Based on some of the e-mails I receive from readers in the US, I am often amused by the depth of understanding some of these good people have about this part of the world. And I cannot really blame them. Their schools do not delve deeply into issues beyond their borders, and their media is often provincial to say the least.
But with the coming of the Internet, a few have taken the effort to reach beyond their borders in an effort to understand themselves and what the world perceives them to be. To them I say bravo. Get rid of your domestic shackles and explore.
The pursuit of knowledge about others is enlightening. And to the rest who prefer to remain in a dormant state for whatever reason, I will introduce a basic understanding of the Middle East in a language that hopefully they will understand.
To begin with, a freshman’s summary of the Middle East goes like this. It is made up of many countries with different religions, customs, and cultures. Think of the Middle East as you would the countries in South America.
Some commonality in languages and cultures. Similar, but yet so different. Muslims, Christians, Jews, Copts and others comprise the religions of the people here.
Among the countries in this region, there are those blessed with natural resources that produce healthy annual incomes, and then there are the less fortunate ones with not much except perhaps a labor market for the richer countries. With the exception of Israel, very few receive aid that US tax payers have to front for.
A great number of inhabitants in these countries here in the past had held an admiration for the American way of life. They bore no envy or hate toward the peoples of the US. Witness the annual migration of people to the US from this part of the world in the past four or five decades.
There was an earnest desire to learn and accept the good things America had to offer. Graduating from colleges and universities by the hundreds of thousands, most returned back to their countries to put to fruit their knowledge and experience.
Even in the days of the Cold War between the US and the Soviet Union, most of the regional countries allied themselves with America. And if America needed help in nearby regions, the more prosperous countries here were usually very compliant to send aid and whatever else that was necessary.
And if member states got out of line, they were sounded out long before America got on the international stage. Libya, Iraq and Iran were firmly reprimanded from way back in the 80’s by the Arab League but this hardly made headlines in the US media.
So what happened? Why did events unfold to the state that we are in today? It began with the US government failing in its role as an honest broker for peace in the region. Beginning in 1967 and until the present, administration after administration in the White House failed to grasp the importance of the faith that people here had placed in them to solve the Arab-Israeli conflict justly.
Instead, we witness time and time again Israeli flouting of UN resolutions with acquiescence from the US government; we hear of loud protests by the current US administration of weapons of mass destruction, but nary a peep about Israeli violations in their development of nuclear weapons.
We hear calls for justice and democracy, and yet very little when it comes to the ethnic cleansing by the Israelis of a people in their own lands. And the list goes on and on. As a beacon of democracy, America’s foreign policy in this region has sadly been a failure.
So if an American does wonder, then perhaps education is the first step to truly understand what goes on within the psyche of the people of this region. And then take the step to demand that your administration go back to playing the role of the honest broker.
