How do you see my driving? Our trust in your leadership was misplaced!

Awni Al-Mashni

If opposition in poetry is for a poet to write a poem that imitates another poem with the same rhyme and meter, and with a level no less than the first poem, then I permit myself, in the same sense, to write an article in which I oppose the article of my creative journalist friend Ibrahim Melhem, “How Do You View My Leadership?” with my conviction that I will not respond to the second condition, which is to imitate his article, in idea, language, and meaning.

I tried to imagine the answer, and I was guided by their influence. I didn't need to ask a friend for help, or delete two answers, or even ask the audience for help, as George Qardahi did in his famous program "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" I was guided by "the dung that leads to the camel," as I tried to revive my imagination by contemplating the facts of objective reality.

We were promised a state, but the West Bank became too cramped for its inhabitants, turning it into racial ghettos. We were promised Singapore, but we became Somalia. We were promised democracy, but we became a democracy where slaves choose their masters. We were promised a state of law, but we became Saxonian law. We were promised a fair distribution of opportunities, but we became a fair distribution of opportunities and sacrifices together: opportunities for one group and not others, and sacrifices for another group and not others.

This is the empty half of the cup. The other half has been filled with our blood in the Gaza Strip. The screams of children in the Gaza Strip tell a different story. They say that many calculations were absent, hasty calculations, and romantic calculations. The nobility of the goal does not justify the errors in the calculations, and the saying "the honor of trying is enough for us" does not apply. The attempt, even if it is honorable, takes us to a place far beyond the borders of the homeland.

"How do you see my leadership?" Your leadership is land being stolen, blood being shed, poverty being rampant, and homes being demolished.

"How do you see my leadership?" Our trust in your leadership was misplaced. Our people were shouting at the top of their voices from inside the bus: Stop, stop, stop. We are on the edge of the abyss. Any movement could lead us to a complete collapse, and then no one will be saved.

"How do you see my driving?" You've lost control of the brakes, the steering wheel, everything. You're not driving the bus. The bus drives itself by its own acceleration. Enough!

"How do you see my leadership?" Your leadership did not take us to the final station, it did not bring us closer to the final station, it did not leave us where we were. Rather, it took us far beyond the final station.

"How do you like my driving?" Stop it, at the first stop, stop, get up from the driver's seat, let's manage to find a more knowledgeable and more professional driver.