CAIRO, 21 September 2004 — My American readers often accuse me of being too soft on Arabs. They say my commentaries are overly one-sided. My critics occasionally sign off their e-mailed diatribes by gleefully hoping I land up in an Arab country as “a punishment” for my disagreeable opinions. I wonder they haven’t spotted that my columns are penned in Cairo. If only they knew that most of my adult life has been spent in the Arab world, where I have been the recipient of unfailing politeness, warmth and amazing hospitality.

It is my belief that in today’s unipolar, post-Sept. 11 world Arabs are being victimized, deliberately made scapegoats for the actions of 19 criminals so as to suit the long-time agendas of the right-wing Bush cabal. Muslim beliefs, cultures and traditions have become fair game — especially in the US where many, if not most, individuals wouldn’t have been able to locate Kabul or Baghdad on a map prior to Sept.11.

Now poised behind their laptops or glued to Murdoch’s media in Long Beach or Palm Beach they have morphed into “experts” ostentatiously armed with a sprinkling of buzzwords, such as “jihad’ and “madrasa”, whose true meanings completely escape them.

Few supporters of the Bush doctrine have visited an Arab country — other than courtesy of their military — or had more than a passing acquaintance with an Arab. This I am absolutely convinced of, else they could not possibly hold such uninformed views, parroting the Cheney/Rumsfeld/Wolfowitz/Perle/Kissinger “let’s rule the world” ideology. It is for this reason I have opted out of joining the burgeoning Arab-bashing bandwagon, already full to overflowing. Be that as it may, I will, nevertheless, devote the remainder of this particular column to a critique of Arab politics. Let’s begin with pan-Arabism, a thing of the past. There is no such thing as Arab unity and Arab League summits are little more than venues where leaders berate one another before paying lip service to a joint statement, which packs little punch.

Arab leaderships are now paying the price for neglecting to analyze the pitfalls inherent within implicit trust of the US. Their wealth is tied up in Western banks and institutions, their weapons are stamped with “Made in the USA’ and they lack a serious deterrent.

Many are woefully out of step with their own streets and, therefore, are forced to say one thing to their own people, while embarking on an entirely different course behind the scenes. It is partly due to this trend that extremist groups have flourished.

Ordinary people, frustrated at their own impotence and the seeming impotence of their governments to redress wrongs, are turning to zealots, who distort religion to make empty promises on behalf of the creator. In turn, those zealots — with liberal dollops of free publicity from the Western media — gain an importance they wouldn’t otherwise have had.

There is, no doubt, sections of the Arab world have been badly managed. Parts of it resemble a hotel where the staff may be courteous and efficient but the plumbing fails to work. Other divisions are super cool, better than the best, where politics has become a dirty word in favor of hedonism and consumerism. In others, graft is a way of life and the poor live, or rather subsist, just to eat.

Unlike their grandfathers and great-grandfathers, many Arabs nowadays are apathetic when it comes to international politics. The rich are too busy with their toys for the boys or the delights of MTV, while the concerns of the poor are wrapped around bread and their children’s schooling. Palestinians rightfully complain they have been abandoned.

Arab political and economic woes are often ascribed to one word: Palestine. There is much in this, but there is no getting away from the fact the conflict was botched from the start. After a humiliating 1967 defeat when Egypt’s President Gamal Abdul Nasser was driven to resign before being persuaded not to do so, his pragmatic successor Anwar Sadat regained the country’s national pride in 1973.

With Egypt’s economy in tatters, Sadat decided Egyptians should no longer be used as front-line cannon fodder in a contest with a tiny nuclear state backed by a megapower. And so he embarked on an unprecedented flight to Tel Aviv wowing the hard-bitten Israeli leadership with a moving speech in the Knesset. The Camp David peace agreement followed. Sadat insisted there were chairs for all Arab leaders, including the Palestinians. The chairs remained empty, Egypt was unceremoniously kicked out of the Arab League, and Sadat was considered a traitor to the Palestinian cause.

I understand the reluctance of Arab leaders fresh from two wars to join hands with Sadat but, with the benefit of hindsight, I believe that decision was fatally flawed.

Fresh from two wars, the Israelis were psychologically ready to deal and hand back all the territory grabbed in ‘67 and more. That opportunity will never come again.

If those chairs had been filled, thousands of Palestinians would be alive today, tens of thousands more would not be minus limbs, wasting in Israeli jails, or suffering the daily trials of squalid refugee camps.

The peace agreement between Egypt and Israel is frayed around the edges nowadays. A pseudo-peace hangs by a thread while the Palestinians can look forward to little besides internationally ratified Bantustans or an open-air prison called Gaza. Israel and the US are to blame for this shameful abuse of human rights but Arab leaders must, surely, accept their share too.

In retrospect, if those empty chairs had been filled, a unified region might have ensued. There might have been an exchange of technology, free trade, open commerce, and, most importantly, a sealing of the crack in the door allowing energy-greedy foreign powers to get their foot in. As things stand, the foreign powers are firmly in control. The region is sprinkled with their bases while Syria and Iran come under threat.

Just as the Arabs are being held hostage to that old British “divide and rule” policy, beautifully polished by the Bush administration, so are the Israelis — if only they knew it. Both sides are mere pawns in an ugly blood-spattered contest where the real winners are those pulling the strings from thousands of miles away. If only Arab leaders could get together to flourish the not unsubstantial cards they jointly hold, the tide may still be turned. But if I were you, I wouldn’t hold my breath.

— Linda S. Heard is a specialist writer on Middle East affairs. She welcomes feedback at [email protected]