Whose history is it anyway...

History is a rape of facts. To begin a passage with such a strong statement would obviously raise eyebrows but neither am I a historian nor do I deserve a page in History, to fear a backlash. So, it does not harm me in being frank about it. Much of history consists of such events which are clinically glorified or doomed to serve the purpose of a powerful and manipulative few. Still, I know that I cannot badmouth history. For one thing, my dad is a historian and second, it is beyond me to contest history anyway. As I read you through a particular page of history, I'll just try to tear that page a bit, use a whitener at some places and in the end, resign to the fact that I am not able to convince you after all. I am going to talk about Israel.
To begin with, there was no such country as Israel before 1948. Amongst all that gore that Hitler left behind, the one that stood out was the Holocaust. There are people who deny that holocaust ever happened but even for those who vehemently accept it as a fact, there is scant substance for them to produce in favor of the formation of Israel. True, the Jews were being misplaced. They were killed in large numbers during the second world war. They had to be secured in a homeland where they could live a life of 'safety' and 'spirituality'. The Allied forces had just won the war. America, with its surplus land and opportunities could have been (and has been) the ideal homeland (symbolic or otherwise) for the Jews. Instead, politics played truant not only with the Arabs but also with the Jews. Off the biblical archives slipped Israel and planted itself as a trojan horse in the rabid Arab lands - places which had all the oil to keep all the SUVs running for decades to come. Those enterprising Jews, who could have fared spectacularly in being part of the great American dream, ended up being targets of Arafatic ire. Palestinians suddenly found themselves aliens in their land. The Muslim-land body had suddenly developed a Jewish tumor. No Ahmedinejad or Arafat worth his DNA would ever accept an ethical justification for Israel. Nor do I.

Yet, Israel was the biggest masterpiece of the Allied forces' sense of politics. Middle east was never going to be a piece of cake for the West. For one thing, USSR agonizingly shared borders with most of the states there and the West had no worthy ally in the vicinity. The best that they could have done was to rule through protege monarchs (as they have managed with relative success in Saudi Arabia and to an extent, with Saddam). But the west had realized that it was never going to be easy with USSR breathing down the necks of their proteges. They could never match the physical presence of USSR in the Middle east. A crude Bushic idea would have been to colonize Middle east but that would have fuelled a war with the mighty USSR. Thus was born the brilliant idea of Israel. Roosevelt-Churchill-Truman's thinktank gave birth to an idea which has no parallel in the annals of history. The idea had a biblical basis - "Israel" was the name given to Jacob after all and 'Israel'ites were the inhabitants of the nation he had fathered near Jerusalem, as written in the Bible. But head and shoulders above was the pity that was generated for Jews after the holocaust. The Bible, the justified empathy for Jews and the brilliant ideation combined with the euphoria of the victory in the World War ensured that there would be no stopping the creation of Israel. Even if Jews would have been circumspect about being made scapegoats for the Allies' political vision, they would realize in no less time that they were important to the Allies. Allies would do anything to keep Israel alive, to keep their oil resources within reach, to keep their economies running.

From one point of view, it would seem to be a gory scandal of the west on the Middle east but from the other, a brilliant idea to keep the balance of power intact. That a million Arabs have lost their lives in trying to protect their pride is indeed pitiful and unjustified. That Israel can never be considered a nation in spirit and principle, is also true. It is only to baffle the historians that this biblical debate of Israel will be played up. There was no ethical justification for the creation of Israel, even if Holocaust is true!

But what should be appreciated that Israel is not a creation of demons with gory intentions. Israel is that masterpiece which has kept the balance of power intact for America and Western Europe in the fight for oil. USSR does not exist anymore but there are other forces lurking in that region which require America to be on its toes. Without Israel, America would not be able to play even half its power politics in the region. The present leadership may think it has given itself pages in the history for the football it played with Iraq but it would stand only as minnows against the heros of the World War, Roosevelt and Truman. Not only did they win the biggest war in the history of time, they iced it with an idea that even the entire colonization of middle east by America would not be able to beat. America cannot openly express this but I am sure they are proud of Israel - the concept!

How the historians will write about Israel in the time to come is anybody's guess as history is written by the powerful. History has never sided with ethics nor has it anything to do with more than 10% truth. I only hope that somebody amongst the powerful will secretly express the appreciation for Israel, in its true form - Not as a nation but as a permanent barrack.

Looney times

The biggest news to hit prime time this week was Saddam's noose. Experts, journalists and TV presenters all had a field day analyzing every minute of the event. As a large section of people rejoiced, many others protested citing various reasons. Those of us who couldn't care less just sat back and watched the story unfold. All in all we saw an execution being reduced to a mass entertainment event. The amount of song, dance, tears and rhetoric surrounding the hanging likened it to a Karan Johar movie.

As I saw this story develop, many things struck me as bizarre. For example rumours were rife about execution videos being posted on the internet. Apparently somebody witnessing the execution captured the entire thing on video with his cell phone camera. How insane is that?! I haven't seen the video myself but I'm sure when the noose was placed around Saddam's neck, he was asked to look into the camera and say 'cheese' while his executioners stood on either side flashing the victory sign. There were also reports of people taunting the condemned man as he was led to the gallows. Whatever happened to the mesopotamian civilization? There seems to no trace of civil society left anywhere in the region.

Following the execution reactions began to pour in. The USA and its government in Iraq saw it as justice being served. Europe and most of Asia was shocked and disappointed. Over the last few years a clear pattern can be observed. The USA does something and the rest of the world expresses its shock and disappointment. This has become so common that I think its time they took the word 'shock' out of their press releases. In Iraq the Shias danced on the streets in joy while the Sunnis took pride in how their man had bravely faced death. Reminds me of a cricket match where one side wins and the other side takes positives out of its loss. The rest of the Islamic world complained that they felt insulted because the execution took place before a holy festival. I'm still trying to make sense of that.

Just when I thought the dust was beginning to settle on the issue, I read a report in the newspaper of a kid in Pakistan who tragically lost his life while trying to re-enact the Saddam execution to those who missed the live broadcast there. Kids seem to learn so much more from TV than they do in school. Shaktiman inspired them to jump off buildings twirling like tornadoes and now this. Since it occured in Pakistan nothing much might come of it. Had it happened in the US, parents might have sued CNN for not flashing the message "The following actions were carried out on convicted professionals. Do not try it out at home".

The long running Saddam show has finally come to an end. I wonder if we'll get to see a re-run or a remake anytime soon.