The "new" Middle East

Those Who Came to "Correct" History: The Unchanging Story of the Middle East

If we were to compare geographical regions to men walking the earth, the Levant (Bilad al-Sham) would be the wise elder—bearing in his features the wisdom of centuries, the breadth of tolerance, and the experiences of both war and peace, of prophets and poets alike. This is a land where East meets West—a crossroads for conquerors, merchants, and philosophers—yet it has preserved its essence: a unique blend of resilience and gentleness, diversity and unity.

The land’s soil is the book. It tells us about those who came to live and became part of its fabric. And it tells us about those who came, thinking they were "correcting" the course of time, but ended as dust in its pages.

"In Jerusalem, the graves are aligned as if they were lines of the city’s history, and its soil is the book… Within it lie the Zanj, the Franks, the Kipchaks, the Slavs, the Bosniaks, the Tatars, and the Turks, the people of God and of ruin—the poor and the wealthy, the sinners and the ascetics—within it lies everyone who ever set foot upon this earth..." (Tamim Barghouti)

For thousands of years, waves of invaders have swept through this land. But what motivated them wasn’t just greed—it was a single idea:

That this land does not understand itself…

And that outsiders have the right to reorganize it and “correct” its path.

From Cyrus the Great to Alexander the Great, the Romans and Byzantines, to the Crusaders, then the Mongols, Europeans, Jews, and Americans—each came with a mission and a message, convinced they were shaping a new history.

In 1099 AD, Godfrey of Bouillon led the First Crusade into Jerusalem. After a horrific massacre, he took the title “Protector of the Holy Sepulchre,” refusing to be called king—for he believed his project was not merely earthly, but divinely eternal.

But they didn’t stop at Jerusalem. Their goal was to entrench their dominance through massive military castles they believed would make their kingdom “eternal”: Belfort Castle overlooking the Jordan River, Shobak Castle (Montreal) in southern Jordan, Kerak Castle, the fortresses in Acre, Caesarea, Safed, and more.

Yet their illusion lasted only 88 years. In 1187, Salah al-Din defeated them at the Battle of Hattin, reclaimed Jerusalem, and their castles fell one after another. Their ruins still stand today—without a memory of Godfrey as an eternal ruler, but as a criminal invader.

About 100 years later, Hulagu Khan stormed Baghdad—not to reform, but to annihilate. He burned the Library of the House of Wisdom, killed millions, dismantled the Abbasid Caliphate, swept through Syria, and approached Palestine.

But within a single generation, his descendants turned away from Khan’s hollow vision of brute force, found a meaningful message in Islam, and integrated into its civilization.

The 20th century brought a new face to “correcting history”: British and French colonialism, claiming to “civilize the backward East.” General Henry Gouraud famously declared, “Saladin, we are back,” over the tomb of Saladin in Damascus after the Battle of Maysalun in 1920. But just like those before him, Gouraud and his project turned into dust with the Syrian liberation in 1946.

The latest project is the "New Middle East," in which the Jewish entity is the superpower of the region—its last colonial project. Different from previous colonies, this one is not protected by troops on the ground, but by puppet rulers doing their dirty work.

The establishment of the Jewish state in Palestine was the reason for the rise of authoritarian, military dictatorships across the Arab world—caused by Israeli aggression, military superiority, and unwavering Western support, which created a climate of insecurity and fear. Using the pretext of “strengthening and preparing their armies,” these regimes deceived their populations.

For example, in 2011, all the media in Israel described the Egyptian revolution as the worst event to happen in the Middle East for Israel. Consequently, they supported a military coup, which turned Egypt from a regional player into a powerless regime—one mostly known for building prisons instead of facing real threats to national security, like the cutting off of its main water source by Ethiopia, or the conflicts and instability in Sudan, Libya, and the Israeli occupation of the Philadelphi Corridor—with zero role for Egypt.

Now, Trump initiated the latest phase of the “New Middle East” by pushing the “Deal of the Century.” Arab leaders rushed to normalize relations with Israel. Four hundred million Arabs accept being ruled by dictators and remain silent about 22 months of genocide in Gaza.

Western governments oppress their own people. Two billion Muslims are completely out of the game, asking the world to protect them from 14 million Jews. It can’t get worse than that.

Everything seems calm, under their control. The Israeli Knesset voted to annex the West Bank.

But don’t be fooled: this silence and lack of hope is volcanic.

This land is sacred, layered, symbolic. It is where prophecies began, and where civilization was born. Where meaning was forged between earth and sky. Whoever fails to understand this will never understand why words defeat weapons, why people under siege still resist and why imperial schemes keep shattering on this soil.

This Zionist project, built on blood, cannot survive on illusions. What was planted by force will be uprooted by awareness, patience, and resistance. Their latest attempt to “correct history” will drag them into a history that will never forgive.

History does not glorify cowards. It does not justify violence, nor does it remember brute strength.

History remembers only those who stood for something.

True heroes are not measured by their odds of victory, but by their unwavering commitment to justice—even when they fight alone.

When we ask anyone from the Levant, “What is a source of pride in Libya, for example?”—the first name that comes to mind is always Omar al-Mukhtar.

Omar al-Mukhtar, who refused all humiliating settlements with the Italian occupation, even when many of the religious leaders in his country—and across the region—accused him of fighting without hope, of facing an enemy far stronger than him, and of dragging his people into ruin.

But what Omar al-Mukhtar accomplished, even though he was executed by the Italians, cannot be erased. Just a few years after his martyrdom, Libya was liberated. And it was his blessed voice and tireless resistance that laid the foundation for that freedom.

The same applies to Ho Chi Minh, Che Guevara, Abdelkader al-Jazairi and Yahya Sinwar.

Yahya Al-Sinwar shattered a world order built on injustice with the Al-Aqsa Flood. He disrupted the plans of the “Chosen Ones.” They were close to perfecting their rule and gaining complete control over humans via AI. People were busy with daily tasks, fighting to survive, unaware of their oppression, when he came to wake them up.

Yet, Sinwar didn’t expect the West to be so deeply rotten and controlled by the Jewish lobby, its Zionist worshippers, and Muslim puppet leaders. He didn´t expect China, Iran and Russia to be corrupted and complicit in watching their crimes. The only exception are the Houthis. Today, his legacy and Hamas resistance seem to stand alone against an Empire. But Al-Sinwar didn´t just incite a change of the prevailing world-order but of a circle of civilization, which means that the West looses its role as a super-power.

Yes, we are witnessing a genocide—live and direct—on our phone screens every single day. The brutality is unspeakable. And perhaps, to some, I may sound delusional for saying that the occupation is nearing its end, while everything seems to be getting worse.

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One Hamas alone fighter facing the special IDF unit

Barefoot and with homemade bombs fighting the most secure tank in the world

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But as history teaches us—when the occupier unleashed its full savagery—it was because it felt its downfall drawing near. Sinwar is martyred, but his men, barefoot and with empty stomachs, are breaking all known rules of military strategy. They are writing a trilogy: Faith, Will, Dignity.

Palestine is already free. It is just up to our faith, will and dedication to accelerate the final fall of the Empire.

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You who pass between fleeting words
Take your names and leave
Remove your hours from our time
Take what you want of the blue sky and the sand
Take the photos you want—to return the memory
Of a people who exist under siege

You who pass between fleeting words
From you the sword—from us the blood
From you steel and fire—from us our flesh
From you yet another tank—from us stones
From you tear gas—from us rain
Above us, as you wish, a sky of smoke
Below us, as you wish, a hell of earth
But we will not leave
We are the roots here
We are the fire of the beginning
We are the embers of the end

You who pass between fleeting words
Take your names and go
Hang your illusions on a dry tree
Return the clock to the law of the golden calf
Or to the time of the revolver’s music
We have what you have not—
A homeland to return to

You who pass between fleeting words
Pile your illusions in a deserted cave, and leave
Return to the twilight of time
Return to the code of the law engraved in tablets of myth
Return to the dawn of time—
To the origin of origin
But we will remain
We will guard the shade of the fig tree and the olive
We will plant ideas in the minds of time
We will play the flute where the wind may take us
We will write our names forever
On the last stone left standing

You who pass between fleeting words
Like dust—go
As bitter salt—go
As wind—go
But stay out of our land
Out of our sea
Out of our wheat
Out of our salt
Out of our wounds
Go back to your warship
Go back to the sandbox of your myth
But do not pass among us like flying insects
For we have work to do in our land
We have the past here
We have the first cry of life
We have the future here
We have this world here—and the next

So leave our land
Our sea
Our wheat
Our salt
Our wounds
Leave
Leave

(Mahmoud Darwish)