Washington says that it wants the violence in the Occupied Territories to end. The White House is also said to have been appalled about Israel’s deployment of F-16 fighters, an American gift to the Israelis, and demanded that such action stop. But can we have any confidence in the American Middle East policy now that George Bush is in charge? The answer is No. The truth is that this is an administration with no coherent Middle East policy.
With violence spiraling out of control, Secretary of State Colin Powell cannot even bring himself to visit the region. As for his demands for an immediate cessation of violence, it is telling that the emphasis is on Yasser Arafat’s responsibilities, not Sharon’s. The Bush administration may not have much of an idea about Middle East peace, but it is clear where its sympathies lie. Yet, after the events of the past few days, how can anyone deny that Sharon is a warmonger? This is the man who imagined that the Palestinians could be controlled by invading Lebanon, who was responsible for the massacre of thousands of Palestinians in Beirut’s refugee camps. He still has not learned that violence never brings peace and security. All it does is breed more violence. He thinks exactly as the Nazis did when during World War II they retaliated against local resistance attacks with massive counterviolence. For one German solider killed, ten locals would be shot. Sometimes whole villages were wiped off the map. It did not work then and it will not work now.
All that the brutality achieved for the Germans was greater determination among the people they oppressed to be rid of them. It is no different today: the more ferocious Sharon’s war machine, the stronger the Palestinian resolve to be free. As for the Israeli public, there is no chance that they will ever realize that Sharon is as much a fascist as anyone that goose-stepped across the European stage in the 1930s. For half a century, they have refused to face up to the similarity between their treatment of the Palestinians and how they were once treated. When Israeli demonstrators shout “death to all Arabs” as they did most recently just two days ago, can anyone seriously see a difference between that racist bigotry and what happened in Nazi Germany?
But whether or not the US has come to see this bitter picture as yet, the Bush administration cannot avoid its own heavy responsibilities for the escalation of violence. It is unimaginable that Ariel Sharon would have been so aggressive had Bill Clinton still been in the White House. What small restraining influence Washington exerted over Israel was removed when George Bush took over. But Washington cannot continue to wash its hands off its responsibilities. If only for its own benefit, it needs to involve itself. It has interests, political and economic, in the Arab world: it is in serious danger of losing them. Contracts which might have gone to US companies will go elsewhere. Its friends may no longer wish to remain so amicable. Simply watching from the sidelines in not an option. The Arab states are not asking it to choose between them and the Israelis, but between justice and injustice, between morality and immorality, between integrity and dishonesty. To refuse to make such a choice is not just hypocritical; it could have grave repercussions.
