The sense of hopelessness and despair were part of the gloomy future for those of us who experienced the defeat of the six day war in 1967.  It was a crushing setback in a very peculiar war in which the zeal was sensed only in radio stations controlled by misinformed announcers.  We thought the war was won from these radio anchors.  The only real indication of the actual course of the war was the disappearance of the only policeman from the town police station who was a day earlier collecting signatures from shop owners to never raise the price of their products.  A day later the people who remained in town instructed youngsters to raise white flags on top of their houses to signal our unconditional surrenders. For the first two weeks at the end of the war, we have not seen the enemy soldiers in town and the parents took us outside the town to avoid any possible massacres.  Coincidently, it was the time to harvest wheat and barley from the country side so my family was planning to take a few weeks and move out of town.  In one early morning and way before the sunrise my mother woke us up and instructed us to start walking toward the country side when the darkness still covers our known universe like a sad black canopy over our head.  I decided to take a radio with me over the objection of my mother.  I heard her murmuring to herself “I worried about this soft boy.”  As we were heading south from town and approaching my favorite place called Yageen, I looked east toward the Dead Sea and I saw the first sun beam puncturing the sky over the Jordanian mountains.  At that moment I turned on the radio to a station and I heard Mohammad Abdul Wahab (محمد عبد الوهاب ) singing a song called “Oh, sky of the orient.” (ياسماء الشرق ) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UikSLkNA6Q4). Then I heard another song by the same singer (أخي جاوز الظالمون المدى ) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_IyKL708lU). This magical moment brought me sadness and to an extent some madness.  Every time I recall this moment, I lower my head down and hold it between my hands where drops of tears start rolling down my face. I could not determine whether my feelings are of those of a hopeless person or someone full of guilt.
Days passed by and we took the trip back to town to see if there is any change happened to people.  The poverty settled in and people were in a state of mind that can accurately be described as a disarray situation. On the other hand, we always found something to eat and clothes to cover our body. This was not the case with every family.  I recall seeing a kid wearing a bright orange jacket on a daily basis that is about twice as big as his body with the sleeves extended longer than his own arms.  That orange jacket appears as if it is a practice target that one can see from miles away. It looks as if he is so proud of his jacket to the point I thought having this jacket is the highlight of his life.  I came to the conclusion that the level of poverty of my family was not that bad when I saw a child wearing a homemade short made of coarse cloth cut from a sack sent to us by the United Nation full of wheat.  At the bottom of the short that kid was wearing is the flag of the United State with the following statement “gift from the people of the United State).
Unlike the nowadays songs that sounds like banging on drums and screaming, the old songs and music we used to listen to them in my childhood appear to have a purpose.   They are soothing to the soul and relaxing to the mind.  These songs brought hopes to us.  On the other hand, the kings and presidents of the Arab countries were considered hypocrite at that time, but they were in harmony with the plight of Palestine albeit they provided us with only false expectation.  At least this is the way I perceived it during the dark days and the agony of defeat.
The dark days we experienced in the late 1960’s are considered bright days as compared to the nowadays period in which the Middle East is going through severe destruction.  More accurately, these dark days are getting darker as the people in the Middle East are going through obliteration and annihilation.  The descendants of the Arab kings and presidents are inferior to their own ancestors more than one can imagine.  It is hard to believe the nowadays leaders of the Arab countries consider the friendship with Israel is a privilege. I cannot imagine the Palestinians are considered the enemy by these leaders.  While Gaza was destroyed in 2014, one Arab leader considered Israel as a sister-country. While another Arab country negotiating gas-deal with Israel during the war on Gaza.  These Arab leaders were the cause of the destruction of Iraq in both 1991 and 2003.  While the whole cities like Hums and Hama were completely obliterated by the mad man of Syria, none of the Arab leaders interfere to stop the carnage. Yet these leaders sending their warplanes and military might to protect a small city (Kubani or Ein-Al-Arab) full of Kurds in the northern Syria.
The dark days of the Middle East are getting even darker, but we know all the darkness of the universe cannot put-off the light of a single candle.  We also know the darkest hours of the night are those preceding the sunrise.

Omar Manasreh
23 October 2014