In the last quarter of a century, Lebanon has had its infrastructure destroyed twice by Israel, financed in part by the United States. The Palestinian territories have been under military occupation by Israel for the last 40 years. The excuses for invasion and occupation are always the same: self-defense and rooting out terrorists. The results are also the same: humiliation of the Arabs and more extremism.
In 1982, the Israeli military bulldozed its way to Beirut with the stated purpose of destroying the Palestine Liberation Organization and liquidating Yasser Arafat. After some negotiations, the PLO leadership fled Beirut and Israel forcefully occupied Southern Lebanon. Hezbollah was founded in 1982 as a byproduct of the Israeli invasion and occupation of Lebanon.
This time around, the excuse being employed to justify bombarding Lebanon is to deal Hezbollah a fatal blow. Same plot, different characters. War and occupation are prime ingredients in the recipe for radicalization and increased terrorism in the region. What we’re witnessing in Iraq is a case in point, with al-Qaeda flourishing since the U.S. invasion and occupation.
Let’s measure U.S. successes and failures within the parameters of stated American interests:
- Establishing the rule of law: It is nothing short of amusing to see the government of Israel cite United Nations resolutions, when there are at least a dozen U.N. resolutions citing its illegal occupation of the Palestinian territories and its well-documented abuse of human rights standards dictated by international and U.S. law.
- Countering terrorism: Terrorism in the region is on the rise and shows no sign of waning. When coupled with high unemployment and poverty, dehumanization and indignity are known to be causes of terrorism. Despite this broadly acknowledged fact, Israel continues to subject the Palestinian and Lebanese peoples to large-scale military aggression that is annihilating the modest infrastructure they’ve managed to rebuild after decades of conflict.
- Promoting democracy: By remaining a sideline observer with the dismantlement of two emerging democratic societies, Lebanon and the occupied Palestinian territories, the U.S. is sending a message to the Arab and Muslim worlds where its interests lie. It is now clear to the people in the Middle East that democracy means elect the people the U.S. government wants – or you’ll be starved and suffocated like the Palestinians.
- Restoring human rights: The guarantee of human rights for the Muslim and Arab peoples is not absolute. Millions in the region are seeing demolished cities, fleeing populations and dead bodies minute-by-minute on their television screens.
- Helping America’s allies: Two of the most humiliated Arab allies of the United States, President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority and President Fouad Siniora of Lebanon, have learned that the seed of their continued engagement with America may never bear fruit, but only further suffering and destruction of their countries. It’s no surprise, then, that an alliance with the United States government by any political leader in the Middle East is viewed as a liability.
When measuring by the U.S. yardstick, our policy in the Middle East is a failure. While there is much talk about religion and culture as an explanation for the conflict, the government policy needs to be scrutinized for root causes.
In order to find a way out of this morass, the U.S. must recognize that Palestine’s right to exist is as crucial as Israel’s right to exist. The Arab League offered Israel normalization of relations. But these peace proposals are not the focus of U.S. policy makers.
Instead, U.S. energy is spent on regime change which has only brought about more radical regimes. While the current governments of Iran and Syria are far from ideal, the prospect of military action against them will likely bring about a more entrenched, more anti-American government.
If we “stay the course” with belligerence to the Arab and Muslim world now, then we should not be surprised when they respond with belligerence to their continued humiliation and not-quite-human treatment by the international community.
Continue with violence against Arabs under the pretext of destroying Hezbollah and Hamas, without addressing the core issue, and they’ll just be replaced by others who are more zealous. The core issue is occupation, and as long as support for it continues to be the center of our foreign policy, then Israelis, Arabs and Americans will all suffer from the discontent and distrust we’ve sown.
Salam Al-Marayati is executive director of the Muslim Public Affairs Council. He can be reached at salam@mpac.org.
