TIME Magazine: The Big Lie About the Middle East

[furman]

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/printout/0,8816,1568466,00.html

Sunday, Dec. 10, 2006
The Big Lie About the Middle East
Tell James Baker: Arab nations don't care about the Palestinians
By LISA BEYER

No sensible person is against peacemaking in the Holy Land. But in lumping the Iraq mess in with the Palestinian problem - and suggesting the first could not be fixed unless the second was too - the Baker-Hamilton commission lent credibility to a corrosive myth: that the fundamental problem in the Arab world is the plight of the Palestinians.

<snip>

The mantra is also repeated in parts of the State Department, in various think tanks, by editorial writers and Sunday talk-show hosts.

<snip>

But the pan-Arabism that once made the Palestinian cause the region's cause is long dead. In a decade of reporting in the region, I found it rarely took more than the arching of an eyebrow to get the most candid of Arab thinkers to acknowledge that the tears shed for the Palestinians today outside the West Bank and Gaza are of the crocodile variety. Palestinians know this best of all.

<snip>

To promote the canard that the troubles of the Arab world are rooted in the Palestinians' misfortune does great harm. It encourages the Arabs to continue to avoid addressing their colossal societal and political ills by hiding behind their Great Excuse: it's all Israel's fault.

<snip>

One might argue that if the Arab dictators were deprived of the Great Excuse, they might begin to rule with greater concern for their constituents' needs. But why should they be allowed to wait - in the meantime cynically selling their people the Israel Myth - especially since the wait is apt to be long?

<snip>

The Baker commission report's airy prescription for frog-marching Israelis and Palestinians into new peace talks perpetuates another persistent fiction: that U.S. involvement is the key to a breakthrough. That contradicts the real-life story of all three of the major peace agreements Israel has signed, with the Egyptians, Palestinians, and Jordanians. Each was the result of bold initiatives not by Washington but by local leaders, when conditions were ripe. In all three cases, the accords were the product of negotiations begun in secret behind the backs of the Americans.

[David Dunham]

1. Dead wrong. Carter's involvement was key to Israel-Egypt peace treaty.

[Name removed]

3. Deleted message

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[peacetalksforall]

2. In secret - behind the backs of Americans? Then, why not

concluded in secret and announced to the front of Americans? Why spend time with Carter. Who is this writer?

Hmmmm Lisa Beyer...sounds like Lisa Meyer/Myer.

[aquart]

5. WTF does that mean?

I love insinuations in the late afternoon.

[peacetalksforall]

If they were already in secret meetings, then why get involved

in meetings with Carter? Why waste the time with Americans if they were doing it by themselves / between themselves?

Regarding this from the article:

"In all three cases, the accords were the product of negotiations begun in secret behind the backs of the Americans. "

[ChairmanAgnostic]

4. interesting point

There are a series of REAL problems, which are not in any particular order. Any one or more of them could be combined with another and discussed in the same way. Some might be similar, just named differently:

a) Shia-Sunni theological battles which have lasted for a millenium
b) The Palestinian problem (i) the forced removal, lack of homes, water, opportunity and the destruction of farms and businesses
b) the Palestinian problem (ii) the attacks on Israelis
c) the Palestinian problem (iii) the attacks by Israelis on leaders, politicians, the kidnappings, the embargoes, the unrestricted shelling and the wall
d) Wahabi-ism
e) Rapidly growing Saudi unrest, and the lack of a realistic, rational and talented leader in the House of Saud, coupled with unbridled greed, corruption and anger by the general population. It rivals Iran under the Shah.
f) Iraq-Iran antagonism
g) American policy (i) the blind pro-Israeli idiocy on every issue in that region
h) American policy (ii) the total lack of coherence, understanding, historical knowledge, intel, and contacts with the most important elements in the entire Muddle East
i) American policy (iii) Any and everything Condi and George touch
j) American policy (iv) the total lack of a rational energy and conservation program
k) American policy (v) the failure to negotiate, instead labeling anyone who disagrees with Israel a terrorist organization.
l) The growing popularity of fundementalism, including Christian, Muslim and Jewish.
m) IraqNam - our presence simply makes things worse
n) Israeli policies towards neighbors other than Palestine, especially Lebanon.

[peacetalksforall]

9. o) the greed and need of the U.S.

p)the ability to frame a plot to progress on behalf of the ususal barons and corporations and their politicians and media - PNAC
q)the game of arming and threatening through arms
r)the deals for arming and profiting first or simultaneously
s)partnering with media to advance and hide the deals and exploit / propagandize

[Captain Hilts]

6. Our support of Israel is one reason many Arabs [and Persians] in the area hate us. nt

[Tom Joad]

7. The Arab establishment may not care, but common folks do care...

and they see this as an example of how little the US really cares about Arab people.
If the US is talking "democracy" and "freedom" at the same time defending any and all Israeli action, no matter how brutal toward the Palestinian people, they see that whole foreign policy as a lie, that the only reason the US is involved in the Middle East is to participate in the prevention of real democracy for the Arab people of the region.

[endarkenment]

8. I think she is overstating things.

The I/P mess clearly is part of the problem. It would be hard to imagine a genuine peace in the region while that festering sore persists.

However we also should not allow the ISG 'plan' to put off resolution of the Iraqi mess pending an over-arching solution to all problems in the region. If that is her point, I agree. We need to get out of Iraq, the sooner the better, regardless of what happens in the occupied territories.