Barry Rubin is director of the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center, Interdisciplinary Center university and a visiting professor at American University and member of Scholars for Peace in the Middle East spme.org . His co-authored book, Yasir Arafat: A Political Biography, (Oxford University Press) and his latest book, The Long War for Freedom: The Arab Struggle for Democracy in the Middle East, which will be published by Wiley in September are available from SPME Mart at spme.org/spmemart.html
This column has predicted that the West is undergoing a big rethinking of its views on the Arab-Israeli conflict. The idea that the only problem is Israel’s oppression of the Palestinians is fast-fading given the Palestinian movement’s collapse, Hamas’s rise, the Arab debate over democracy, and the aftermath of Israel’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. Instead, the extremism, terrorism, and disorganization of the Palestinian side is seen as being the cause of the conflict and the impossibility of solving it for many years.
Evidence for this thesis is snowballing. Take the British media as an example. “Where is the Arab Sharon?” asks Tim Hames in The Times on January 9. (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,1070-1976381,00.html ).
Hames writes: “The dilemma for Israel and the peace process is not that Mr Sharon cannot continue to serve as Prime Minister. It is that there is no equivalent to Mr Sharon in the Arab world. There is no one willing to acknowledge publicly that the Palestinians cannot have all that they might want, just as Israelis cannot have everything they might desire.”
He continues, “There is no one willing to declare openly that not only do those who surround Israel have to recognize its right to exist, but that their societies will thrive only when they begin to emulate the democratic values, economic ingenuity and cultural diversity that explain why Israel’s gross domestic product exceeds that of its vastly more populous neighbors combined.”
Or how about Patrick Bishop in the Telegraph, January 10: “I have always been reluctant to accept the Israeli statesman Abba Eban’s observation that the Palestinians never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity. Arriving in Gaza yesterday, it had to be admitted that the man had a point.” He then described the family blood feuds which, even aside from the political infighting or corruption, are tearing the place apart. “The security forces are no help. Their rivalries are the cause of much of the bloodshed.” Bishop, a veteran journalist and former foreign editor of the paper, has been known for writing passionate anti-Israel articles Many other examples in different countries could be cited. Why, in addition to the above-mentioned points, is this happening now? For one thing, Palestinians are breaking with the usual everything-is-Israel’s-fault line because they are genuinely more scared of their own people.
Even those who will not admit the truth about the past cannot avoid the realities of the present. “The densely populated, heavily armed territory is taut with frustration from decades of political injustices, restricted freedoms, stunted economic development and the violent culture of its militias and their suicide bombers,” writes Craig Smith in the January 11 New York Times.” Such excuses aside, though, “Gaza threatens to turn on itself now that Israel has withdrawn.”
Fareed Zakaria explains in his Newsweek column, “The great obstacle to progress in the Middle East is no longer Israeli intentions but rather Palestinian capabilities. The big story that no one wants to admit yet is that the Palestinian Authority has collapsed, Gaza has turned into a failed state and there is no single Palestinian political organization that could create order in the territories and negotiate with Israel. Palestinian dysfunction is now the main limiting factor on any progress in the peace process.” There are other events also contributing to this rethinking, notably the open anti-Semitism and threats of genocide by Iran’s president is a reminder of the real agenda held in much of the Middle East. Iran could hardly be more provocative, tearing up one deal with the West on nuclear controls after another. Perhaps, too, the specter of endless Western concessions and apologetics is also forcing many to wake up. After September 11, 2001, set off alarms, lots of people pressed the snooze button. But the extremists keep pushing, refusing to let people get away with appeasing them.
What is sustaining the remnants of nonsense? A major factor here is deliberate lying, making a radical statement in Arabic or Persian to one’s real constituents and another expression in English to soothe the suckers.
Palestinian Media Watch, in a January 11 report, puts side by side two statements by Fatah leader Qadura Faras, who has been active in the Geneva peace initiative with Israelis. He said on that group’s website, “I am telling you with full sincerity, we are ready to reach an inclusive agreement with you…. The question is: Are you ready for this?”
Yet when speaking to his own people, as reported in the January 5 al-Hayat al-Jadida, he praised Palestinian terrorists who had murdered Israelis, he proclaimed, ‘We are all going [their] way…until the fulfillment of the goal for which he became a [martyr].” Suicide bombers are not seeking a two-state solution.
My personal favorite is the new Saudi ambassador to Washington, Prince Turki al-Faisal, in a December 16 Washington Post interview. He explained that his country accepted the Holocaust as historical fact and is ready to accept Israel’s existence. In fact, all institutions in Saudi Arabia say the exact opposite. Dr. Ali Alyami of the Center for Democracy and Human Rights in Saudi Arabia, noted, “There is a blatant contradiction in what the Saudi princes say when meeting with US officials and media editors and what their autocratic institutions instill in their citizenry in the highly censored Saudi society.” Recently, a Saudi teacher who merely stated that Jews were not innately bad people was sentenced to a flogging.
But the wonderful thing about the truth is that it has a way of bursting out. That’s what is tending to happen in the Middle East right now.
Source: http://gloria.idc.ac.il/columns/2005/rubin/12_20.html
