USCFL - Only Together We Can Make it Happen

Recently I was watching BBC's interview program "Hard talk" with Tim Sebastian. Not surprisingly, terrorism was at the top of the agenda and several of those interviewed were Muslim experts and supposedly experts on the Middle East

Three things struck me most during these interviews. One the idea that America brought these attacks on itself by trying to control the world. Two the amount of times that Palestine was referred to by the different persons being interviewed, and Three the failure by any one of the interviewees to accept that the problems within the Islamic world may have been self-induced rather than inflicted by some colonial or Zionist plot.

Let's analyze each of the aforementioned issues and see what is myth and what is reality.

1. It is a fact that Osama bin Laden was trained by Americans who gave unquestionable covert and official support to the Afghani people to defeat the Russians. It is equally true that America's foreign policy has been over the last fifty so years very hypocritical in helping maintain all of the dictators a la Hafez Assad, Saddam Hussein and other monarchs in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait in power at the expense of developing human rights and bringing the right players to power. It is a complete myth however that America was or is trying to control the world. There is a big difference between protecting national economic interests such as the free flow of oil to the American shores and ruling the world.

2. For the last half century, US Foreign policy in the Middle East revolved around the Arab-Israeli conflict. Though the Palestinians are people worth all of the attention of the world, what about the oppressed Lebanese who have been facing even worse treatment by their Syrian occupiers over the last twenty-five years? Don't they also deserve our undivided attention? Arafat is received in Washington like a world leader of a superpower. President Lahoud, Patriarch Sfeir and other leaders of Lebanon are not even received by the lowest ranked diplomat of the US State Department. Why this double standard? Is the Palestinian cause worth more than any other Arab cause? What about other causes too such as the 10 million oppressed Copts under Mubarak's leadership (or lack of) in Egypt, the massacre of thousands of Kurds under Saddam's regime, the disappearance of thousands of human rights activists throughout Saudi Arabia and other Arab dictatorships or the laundering of billions of dollars throughout the region?

3. Time has come to face reality from an objective point of view. The Middle East's problems do not stem from any Zionist plot but from a combination of lack of democracy, the failure of several Arab leaders to look beyond their own power, and a reluctance to accept many of the problems in the Arab world.

I will not pretend that Israel has not played its role in some of the more unsavory acts in the Middle East. Its collusion with France and Great Britain for example to try and overthrow Nasser was an act of stupidity in many ways because for the first time, Israel was seen as the aggressor by the international community. Over the years it has also made numerous other mistakes, rejecting Sadat's overtures in 1971, which may have played a role in the 1973 war.

Bottom Line to my Arab friends: "Please take a close look at the actions and not words of your own leaders before automatically blaming everything on Israel, America and the Western world at large and have the guts to face your own leaders". I think Mr. Abdelnour said it best in his " No guts No glory Mr. Prime Minister" article. Please read it one more time.

On the same note, it is time for the Islamic world and the United nations to see September 11 for what it was. It was a cowardly act that caused the deaths of over four thousand people. People who were unwilling to negotiate their differences with the West in a mature manner.

Here the Untied Nations is not blameless. First, its constant refusal to prevent several borderline blatant racist resolutions against Israel only encourages it. Second, by allowing regimes on the list of terrorist states to serve on the security and human rights panels sends a clear message to the world which bluntly says: "We will appease aggression in order to prevent wider conflicts emerging".

It is time for some constructive dialogue in the Middle East. A renewed peace process has been suggested by Colin Powel. This is only going to work if America makes some firm statements. One that Israel has a right to exist as a Jewish state that grants its ethnic minorities full rights under the law. Two that the Lebanese people have an unconditional right to sovereignty over their country, without fear of Syrian interference. Three that the Palestinian leadership must accept a state alongside Israel not instead of Israel which means that the majority of Palestinian refugees come back and live next to Israel with compensation not instead of Israel which was recently implied by Palestinian spokeswomen Hanan Ashrawi. Four that the Palestinian, Syrian, Iraqi, Iranian, Libyan and Sudanese people deserve better than their dangerous, corrupt and unworthy leaders of today.

Finally I wish to state as a Jew that I have met many Arab and Muslim people and that the vast majority of them have been very responsible people. Both the Arab and Jewish worlds have similar origins. We are here and you are there. There comes a time when we have to accept our region's greatest needs to make constructive changes for everyone's sake. Only together we can make it happen.

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Article:	Only together we can make it happen.
Author:	Klee Gluckman
Date:	December 2001