-Caveat Lector-
From
http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,2763,561683,00.html
}}}>Begin
Enlisting the Arabs
Palestine is the key to coalition-building
Leader
Tuesday October 2, 2001
The Guardian
Contrary to the official view promulgated from the White House and
Downing Street, efforts to enlist Arab countries in the US "war on
terrorism" have met with only limited success so far. While most
Middle East governments make supportive diplomatic noises, public
opinion is unenthused if not downright hostile to the idea of yet
another American military intervention. The region's rulers are
only too aware of the mood on the street and some, rightly, fear for
their own political and personal prospects in the event of a popular
backlash. The paradox is that while they would like to be rid of
militant fundamentalist groups that challenge their legitimacy, they
hesitate to embrace the US and its western allies as the agents of
that expurgation.
This dilemma is not so very different from that posed by US coalition-building in
1990-91, in the wake of Iraq's invasion of Kuwait. But in that case, the continued
existence of the Saudi monarchy and of assorted Gulf pot
entates was deemed to be directly at stake. They had no choice but to bugle for the US
cavalry. Ten years later, the emergency appears less extreme, at least when viewed
from Riyadh or Cairo rather than New York. Yet even
this comforting thought is questionable. The al-Qaida gang's attack on America was in
one very real sense an attack on perceived American puppets and protégés in the lands
from which al-Qaida sprang and has its principal
being. Osama bin Laden and his many followers and admirers cannot and will not
destroy the American republic. But they could one day conceivably destroy those
regional regimes for their corrupt, arbitrary behaviour at ho
me and their shaming subservience to the US abroad.
Much has been made of the Saudi origins not only of Bin Laden but of several of the
September 11 hijackers. And so it should be, for this common patrimony is no mere
coincidence. The House of Saud has struggled long and h
altingly to reconcile its guardianship of Islam's holy places and purist Wahhabi
beliefs with the more worldly, ostentatious manifestations of its vast oil wealth. Its
hosting, since 1990, of US military bases opens it to
accusations of betraying the true faith. Its strict insistence on capital punishment,
according to its interpretation of Islam, alienates western opinion. Strad dling two
cultures, Riyadh's impolitic princes fail to meet
standards demanded by each. Little wonder that in Saudi Arabia, as in Egypt and some
Gulf countries, young men, disenfranchised, holding their leaders in contempt and
despairing of what they see as compromised, unjust, a
nd failed societies, go forth to seek a battlefront upon which to take a stand. And
little wonder, then, that Riyadh cannot accede (in public at least) to US requests for
facilities in the current crisis. The Saudi govern
ment has long resisted suggestions that recent attacks on British and other westerners
working in the kingdom were the work of home-grown fundamentalists. That would be to
admit it has a problem. But it does have a proble
m, and like its neighbours, the problem is endemic and growing.
Given these underlying strains, official Arab support for Mr Bush's coalition, already
teetering post-Berlusconi, could rapidly move from meaningless to non-existent when
the first shot is fired at Kandahar or Kabul. And
that, more broadly, also holds true for the Muslim world from Pakistan to Indonesia.
Yet for all that, Washington does have the means to rally its Arab conscripts. For if
this crisis has crystallised one, single reality,
it is that the Palestinian struggle, not anti-American terrorist conspiracy, is seen
as the primary, legitimate battlefront by Arab peoples and leaders alike.
When Mr Bush first took office, many Arabs hoped for a more
evenhanded policy on Palestine. What they got instead was
disengagement, coupled with partisan backing for Ariel Sharon and his
aggressive pursuit of unilateral security. In a world that Washington
declares has changed forever, US thinking on Palestine must now
change forever, too. If Mr Bush is not merely paying expedient lip
service to Arab opinion; if he is sincere in trying to bridge the
supposed schism with Islam; if he really hopes to strike at the roots
of the anti-western anger that feeds terrorist violence and boost his
shaky Arab allies, he should invite Yasser Arafat to Washington and
set a timetable for a final settlement, including US recognition of a
Palestinian state, on the basis of the Taba proposals. It would be a
new beginning of great symbolic import. It would help him win his
war. But it is, in any case, the right thing to do.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2001
End<{{{
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