Arabs in US elections

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The US electoral battle has reached its critical zenith and it is still impossible to predict what the polls will return on 8 November. Nevertheless, what strikes us here in the Arab world, and has been confirmed by the Bush-Kerry debates, is the extent to which Middle East issues -- with the exception of Iraq, of course -- have virtually disappeared from the Republican and Democratic campaign platforms.

The electoral campaigns have been making it clearer by the day that the Arabs have no influence whatsoever on the American electorate. In spite of the fact that the Middle East is the primary source of energy for the American people who consume 60 per cent of the world's oil production and in spite of the fact that it is a major and growing market for American products and arms manufactures, the electoral battle swings on the support of the Jewish lobby, the weapons and pharmaceutical industries and other such pressure groups which have acquired such crucial influence over recent decades.

Although Jewish Americans account for less than two per cent of the population, they have the perseverance and ardour born of the political-religious conviction in the Israeli state project combined with the mobilisation capacities of hundreds of American Jewish organisations.

The Arabs desperately need to completely overhaul their mode of interacting with American society. As a starting point they would do well to ask themselves why Israel has long remained a pivotal determinant of the tenor of US-Arab relations, for this, in turn, will throw into relief the question of the quality and history of the Arab performance in shaping these relations.

To some it is enough simply to cite the US's pro-Israeli bias as the key to understanding Arab-American relations. This assumption, however, is not sufficient to explain why certain Gulf nations, with their strong economic, political and defence connections with Washington, fare no better than other Arab nations in reaching out to the American public. Any objective attempt to explain the deterioration of Arab-American relations must include a process of sober introspection and self-criticism. Intractable underdevelopment and relentless despotism and marginalisation have systematically decimated Arab civil and cultural society over the past 50 years, destroying, in turn, the bridges of unofficial dialogue.

Of course, we still have those in the Arab world who are resisting tooth and nail a new mode of interaction with the US, although they have yet to explain how to turn the battle with the US in our favour and who in this fragmented Arab world will spearhead this battle. Others advocate jumping on the American bandwagon, but without offering any guarantees that in doing so we will solve our problems rather than break our necks.

In the meantime, it seems that the only realistic and feasible course is to establish mechanisms for balanced and constructive dialogue aimed at placing Arab-US relations on a solid footing of mutual understanding and common interests. This entails extending both vertical and horizontal channels of communication deep into American society, in order to engage American interest in the dialogue and its potential benefits. Then perhaps we will be able to rectify distorted images of the other and create solid bridges of understanding that will contribute to altering US policy in the region.

Of course, we are still left with the question as to whether the US will respond in kind and, more immediately, what we must do to make this drive as effective as possible.