5 - 11 April 2001
Issue No.528
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Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 5 - 11 April 2001 Issue No.528 |
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Mubarak in DC
President Mubarak's most recent visit to Washington occurred in very complex circumstances, to say the least. Not only was he the first Arab president to undertake such a visit after the new administration took office (an administration, moreover, that wishes to reconsider long-standing foreign policies), but the visit also comes at a time when American peace diplomacy has collapsed utterly in the Middle East. This has reinstated the atmosphere of violence and bloodshed with which Israel, under American protection, has imbued the region. Arab and Muslim peoples are increasingly disillusioned with America and its predetermined policies, tailor-made to fit Israeli interests.
Many signs indicate that the new administration is determined not to understand the reasons for the various reactions that have erupted, as it gradually extracts itself from the now impossible peace process and demands that the Arabs give in to conditions it does not impose on Israel.
The Palestinians are required to put a end to violence -- even if the activity defined by this term is nothing but peaceful protest against military operations involving tanks, missiles, jets and snipers with lists of Palestinian officials to be assassinated. Washington's patience runs out abruptly when Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad accuses Israel of racism or Nazism, or when Egyptian newspapers criticise Israeli policies. Campaigns of extermination and collective punishment -- not to mention the threat to bomb the Aswan High Dam -- elicit no reprimand on the part of the Americans, though they are clear violations of international law and the Geneva Convention. Even the UN programme to protect the Palestinian people is vetoed so that Sharon can resume his assassination campaign.
In this sense, Washington cannot tolerate a free press -- particularly when that freedom entails criticism of Israel. Human rights do not matter if those who violate them are Israelis. America does not understand the Arabs resuming relations with Iraq, recalling their ambassadors from Israel or calling for an embargo against Israel.
Some things are happening for the first time ever: that an American deputy secretary of state should attack Egypt, Syria and the Arab summit so distastefully days before President Mubarak's visit to Washington, for example, is unprecedented. As "friends" of America, are the Arab countries expected to cheer Sharon on, helping him crush the Palestinian resistance and hand the corpses over to the settlers? This is what induced Mubarak to tell Newsweek magazine that America is unaware of the facts in the region.
As the gap separating America and the Arab world widens, talk is heard of a new Egyptian-Jordanian initiative Mubarak laid out in Washington, a plan to end violence and resume negotiations. But it is the American mediators, no one else, who will determine the degree of US involvement in the peace process. The initiative would also require a true implementation of the "fairness" by which the Bush administration has claims to abide in dealings with the Arabs and Israel. When the Bush administration takes a positive stance, on the other hand, it will soon realise that the Arab regimes cannot go on deceiving their peoples for very long -- and will not persuade them that friendship with America is enough to guarantee a just and peaceful resolution of the conflicts at hand. Hatred for America is gathering momentum on the Arab street, however, a cause for concern that cannot be ignored much longer.
One fears that the orientation that governed international relations during the Cold War should determine the American administration's current policy. If this is the case, it will be difficult to separate Egyptian-US relations from American policy on the Palestinian issue, Sudan, Libya and Iraq. American policy has been known for its willingness to exert economic and political pressure in bilateral relations in a bid to alter Egypt's position on regional problems.
Under Bush, the tendency seems more extreme. None of these facts allow us to hope for a positive change in American foreign policy. The Palestinians may end up with no choice but to endure, resist and sacrifice ever greater numbers of victims, without the aid of allies anywhere in the world.
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