The Palestinian Cause, in our humble opinion, has been and remains the single most destructive element in our modern history as Arabs. The resources, the rhetoric, the attention, the tyrannies, the terror, the death, and the time expanded in support of one single cause for over 60 years has created a sort of a Palestinian magnet able to suck the oxygen out of all the other Arab Causes combined in each respective Arab country.
Why should a Syrian, an Iraqi, an Algerian, or any other Arab nationality pursue the Palestinian Cause at the expense of his/her own cause? Do you think oppression of women in Yemen is less important, as a cause, than supporting the Palestinian Cause? What gives a Palestinian the right to ask any Arab to support his/her cause when the Palestinians cannot muster the courage to support our Syrian cause (Fatah and Hamas are fighting with Assad against the Syrian people)? These are questions that many of our intellectual Arabs dare not ask for fear of being labeled as traitors or when they do, their voices are thousands of miles away emanating from non-Arab countries.
If the Palestinian Cause is a just and fair cause, then it is unjust and unfair to be the ONLY cause for Arabs to speak of. If, on the other hand, the Palestinian Cause is a humanitarian cause by nature, then it should be a matter of choice and not a matter to be imposed upon us by the Palestinians or anyone else.
When is it fair to ask someone to pay for girl scout cookies with a gun pointed to their heads? Or ask them to help an orphan child in this hospital but not help another in another hospital? That’s the Palestinian Cause in its most basic of forms.
The heavy-handed approach is starting to backfire when young Arabs look around them and start connecting their miseries to time allocated on matters they have no business questioning.
Supporting the Palestinians should be a choice given the bandwidth that leaves no time or resources to support the other Arab causes seeking attention. That choice reflects the free will of every Arab and cannot be imposed upon him/her by others.
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