Ahmad Tibi, Danny Ayalon, Khalid Mashal, Avigdor Lieberman... by Jamil Shawwa

The Players:

Ahmad Tibi, Member of the Israeli Parliament- happens to be an Arab Member-the Knesset and former adviser to Yasser Arafat, the late Palestinian president.
Danny Ayalon, Deputy Foreign Minister of the State of Israel and it's former Ambassador to the United States.
Khalid Mashal, Head of the political office of Hamas, the organization that operates and controls the Gaza Strip, as of now.
Avigdor Lieberman: The State of Israel Foreign Minister.

The Occasion:

I watched the other day on C-Span, a program that hosted Tibi and Ayalon among other guests and was struck, kind of, by the tone, the attitudes and the level of comfort both Ayalon and Tibi have shown. As for Lieberman and Mashal, the only reason I brought them to this so called analysis is their resemblance, I can not post their pictures here for some reason, maybe I need to get some technical support from the many talented IT people out there, both men have beards, no surprise, both claim to be part of a group that believe strongly that it is difficult for the two people to live together, or maybe they claim that as I claim that I know some political analysis. Both Mashal and Lieberman- I do not have the honor of knowing either man- are considered according to the media and I quote “extremists". The physical resemblance, again, is amazing. It is not amazing to me though as I know that the Arabs and the Jewish people do look alike, as I mentioned in other blogs, they are cousins, and they both are Semites and came from Ibrahim, Abraham, one of God's prophets on earth. This is for these two, Lieberman and Mashal. Now back to the stars of this article, Ayalon and Tibi. Mr. Ayalon mentioned that Dr. Tibi is a gynecologist, in a statement to show that Arabs in Israel have equal opportunities. I do not think Tibi liked it for the whole world to know what his medical specialty, exciting one, I am sure. I do not why this gynecologist business put me off track, any way Mr. Ayalon mentioned that there are equal opportunities inside the State of Israel between its Arabs and Jewish people and the example according to Ayalon was that the medical school accepted Tibi and rejected him. Tibi is an Arab and Ayalon is a Jewish. Tibi did not like what Ayalon said and he responded by saying and I quote" everything that he succeeded in was because of him and everything wrong with him was because of Israel. Now, of course, I am rolling my eyes to this answer as did Danny Ayalon and probably every person reading this blog. Dr. Tibi probably answered the way he answered because Mr. Ayalon mentioned that he is a gynecologist, although he, Tibi, should not be ashamed of it. My dream was, among other unfulfilled dreams, to be a gynecologist. Back on track, Tibi's statement above was made for the media consumption, in reality he knows that he is a citizen of the State of Israel and in the same time he can continue to work peacefully as he is doing right now to push what he believes in which is the ongoing process of achieving equal rights among the Jews and the Arabs in Israel. The other part of the conversation or the dialogue between the two was the subject of the definition of Israel as a Jewish state. Tibi opposed to that definition saying that by definition, in his opinion, that implies lack of equality among Jewish and non-Jewish. Ayalon fired back by saying that he does not agree and that many Jewish people across history and until now live in countries that define themselves as Islamic or Arab countries and that they did not have a problem living under the Islamic and Arab flags. What Ayalon said is correct historically. The Arab countries in general define themselves as Islamic countries and in the same time, there are non-Muslims that live in these countries. I am not going to comment further, the dialogue really was enjoyable. I think that both parties could have been more at ease before the media. The Palestinians and the Israelis- both Jewish and Arabs- do not need to pretend that they are talking to creatures from out of space or talking friendly with each other is a sin. I know it is politics- I'm pretending again that I know something about politics- and I know that what we sometimes show is not what we really mean, but relax, converse, discuss and just enjoy.