Friday, May 11, 2007
Queen Noor of Jordan says this Mother's Day that:
...the geopolitical landscape of the Middle East still reflects some of the most pressing global challenges confronting the contemporary world -- the stagnant Palestinian/Israeli peace process, the increasingly dangerous conflict in Iraq, the escalation of extremism, the debate over emerging democracies -- all point to the need for visionary and transformative leadership. I firmly believe that peace will only come to the region when mothers find their voice and say of the violence, "Enough is enough!"...
Could be. That would mean excluding mothers like Umm Nidal Farhat, the mother of Wafa al-Biss (Bas), or Reem Riyashi.
Truth is, the Hashemites are about as good leaders as the Arab world is likely to get, and certainly preferable to what's going to be replacing them when Abdullah's time is up.
But it always grates on me when they swan around lecturing the rest of the world, while their own country hasn't moved a stitch since the 1950's.
A great quote from Golda Meir for Mothers Day weekend.
“We will have peace with the Arabs when they love their children more than they hate usâ€.
Of course, Queen Noor never misses a chance to trash Israel, but that's okay. Sad to say, the comment above is right. The Hashemites ARE as good "leaders" as the Arab world has right now, and is likely to have in the future.
King Hussein made one of the best PR moves in Middle Eastern history when he plucked Lisa Halaby from the arms of her Catholic family and made her a queen in return for her agreement to convert to Islam. For the first time, rather than seeing shouting, gun-toting militants, or imperious despots, the West was presented with an Arab figure who was beautiful, articulate, and who, due to her American upbringing, seemed approachable. It helped incalcuably that the whole affair was calculated to resembled a romance of the Grace Kelly-Prince Rainier variety, with the lovely, upper class American being swept off her feet by exotic royalty. Noor was invaluable to Jordan's image during Hussein's reigh and remains so even after his death. The bulk of her job--and that's what her whole marriage and subsequent role as queen/mouthpiece is--has been to whitewash the plight of women in the Muslim world, to present Judenrein Jordan as a "moderate" "ally" of the West, and to demonize Israel and the "Jewish domination" of the American press and entertainment industry. Hussein and the Hashamite establishment have gotten more than their money's worth out of Noor. That she seems like a geuninely pleasant and intelligent--if willingly exploited--person only make the situation that much more unfortunate.
Noor, the face of pleasantness and additionally articulate, if not terribly intelligent or eloquent in the broader and more meaningful sense of the terms, here uses Mother's Day to further tighten the gordian knot, to further obscure and darken. And yet, yes, the articulate quality, the pleasantness, does present itself: the obscurantism of seduction. And she's sold herself on it all as well, which fact makes her all the more convincing to that segment of the public that is persuaded by such a veneer.
And yet, and this further reflects the gordian knot character and seductive quality of it all, the notes above concerning the Hashemite kingdom are true enough as well. Hashemites once ruled Iraq, though they were transplants, and there is an appeal there, at least in relative terms. And of course reflective of the interesting history, they were transplants from the Hejaz, as they were once contenders with the Saudis for that geography.
Knotty issues indeed.