Happy Valentine, oh Middle East!

"I love you, the Middle East, even though you’ve been confusing me lately. So the Muslim Brotherhood is the broker of peace between Israel and Hamas. Hamas is empowered by Iran but openly hates the latter. Al-Qaeda and Israel stage concurrent military attacks on the Syrian government. Dictatorial Arab monarchs are the harbingers of democracy in Syria and the supporters of dictatorship in Bahrain. I just wonder, oh region, are angels helping devils and devils helping angels nowadays? I’m sort of losing track of who is who.

I love you, Sectarian Bugaboo, you are the Arab Dracula of the last two centuries. Pssst, beware that you might be running out of victims. Christians and Muslims ruined Lebanon already. Ditto Shiites and Sunnis in Iraq. Sudan is broken into separate nations. Syria is trespassing along sectarian fault lines. Militant Copts are already sharpening preventive hatchets against marching Islamists in Egypt. Jews outdid other members of the Abrahamic religions in Palestine. Wahhabi zeitgeist is consolidated in the Arabian peninsula. Running out of options, Sectarian Bugaboo? Try the region’s cats. Urban legend has it that Shiite and Sunni cats meow in irreconcilable ways."

Imad Atalla, The Daily Star (14. Februar)