Family Forum / Parenting / Adoption / May 2004

Saturday, May 29, 2004

What the Arab world hears when Bush speaks

By Massoud A. Derhally
Special to The Daily Star

As he addressed the influential pro-Israeli American Israel Public
Affairs Committee (AIPAC) recently, US President George W. Bush
repeatedly invoked the desire for security as a common denominator
between the United States and Israel. Yet not once did he recognize the
Palestinians' right to self-defense.

Bush's wholehearted support for Israel took place while an
indiscriminate Israeli onslaught on Palestinians continued in the Rafah
area of Gaza, with tanks, bulldozers and helicopters. Yet somehow, Bush
couldn't muster the courage to condemn Israel's killing of innocent
Palestinians, the demolition of Palestinian homes and the displacement
of more than 2,000 people. At best the president said: "The unfolding
violence in the Gaza Strip is troubling and underscores the need for all
parties to seize every opportunity for peace."

The reluctance to unequivocally condemn or rebuke Israel mirrored Bush's
earlier reluctance to immediately issue an apology to Iraqis and Arabs
for the systematic abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib. Events in Iraq are
consuming Bush. They are blurring the realities on the ground and
complicating US foreign policy when it comes to dealing with Israel.
They are also contributing to a disturbing phenomenon underscoring
American and Israeli policies: The "war on terrorism" has sanctioned
inhumane practices against those deemed to be "the enemy."

It is Washington's unconditional endorsement of Israel that cultivates
and nurtures anti-American sentiment in the Arab world and increases
militancy in the region. The US, which many around the world look to as
a beacon of higher moral authority, is today, among most Arabs and
Muslims, regarded as hypocritical.

Despite the international outcry against Israel's actions in Rafah, Bush
stood before his prospective electoral constituency and ludicrously
called Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's unilateral disengagement
plan in Gaza, "a bold, courageous step, that can bring us closer to the
goal of two states, Israel and Palestine, living side-by-side in peace
and security." Such a message, irrespective of what administration
officials say about the evenhandedness of America's Middle East policy,
provides Israel with a blank check to do as it pleases, secure in the
knowledge that it will, at most, be reprimanded by the UN Security Council.

To the Arab world, Bush's AIPAC speech typified the evangelical zeal of
the president, but also his inability to grasp the fundamentals lying at
the heart of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Bush said a secure Israel
was in the national interest of the US. But isn't a secure Palestine
also in its interest? The lives of Israelis are sacred. But are the
lives of Palestinians so cheap? The words of Israeli soldiers and
government officials are credible. Are those of Palestinians merely
allegations, fabrications and exaggerations? These are the questions
Arabs bring up when asked what they think about US foreign policy in the
Middle East.

That the Palestinians are treated as inferior to Israelis by the US,
that a majority of Arabs must yield to America's vision of how the
region should behave (lest they be labeled enemies of freedom and
democracy, or terrorist collaborators), both speak to Bush's failures.
Instead of leading by example, by consensus or by evenhandedness, the
president leads by intimidation and all-or-nothing policies.

This is, at least, how he is viewed in the Arab world, and no light is
visible at the end of that tunnel. American sponsored initiatives like
Radio Sawa or the Al-Hurra satellite television channel do little to
reduce anti-American sentiment. If anything, the outlets are viewed with
cynicism and provoke a belief that the US prefers such gimmickry to
engaging Arab leaders and peoples, or to putting pressure on Israel to
honor its commitments to the Palestinians.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell told Congress that the US invasion of
Iraq would play a salient role in shifting the balance of power in the
Middle East, so that eventually peace and democracy would emerge from
the fog of war. What Powell, Bush and other US officials fail to
consider is that Osama bin Laden, Hamas and every other terrorist or
militant group that comes out of the region will thrive for as long as
there is no just solution to the Palestinian problem.

It would have been more appropriate for Bush to tell his AIPAC audience
that Israel's operation in Gaza would most certainly add fuel to the
fire, that it would merely increase Palestinian bitterness and hatred
and would definitely provide ammunition to zealots on both sides of the
Palestinian-Israeli divide to carry on with their destructive agendas.

If Bush had pursued Middle East peace with the same fortitude that he
displayed in waging war, he might well have succeeded in bringing about
a Palestinian-Israeli settlement. Yet when the US presidential election
takes place next November, Bush will primarily be remembered for his
legacy of war.

Massoud A. Derhally is a freelance journalist, political commentator and
former correspondent of Agence France Presse. He wrote this commentary
for THE DAILY STAR

Copyright (c) 2004 The Daily Star, Lebanon
_________________________________
Reprinted for educational purposes only.

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