Popular Uprisings All Over the Middle East a Death Knell for U.S. Credibility

US has lost all credibility, as well as the opportunity to be relevant, in the region.

Popular uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt, and Jordan have been the main topic of news media of late, and while the democratic yearnings of the populace should, in theory, be supported by the U.S., a change in the status quo is the last thing our government wants.

Since the days of Eisenhower, our government has striven to make democracy our #1 export, in the perhaps mistaken belief that any democratic country would be our ally. Israel was the first country in the Middle East to get the American stamp of approval and, since its inception, this tiny state the size of New Jersey has received a total of $140 billion of aid (source), $53 billion of which was military aid (source). This is a symbol of America’s “special relationship” with Israel.

But what about our special relationships with the dictatorships of Tunisia, Libya, and Egypt, and the monarchies of Morocco, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia? Are we “supporting” them to the tune of billions of dollars annually in the innocent hopes that they will voluntarily enact democracy in their countries? Since 1987 (the year Tunisia’s Ben-Ali took power), the U.S. has sold $349 million worth of weaponry to Tunisia (source). US military aid to Egypt totals over $1.3 billion annually (source). We gave Jordan $666 million worth of military aid in 2007 alone, spending $80 million of that on an anti-terrorism training center (source). All these countries either have rigged elections or no elections at all and we have propped up their governments with billions of dollars worth of military aid for decades. We even provided the gas with which Saddam Hussein committed an act of genocide against his own citizens (source), an act we apparently didn’t consider reprehensible until 20 years later.

In fact, during the Iran-Iraq war, we provided weapons not only to Iraq, but Iran as well, and even sent the proceeds of that arrangement to the Nicaraguan Resistance, which resulted in a little scandal called Iran-Contra. And now we lambaste Iran for providing funding and weapons to the Lebanese resistance, Hezbollah. We call Hezbollah Iran’s proxy and say “no fair”, and meanwhile we have dozens of our own proxies that we fund and equip on a fantastically larger scale.

And now the citizens of all these countries call us hypocrites (like here), and we have the gall to build anti-terrorism training centers that are supposed to shield us from the results of our own actions.

Once upon a time, the U.S. had a chance to be truly relevant in the Middle East by brokering a lasting peace agreement between the Israelis and Palestinians. We said we wanted peace, we sent our ambassadors and negotiators jaunting back and forth between Israel, Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Egypt, and elsewhere. But, more than ever, it seems like that was play acting, what many political analysts refer to as “stagecraft” rather than statecraft. And now, with the Palestinian Authority seeking recognition from UN countries directly, without America’s support, it is even clearer that we are no longer needed.

The Palestinian cause is the poster child of injustice in the region. Everybody from Morocco to Qatar knows that the Palestinians are increasingly subjugated and abused in myriad ways by the U.S., who continues to fund the Israeli military machine at the rate of $8 million a day while expecting the citizens of our ally countries to believe that we are doing so because Israel is under threat (source). If Israel were to be attacked, the chances are staggering that it would be bombed with our missiles, dropped from our planes, by soldiers whose salaries are paid by our tax dollars.

We are financing war because it is more profitable than peace, and the Middle East, at least, is tired of the status quo.

We have lost our chance to be relevant. If we want a chance to survive at all, with any moral dignity, we need a drastic change of plans.

Returning to the Occupation

I just returned from my weekend in Jordan and fully intended to write all about it, but I swear to god, as soon as I crossed the border into Israel/Palestine/the West Bank/whathaveyou, I became mentally exhausted. There were a total of at least 9 checkpoints in the roughly five mile span between the Jordan river and Jericho. I say "at least 9" because I lost count. My passport was handled by so many different people it probably has an STD by now.

I really do intend to write a play-by-play of the whole experience, but at this point, I only have the druthers to share one small portion of it.

On the bus from the Israeli side of the border to Jericho, I was seated next to a Mr. Bassam Aramin, co-founder of Combatants for Peace. He politely asked to sit next to me, and then lapsed into an exhausted silence. We arrived at the second of the day's Palestinian checkpoints, where a border guard boarded the bus and asked to take everyone's papers. When I handed him mine, he spoke to me in Arabic, and I asked the kindly man next to me what he said.

"He says foreigners should take the bus straight through to Jerusalem, and not this way. It is what the Israelis want." He paused and added, "It generates money for them, you know, the transport. And they don't want foreigners to see this." He shook his head and as he focused on something far outside the window, he said sadly, "Another face of the occupation."

We got to talking, and he revealed that his 10 year old daughter was shot and killed by the Israeli military outside of her school two years ago. News reports about the incident say she was caught in the crossfire between soldiers and Palestinian stone throwers.

Here is an excellent article about Mr. Aramin and the beginnings of Combatants for Peace.

U.S. Funds Creation of Palestinian Security Forces

In an interview with Haaretz today, U.S. three star general Keith Dayton revealed his progress in creating a U.S. trained Palestinian security force.

This week Dayton left on a home visit to the United States, after completing three missions: The first battalion of the rebuilt Palestinian National Security Forces, numbering 500 soldiers from the West Bank, completed four months of training in Jordan; a Presidential Guard training college is being constructed outside Jericho; and a strategic-planning department has been created in the Palestinian Authority's Interior Ministry in Ramallah, to establish decision-making and work processes. On the eve of his departure, Dayton finalized plans for a second Palestinian battalion to leave for training in Jordan, and after lengthy delays, obtained the approval of the Israeli Defense Ministry to equip the Palestinian forces with protective vests and new jeeps.

Dayton says the first step in creating a Palestinian state is creating a Palestinian security force. In explaining his mission and his purpose, he said that if Palestinians can secure their own territory, then it cannot be used to launch attacks against Israel.

Whatever the reasons behind creating the forces, everyone seems to be pretty excited about it.

"The Jordanians said, after the first couple of weeks, who are these people? They're quick learners, they're disciplined, they follow orders, and they're motivated," recalled Dayton, who visited them with PA Interior Minister Abdel-Razak Yahya, a familiar figure for Israelis from the early days of the Oslo process.

"He may look like an old man," said Dayton, "but he's a young man. He gave a speech to them, which was just amazing. He told these guys, 'You're not learning how to fight the Israelis, you're not here to fight the occupation, you're here to fight the forces of disorder, the forces of crime and lawlessness inside Palestine.' He said 'armed groups,' which was his way of saying 'terrorists.' He said: If you do your job properly, we will have a state. The national project will succeed.'

"I went to the graduations," continued Dayton, "and I'm not naive. I watched them, kinda looked them in the eyes, and I'm telling you, these are new people. Now it can all go bad if political progress doesn't happen, I guess, but these are new people. They think they're building a state, and I'm pretty pleased about that."

Dayton has a congressionally-approved budget of $75 million with which to train these security forces, and he expects to spend at least three years on this project.

Ahmadinejad Proves Sneaky but Unoriginal

I’m reading The Lemon Tree by Sandy Tolan and it has served as a catalyst for my own narrative on the recent history of Palestine. Each section in the book brings a new opinion, a new feeling. I am sympathetic to the Jews now, to the Arabs now. The tone is mostly objective, but we are looking through the eyes of one group at a time. Tolan uses rumor and propaganda carefully, as a tool to describe the mindset of each group in times of hysteria. Whether or not there was a slaughter of women and children at Deir Yassin is not an issue for debate in this context. The belief that it had happened is what contributed to the terror.

In the first chapter, I thought, “How tragic for the Arab. He returns as a stranger to his own home.” In the second chapter I thought, “Why are the British sticking their noses in?” In the third chapter I thought, “My god, even in Bulgaria the Jews are being rounded up like cattle.” Chapter four was particularly thought-provoking and will receive its due attention. I will delve into further chapters in future entries.

Firstly, several whys came into my mind, some I have provided answers to, and some I have not. Why did Palestinian Arabs not feel pity for the holocaust survivors flooding the country? Why did they greet them with mistrust? Why did the United States not allow Jewish immigration? Why, 30 years after declaring Palestine a “national home for the Jewish people” did Britain force ships of Jewish refugees to return to Germany? Why does the world not know that Jewish extremist groups were the first to use what we now call “terrorism?” Why did the UN assign 54.5% of Palestine to the Jewish minority, which constituted 1/3 of the population and owned 7% of the land?

My brief commentary on events:

In July of 1946, a Jewish militia called Irgun planted bombs in the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, killing more than 80 people, mostly British soldiers. At that time, they were the desperate, enraged minority. They had not the resources or the political clout to achieve their goals diplomatically. They were essentially squatters who had nowhere else to go. This is exactly the position that the Palestinians, especially those in Gaza, are in now. The side with superior resources can afford to wait. Moral principles easily fold in the face of hunger and thirst.

After the UN decision, David Ben-Gurion, the leader of the dominant Jewish agency of the time, was not satisfied with the 55% Jewish majority in the Jewish partition. He argued that this would prevent total Jewish control in their territory. He said, “Such a composition does not provide a stable basis for a Jewish state. With such a composition, there cannot be absolute certainty that control will remain in the hands of the Jewish majority.” Whether morally right or wrong, he was factually correct. After the UN decision, Arabs were outraged and began attacking buses, but the Jewish militias were well-prepared and underestimated. They fought back. Both sides attacked villages, newspaper offices, hotels, and public streets.

Surrounding Arab countries immediately voiced their support for Palestine, especially King Abdullah of Transjordan, who had met secretly with Zionist leaders and agreed to let them keep their 54.5% while he absorbed the West Bank as part of his kingdom.

On June 11, 1948, a truce went into effect between Arabs and Jews but while Jordan and the Arabs were forced to comply, Jewish forces broke the embargo and smuggled in arms and ammunition. This left Arab forces at a severe disadvantage when fighting resumed. After the truce ended, neither side would settle for two states. That is, unless the two states were Israel and Transjordan. Ben Gurion was still not happy with his imperfect control of Jewish land (rival Jewish militias were fighting amongst themselves) and Palestinian people were not invited to participate in the discussion of their own future. The Arab League voted to continue fighting for Palestinian independence and designated Abdullah as the ironic leader of this effort.

King Abdullah continued to supply his forces for Palestinian resistance, but only enough to secure the West Bank as far Jerusalem, the jewel he had envisioned for his crown. Villages past this scrimmage line were abandoned to fight for themselves. On July 12, 1948, Yitzhak Rabin issued an order to expel residents of al-Ramle and Lydda (which are now Israeli villages called Ramla and Lod). His order stated, “The inhabitants of Lydda are to be expelled quickly without attention to age.” This is the same Yitzhak Rabin that in 1994 was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his involvement in the Oslo Accords, which officially recognized Palestine and gave it some authority over itself. The same Yitzhak Rabin that in 1995 was assassinated by a right-wing Israeli for these latter actions.

The story of King Abdullah and the West Bank brings to mind another story, one that is happening now, and reminds me why the study of history is imperative to the understanding of the present.

Iran is today’s Transjordan. As I said, in November of 1947 King Abdullah met secretly with Zionist leaders and agreed to expand only into Palestine, allowing Jews to keep the rest. Publicly, Jordan supported Palestinian independence. This seems exactly what Ahmadinejad is doing today: supplying arms to Hamas, but not good enough arms to actually win. Only good enough to keep both sides distracted. It was exactly what the US did in the 1980s: supplied weapons to Afghanistan to help them fight the Soviets, but only enough to keep Russia busy. Ahmadinejad is not stupid. He knows that when you have two enemies, you don’t fight them both. You get them to fight each other.

He is using the same strategy to keep the US busy in Iraq. In a post titled What's Happening Under the Table, Dr. Mohammed, a local blogger in Baghdad, wrote back in March:

Ahmedi Najad visited Karada and I'm sure he didn't like seeing the people shopping and walking safely in the streets because the last thing Iran wants is peace in Iraq for one simple reason because this will mean that USA have won and USA will be free to take care of Iran in addition to that they will gradually loose control over Iraq and the unlimited benefits they get from Iraq….at least that's what I'm thinking…Iran is one of the biggest beneficial of the situation in Iraq.

Last week’s bombing at a Gaza crossing began to alert international intelligence agencies that Iran is secretly funding the extremist militias in and around Gaza.

So the question is: who is Iran secretly in bed with? Ahmadinejad may not only be two-timing, he might be three-timing or four-timing. The question of how he is supplying arms to Iraqi militants is simple enough: they share a border. But how is he supplying arms to militants in Gaza? Egypt is the most likely candidate, given they share a border with Gaza, but Egypt is right now desperately pushing for a truce between Hamas and Israel due to the staggering number of penniless refugees crossing into Egypt daily. Israel currently has a siege on Gaza’s port, so how are these supplies entering Gaza and who stands to gain from it?