What are Arabs doing for Palestine?

The Prime Minister is keeping the Gaza topic high on the agenda. His reaction to the last attack in particular has been much tougher than other Muslim countries, and he is very accurate in his outcry.

Israel’s “self defense” reasoning does not satisfy anybody anymore. That country has Washington by its side and is hitting the poor Palestinians carelessly. We are facing a situation that contradicts humanity.

When viewed from this angle, the prime minister has adopted an exceptionally correct stance.

Among the speeches by Erdoğan, there is one other attitude that he reiterated in Egypt that I especially want to applaud.

He questioned: “What have the Arabs and other Muslim countries done to save Gaza?” While criticizing America, Russia, China and Europe, he did not leave out the others either, making an extremely correct statement.

Really, what are the Arabs doing? Why are other Muslim countries not looking after Gaza?

Despite all their richness, all their effectiveness, they only talk. Also, as if giving some tips, they help a little; that’s all.

The reason is also simple: It serves their purpose. It follows the advantages in their domestic and foreign policies. On one hand, they wink at the United States, and on the other hand, they are content with just complaining.

Arabs and other Muslim countries, in my eyes, are just as sinful as the U.S.

Is this M. Ali, me, really?
As you can imagine, I read Can Dündar’s book about me in one breath. “Birand - Bir ??, Ardına Bakmadan” has been on shelves since the beginning of the week.

I was interviewed by Can, I explained everything and forgot about it. The book belongs to Can Dündar. He spoke to dozens of people, researched and wrote.

I told him the darkest moments of my life, my complexes, weaknesses, my chances and dark dreams. Some memories I would have wanted to delete from my mind.

Did I do right? Why was I so open? As my mother-in-law Cemile Garan said: “What was the point in explaining? Those who knew already knew it and those who did not would have stayed not knowing.”

Maybe I have torn apart the Mehmet Ali image you had in your mind. I don’t know.

I never liked secrecy. I had nothing to hide. I was not ashamed of anything. For this reason, I spilled everything.

Obviously I was settling accounts with myself.

Can Dündar has put an appropriate distance between the M. Ali Birand he has known and worked with for years and the author. He has criticized, explained, written down the discussions with witnesses, has found journals and letters that even I had forgotten. He has written the novel of a person.

Even though this was my own life story and I knew the major portion of it, from time to time there were many moments when I said: “Oh, yes, that also happened…”

It was such a flowing book that I could not take a moment off. When I was at the last page, I was exhausted. My wife Cemre said the same thing. “Did I live all of this? Did we live all of this as a family?”

I was sorry for the young M. Ali when I finished Can’s book. How he had to get back to his feet again after every unfortunate incident.

Thanks Can.