Chasing Chimeras? The
Road Map to More Conflict
By Ismail Ibrahim
Nawwab
Let
me state at the outset that I write this as a friend and supporter of those who seek to
resolve differences between nations peacefully. I
count numberless millions of Europeans, Americans, Asians and Africans in this group and
salute their efforts to make this a better world for all.
Also I write this as an opponent of the policies of successive US
governments which over many decades have demonstrated an insatiable greed for seizing the
resources of other nations, worked to topple several democratically elected governments,
shown callous indifference to human life and rights and perpetrated crimes against
humanity in various parts of the globe, including Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Latin America,
Africa, Afghanistan, and, lastly, Iraq -- to mention a few examples.
I will admit that some of what will be said here is certain
to raise the hackles of those Americans who equate patriotism with blind loyalty to their
president. Fortunately, there are many equally
patriotic Americans who do not subscribe to this sentiment and reserve their democratic
right to think and criticize their officials, elected or court-appointed.
This article is undoubtedly anti-Bush and anti-US administration
but to understand it as an anti-American diatribe is to miss the point. Notwithstanding a microscopic, unrepresentative
group of dissidents, Muslims -- Arabs and non-Arabs alike -- have no quarrel with the
Americans or any other people. On the
contrary, Muslims embrace all peace-loving nations and would like to work with them for
the betterment of humankind. It is through
dialogue, understanding, love for one another, respect for the rule of law and the
establishment of universal justice, and not through violence and war, the exploitation of
the weak by the strong and the law of the jungle, that we all can ensure a brighter,
humane tomorrow for ourselves and succeeding generations.
I
Stench
of Double Standards Turns the Stomach
Today,
there are some indistinct mutterings about a Road Map for peace in the Middle East. This writer takes a pessimistic view of the current
talk about the United States’ will to take any serious action to resolve the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict fairly and equitably. All
this is no more than silly prattle trying to fool the Arabs, whom the Americans in their
characteristic ignorance regard as morons. The
way the Arabs accept to be trampled on and humiliated by the United States, the US
administration may have ample justification for looking down on them with utter contempt. The Arabs and Muslims have to stand up and defend
themselves before they are all devoured monstrously, one by one, by the American
Leviathan. To paraphrase Franklin D.
Roosevelt, the only thing they have to fear is fear itself.
The stench of the Western powers’ -- particularly the United
States’ -- double standards in dealing harshly with Iraq, under false pretences and
with false evidence and in contravention of the United Nations’ Charter, turns the
stomach of the world community. These
nauseating double standards are in sharp contrast to the West’s delicate cosseting
for decades of a proven aggressive and racist Israel daily maiming, murdering and
destroying a defenseless occupied Palestinian population with impunity and in front of an
incredibly silent, acquiescent, morally bankrupt world.
Where are the champions of human rights and democracy in the US? Those who look the other way when Israel commits
its quotidian atrocities have lost all credibility and decency. They are shorn of dignity as they are terrorized by
Israel and its “Amen Corner.” They
are not different from those who turned a blind eye to the genocides of the Nazis.
Nothing illustrates the cowardliness of the US
administration and US congressmen more glaringly than the case of Rachel Corrie. A young American citizen and peace activist, and a
representative of the beautiful face of America, 23-year-old Ms. Corrie was rolled over
and crushed to death in March 2003 by the driver of an Israeli army bulldozer in broad
daylight while she was peacefully and non-violently defending a Palestinian home from
illegal demolition. Let alone asking that Ms.
Corrie’s murderer be extradited to the United States to stand trial there, neither
President Bush nor even one worthy member of the US Congress so much as condemned her
murder. Where Israel is concerned, its crimes
are buried even if the victims are citizens of United States, the world’s hyperpower.
Even the slightest criticism of Israel is equated
with anti-Semitism, a flag in which pro-Zionists wrap themselves. The heightened sensitivity to reasoned criticism of
Israel is perhaps an indication that the pro-Zionists -- whose political and financial
clout intimidates policymakers and congressmen -- are becoming aware that a fair and
open-minded American public is increasingly beginning to question the dastardly crimes
that Israel is committing against the helpless Palestinians with their tax dollars. The stifling of such criticism brings back painful
memories of the McCarthyte witch-hunts of
the 1950s.
Today, no serious writing on the Middle East can
avoid dwelling on Iraq. This piece, however,
is not written in reaction to, or as a commentary upon, the fall of Saddam Husayn’s
(Hussein’s) despotic and cruel regime. No
sane or humane person sheds a tear over the end of this dark period in the history of Iraq. This in no way means that we regard the war of
aggression on Iraq as lawful or justified. We
can never condone the heavy cost in civilian casualties and environmental and cultural
damage that this criminal war exacted. The
Anglo-American aggressors’ disregard for international law and conventions will stain
their honor and credibility forever. Thousands
of innocents were maimed and killed in this war. Unique
cultural institutions were allowed to be looted right under the noses of the US occupation
forces, whose primary and most urgent interest was to ensure the security of the oil wells
and the Ministry of Petroleum. The safety and
security of the people and their property, hospitals, libraries and shrines was the
obligation of the Anglo-American occupying power under international law, but not the
least of their concerns. US troops rocketed an
ancient religious landmark of Baghdad, the mosque where one of the most venerable
religious figures in Islamic history, Imam Abu Hanifah, who has hundreds of millions of
followers, lies buried. All this will be a
perennial blot, a mark of Cain, on the barbarian invaders of Iraq.
The world will not forget the Anglo-American dance of the seven veils at the Security Council
where, one at a time, the pretexts dropped, the pretext of sending the inspectors, the
pretext of disarmament, the pretext of violations of human rights, until, finally, these
two rapists of the United Nations’ Charter stood naked.
We will not forget that the United States, which
professes to spread democracy in the Middle East, has applied pressure on its Arab client
states to declare non-violent, peaceful anti-war demonstrations illegal and to suppress
them by force. America not only aids and
abets these despotic regimes to deprive their citizens of their fundamental birthright to
express their opinion, but is also, by its silence, complicit in endangering the lives and
limbs of the demonstrators. Hundreds of them
are kidnapped, jailed and tortured by its vassals. Therefore,
Muslims know that America’s claims to promote democracy in their countries are just a
charade and one more lie.
Those who are fooled by the United States’
duplicitous advocacy of democracy should consider just one example among many of how US
administrations treat truly democratic regimes. In
September 1973, the United States engineered and facilitated the overthrow of the
democratically elected government of Chile and the assassination of its president Salvador
Allende and several of his cabinet members. Allende
was replaced by a US-supported military junta headed by General Augusto Pinochet. Under Pinochet, and with US approval, opposition
parties were banned, universities were put under military control, thousands of Chileans
were tortured and killed, many fingered as “radicals” by lists provided by the
CIA. Recently, after thirty years, US
Secretary of State Colin Powell admitted in a public forum that the US was responsible
for the coup against Allende. (George Gedda,
“Powell Regrets 1973 U.S. Actions in Chile,” Associated Press, April 16, 2003). That bloody period in Chilean history was ushered
in at the instigation of Henry Kissinger, the documented mass murderer of millions of
South East Asians, Latin Americans and Africans. The
unvarnished truth is that Kissinger is no less guilty of crimes against humanity than
those tried at Nuremberg. He, however, along
with many other war criminals are not only harbored but also lionized in the United
States, which is “smoking out and hunting down” terrorists all over the world. It really does not have to look far or hard to find
them.
America indeed supports democracy -- of sorts. The US administration’s lexicon defines
democracy elastically thus: 1. a system of government where corporations, vested
interests, a coterie of self-serving politicians, and pressure groups run an election
campaign at regular intervals to give a gullible and largely uninformed public the
illusion that they can freely choose their president, vice president and congressional
representatives. The powerful and well-funded
military-industrial complex and the lobbies make sure that presidential nominees are often
of average or less than average intelligence, so that they can easily be manipulated; the
United States is the best representative of this type of democracy; 2. a system of government in which an apartheid
settler regime every day a: murders the
people it occupies, and b: tramples on their
basic rights, with the overt backing of the United States; 3. a country whose democratically elected but
independently minded government is clandestinely toppled by the CIA and replaced by a
dictatorial regime which suppresses fundamental human rights by force and whose rulers
receive subsidies (also known as bribes) from the United States and proclaim their undying
allegiance to Uncle Sam.
The US President is rhapsodizing over the democracy
that will follow and flourish in Iraq, which has every reason to be thankful for its
liberation through death and destruction. However,
according to plain-speaking US officials, if democratic elections produce a government in Iraq
that is not pro-American, it will be replaced by a client regime (à la Chile in 1973).
The last time the US helped appoint a client regime
in Iraq was some thirty years ago. The Iraqis
thereafter plunged into a long, dark night. A
reign of terror and torture ensued. But no
matter. That tyrannical, undemocratic regime
was good for American business and geopolitical objectives.
It also suited most Arab and Muslim states. All
willingly participated in covering up its heinous crimes.
To head that regime, the United States brought to power and fully supported, all
those nightmarish years, a monster after its heart. However,
as soon as the monster no longer served its creator’s purposes, the American
Frankenstein destroyed him. The name of that
monster? Saddam Husayn.
II
Israeli-American Road Map Destined to Fail
The
United States has proven over the years, and never so much as under the current Bush
administration, that it is a meek dog that is wagged by its evil tail, Israel. All US ideas for resolving the Israeli-Palestinian
impasse are really Israeli ideas, clumsily and transparently wrapped by the Americans. The so-called Road Map is a brazen ploy designed to
have a solution favorable to the Israelis. The
Road Map -- largely the product of pro-Zionist Jews in the US administration working
together with the Israelis -- will be an utter failure, as it bypasses and flouts UN
resolutions. Further, the implementation of
this essentially flawed map will be completely at the mercy of the nuclear-armed Israelis,
past masters of deceitful interpretations, procrastination and faits accomplis by brute force.
THE WHOLE CONCEPT OF THE PEACE PROCESS IS DOOMED. THIS PROCESS MUST BE DITCHED. THE ONLY FRUITFUL COURSE TO BE FOLLOWED IS THE
IMPLEMENTATION OF THE UNITED NATIONS’ RESOLUTIONS.
If the hypocritical US administration and its pro-Zionist supporters
really mean what they say about peace in the Middle East, they should demand of Israel to
immediately IMPLEMENT the long-dead UN resolutions, WHICH PROVIDE THE ONLY SOLUTION TO THE
CONFLICT. The Israeli-American Road Map (which
basically will fulfill Israel’s wishes, despite its noises to the contrary), will
lead to another fifty years of misery, rage, blood, and instability in Palestine, the
region and the world.
So, I urge those who are serious about finding an equitable and
fair solution to this issue to ask for the implementation of ALREADY EXISTING UN
RESOLUTIONS, which, incidentally, have, years ago, been accepted and endorsed by ALL
Security Council members, including the US.
Why do we, in the case of Israel, allow that country to flout UN resolutions? Just because of the United States’
subservience to Israeli and Zionist interests? WE
NEED JUSTICE AS MANDATED BY THE UNITED NATIONS and NOT AS MEDIATED BY A PROVEN AND FAILED
DISHONEST BROKER. As long as this dishonest
broker, which is, or is perceived to be, the enemy of the Arabs and Islam, is mediating
this conflict, there will be no justice. And
WITHOUT JUSTICE, THERE WILL NEVER BE PEACE. The
US administration is absolutely myopic and stupid to think that it can defy the Muslim
world forever by imposing a settlement on the Palestinians on Israel’s terms.
The Arabs and Muslims have weathered and outlasted many world
storms down the ages. We have outlasted
the old imperialists. And we will, God
willing, outlast the new imperial power. In
God’s time, a few decades are as short as the twinkling of an eye, no more than a
fleeting moment in the annals of man. And God
always brings oppressors to their knees. The
Qur’an repeatedly tells us of the downfall of the oppressors. Today, there is a new
empire, full of hubris and possessed of military might.
But where are the great military empires of the past?
“My name is Ozymandias, king of
kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and
despair!”
Thomas à Kampis, the fourteenth-fifteenth-century Dutch monk,
observed in his celebrated The Imitation of Christ:
o quam cito transit gloria mundi, “Oh, how quickly the glory of the
world passes away!”
The Greek dramatist Euripides said, “Those whom God wishes
to destroy, He first makes mad.” Is there
a bigger madman than the one who resides on Pennsylvania Avenue? The tragedy is that this lunatic is also the leader
of the most powerful military state today.
Former presidential candidate Senator George McGovern has
expressed his views on the US President in more restrained language. In a memorable article in The Nation (“The Reason Why,” 21 April,
2003), he said, “The nation has been given a President of painfully limited wisdom
and compassion and lacking any sense of the nation’s true greatness.” Forgive us mal
élevé Muslims if we cannot observe our customary stylistic courtesies after
having thousands of us maimed and murdered for no justifiable reason by someone “of
painfully limited wisdom and compassion.”
Our cup is full: our angry, iconoclastic language, shouted every
day through our independent TV satellite stations, does not spare even our own
two-tongued, ineffectual governments, most of whom failed to protect wider Arab and Muslim
interests. It is a myth that Arabs and Muslims
blame only the United States for their woes.
They also heap criticism on their own governments and dysfunctional societies.
Those Muslims who are foolishly expecting justice from US
administrations and congressmen, who are bootlickers of their Zionist, pro-Zionist and
Israeli puppet masters, are in for a big disappointment.
By now, Muslims should have learned of the untrustworthiness of these enemies of
the Arabs and Muslims. Israel
is and will remain our enemy as long as it is headed by expansionist, racist, fascist
warmongers.
We should consider any friend of Israel our enemy. Anyone who gives aid and comfort to our enemy is
our enemy. Muslims believe this, regardless of
what client Muslim governments say or do for a variety of reasons. All ordinary Muslims perceive that the Islamic
world faces two primary enemies: Israel and the US, the sinful progenitor, blind backer
and shameless protector of this bastard, rogue state, which was conceived and born in
injustice and infamy. (“Bastard” is
used here in its technical sense, to express a historical fact, and not as a term of
abuse). This perception will last as long as
the United States keeps blindly supporting Israel, right or wrong.
If we need proof that the United States’
government and its political leadership are our enemy, just consider the policy of double
standards they have. US-funded and -armed Israel,
which has brought death and ruin in the region for over five decades and is bristling with
weapons of mass destruction, is considered above the law and its Prime Minister Ariel
Sharon “a man of peace,” though most of the world regards him as a war criminal.
Every effort by the world community to have Israel
behave in accordance with international law founders because it is shamelessly vetoed in
the Security Council by the United States. Every
such veto, the United States should never forget, is regarded a HOSTILE ACT by 1.25
billion Muslims. All Israel’s crimes are
overlooked by the United States. But which
countries does this enemy of the Arabs and Muslims have on its hit list? Syria, Iran, Egypt, Libya, Sudan, Pakistan and Saudi
Arabia. On the other hand, defiant North Korea,
which expels UN nuclear weapons inspectors, receives fairly gentle treatment though it is
known to have weapons of mass destruction. Of
course, only Muslim countries qualify for attacks by weapons of mass destruction and
military invasions launched by the Madman on the Potomac.
If no action is taken soon against Muslim countries on the US administration’s
hit list, do not be too optimistic. It is only
a question of time and “targets of opportunity.”
Instead of chasing the chimera of the Israeli-American Road Map,
we should search for and insist on a feasible and just solution to the scandalously
long-drawn-out Israeli-Palestinian conflict which has caused immense human suffering and
represents the longest post-Second-World-War military occupation. We should advocate that the UN be charged with
implementing those resolutions that it has passed since 1949, including the important
resolution No. 242 passed unanimously in 1967. And
we should ask that the implementation of these resolutions be IMMEDIATE.
OUR PATIENCE WITH THE UNITED STATES IS RUNNING OUT. Its monopoly of the role of a mediator in the
conflict is only to ensure that Israel imposes its will on the weak
Palestinians. The result will be an unjust
peace, favoring the Israelis and therefore guaranteed to fail. Because of its past deeds, the United States is
perceived by Muslims to be a biased party allied to Israel and working against Arab and
Muslim interests. We should have learned our
lesson by now: it is folly to trust a blatantly partisan United States. The only solution that we should find acceptable is
one that recognizes the legitimacy of the UN resolutions and pursues their implementation
without delay. The United States should be put
on notice by the Muslims, if not by their craven, mostly unrepresentative governments,
that “he who is not with us is against us.”
Perhaps, this is the only language which the cretin in the White House can
understand.
III
Shared Values of Muslims
and non-Muslims
We
have to recognize that we are a defeated and a humiliated people because we are living in
societies which have failed in many areas, and we have been unable to lift ourselves up. Defeat and humiliation, coupled with the
marginalization, silencing and ill-treatment of political dissidents, engender intolerance
and extremism. This inevitably leads to the
birth of desperate militant groups on the fringes of society which lash out at friend and
foe. We have to watch out for this and take
measures to renew our societies on all fronts so that we can restore a sense of individual
dignity and worth to all members of our societies.
Despite the many challenges we face, we have hope. We have seen many dark days throughout our long
history, but Muslims have always demonstrated a remarkable measure of resilience and
success in preserving their religion and civilization.
Some of our darkest periods ushered eras of brilliant achievements. “If Winter comes, can Spring be far
behind?”
In the specific matter of Palestine, instead of
putting our faith in the United States, we should put our faith in God and in our own
people and work to improve our situation so that we can take care of ourselves, and not be
the slaves of the United States or any other power. We
should forge new commercial and political alliances with nations who are friendly to us
and not be tied mainly to the United States, which cannot be considered our friend as long
as it befriends our enemy.
Speaking of our failings, they are galore. Let me mention just a couple of them because they
are of some relevance to our relations with the Other.
We have failed miserably to reach out to ordinary Westerners to explain our case to
them. A majority of them is brainwashed by the
media, most of which is devoid of credibility and to some extent state-controlled,
ironically reminiscent of the situation of nearly all of the media in the despotic regimes
of the Third World. For
instance, if one did not know where Fox News operates from, one would think it is
telecasting from a Stalinist-like state or that it is a government-run channel in an
undemocratic Third World country. The other
mistake is that our diplomats explain our point of view almost exclusively to Western
leaders and fail to grasp that, in democratic countries, the man and woman on the street
can ultimately influence their politicians. Since
most of our governments are each run by one all-powerful man, our envoys think that
Western governments, too, are one-man shows, so our emissaries do not feel the urge to
reach out to the average citizen in the West. It
is not only the Americans who have an amusingly poor grasp of the thought, culture and
political geography of the Other.
I would like to reiterate the point I made at the beginning of
this piece. Muslims do not have a quarrel with
Americans, Europeans or any other people. Their
quarrel is exclusively with those Western governments who use their nationals’ taxes
to commit crimes in Muslim lands and elsewhere in their name.
Based on mutual understanding and respect, there is limitless
space for cooperation between the Muslims and the rest of the world in many areas. We Muslims recognize the decency and humanity of
people everywhere. We share many universal
values with non-Muslims: the love of peace; the upholding of the rule of law; the
brotherhood of humankind; the inalienable entitlement of the individual to dignity,
freedom and other basic human rights; the search for social and political justice; the
obligation to be charitable; and the protection of the environment.
Nowhere has the friendship of the people of the world to the
Muslims been more visibly and vibrantly exemplified than in the recent unprecedented
worldwide peace movement and huge demonstrations protesting the war on Iraq
and supporting the oppressed Palestinians. The
Pope, the Orthodox Church and all the mainstream Protestant churches, representing
hundreds of millions of Christians, spoke for peace and against the war. Millions of non-Muslims -- old and young, men,
women and children -- in the West and in Asia, Africa and other parts of the world have
proven their solidarity with oppressed Muslims in Iraq and Palestine. Many peace activists, including some Jewish and
Israeli peace activists, made sacrifices to show their solidarity with the Arabs and
Muslims. Some of the demonstrators were abused
and spat upon by pro-war individuals. Others
were jailed and brutalized by the police. But
the anti-war activists did not fail or falter. Some
made the ultimate sacrifice. Among others,
Rachel Corrie paid with her life for peace and justice.
The worldwide solidarity which has united peace-loving people
should provide the catalyst for further humanitarian activities based on the common values
shared by Muslims and non-Muslims. This type
of cooperation is greatly encouraged by Islam and is part of its worldview. In the Internet, we have a powerful tool which
instantly bonds humanity across the world and breaks the shackles on freedom imposed by
governments in the East and the West.
IV
Conclusion: Today’s
Dinosaur, Tomorrow’s Hope
Before
ending, a few more words on the unpleasant realities of the fraudulent Israeli-American
Road Map. It is not possible for a party as
weak as the Palestinians to negotiate with the regional superpower that is Israel. America is not interested in justice for the
Palestinians but only in assuring that Israel emerges as the sole hegemon in the Middle
East to which all Arabs must genuflect. These
near-sighted policies and injustices will turn Palestine and the region into a seething
cauldron. Short of a miracle, the uncritical
and impassioned backing of the United States’ government for Israel will remain
hostage to the pressures and ideological agenda of the Zionists, neoconservatives, and the
Armageddon-obsessed Christian fundamentalists. The
US administration will continue to guarantee its unquestioning, passionate financial,
diplomatic and military support of Israel no matter how damaging and costly this support
is to the safety and national interests of the Americans.
In view of the US administration’s stance and the world
community’s double standards, the implementation of UN resolutions on settling the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict may be no more than wishful thinking.
For these reasons, I am pessimistic about the prospects for peace
and stability in the Middle East in the short- and mid-term. Being a historian, however, my time horizon extends
into the future. I have some reasons to be
optimistic. All dinosaurs went the way of the
dodo. Dinosaurs were physically formidable and
could pulverize their enemies, but they had a proportionately diminutive brain. The United States is today’s dinosaur. Like that extinct reptilian giant, a day will come
when today’s dinosaur, too, will vanish from the scene as the world’s
superpower.
“Al-mulku li-Allah,” Islam proclaims. Dominion is God’s.
The dinosaur will be no more.
But the Muslims will still be here when that day arrives. No earthly power can ever efface Islam. This is the confident belief of every child, woman
and man in the Muslim world.
Courtesy of and © 2003 by Ismail Ibrahim Nawwab. The author is a
former university professor and general manager at Saudi Aramco. He is co-editor of the forthcoming "The
Foundations of Islam." The latest of his publications that is germane to this article
is a paper entitled "Muslims and the West in History." |