Secretary Rice: Which kind of Middle East Do We Want for Our Children
By: Dr. Bouthaina Shaaban
25 Mar. 2005 (LOS ANGELES TIMES)
Reading the headline: “Rice commits that Washington will build a different kind of Middle East,” I understood the anxiety haunting the people of the Middle East. Rice’s remarks to the American troops in Kabul reveal Washington’s official concept of the region: “a different kind of broader Middle East that’s going to be stable and democratic and where our children will one day not have to worry about the kind of ideologies of hatred that led those people to fly those airplanes into those buildings on September 11th.” As such, those remarks imply dangerous prohibitions, for Rice has accused the region of harboring “ideologies of hatred,” and talked about “those people” referring to the people of the region as the culprits who flew “those planes into those buildings on September 11th.”
This generalization embodies the grave fallacy entrapping American war on terrorism, which has damaged American reputation and credibility, and incurred disasters that will extend over decades. Talking about a group of extremists as representative of the people of the Middle East equals considering the criminals of Abu Gharib and Guantanamo as representative of American people and values. It equals considering the criminals of massacres such as Sabra and Chatila, Kafr Kasim, and Deir Yasin as representative of their people and their religious values.
The other dangerous prohibition in Rice’s remarks is considering the attacks of September 11th as the justification for American plans for the Middle East. Two points should be explained: first, the events of September 11th have weighed heavily on Arabs, Muslims and Americans alike. Through those attacks, the terrorists have actually targeted Arabs and Muslims and are, therefore, enemies to Arabs and Muslims first. Second is what actually is happening in the Middle East from the point of view of its people, for their voice cannot be heard under the policies of “embedded journalism” and “banning TV channels that attempt transmitting reality.”
What is happening today is dismembering Palestinian groups and disarming Lebanese resistance, while Israel occupies Arab lands and disregards all UN resolutions calling for its withdrawal to the line of June 1967. What is happening is Israeli extremists threatening the holiest of Muslim places, “al-Aqsa,” and seizing Jerusalem Arab neighborhoods passed from fathers to sons over thousands of years. What is happening is isolating East Jerusalem from the West Bank, and constructing an apartheid wall separating tens of thousands of Palestinians from their cities and villages, and devouring %10 of the West Bank’s most fertile lands and more than %50 of its water resources. These are the consequences of the “ideologies of hatred” facing Arabs, and of which Secretary Rice threatens more.
What is happening today is threatening Syria with its secular heritage and historic religious coexistence. Syria has never threatened the United States or any other country. However, Syria has been the victim of the “ideological enmity” of pro-Israel members of Congress supporting Israel’s refusal to end occupation of the Golan Heights and its continuous rejection of Syria’s calls for comprehensive and just peace.
Ms. Rice knows from the experience of her fellow citizens that nations do not surrender to injustice. Her people have fought racism until they achieved equality and dignity. The people of the Middle East have struggled through history against aggression and occupation, and will continue struggling until freedom, justice and dignity are achieved. The United States will be right only if it assured us that our region will be more stable and democratic and that our children will no longer have to worry about occupying forces, racist discrimination, or bullets targeting their bodies while at their school chairs at UNRWA. There is no doubt that Ms. Rice recognizes the great difference between the reports she receives from pro-Israeli think-tanks, seeing nothing in the Middle East except for resources susceptible to subtraction, and unarmed people vulnerable to occupation or oppression, and the reality of the people’s long history of building civilizations and proselytizing peace and freedom.
The new kind of Middle East that Washington promises to build is unsettling because it does not refer to ending occupation, or mention international legitimacy, justice, dignity or people’s rights. Just as you, Secretary Rice, want a safe future for your children, we too want a safe future for ours. We want a future where they enjoy freedom, dignity and equality. This is possible to achieve today and it only requires abiding by one rightful demand: ending all kinds of occupation, settlement, discrimination and hatred against Arabs and Muslims.