Online Journal Contributing Writer
Apr 1, 2010, 00:42
Courtesy Of The Online Journal
When oh when will Arab leaders put petty squabbles behind them and speak with one voice for the benefit of all? This is the moment. Israel has rarely been as vulnerable in the court of global public opinion. The population of the Arab World is approximately 358 million, yet Israel’s 5.5 million Jews have historically wielded far more political clout than their Arab neighbours that invariably spend more time arguing with each other than standing up to the belligerent Jewish state.
Besides Arab disunity, the reasons driving this imbalance are numerous. They include Israel’s alliances with the US, the superpower which considers Tel Aviv a strategic asset, and with ‘Old Europe’ that has carried a burden of Holocaust guilt. There has also been a wide reaching perception throughout America that Israelis are ‘like us’ in terms of values, lifestyle and appearance.
There always was a prevailing ‘them and us’ feeling towards Arabs on the part of the Westerners, resulting partly from Israeli propaganda, America’s powerful pro-Israel lobby, negative Hollywood stereotypes portraying Arabs as bloodthirsty, ostentatiously wealthy or dissolute, as well as hysteria derived from the ‘war on terror.’ But times they are a-changing!
Firstly, Israel’s legendary military invincibility was successfully challenged by Hezbollah, which damaged its strategic value in Washington’s eyes. At the same time, Israel’s televised brutality towards an occupied people and its continued blockade of Gaza has horrified governments and decent people everywhere, including many Jews in the Diaspora.
Secondly, memories of the Holocaust are fading and with them Europe’s sense of culpability; there is also a new recognition that Israeli leaders have used the Holocaust as a propaganda tool to perpetuate perceptions that Jews are victims. For Israel, it is an uncomfortable fact that young American Jews are turning towards secularism. Indeed, some 50 percent of Jews in the US are marrying outside the faith while only 30 percent of their offspring are being brought up as Jews. Israel managed to alienate such couples with television and Internet ads characterising such marriages as “a strategic threat” and urging Israelis to stop friends and relatives assimilating.
Provided this trend continues the power of the pro-Israel lobby will erode. That may be happening already with the emergence of a new and liberal kid on the block, J Street, which was accused of spending more time criticising Israel than supporting it during the recent AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee) meet.
Thirdly, the US-Israel relationship is at an all time low as was evident during Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit last week to the White House when US President Barack Obama barred the usual photo-ops, press conference and joint statement, leaving Netanyahu to stew while he went off to dinner with Michelle and the girls. He was treated worse than an unsavoury Third World dictator was the view of some Israeli officials.
Moreover, Israel has been taken to task by Britain for cloning British passports used by assassins to kill a Hamas commander in Dubai. The Foreign Office has warned travellers to Israel to be wary of handing over their passports to Israeli officials and has kicked an Israeli diplomat out of the country. The UN isn’t pulling any punches either. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon travelled to Gaza to express “solidarity” and says Israel’s colonisation of occupied east Jerusalem and the West Bank is “illegal.”
That’s all well and good but what about Arab solidarity? The time has arguably never been as propitious for Arabs to put on a united front behind a two-state solution and especially when Israel is violating one of Islam’s holiest sites, Al Aqsa, and claiming the whole of occupied Jerusalem as its capital city.
It’s bad enough that Fatah and Hamas seem incapable of getting their act together, leaving the Palestinians virtually leaderless, many Arab heads of state didn’t bother turning up for what should have been a crucially important Arab League Summit all because it was held in Libya. It’s true that Libya’s outspoken leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi has ruffled Saudi, Egyptian, Kuwaiti and Lebanese feathers -- and many others -- but it’s a pity that those who have been offended didn’t decide to grow thicker skins rather than stay away.
Once again, the Arab League has failed in the credibility stakes by showcasing disunity, culminating in a brief walk-out by the Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari upset that Gaddafi met Saddam loyalists last week. It seems to me that the 22 Arab League members should refrain from airing their dirty laundry in public and concentrate on the big picture: a sovereign Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital within a peaceful and prosperous Middle East.
Linda S. Heard is a British specialist writer on Middle East affairs. She welcomes feedback and can be contacted by email atheardonthegrapevines@yahoo.co.uk.Copyright © 1998-2007 Online Journal
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