The US relations with Israel and the Arab and Muslim worlds, by Hassan El-Najjar and John Buffum

The US relations with Israel and the Arab and Muslim worlds

An Interactive Editorial

By Hassan El-Najjar and John Buffum

10/4/02

John Buffum:

Is there an Arab/Islamic world consensus on what would be a good resolution for the Israeli/Palestinian situation?

Do the neighbors of Saddam Hussein consider him a threat, or am I being fooled by my obviously biased media?

What would promote the greatest understanding and monetary and intellectual commerce between the U.S. and the Moslem belt countries?

Has the U.S. really gotten "too big for its britches", or is this a cry against the more powerful by the less powerful?

If you have your favorite Al-Jazeera pages to refer me to, I'll read 'em.

Hassan El-Najjar

Read my articles about Zionism, Cold War II, and American foreign policy. Read Jason Vest's article (mentioned in note # 16 in my article, "Zionism: the highest stage of imperialism").

The answer for your first question is "Yes." There is a world consensus about how the Palestinian-Israeli conflict should be resolved. It should be resolved according to UN resolution that Israel (backed up by the US) has refused to implement. Basically withdrawing from Palestinian territories, allowing Palestinians to live freely in their own state, and resolving the refugee problem by compensation and repatriation.

The answer to your second question is "No." The neighbors of Saddam Hussain do not consider him a threat anymore, including Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. In the last Arab summit conference in Beirut, all Arab states, including Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, expressed their opposition to a US attack on Iraq. They told this position to the US Vice President, Dick Cheney. But it seems that he does not listen. After eleven years of economic sanctions and embargo, Iraq is too weakened to pose a threat to anybody. Actually, the Iraqi central government no longer controls the northern part of the country itself. The pro-Israel US media deceive the American people systematically by saying Iraq is a threat. The real goals of the war are oil, oil revenues, markets, and territory. A confluence of interests between Israel, the military industry, and the oil industry in the US is what is driving American foreign policy towards more wars and invasions of Arab and Muslim countries. It is not Saddam or Arafat or Qaddafi, as it was not Nasser. The oil is a finite resource of energy. Most of it is going to disappear during this century. The rulers of the US and Israel want to control it and the resulting huge wealth of oil revenues, which is about $14.8 trillion by the current prices. This is the cause of the coming war and the other wars that will follow.

Has the US gotten too big? Absolutely yes. Just try to figure out to list down the number of countries which have an American military presence in them. Try to list down the number of wars America fought since World War II. America has become an empire and fighting now to extend the influence of that empire in some parts of the world and to maintain it in other parts. During this imperialistic process, the core values that Americans believe in are compromised. The US is the only supporter of the brutal Israeli military occupation of Palestine. There is no support for democracy. To the contrary, there is support for undemocratic and oppressive regimes all over the world, as long as they are considered friendly by US officials. Is this good to America? Absolutely not. History told us that more expansion, specially a quick one, leads to a sudden collapse. This happened to Napoleonic France, Nazi Germany, and the Soviet Union. The irony is that the ruling class in each case controls its population so tightly that people did not know about what really was going on until it was too late.

Finally, can America and the Arab and Muslim worlds maintain peaceful relations. Yes, if the rulers of the US want that to happen, but I doubt they do. America should demonstrate its peaceful intentions to Arabs and Muslims. Right now, and for decades, they have been under continuous invasions and wars. Almost in every decade, Israel (backed by the US) has launched a major war against Arab states. If Israelis become peaceful and accept to coexist with Palestinians, this will take care of the core problem because of the huge influence Israel exerts on the US government. The Bush-Sharon administrations leave no room for this wishful thinking to happen. The way out is a grassroots popular anti-war movement in Israel and the US. Only this will stop war hawks in the two administrations and consequently save the world. Am I optimistic that may happen? Yes, I am. This is the lesson from history. We are one world, all of us deserve to live decently. Peace-loving people are the majority everywhere and they should speak out and organize to oppose wars. Peace.

Opinions expressed in various sections are the sole responsibility of their authors and they may not represent Al-Jazeerah's.