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Jordan Times A View from the Arab World Rami G. Khouri The assassination here Monday of American diplomat Laurence Foley is the latest in a series of terror acts that must be addressed at the levels of both criminality and politics. The killing of Foley was a deep personal tragedy for his family, colleagues and friends, and for his Arab hosts as well. He and many other Americans work hard every day presenting the best of America to the world — relaxed friendship, official assistance, dedicated professionalism, and a deep, joyous personal commitment to forging mutually satisfying relations between America and the world. He was almost certainly killed because he was seen as a symbol of America's official policies and its presence in the Middle East. American and Arab leaders together should confront the ugly reality of the past 14 months: the terror against the US of Sept. 11, 2001, emanated largely from the two great traditional anchors of American relations with the Arab world, namely Egypt and Saudi Arabia; and the American soldier and diplomat who were killed in the last two weeks in Kuwait and Jordan died in two Arab countries that are strong friends of Washington and that depend heavily on US support. What does it mean that proven American friends like Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Kuwait and Jordan have become symbols of anti-American terror? It means we are witnessing growing divergences between official Arab policy and public opinion in countries where governments rely heavily on American support while public sentiment is very critical of Washington. This also may be the first wave of anti-US terror in the Arab-Asian world generated by the American-led war against terror. It might be largely explained by the convergence of five separate strands of political sentiments of very varied legitimacy: a) The cumulative indignities and anger that several hundred million Arabs feel against American policies in the Middle East, going back some four decades, to when Washington's policy tilted severely and became explicitly pro-Israeli. b) Trends since the 1990-91 Gulf War, including the growing permanent US military presence in the region, and the Anglo-American-driven harsh enforcement of the UN embargo against Iraq, two factors that seem to have contributed to spawning Osama Ben Ladenism and Al Qaeda terror against America. c) Israel's harsh military assaults, political brutality and economic suffocation of the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza since September 2001, which ordinary Arabs see in parallel with acquiescence by Washington and impotence by Arab governments. d) America's global “war against terror”, though correct in its inception, is seen to be waged in a discriminating, uneven, manner. Most Arabs and Asians read its latest threat of war to change the regime in Iraq as only emphasizing the long tradition of self-serving double-standards in American policy in this region. e) Many people throughout the Arab-Asian region who feel deeply angry, humiliated, demeaned and helpless because of the above forces become doubly enraged when their own governments limit their freedom of expression or deny them opportunities to participate in political processes that could change government policies. Distortions and rights denials within Arab society only aggravate the pains Arab feel from abroad. These five defining political trends lead most Arabs to resign themselves to enduring injustices and human rights denials on a massive scale. Most people accept the harsh reality and get on with life. A few emigrate if they can. Some try to change the system from within. And a handful go over the edge and become assassins and bombers. They attack Arab, Israeli and American targets alike, the latter because they see American policies as the constant thread that runs through, connects and bolsters the key indignities they endure in Israel/Palestine, Iraq, the Gulf and their own countries. This new form of criminality must be fought with a forceful combination of detention, prosecution, punishment and, when possible, deterrence and prevention. The assassins of Laurence Foley are the latest link in a bloody chain of events that degrades our very humanity. Reprehensible as they are, though, these events are neither surprising nor do they spring out of a political or historical vacuum. Our outrage at this denigration of Arab and American values must not so befuddle us that we lose sight of the fact that this remains a cycle of events and emotions where actions and reactions occur in a predictable manner. In this cycle of violence, fine human beings like Laurence Foley are innocent victims of a terrible fury that was created by human decisions and policies, but that can be tamed by those same forces — if leaders and ordinary people alike shun the logic of militarism and, instead, affirm the values of human decency, respect, hard work and commitment to peace and equality that defined Laurence Foley's life. |
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