(MENAFN- Alghad Newspaper)
Normal 0 false false false EN-GB X-NONE AR-SA /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0cm; mso-para-margin-right:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:8.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0cm; line-height:107%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi; mso-fareast-language:EN-US;} The regional situation is becoming more and more complicated by the day.
So much turbulence to no imminent end, and developments unfolding on multiple frontiers throughout the Arab World. Nothing points to there being any hope for our conflicts to be resolved any time soon.
If anything, the deeper you look into it, the further down the slope it seems we are going. So much that it seems as though we are sinking to new depths with every passing day, down a bottomless pit of decay, division, and deterioration.
Every time we think, this is it; it can't get worse than this, it does. So, with every Eid we wishfully pray and hope that the next would bring upon us the end of war, massacre, devastation, refuge, poverty, and unemployment, but no.
We would hope that maybe this year, Arabs will finally come to peace, and that our disputes would resolve themselves, but it seems, the worse is yet to come. Our central case, Palestine, is hardly present, and the world has become more or less oblivious to our tragedies.
Palestine has fallen down to the bottom of the list of world priorities, while our occupiers exploit the turmoil sweeping through the region. They advance into what remains of the Palestinian territories, tighten the noose around the necks of our brethren, whilst the world turns a blind eye to the calamity west of the Jordan.
More and more we sink in to the quicksand of our disputes, and with it, we have forgotten Palestine and its people's agony. The International Community conspires as well, against the innocent people under occupation, as they have conspired for decades, in their silence.
This is nothing new. As for the Syrian crisis, everything said about the end of ISIS and ilk only nourishes uneasy hope for a battle that is far from over; not to mention the long and tiring journey of rebuilding Syria.
The future seems bleak; packed with bloodshed and sectarian warfare, and realignments which incite further division and conflict. Look at the Gulf Cooperation Council? Once, the GCC set an example for unity in the region and the hopes of expanding it.
Suddenly, our most promising model is seemingly falling apart. Naturally, Jordan is not isolated from this difficult Arab reality. The epicentre of the all the Arab aftershocks is here; in Jordan.
Just like our surrounding geology affects us, so do the politics of the region, and the collapse of the Arab system. Jordan, despite the relative stability and security it enjoys, as a result of wise leadership and the policies enacted towards the regional turmoil over the years, is suffering too of the spread of terroristic thought and culture.
We too, in Jordan, have been struck by terrorism. Therefore, it is vital that our intellectual and military war against terrorism and violent extremism does not stop, in order to protect our country and its people.
Economically speaking, as well, the regional tsunami has had its toll on our economy. For years the Kingdom has been enduring suffocating financial and economic troubles, doubled by the escalations of the crazed Arab reality, and intensified by the violent discourse of the ‘Arab Spring'.
So far, Jordan has seen the influx of refugees from Syria, marked historically, as the largest in modern human history. As a result, Jordan now hosts the world's second largest refugee population, in relation to the national demographic, and some of the world's largest camps.
In the midst of the ongoing shifts and realliances, we see our own people, the Jordanians, also divided, each in accordance to their views and agendas. The division is intensifying, however, as if the issues were domestic.
Nonetheless, this doesn't stop them from looking around them, and appreciating that the worst, indeed, is through; that they did not pay, as many others have, the price for the short-lived ‘Spring'. Jordanians, whom have made it through the turbulence, engaged in daily debates over concerns of our regions, in peace, are among the very few, who can actually wish each other well this Eid, and hopefully every coming one hereon.
Happy Eid. This article is an edited translation of the Arabic version, published by AlGhad.
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