait. Personally, I am against any international intervention in our affairs, but it is known that Saddam Hussein would not have voluntarily pulled out from Kuwait. This is why I supported the foreign role to liberate Kuwait, but opposed it - and still do - in Iraq during the 2003 invasion. I turn now to the book "Faces from the Renaissance Era" by colleague Ibrahim el-Ariss - published by the Arab Thought Foundation, which featured seventeen figures from the renaissance. I had read the books of some of those, namely Rifa'a Rafeh el-Tahtawi, the author of " An Imam in Paris: Account of a Stay in France by an Egyptian Cleric.” Others however were only known to me by name, such as Ali Mubarak, Khaïreddine al-Tunsi, Fatima al-Youssef (the only woman in the group) and Yahya Haqqi and I do recognize my ignorance. Nonetheless, I did read all that was written by and about many others, such as Gergi Zeidan, Taha Hussein, Abbas Mahmoud al-Aqqad, Toufik al-Hakim and Najib Mahfouz, and I will ask Ibrahim el-Ariss once in Beirut why he omitted Imam Muhammad Abduh, although the book showcased the activity of his partner in thought and work Jamal al-Din al-Afghani. Hence, any reader interested in the renaissance era would see that the book is a documented reference about its figures. I will finally conclude with the book "Bright Faces from the American University of Beirut," written by Dr. Michel Khalil Geha. In his book, he tackles the figures who preceded me at the University between the 1960s and 1970s, namely Anis al-Khoury al-Makdessi, Fu'ad Sarrouf and Nabih Amin Fares. Nonetheless, it also features information about teachers from my days, and some of them even taught me, such as Nicolas Ziade, Charles Malek, Constantine Zreik, Elie Salem, Ihssan Abbas - my masters' professor - and Antoine Ghattas Karam. These professors, just like the faces of the renaissance era, are geniuses, and I will not compare them to those we have today so that I am not overwhelmed with despair, as the miserable state of Arab policy is more than enough. [email protected]
