Unmasking the World

This week, as the Muslim world trembles and regimes fall one after the other like flies the Jewish citizens of Israel celebrated Purim. Huge festive parades marched through the streets. From school children to working adults from kindergartens to offices through every street in the city, it seemed that everywhere everybody was dressed in customs and masks.

This age old tradition began long ago in Persia, as recorded in the Esther Scroll After Jews got the upper hand and escaped persecution, winning the favor of king Xerxos. it was hip to be a Jew. Many of the local non-Jews dressed up as Jews in the hope of escaping punishment.

Esther 8:17:
And in every province, and in every city, wherever the king's commandment and his decree came, the Jews had joy and gladness, a feast and a good day. And many of the people of the land behaved as Jews; for the fear of the Jews fell upon them.

This ancient tale is a wonderful example of the fickleness of public opinion and its hypocrisy and is a stark reminder that things are not always as they seem.

Nobody knows today what the shift in the Arab world will bring but there is no doubt that many of our past conceptions about the Arab world and about western foreign policy have been debunked. Perhaps the Arab world and western policy never changed but their true nature was unmasked for all to see.

The recent events have managed to unmask the poverty, lack of rights and despotism, so wide spread in Arab countries. The western world's dependency on oil and its effect on foreign policy have been unmasked by the unbalanced stances regarding the Egyptian, Libyan, Tunisian and Baharanian civil unrests.

The Arab League's unity was unmasked as nothing but empty rhetoric. Iran's invisible hand in Middle Eastern politics became very apparent. But most importantly Arab governments around the world have been unmasked for what they are, terror-based dictatorships, travesties of human rights, corrupt and unjust.

Unmasking the villain has allowed Arab citizens to fight for their rights for the first time, to fight for democracy. Their success will depend largely on their ability to spot hypocritical villains and unmask them, to see thing for what they are, Then they too will be able to parade proudly and unafraid in the streets of their cities.