------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the Oct. 26, 2000 issue of Workers World newspaper ------------------------- TREMORS RATTLE MIDDLE EAST: U.S. CLIENT REGIMES FEAR MASS UPRISINGS By Joyce Chediac A great wave of anti-imperialist protest is sweeping the Middle East, changing the relationship of forces, and propelling the struggle into a new pan-Arab, pan-Islamic phase. The depth and breadth of the rage of the oppressed Arabs and other Middle Eastern peoples at the sight of Israeli rockets and helicopter gunships mowing down Palestinians armed with slingshots and stones has already loosened Washington's grip on the area and threatens to sweep away U.S. client regimes. In mid-October, "angry crowds across the Arab world took to the streets, demanding open borders for a war against [Israel]," according to the Oct. 15 Beirut Daily Star. The daily demonstrations, spearheaded by workers and students, have spread to all economic classes of society. The entire Arab population has joined the new Palestinian Intifada. This gives new hope to workers and oppressed people worldwide, who suffer so much under the heel of Wall Street's globalization. This strong progressive Arab nationalism and inter-Arab solidarity has not been seen since the 1960s. "For the first time in a long, long time," wrote Marwan Asmar, a staff writer for the Jordanian English-language weekly The Star, "people are expressing their true selves, reaching for a pan- Arab idea that until now has been blocked by the creation of states, statism, geography and boundaries." 'U.S. INTERESTS' AT STAKE, SAYS OFFICIAL The protests have so strongly targeted the United States that Washington closed all of its diplomatic offices in the Middle East. An unnamed U.S. official explained that the Clinton administration was no longer focused just on salvaging the Palestinian-Israeli negotiations. Now it was trying to save "U.S. interests in the region." (New York Times, Oct. 9) The apparent bombing of the USS Cole by a suicide squad in Yemen is symbolic of the rising anti-imperialist sentiment. Enraged crowds have marched throughout virtually the entire Arab world, including those countries with the most repressive and pro-U.S. regimes. Reactionary Arab governments--bound by their long-standing relationships with Washington, new diplomatic relations with Israel and impoverished, repressed populations--see the protests as threats to their own rule. In the current period, these regimes have used large, U.S. supplied repressive apparatuses to stop or contain most demonstrations. But they are reluctant to repress crowds outraged over such volatile issues as the Palestinian cause and the status of Jerusalem. At the same time, these governments fear that grassroots anger at their regimes for not doing enough to support the Palestinians could easily turn to anger over economic and social woes at home. ''This is an historical event we are witnessing, and it will be a turning point for the region,'' said Hussein Amin, a writer on Islamic affairs and former Egyptian ambassador to Algeria. ''This may well prove to be the beginning of an uprising in this country [Egypt] and elsewhere in the region,'' he said. Egypt and Saudi Arabia, the largest recipients of U.S. military hardware in the world outside of Israel, are especially vulnerable. Being lynchpins of imperialist domination in the region has brought little to the youths of these countries who, like other oppressed youths around the word, see no economic future for themselves in the age of capitalist globalization. 'YAWNING GAP BETWEEN GOV'TS, PEOPLE' In an attempt to take the focus off themselves, some Arab officials have joined worker-student propelled protests or made gestures towards the Palestinians. However, as commentator Habib Youssef el-Sayegh wrote in al- Khaleej, the leading Arabic newspaper in the United Arab Emirates: "The real pulse of the Arab street was highlighted in the past few days in the form of protests, chants and writings. They showed the yawning gap between governments and the people.'' The wave of demonstrations has already swept away the wedge that Washington drove between Arab governments during the 1991 Gulf War. Arab regimes have begun to separate themselves from Washington's anti-Iraq stand by defying sanctions and the ban on flights to Iraq. The crisis has propelled heads of state to call a rare Arab summit meeting in Cairo on Oct. 21 and 22 to back the Palestinians. Iraq, which has not attended an Arab summit since before the Gulf War, will attend. Kuwait, rocked by demonstrations, has agreed to attend without raising objections to Iraq's presence. In an attempt to undermine the Arab summit, Washington called a new round of "peace" talks in Egypt's Sharm al- Sheik beginning Oct. 16, just days before the Arab conference. However, the U.S.-sponsored talks sparked a new round of protests from the West Bank to Egypt to Lebanon. An emergency meeting of 200 representatives from both the Arab nationalist and religious movements in Beirut, Lebanon, warned that "the U.S. sponsored summit ... would only serve to 'abort' the newly rising Intifada in Palestine." The Oct. 16 Beirut Daily Star reported, "The participants spent the day discussing a plan aimed at mobilizing support behind the Palestinian people," and will present "a memorandum of demands" to the Arab summit delegates. One participant in this meeting, Jordanian opposition official Laith Shbeilat, said, "The struggling Palestinian people don't need words, they need true solidarity." On Oct. 17 a ceasefire agreement between Israel and the Palestinian Authority was brokered by the U.S. at a summit meeting in Sharm el-Sheik, Egypt. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a Marxist organization that calls for a democratic, secular Palestine, immediately issued a statement calling for the Intifada to continue until Israel ends its occupation. Another left group, the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, also urged the Palestinians to continue the uprising. THE 'PEACE PROCESS' FRAUD "Peace process" has become a hated phrase in the Middle East- -synonymous with attempts to force yet another humiliating defeat upon the Arab people. Arabs who participated in these negotiations are now viewed with suspicion. "The peace campaign is really isolated now," said Hani Hurrani, director of New Jordan, a nongovernmental research center in Amman that reports on social and economic trends. "We feel that we have to go underground." Of much more interest to Arab workers and students is the example of Lebanon. In May, a mass movement in this country of 3 million forced the powerful Israeli military apparatus out of southern Lebanon. This armed people's movement, rooted deeply in the population, did what no regular Arab army had been able to do in 52 years--inflict a defeat on Israel and its U.S. backers. >From Ramallah to Riyadh, from Morocco to Muscat, Arab workers and students are turning away from talks, and looking to Lebanon for inspiration for their struggle. - END - (Copyleft Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not allowed. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For subscription info send message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: http://www.workers.org) ------------------ This message is sent to you because you are subscribed to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. 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