“Ladies and gentlemen, it is time to establish a strong base of hope,” said Colin Powell, the American secretary of state, in a long speech at the Heritage Foundation. The speech received no positive comment in any Arab newspaper. In fact, despite its upbeat content, it was attacked aggressively.
In the speech, Powell introduced a US political, cultural and economic project for the Arab world; the idea of the project was to support regional reforms in these areas. It also went further and proposed a special partnership between the US and many countries in the Middle East.
Why Powell’s suggestions met with silence or sarcasm, in my opinion, had nothing to do with the project itself but everything to do with the country proposing it. That country is, of course, the United States. The problem is that the US has a long-standing reputation for offending the people of the Middle East and showing little regard for their wishes and aspirations. Why then should any country in the region cooperate with Washington?
Powell should have understood this when he made his offer to more than 20 Middle Eastern countries. He was, it seems, putting the cart before the horse. His project will never get off the ground, not because the ideas are unsuitable but simply because he will have a hard time convincing people of his country’s good intentions.
Reform must begin with proof of good will. To show good will to the Arab world is not a difficult thing to do, although many people think it is. What would prove conclusively to the Middle East America’s good intentions would be a change in the way Washington approaches the Arab-Israeli conflict. That long-standing problem, the solution to which remains the measure of American sincerity, is invariably cited to prove American insensitivity to the Arabs and to a problem which has plagued them and the world for the last 50 years.
When I say it is easy to solve, I mean to be taken literally. Powell should have looked at the problem as it is today and not as it was in the days of his predecessors. Both sides, Arab and Israeli, have come close to ending the conflict — the Saudi initiative which called for the recognition of Israel, protecting its borders and establishing a Palestinian state on lands occupied since 1967.
What is the problem if this initiative were to be implemented under the auspices of the United Nations or the White House, especially if both sides agree to it? Arabs and Israelis have never been so close to agreeing. In the past, the Arabs granted many concessions that American mediators would never have dreamed of asking for. Nonetheless, no one in Washington stepped up to support strongly or to push for acceptance of so manifestly fair an agreement.
We ask Powell in all honesty how he expects the governments and people of 20 countries involved in this conflict to trust him. What basis is there for such trust? A project calling for political reform such as he made in his speech cannot become reality if his government, with all its capabilities and powers to influence, fails to bring about a final agreement between Arabs and Israelis.
Arab News Opinion 22 December 2002
