25 April - 1 May 2002
Issue No.583
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 25 April - 1 May 2002 Issue No.583 |
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Bin Laden's prophesies
Following the events of 11 September the American administration tried its best to pull together what it would subsequently term the international coalition against terror. At the same time it set about to reassure Arab and Muslim states that it had no intention of launching a war that would target Muslims. Bush announced his support for the establishment of a Palestinian state to exist alongside Israel, and on his way back to the White House stopped at the Islamic Center in Washington to play with children and assure their mothers in a photo-op that he was tolerant and open- minded.
At no time did Bush mean what he said. Rather, he was concealing a dagger behind his back. He wanted to convince the Islamic world that Bin Laden's message about America launching a war against Muslims was not true and in doing so sought to invalidate the motives behind the 11 September attack. They were, the American argument goes, triggered by nothing more than malice, an unjustified hatred for America. Thus America's war in Afghanistan became a war on terrorism, actions necessary to resist the evil powers that seek to undermine America and the rest of the world.
What has happened subsequently, though, has served only to confirm Bin Laden's statements. Bush's policy of the war on terrorism was structured in such a way as to service Israeli aims, and no one raised an objection. Sharon managed to drive Bush in a dangerous direction, the Israeli prime minister's aim always being to tear up the Oslo Accords and destroy the Palestinian Authority, using military power to achieve what peaceful negotiations failed at. And as soon as the Bush administration began to think of the organisations of the Palestinian resistance as terrorist its war-on-terrorism agenda automatically implied endorsing Sharon's war against the Palestinian people. Washington adopted a passive position regarding Israeli military power.
The most recently aired taped testimony of one of the alleged participants in the September attacks, broadcast on a satellite channel, was widely ignored or else met with suspicion. The tape were marginalised, not only because people recognised that it was fake, but also because it served to remind Arabs and Muslims that Bin Laden's message was not entirely off target.
The consequences of American planning are obvious. American policy has caused strife throughout the Middle East, and when Washington stepped back in an attempt to rectify its mistakes Sharon paid no attention to Bush's requests. He has resumed implementing his long established plans to provide Israel with a buffer zone, the army having completed its bloody assaults against Jenin, Nablus and Tulkarem. Yet Sharon continues to maintain the illusion that he is able to sit at a negotiating with Arab leaders, excluding, of course, Arafat. Bush and Powell in the meantime mechanically repeat their plea with Arafat, besieged by Israeli tanks and in constant danger, that he must make more effort to stop the violence.
Israel refused to allow a committee of observers to investigate the Jenin massacre, a refusal supported by America, which had threatened to use its veto. Under pressure from international parties it finally agreed to send a fact- finding committee, but only having ensured that the committee had been rendered toothless.
Sharon's government was quick to reject the formula suggested by Kofi Annan, UN secretary general, and refused the participation of Larsen, Robinson or Hansen, the three figures who head UN releief organisations, on the pretext that they are biased against Israel and have predetermined political opinions.
It is expected that Israel will manage to remove whoever it chooses from the committee, and America will probably agree to sending members of IPAC, one of the most powerful Zionist Lobby groups, to gather evidence about the crimes committed in Palestinian lands. Bin Laden's prophesies, then, seem to have been little more than the truth.
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