Who benefits?

By Magdi Youssef

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The US role in the recent UN Security Council resolution concerning Syria comes as no surprise. The US seems eager to bring to account the murderers of Al-Hariri. Curiously enough, Washington is turning a blind eye to the crimes Israel commits daily against the Palestinians. Israel's crimes need no proof. Even the Israeli government admits that it engages in collective punishment of the Palestinians. It's only when Palestinian groups retaliate against Israeli crimes that US officials cry foul. And yet no one in Washington seems capable or willing to discuss the simplest rule of human rights with the Israelis.

The UN Security Council has just asked Syria to cooperate with those investigating the killing of the former Lebanese prime minister. I wonder why no one is giving much thought to the fact that the Syrian regime, whatever one may say about its human rights record, is the last to benefit from the murder. The only ones who could possible benefit from such crime are Israel and the US.

Has it ever occurred to the investigators of Al-Hariri's murder to question those in Israel and the US who may have been involved? Of course not. Why should anyone bother when we live in an international scene based on jugglery? The world has lost its mind, and somewhat it all seems to benefit one country: Israel.

This week's Soapbox speaker is visiting professor of comparative literature at Cairo University and president of the International Association of Intercultural Studies at Bremen University, Germany.