Share
If you ask me what is common between deception and Trump, I would say: Misdirection. Misdirection, is a form of deception in which the attention of an audience is focused on one thing in order to distract its attention from another. Donald Trump in seven days was able to spread chaos throughout the world, from the first day he became President of the United States. But were his orders a misdirection intended to distract 'us' (the audience) and serve hidden agendas? After Trump's victory in the elections, we can't but acknowledge his ability to rile us all up. Today I will play the devil's advocate and look at the situation from another perspective.
Trump's executive order on immigration bars citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States for the next 90 days and suspends the admission of all refugees for 120 days. These countries are: Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Syria, Sudan and Yemen. Since the order was issued, people from all over the world have been protesting against it.
But did you know that Kuwait also has a list of countries whose citizens are not allowed to enter the state? Ironically, these countries are Syria, Iraq, Iran, Yemen, Pakistan and Afghanistan. As far as I recall, not one person protested against this list.
Trump also set in motion his plan to build an "impenetrable, physical, tall, powerful, beautiful, southern border wall" between the US and Mexico. The border is about 1,900 miles (3,100 km) long and traverses all sorts of terrain. This wall will cover 1,000 miles and natural obstacles will take care of the rest, according to news reports. The wall is meant to stop illegal immigration, or so he claims. This order led to an uproar by some Americans in general and Mexicans in particular.
But did you know that Israel also built a security barrier or 'border wall' in 1994 between the Gaza Strip and Israel? The barrier runs along the entire land border of the Gaza Strip. In 2016, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) started working on a massive underground concrete wall along the border. The wall is expected to stretch along the entire Israeli border with Gaza, which is about 60 km long and the concrete wall will reach dozens of meters below ground, according to officials. Israel has also built another wall along its border with the occupied West Bank.
To my astonishment, I don't recall people demonstrating in the streets or protesting against these walls that have been strangling Palestinians and shattering their dreams and hopes for years. I don't recall any Arab countries standing together or uniting trying to destroy these "Big Walls" that are suffocating people behind them.
For years, Arabs have been persecuted by Arabs themselves, not standing or helping each other at the expense of their own profits and benefits. So before pointing fingers towards Trump's insanity, shouldn't we blame ourselves?! Because we "Arabs" are not better than him - we are worse than him because we hide behind the name of religion, a religion that is supposed to bind us, not divide us.
As a matter of fact, I would like to credit Trump, because if it wasn't for his crazy decisions, I wouldn't have seen people from different backgrounds, religions, races and nationalities uniting with each other against injustice, and this proves that maybe there is still hope in humanity. One last word, Mr President - you will only be great when you build bridges, not walls; when you connect, not divide.
By Sahar Moussa
[email protected]
