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Al-Ahram Weekly Online
31 Jan. - 6 Feb. 2002
Issue No.571
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875
Current issue | Previous issue | Site map
No more excuses
The Bush administration is adding fuel to the fire by parroting
Sharon, writes Mohamed Hakki from Washington
In his latest salvo against Yasser Arafat, US President George Bush
accused the Palestinian Authority chairman of "enhancing terror" with
a boatload of smuggled arms. He accuses the leader of the Palestinian
people, who is incarcerated and humiliated, of fomenting violence
against Israel. This boat incident is one of the more dubious in a
long series of incidents which now comprise a pattern of Israeli
provocations and Palestinian suicide counter-attacks. The pattern is
there for anyone who wants to trace the latest Israeli atrocities
against the Palestinians.
It took the US administration three weeks to come to the conclusion
that this "50- ton shipload of heavy weapons" that the Israelis
seized and accused the Palestinian Authority of smuggling from Iran,
is actually a Palestinian plot. Now President Bush is accusing Arafat
of enhancing terror, not fighting it. A young American intern at a
Washington think-tank asked: "Since when were armaments valued by
weight? And what about those Israeli tanks which are used to subject
the entire Palestinian population to closure and demolition? How much
do they weigh in tons?"
Before this latest statement I, and most Arab Americans, started to question whether
this administration truly wants peace between Israel and the Palestinians. A
high-ranking official at the Department of Defence asked me
, "after all the statements by the President and Secretary Powell that we are not
fighting Islam and that they want to see a Palestinian state, do you still doubt US
intentions in the Middle East?" I said, "Actions speak
louder than words. The track record of the Bush administration, in the last several
months at least, indicates that there is no genuine desire for peace or any intention
of seeking an equitable solution."
In the current issue of Foreign Affairs, Khalil Shikaki, associate professor at
Birzeit University, describes three conceivable types of settlement: a comprehensive
agreement aimed at ending the conflict, a stabilisation
package designed to tone down the violence and shore up the status quo, and a
transitional agreement that would be somewhere in between. He continues to say that "a
comprehensive one would settle all the issues in dispute
, including Jerusalem and the refugees, and end the conflict." But for this to happen
he lists three conditions that need to be met. First, the Israelis would need to bring
into government a leadership and coalition less
wedded to an ideology of a greater Israel and willing to withdraw from almost all
occupied Palestinian territories seized in 1967 and evacuate most of the settlements.
Second, there would need to be a US administration pa
ssionately committed to making the process succeed. And third, the old and young on
the Palestinian side must achieve a unity of purpose.
Unfortunately, the only passion I see in this administration is Bush's passion for the
person of Ariel Sharon, whom he will meet this week for the fourth time. No matter
that the butcher of Beirut is facing trial in Belgi
um for war crimes and is the one responsible for the dangerous deterioration of the
whole situation. But President Bush has yet to meet Chairman Arafat. This is the same
passion that is driving America's so-called even-ha
nded diplomacy in the Arab-Israeli conflict toward a policy of overwhelming support
for Israel and pressure on Arafat. It is the same passion that drove the White House
to express its understanding of Israel's confinement
of Arafat to virtual house arrest. Bush expressed his "understanding for the reason
that Israel has taken the actions that it takes."
Kelly Campbell of Oakland, California, holds a picture of Afghan children during a
press conference in New York. Campbell held back tears as she displayed photographs of
war victims she met in Kabul, Afghanistan, whose re
latives were killed by US bombs. Campbell, whose brother-in-law was killed on 11
September, returned from a nine-day trip to Afghanistan; US President George W Bush
and Afghan interim leader Hamid Karzai at a joint press
conference in Washington (photos: AP)
Ironically, the kind of passion for peace that is required to build the bridges needed
only comes from the solitary voices of the peace camp in Israel. In an open letter to
Shimon Peres, Gideon Levy, writing in Ha'aretz,
says "The government of which you are a senior member, the foreign minister, is no
longer the government of last resort; this government is a government of crime. Your
silence and inaction can no longer be justified by an
y excuse." He goes on to say, "You have imprisoned an entire people for over a year
with a degree of cruelty unprecedented in the history of Israeli occupation. Your
government is leaving them with no semblance of normal
life. No going to the market, no going to work, no going to school, no visiting a sick
uncle. Nothing. No going anywhere and no coming back from anywhere. No day or night.
Danger lurks everywhere, and everywhere there is
another checkpoint choking off life."
Levy cautions against worse times to come. "The cycle of violence and hatred has far
from reached its peak. All the injustices and evil perpetrated against the
Palestinians will eventually blow up in our faces. A people t
hat is abused this way for years will explode one day in a terrible fury, even worse
than we have seen so far." Does President Bush read Ha'aretz?
But one does not hear this passion in Washington at all, neither from present nor past
officials. Congress, which former presidential candidate Patrick Buchanan called
"Israeli-occupied territory," is actually getting rea
dy to promulgate a series of actions against the Palestinian people, starting with
closing their office in Washington.
Richard Murphy, former assistant secretary of state, who has never been known to make
bold statements, says he fears that the United States might be sliding down a slippery
slope toward contributing to a civil war between
Arafat's Palestinian supporters and his Palestinian foes.
What it boils down to is that the US is parroting the Israeli position. They both put
the onus of the present state of affairs on one man: Yasser Arafat. Let us consider
that for a moment. It suits the Israeli Prime Minis
ter to put the blame on Arafat for a problem Sharon personally instigated (Sharon's
sally into Al-Aqsa Mosque in September 2000) as the majority of the Israelis would
agree. Some American former officials told me Arafat h
ad to finish off his opponents. This is what the Algerians did in the early days of
the revolution; this is what Ben Gurion did to all of his opponents. What they are
forgetting is the historical differences.
In fact, Sharon makes sure that every time there is a respite in the violence, he
assassinates one or more Palestinian leader. So even if the US is justified in
pressuring Arafat to act against what they consider "terrori
sts", it is incumbent upon then to admonish Sharon when he commits what the entire
world considers to be war crimes. Only then would they have the moral high ground from
which to pressure Arafat. It is obvious that Sharon
has made it a pattern to inflame, humiliate and paralyse the Palestinian people and
their security services by his targeted assassinations, home demolitions, crippling
closures and creeping reoccupation. Robert Malley, w
ho was special assistant for Israeli-Arab affairs under President Clinton, says, "By
his actions and not without help from the Palestinians, Mr Sharon has done all in his
power to make it unfeasible for them to meet their
obligation."
What needs to be recognised by the US is that it is not Arafat who plays into Sharon's
hands, it is actually the US when young Hamas members see that when Sharon continues
his policy of assassination, universally condemne
d except by the US, there is no way for them to think dispassionately about the
chances of his government returning to the peace process. But when did the US ever
give these same people the feeling that they were even-han
ded? When did the Palestinians ever feel that the international condemnation of
Sharon's policies would not be aborted by the US? When did they ever feel that the UN
Security Council could pass sanctions without a US veto
? Or when did they ever feel that international observers, peace- keepers, monitors,
or even simply onlookers could be invited as an arbiter or a referee without the US
blocking it?
But if we allow ourselves to criticise the US we have to question Arab reactions, too.
Saying "what can we do?" is not an excuse. Fear of displeasing America is not
appropriate, under the circumstances. Arab leaders have
many options. They can call for a collective summit meeting in Washington with
President Bush. They can collectively say "enough is enough" and demand a change of
policy for the sake of better relations for all future gen
erations. They can recall their ambassadors for a cooling off period to show the
American people their displeasure and disappointment.
Talk about starting an independent think-tank in Washington has been going on for
several years without one practical step to implement it. They can at least begin by
massively supporting the existing friendly think-tanks
like the Middle East Institute and others. Starting an English-language satellite
service beamed to the US would be a welcome idea. But if it is going to repeat the
same failed message that they have in Arabic, then we w
ill not get anywhere.
It is better to admit that we failed to get our message across and re-examine the
validity of the message. Arab officials still go to their enemies, to institutions
like the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, hono
uring them and demeaning themselves.
We neglect large segments of the US society like the evangelical Christians. It is not
quite true that all Evangelicals are Christian Zionists. In fact, we do have a number
of friends among them who disagree with the Chri
stian Zionists who are only a subset of the Evangelicals. The Evangelicals gave the
Prince of Peace award to former Egyptian President Anwar El-Sadat in 1978 and
posthumously to Jordan's King Hussein in 1999. Arab Christi
ans and Moslems alike need to reach out to this group. Their political clout in
America reaches the highest levels both in Congress and the administration. "One
intriguing question posed frequently in Israeli government a
nd US Evangelical circles," The Washington Post asks in this Sunday's edition, "is
whether President Bush who has been outspoken in his Evangelical beliefs, privately
holds Christian Zionist views."
What is actually needed now, and what would greatly help, is not only an Israeli
apology to the Palestinians for all the suffering they have caused them. As Uri Avneri
says in a recent article: "What is truly needed is an
equal American historical apology to the same people for aiding and
abetting the Israelis... They are afraid to admit that they even
inadvertently caused harm. They want to forget the whole thing and
leave it to their insurance company (the United States) to pay the
compensation." It is high time for the insurance company to admit
their role in the Palestinian tragedy and pay up.
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