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Where is ‘Syrians for Peace Now?’ And the Arab Peter Beinart? (VIDEO)

June 22, 2012 9:04 am 0 comments

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Ronn Torossian

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Weapons collected after Libya’s National Transitional Council declared full liberation of the country. Similar weapons are believed to be inside Syria. Photo: Giovanni Diffidenti.

There is a plethora of Israeli and Jewish organizations around the world committed to fighting hate speech and bigotry, but where are the Arab and Muslim organizations devoted to the same end?

As the slaughter in Syria continues, I have yet to find a “Syrians for Peace Now” speaking out against the butchers in Damascus. Throughout the country there’s been constant violence, bombings and massacres for at least a year and we are yet to see the Arab equivalent of Peter Beinart emerge calling for peace in Syria.

Egyptian singer Amr El Masry has a new hit single “Baheb Israel,” (I Love Israel), which is clearly sarcastic (you can watch it below). The video depicts bombs and bullets as the backdrop to El Masry’s lyrics, singing of Israel “May it disappear from the universe. God, please have it banished. May [Israel] dangle from the noose. May I get to see it burning, Amen. I will pour petrol on it.”

Consider for a moment if Eyal Golan released a song expressing similar sentiments towards an Arab country? Could you imagine the outrage and international media headlines it would generate?

While we wait for the ‘Arab Peace Now’ or other peace-loving organizations from within the Arab world to make their voices heard, we have recently seen:

In Tunisia: Muslim clerics inciting the country’s youth to go to Syria and fight.
In Egypt: hundreds of men assaulting women who were protesting sexual harassment – where they groped and molested some of the marchers.
The wife of al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahri on Friday posting a message calling for the Arabs to “liberate Jerusalem” and restore it to its days of glory. “We will have a new Islamic state based on sharia (Islamic law) arbitration, and we will free Palestine and build a state of succession to the prophecy,” the message added.

If this is how Israel’s neighbors behave, how is it possible to establish peace with them?

“A noisy whining is now being set up by a chorus of ‘peace seekers’ who aim to achieve (by preaching exclusively to Jews) conciliation with the Arabs. It is difficult to free oneself from a feeling of disgust. On the morrow of a slaughter so mean and so foul – let us confess our sins and ask that they not beat us again,” wrote Ze’ev Jabotinsky in 1929, in an essay entitled “Peace.”

Ronn Torossian is CEO of 5WPR, a leading PR Firm, and an active Jewish philanthropist.

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