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http://www.arabnews.com/Article.asp?ID=18707
New opening for the diplomatic resolution of ME conflicts
By Anisa Abd El Fattah, Special to Arab News
Once the situation in Iraq is resolved, the Arab League and OIC along with the EU might press the United States and the United Nations for Israeli compliance to UN resolutions. They should immediately demand an end to the occupation in Palestine, an end to extra judicial killings of Palestinian civilians, and its current siege of Palestinian controlled lands.
These accomplishments will perhaps bring the world back to sanity, and will put all so-called "world leaders" on notice that the people of the world will not be held hostage by personalities, or any nation of people who forge, and advance policies that are hostile to world peace. The lives of the world’s young people should not be lived out under perpetual threat of annihilation and war and fear of being dispatched into wars and to die or kill to satisfy greed and hunger for power.
In the Iraq situation we have effectively trapped the Iraqi people as we did the Palestinian people, between two horrible choices, death by starvation, poverty or no medical care, or death by war and violence. These should not be the only options presented to any people, and unless the Arab and Muslim world finds its voice in its leaders, they will increasingly be the only choices available. The people of the Arab and Muslim world will continue to suffer from the view that Arab and Muslim peoples should either die or conform to the wishes of neo-conservatives and Zionists in Israel and the United States unless their leaders are able to leverage the call for war and death, with an equally forceful call for peace and life.
Human dignity will lose its battle against the lust for power through the sheer strength of the argument that is setting the stage for a world order without justice. Justice dictates, in this instance that there be weapons inspections, in Iraq and that there be the lifting of sanctions, and an end to the occupation of Palestine.
It might be time that the world, and particularly the Arab and Muslim world become creative in its approach to resolving the festering problems in the Middle East. A first step in this direction is no longer merely blaming Israel, even if it is Israel playing behind the scenes to create instability. Muslims and Arabs have long held the view that it is actually Israel, and a small band of pro-Israel zealots, known as "neo-conservatives" who are pushing to destabilize the Middle East. This suspicion was confirmed in a report published by Arab News, Sept. 14, 2002,
"Neo-conservatives and pro-Israel lobby working to destabilize the Middle East." The article’s author, Barbara Ferguson, quotes Dr. Clifford Kiracofe, a professor at the Virginia Military Institute, who said, "the neo-conservative policy network advocates a destabilization, a Balkanization of the Middle East. Out of the chaos, they say, will come a new order through ‘regime change’… ‘they see the destabilization of the Arab and Muslim world as good for Israel.’"
A new approach to international relations and diplomacy can begin with the ending of saber-rattling and initiating a real discussion on how to defuse the Iraq weapons crisis, lift the sanctions, and address the human rights of the Iraqi and Palestinian people. Arab and Muslim leaders must play a leading role in this new approach. Along with working to end sanctions, they must encourage Iraq to allow the demanded inspections and meet the terms of its other agreements. For many people, the issue of regime change is a lesser issue, and is a completely different track of negotiations, since the US cannot make the case that either it, or the United Nations, has the right to impose its choice of officials over a sovereign nation.
Yet, issues surrounding regime change should never overshadow an opportunity to achieve peace, and to relieve the suffering of those people who are presently, and have for many years suffered as a result of economic sanctions, oppression and illegal occupation as is the case in Palestine. More importantly, no amount of pride disguised as either Arab or United States’ dignity should be allowed to bring the world to war, a war that will be fought and won at the expense of justice. A war through which an illegitimate world order, led by men who will make Hitler look like Mahatma Gandhi will likely come to power, and these men do not represent either US or Arab and Muslim interests.
President Bush, in his speech before the United Nations made the case against Saddam Hussein, since he related the facts as they exist, it is now up to Iraq to argue its circumstances and any claimed exceptions to the rules. Both President Bush and UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan made the case for world peace, secured through responsible and accountable leadership. It’s now up to the Arab and Muslim world, to make the case for the lives of the Iraqi, and Palestinian people, two nations of people who have suffered far too long from poor leadership, and international apathy.
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Arab News
Saudi Arabia's First English Language Daily
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