There is a strong connection between American policy in the region and the Palestinian issue. Many in the Arab world believe that Arab governments have used the Palestinian issue to remain in power in the name of fighting “the enemy” and working for the Palestinian cause. Most of the Arabian revolutionary regimes are gone, their concern for Palestine revealed as the sham it was, but the Palestinian issue remains.
What draws the attention of a political observer is that America is the only country that has played the Palestinian issue from the other end, from the point of view of Israel, because a powerful Zionist lobby controls American social, political, cultural and economic life. The US administration and legislature, whether Democrat or Republican, are chiefly concerned with election and re-election, and you can have neither if you are seen as hostile to Israel and the Zionists.
However, America is using the Palestinian issue not only to serve Israel but to further its own ends in the Middle East. Whenever the US government wants support for a particular policy decision in the region, it remembers the Palestinian issue. Every time the US wants something in the region, there is another peace initiative.
When Iraq invaded Kuwait, the US pushed an initiative through the Madrid conference. Many Arab leaders hoped that the conference would finally bring a resolution of the Palestinian issue, but they were disappointed and with time came to realize that the US had used the Palestinians simply in order to buy itself some breathing space and do what it wanted to do.
The same thing is happening again with the road map, and again the Americans have no hesitation in making promises that they will break when the time comes.
The road map has two main goals. One is to pacify the Arabs, who are angry because the US has been furthering the Israeli agenda more blatantly than ever before for the past three years while blocking any European participation.
The other is to deflect Arab attention from what is happening in Iraq, where the US is installing a puppet government. The hopes and dreams of the Palestinians for an independent state of their own do not even enter the equation.
The US does not have and never has had any desire to solve the Palestinian issue. On the contrary, it is in its interest to keep it simmering for future use. For the time being, the Americans and the Israelis know that there will be no peace. The Arabs will as usual discover it only when it is too late.
Arab News From the Local Press 17 August 2003
