A moment of reflection amid the noise of events

'Arabs are drowned in the details of their daily lives'

By Bouthaina Shaaban

Saturday, October 29, 2005

The best of what I have read recently was Harold Pinter's response to being awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. When he was told that the Nobel Prize Committee wanted to talk to him on the phone, he asked: "Why?" a response that discloses the modesty of a literary and political figure who has taken daring stands against war, injustice and the violation of human dignity.

Equal only to Pinter winning the Nobel Prize is selecting Noam Chomsky as the number one thinker in the world. Both geniuses have gone beyond a mere ingenuity to become voices for justice and just causes in the world. An interest in literature and the Nobel Prize is, however, a luxury for a citizen of the Middle East. Politics and political strife leave no space in our psyche except for an unrelenting defensive state of the self, identity and country.

A concise summary of the motivations behind the occupation, wars and chaos taking place in the Middle East was given in a strategy paper that came out in 2000 titled "A Clean Break: A new Strategy for Securing the Realm." The co-authors were Richard Perle, James Colbert, Charles Fairbanks, Jr., Douglas Feith, Robert Loewenberg, David Wurmser, and Meyrav Wurmser. The strategy is one of dominating the region and transforming it into the so-called "New Middle East." The "clean break" refers to a new peace process with new basis. The strategy prescribes basic implementation steps as:

Working with Turkey and Jordan to contain destabilization and deflect dangerous threats against Israel.

Moving away from a "comprehensive peace" toward a "balance of powers."

Transforming the dynamics of the Israeli-Palestinian relationship, with Israel maintaining the right to persecute Palestinians in Palestinian territories and confiscate more lands.

Crafting a new relationship with the United States based on the assumption that Israel has become a mature state, capable of self-dependence, and pursuing strategic coordination with the United States on issues of mutual interest.

This strategy trades "land for peace" for "peace for peace," that is peace achieved through the power superiority of Israel. The strategy also stipulates that Israel's claim to Palestinian lands is "legitimate and noble," and that "Arab unconditional acceptance of this Israeli right to land" can achieve peace in the region.

The strategy sees Syria, Hizbullah and Iran as the major powers opposing Israel's ambition for achieving supremacy in the region. Therefore, the co-authors deem it important to "strike Syria directly, work on dissembling these major powers, rejecting the principle of land for peace in the Golan, ending the idea of comprehensive peace, and containing Syria with all possible means."

The strategy, of course, states that Iraq is a strategic target. The ultimate goal is to redraw the map of the Middle East in a way that serves those aims. The strategy necessitates changing the relationship between Israel and the Palestinians so that the world sees them as two parties of a dialogue, "selecting Arabs willing to cooperate with Israel to achieve this plan and getting their valuable help, and tempting other Arabs with money and good relations with the United States in exchange for cooperation."

Henceforth, Israel does not only run the battle in the Middle East, but becomes an "intellectual and moral leadership for the Middle East, and strong, rich and secure Israel becomes the basis for a new and safe Middle East."

Five years after this paper was released, Arabs are drowned in the details of their daily lives, media is driving them against one another and Israel is using Palestinian mothers as human shields to arrest their children. The Guardian writes on October 18, 2005 that the number of settlers has increased since Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon occupied an area in the West Bank larger than the one from which he withdrew in the Gaza Strip. News is chiming about the trial of Saddam, while the statue of Jaafar al-Mansour, the caliphate who built Baghdad and named her the city of peace, gets destroyed. Thousands of Arabs and Palestinians reside in Israeli prisons, while Israel assassinates and imprisons people at will, and implements apartheid policies. Chaos rules supreme.

It might be telling for those in Arab countries who perceive themselves through ethnic and sectarian lenses to reflect on the past five years. They will see that loss has been everyone's lot. The only beneficiaries are those who have been diligently planning the future of Arabs as one mass, regardless of sect and country.

Will there come a day when Arabs start building their countries from within, when they start drawing strategies and plans for definite goals instead of reacting to the evolution of history? Do they see, as I see, that on the Arab arena there are no winners and losers but only details for plans and revelations of strategies that target their identity? Events and wars in our region are only the procedural details of the implementation plan of the strategy of domination.