Lawrence of Arabia, we all watched it in the theatre as we ate our popcorn and drank our favorite soft drinks. We consumed the myth of the charismatic British Army officer T. E Lawrence (played by Peter O’Toole).
Lawrence spoke fluent Arabic, having worked as an archaeologist in Syria before the war. Lawrence thought of it as a private venture, a white man’s burden without British officials’ support or orders. Since the British were skeptical of the Arab abilities and willingness to wage a war against the Turks with the help of the British. In the 1917 revolution, the Russian Bolsheviks, dividing Arab countries, leaked the Sykes-Picot secret treaty to Arab leaders among the British and the French. The British have been trying to convince Arabs that the Muslim Ummah should be led by an Arab from Qurish from the Arabian Peninsula. Sherief Hussein was promised a prestigious position and a wide Ummah once the Ottomans were kicked out of Arab lands; he, in the end, received neither. In hindsight, if Sharif Hussein had sided with the Ottomans against the British, it would have been a different story and a different film. In 1916, the Ottoman forces at Gallipoli beat the British and were beaten again in Mesopotamia. Had the Arab leaders sided with the Ottomans, the British would have lost control of Egypt, the Suez Canal, the Red Sea, and with it access to India. The movie glorifies the role of the civilized Western white man who was able to lead the savages and barbaric Arab tribes to organize and fight as soldiers, not just warriors. The scene in the film that stood out to me is the battle of Aqaba where you can see Lawrence with his white robe riding on his camel, talking to Sharif Ali (Omar Sharief), the third son of Sharif Hussein, and Auda Abu Tayi, (Anthony Quinn ) head of the two tribes and representing irrational tribal leaders who are about to start a tribal fight after a member of two tribe was killed by one of the other tribe, “ I didn’t come here to watch a tribal bloody bath” Lawrance told them, as he rushed to grab a gun and shot several shots in the head of the perpetuator which it turned out to be his beloved Arab guide Gassem, he scarified his friend but avoided a blood bath between the two Arab tribes; all accepted his justice, since Lawrance was neutral and doesn’t belong to either tribes. In the battle of the Aqaba, the Arab tribe’s forces descended on the retreating, helpless Turkish forces and slaughtered them without mercy. In the battle of Aqaba, you see Lawrence watching the Arab forces’ savagery and barbarity, who were interested in looting and destruction, seemed prone to bloodthirsty violence, chanting noises common only in western films when the native Indians make it while attacking the white settlers. After Aqaba fell in the Arabs’ hands, you can see Lawrence, looking on, he seemed to be the only one with human emotions and complexities; looking at the Red Sea, the sun is breaking into the dawn, Lawrance seen reflecting, contemplating the future of Arabia, whispering to himself, “God I love this country,”. Suddenly, Lawrence embarked on a secret trip to Cairo, a self-journey of 600 miles across Sina alone. “Why? So you take off our traditional clothes and forget about us,” Sharif Ali asked Lawrence. “If those Bedouins went to Cairo and told the Generals that they took Aqaba, they would laugh,” Lawrence explained. The West only believes people who dress, look, and speak like them. Now, the Trump of Arabia’s first international visit was to Arabia, riding horses and dancing with leaders of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and UAE. This time, but this time he asking Arabs not to revolt but to surrender to Israel. As the Palestinians are still resisting the Zionist colonial project in the area, Arab leaders are spending billions of dollars on new weapons not to fight the Zionist project in the area, help the Palestinians, or stop the genocide in Gaza. Arab leaders are dancing with Trump, giving him a private jet and gifts, as the Israelis still bomb and massacre Palestinian children and women in hospitals and camps. As Israelis and the Zionist industry complex accuse the reporting of killing Palestinian children of anti-sematic. Western media is up to Armas for the Qatar $400M plane given to Trump, using language like illegal, bribe, payback, Qatar gaining political influence, and Arab lobby. Qatar is a country the size of Connecticut that we have been defending for years, where we have the biggest military central command base in the Middle East. “Only a FOOL would not accept this gift on behalf of our Country,” Trump explained on his Truth social media. If Trump can negotiate with the Houthis, Hamas directly, he can bypass the Arabs and Israelis. Americans used to spend 50-100 billion dollars to invade a country in the Middle East, Israel did that for much less, $10B, now Israel is failing miserably in Gaza, exposing the barbarity of the Western colonial settler project, causing America and the West a moral and political headache. If now, Trump of Arabia can stop the Arab revolt against the Zionist project aggression toward the Palestinians, and accept the submission to Israeli supremacy. America can get billions of dollars from rich Arab countries without getting directly involved in wars in the area, and America can focus on its real enemy, China. Trump can bring flags, frameworks, photo ops, and deals to Arabia. “Once-defiant slogans are replaced by fintech expos and staged smiles beside Israeli ministers,” Wrote Soumaya Ghannoushi in Middle East Eye. In return, Trump of Arabia offers political protection and weapons. For Trump of Arabia, “It is a doctrine of immunity, bought with gold and soaked in Arab blood,” Soumaya explained. This week marks the 77th anniversary of the Nakba – the catastrophe, and again, the Lawrence of Arabia film is replayed through ethnic cleansing, starvation, forcing millions of Palestinian refugees, and this time not with Arab revolt but through Arab complicity and help.
Ahmed Tharwat
Host and Producer of the Arab America TV show BelAhdan
Blogs at Notes from America
