Arab anger at US stems from long list of disappointments Ned Walker

Opinion, June 2003, Al-Jazeerah.info

Arab anger at US stems from long list of disappointments

Ned Walker

The Daily Star, 6/26/03

After a brief trip to Egypt last week, a country in which I have lived for many years, I returned to the United States shaken. On each successive visit to the region since the collapse of the Camp David peace talks, I have observed an alarming trend: an almost exponential increase in the level of skepticism, acrimony and outright hostility that greets US policy in the region. At every level of Arab society rich or poor from Morocco to Bahrain, there is a pervasive sense that US President George W. Bush cannot be trusted to deliver on his promises. In short, as Bush’s administration embarks on efforts in peacemaking, he will find that the credibility gap dogs his every move, tainting initiative after initiative and undermining his authority. This gap is a greater threat to the progress of the “road map” than the cyclical violence that consumes Israel and the Occupied Territories. Photo-ops in Sharm el-Sheikh and Aqaba may be inspired gestures, but they fell far short of embattled Israeli and Palestinians expectations for two reasons. First, there was no European presence in support of the road map, which was itself the product of extensive “Quartet” (US, UN, EU and Russia) negotiations. Second, the Israeli-Palestinian bloodbath has gone on for so long that violence-weary people are understandably cynical about the road map’s chances for success. The anger directed at us is not due to some loathing of our values, or contempt for us as a people. Rather, it is because we are perceived to have bought into Israeli Premier Ariel Sharon’s policy for the future of the Middle East. It is for this reason that the Arab world turns away from us in despair. For my friends in the region, the problem with Bush’s approach to the conflict is not based on the breakdown of security cooperation. Instead, they fear that despite Sharon’s verbal embrace of the road map, and Washington’s revitalized approach to the issue, Bush has fallen into a Sharon trap. There is no great mystery to Israel’s prime minister. He is not an enigma, nor the Israeli version of the Sphinx. Quite the contrary, in my conversations with him over the years, he has never made a secret of his solution to the conflict. He is a firm believer in the elongated interim period, 15 years or longer, not a final settlement by May 2005 as Bush championed. The Sharon plan accords Palestinians autonomy in their “enclaves,” or parcels of land that would be connected by bridges, tunnels and roads for Palestinian travel only. Gerrymandered congressional districts look coherent by comparison. This is the Sharon trap. I think, at least I hope, Bush has something quite different in mind when he says “contiguous” Palestinian areas. But while I may welcome the Bush’s plan, I have no reason to believe that Sharon has changed his mind about his vision of Palestine. Those rendered speechless when Sharon uttered the word “occupation,” or surprised by Sharon’s grudging acceptance of the road map have not been listening for the past 35 years. The road map may actually accomplish Sharon’s objectives the option for a “provisional state”, one without defined borders or sovereign authority. A US-sanctioned delay in reaching a final settlement by May 2005 is exactly what troubles Arabs. I heard from a number of sources who sat in on Bush’s meetings in Sharm el-Sheikh and Aqaba that his interlocutors were impressed with his detailed command of the issues and the obvious interest he takes in fostering close relations with the various leaders he met, including Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas. There’s a “but” here. Even this strongly positive response has not shaken the overall impression that our president may not be sincerely courting his Arab audience, but rather is doing so in order to smooth tensions in the region that the war in Iraq generated, and that have failed to abate in the post-war period. Few Arabs believe he will take on Sharon or press Israel to tear down more than tiny, uninhabited settlement outposts. Most believe that the US presidential elections will sap the president’s will to take on Sharon. After the Israeli attack on senior Hamas leader Abdel-Aziz Rantissi the road map actually took on new life in the form of a US monitoring team assembling in the area, renewed high-level security discussions with the Egyptians taking the lead, and a Quartet meeting in Amman earlier this month. But such life-support measures for the road map cannot sustain it for long. Bush must find his voice on this issue and push ahead. And yes, he must engage personally, consistently and with conviction. Helping both sides to find a fair, just and lasting solution will test the mettle and courage of this president just as it did his father, former US President George H.W. Bush. Let us hope that the younger Bush will pass this test as well.

Ned Walker, president of the Middle East Institute in Washington and former US ambassador, wrote this commentary for The Daily Star

Earth, a planet hungry for peace

The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03).

The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers in the West Bank (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03).