Editor’s
Note:
Folks, due to popular demand, we are bringing back the
opportunity for you to fill out a poll on whether or not
you agreed with the week’s selected article.
Also, we have a new format. Every week from this point
forward we shall provide links to additional articles
and essays for those who want to go in depth. The Middle
East is a cauldron now and it behooves everyone to be
informed.
Extra article links should go a long way in augmenting
the information you routinely get on the nightly news.
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Why They Hate Us, Really -by Walter Russell Mead
For the last five weeks I have been traveling through
the Middle East, meeting diplomats, officials, policy
experts, military leaders, students and ordinary
citizens. I learned something very important: the
greatest single cause of anti-Americanism in the Middle
East today is not the war in Iraq; more surprisingly, it
is not even American support for Israel, per se. Rather,
it is a widespread belief that the United States simply
does not care about the rights or needs of the
Palestinian people.
"The Palestinian issue is really what discredits the
United States throughout the region," a senior Western
diplomat with years of experience in the Middle East
told me. Or, as one student after another put it after
the university lectures I conducted across the
region: "Why do Americans have to be so biased?"
In Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Turkey and other countries,
the large majority of people I spoke with are ready to
tolerate the Jewish state -- most even understand that
the final boundaries of Israel will include some of the
heavily settled areas beyond the pre-1967 borders. They
also understand that few if any Palestinians will return
to the homes they lost after the war that erupted when
Israel declared its independence in 1948. And they are
prepared to accept, though not to relish, America's
close relations with Israel. Beyond that, they want
increased American support for their domestic political
reforms and for initiatives to enhance regional
cooperation for economic growth and fighting terrorism.
But one thing sticks in their craw: Why doesn't America
care more about the Palestinians' future?
They have a point. America's Middle East policy is
unnecessarily zero-sum. We can be more pro-Palestinian
without being less pro-Israeli. Indeed, to the degree
that American policies help create support for
compromise among Palestinians, pro-Palestinian
initiatives can help Israel too.
Take compensation. United Nations resolutions call for
financial compensation for Palestinians who cannot
return to their family homes in Israel. Israel's
position that it cannot accept millions of refugees and
their descendants is reasonable enough, and the Bush
administration's support of it is nothing new. But we
should be equally clear about compensation.
Many questions need answering: where can Palestinians go
to have their claims for lost property adjudicated and
certified? What tribunal will hear these claims? What
principles will guide its deliberations? Where will the
money come from to pay the claims when peace is finally
made?
The United States can and should take the lead in
building an international consensus on the compensation
issue and, working with allies in Europe and elsewhere,
help raise money to ensure that it is more than a pious
wish.
There is more we can do. Millions of Palestinians are
now stateless.
(Jordan has integrated the refugees within its borders;
other countries have not.) When peace comes, all
Palestinians should be citizens of some state with full
economic and social rights. The new Palestinian state
will need financial help to absorb many of these
refugees; and neighboring states who agree to integrate
Palestinians should also receive international aid.
In addition, while many Palestinians are well educated,
many others are poor and lack skills. They depend on the
United Nations Relief and Works Agency for basic
services and support. Who takes the agency's place when
peace comes and the Palestinians aren't refugees
anymore?
Taking the lead on these and other issues vital to the
Palestinians would not bring quick progress toward peace
in the region, nor would it undo overnight the
consequences of decades of suspicion and resentment. But
it would help to reduce anti-Americanism in the Muslim
world and beyond, as well as to advance the cause of
peace.
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Walter Russell Mead is a senior fellow at the Council on
Foreign Relations and the author of "Power, Terror,
Peace and War: America's Grand Strategy in a World at
Risk."
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Additional articles of interest on the Middle East
Bush outsources Middle East policy
http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=38144
Pentagon Assures Military that it will have a free hand
after 6/30 sovereignty date:
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/040420182051.7kkqanmh.html
Kerry Moves toward Bush in Middle East policy:
http://www.newsday.com/news/opinion/ny-vppin203764911apr20,0,364417.column?coll=ny-viewpoints-headlines
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The Press and the Military:
http://www.antiwar.com/reese/?articleid=2341 |