The devil you know

By Salama A Salama

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The US elections are less than a week away and both candidates are running neck to neck. Judging by events in 2000 the final hours of the contest are likely to be decisive. In the last elections irregularities in the Florida count resulted in a legal skirmish that gave Bush the state and the presidency. For all the technical sophistication of US voting the fairness of US elections is not beyond reproach. Jimmy Carter, who heads an independent centre monitoring the electoral process, still questions the manner of electronic voting in Florida, a state governed by the brother of the incumbent president.

Irrespective of the outcome there is almost complete unanimity among the international community that Bush's first term saw a massive deterioration in international relations. America abandoned many of its well-established principles, and its policies appeared as arrogant as they were ill-conceived. Many countries around the world will be relieved to see a new face in the White House.

For the Arabs Kerry is little better than Bush, though he at least possesses some of the leadership qualities that would make him fit to run the world's mightiest nation. Kerry is wiser and cleverer than Bush and more able to correct mistaken policies, something that Bush and the right-wing Zionist gang that now run the White House have been unable to do. People like Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Ashcroft have sullied America's image across the world, trampling on much of what America has stood for for two centuries.

Arab nations have shown little interest in the US elections. US-Arab relations are at an unprecedented low because of the US invasion of Iraq and Washington's total bias towards Israel. The US presidential debates suggest that Bush and Kerry do not differ much in their Middle East policy. Israel and the Zionist lobby may actually be pleased to see Kerry in the White House, now that Bush has given them all the concessions he could possibly make.

Some Arab regimes have backed Bush's campaign, their reasoning being that it is better to stick with the devil you know. But the Arab public has as little confidence in America and as in its own rulers. The Arabs have been alienated to the extreme, and this alienation may be feeding the current cycle of violence. The region is in turmoil, with terror met by counter-terror and legitimate resistance superimposed on brutality. For all its talk of democracy and freedom America has lost all credibility in this part of the world. This is why the Arab public has been largely indifferent to the US elections. And the obsequiousness of Arab leaders to America is not boosting either in the eyes of the public.

Arab-Americans, for their part, do not seem to be getting their act together. One would have thought that, following four years of humiliation and ill-treatment at the hands of the Bush administration Arab- Americans would organise themselves and demand a piece of the political cake. But obviously the Arab vote could not make itself felt. This must be the reason both candidates have failed to address Middle East issues, aside from Iraq, in their debates.

The lack of Arab interest and clout in US presidential elections is unfortunate. And as the US continues to side with Israel and treat Arab governments with disrespect, our only hope is to change the way we govern ourselves.