WASHINGTON, 2 August — At a time when Congressmen are falling over themselves to write anti-Palestinian law, few Congressmen are willing to put themselves in hot water by questioning the rationality of a blindly pro-Israeli Congress.
Today, however, Congressman John Dingell, D-Michigan, hosted a panel of Arab ambassadors and Middle East experts regarding the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and the US strategic interests in the region. It was Dingell, who on July 17, introduced a House Resolution calling for UN peacekeepers to be sent to the occupied territories.
“Like most ‘fair-minded Americans’, I am troubled by the situation in the Middle East and that the United States has not served the role as friend to all, and as an honest broker in the Middle East,” Dingell said to a packed Congressional hearing room.
Focusing on the proposed anti-Palestinian laws, Dingell said: “I note, with sadness, that Congress has placed the blame solely on the Palestinian Authority and (President Yasser) Arafat. To make matters worse, we have begun to exacerbate the process by not paying heed to the tense situation in Lebanon,” Dingell continued. “I also have particular concerns about US behavior toward Egypt, our friend in the Middle East. These decisions are unwise and working against the strategic and economic interests of the US”
“Without American leadership, the situation will escalate and probably explode in the region,” observed Dingell. “I have called for constructive peace legislation that calls for UN peacekeepers in the region, and to learn what is causing the violence and how to defer further violence.” With that, he set the tone for the panel discussion.
First to speak was John Duke Anthony, president of the National Council on US-Arab Relations, who brought up the possible economic repercussions of the anti-Palestinian tone in Congress. “Hundreds of thousands of US jobs are directly linked to the Arab world,” he said. “Yet few in the region would say that the US has come anywhere near to being an honest broken in matters that concern the Israeli-Palestinian quandary.
“Here in Congress, a degree of Arab bashing — Lebanon, Egypt, and the Palestinian Authority, has hardly helped the atmosphere in the Middle East,” Anthony said. “Many in the region find it bizarre that the US identified with the sufferings of Israel, but not the Palestinian Christians and Muslims caught up in the same drama.
Ambassador Marwan Muasher of Jordan, the country’s first ambassador to Israel, began by urging the audience not to give up hope, no matter how hopeless the current situation may seem.
“It is becoming known that Camp David failed, not because of Arafat alone, but because of a series of missteps by everyone — Americans, Israelis and Palestinians alike. Therefore it is important to stop assigning blame on the Palestinians, and to stop ignoring a lot of the realities of the region.”
Muasher pointed out that the six months following Camp David produced important results. “One should not underestimate the amount of work invested. It is extremely dangerous that because of the present difficulty in the peace process, we should not go back to a Cold War mentality, and begin blaming each other and putting up walls.”
He also warned of the effect this would have on the US: “The present atmosphere not only endangers the Palestinians and Israel, but also endangers US interests in the Arab world.” He said the US should not allow itself to become “compartmentalized.” The US should also remember that there are “other Arab moderate countries who have gone out on a limb, because of the situation” the US has made regarding the Middle East.
Jordan’s ambassador said the US must stop “this ‘assignment of blame’ exercise, and encouraged the two sides to return to the negotiating table,” which he said they will have to do, “because there is no alternative.”
Congressman Nick Rahall, D-West Virginia, added his opinion, saying he fully supports the recommendations of the Mitchell Committee (a US report that outlines objectives to jump-start the peace process) and added, “But I would not have called for a freeze of settlements, but for the dismantling of settlements.” Rahall urged patience with the Bush Administration, saying its needs “help and guidance” regarding the Middle East peace policy. “President Bush needs help, but he won’t find it in Congress. These (anti-Palestinian) resolutions will not help the peace process, and every secretary of state who ever spoke here (in Congress) has said it’s wrong. “The US Administration will not get help from Congress. It’s my hope that they will get help from the US people,” he said, adding that Congressmen also respond to the “grass roots back home,” and urged people to write their Congressmen about the Middle East situation, and to become involved in their campaigns of their political hopefuls.
Jim Zogby, president of the Arab American Institution, a co-sponsor in yesterday’s meeting, spoke of the “miserable” situation in the occupied territories. Since the peace talks began, he said, the Palestinians “are drastically poorer, have less control over their land, have massive unemployment, less freedom of movement, and many more settlements.” The result, he said, is “less hope for the future and greater despair over the horrors that have resulted in the collapse of the peace talks.”
Regarding the lack of compassion Americans feel for the Palestinians, Zogby said it is because “we don’t see Palestinians as ‘us.’ Since the creation of Israel, the debate has been one-sided.... It is Israel humanity against Arab terrorists. “Palestinians get the pressure, and Israel gets the compassion,” Zogby said. He slammed the use of Israeli “pre-emptive” attacks on Palestinians. “We used to call the instigators of such attacks ‘death squads,’ when we saw it happening with corrupt Central American regimes,” he said. Zogby said the Israeli government is violating every tenet of international law, “but we accept it because it is the Israelis who are doing it to the Palestinians.”
Finally, Hassan Abdul Rahman at the PLO office in Washington wound up the talks, voicing his concern over the latest round of “Israeli assassinations that killed 16 Palestinians in 36 hours.” Israel, he said, does not want to deal with the political aspect of the situation, so it resorts to “war crimes.”
“All rules of morality and equality are suspended when it concerns Israel.” Abdul Rahman said that, for the last 10 months of the Al-Aqsa Intifada, the Palestinians are “suffering in a state of siege. We live in a big prison — the West Bank and Gaza — yet, we, the Palestinians, are being blamed for what is happening.” The reaction to this injustice is evident, he said. “One year ago, less than 20 percent of Palestinians supported violence against Israel. It’s now 93 percent support, because now every Palestinians knows someone who has been killed, or hurt, by Israelis.
