Is Our Mideast Policy Trapped Behind a Veil?
No one could have predicted that Palestinian-American psychiatrist, Nidal Malik Hasan, would go on a deadly shooting rampage at Fort Hood.
But what could have been foreseen was that our refusal to face reality in the Middle East would spawn unintended and deadly consequences.
Instead of responding to each such tragedy, by debating which country in the Middle East we should invade next, the moment has come for the
United States to peep behind its own self-imposed veil.
America would not have gone to war in Afghanistan and Iraq had Osama bin Laden and the international terrorist network of al-Qaeda not launched the attack on the World trade Center and Pentagon. So, when did our troubles with the Islamic world start? It was not at the time of the Crusades. The United States didn't exist in the twelfth century. It was rather after the 1967 Six Day War, when Israel's lopsided victory over its Arab neighbors, so shamed these societies based on honor and saving face, that they began scrambling for answers. Islamic fundamentalists who had prior to this moment operated on the fringes of these Middle East societies took center stage. They argued that the defeat of the Arab armies was God's punishment for lack of piety. In 1971, I was living in Egypt, wearing mini-skirts in downtown Cairo to a part-time job I had as a disc jockey and announcer for Radio Cairo. However, by 1979, the fundamentalist Ayatollah Khomeini deposed the Shah of Iran, who had been Israel's only friend in the Middle East. In 1981, Islamic militants had assassinated Egyptian President, Anwar Sadat, for signing a peace treaty with Israel. When I returned to Cairo in 1984, female
college students were draped in veils.
America's seemingly inexplicable problems in the Middle East, do not require mystical knowledge to unravel. The Arab-Israeli conflict is at
the root of our troubles. Terrorism is merely a "gangrene." Its
opportunistic toxins seek out oozing, festering boils in the political landscape caused by endemic conflict and unresolved grievances.
President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hilary Clinton have been given a historic moment to throw off our nation's blinders. After all, the American public is exhausted with the blood sacrifice its soldiers are forced to make on an empty altar. Our policy towards Israel must shift from an emphasis on the long-term survival of the Jewish state, to the long-term survival of the Jewish and Palestinian peoples. This should be so, even if it means pushing Israel to the next stage in its national evolution, the transition into a secular democracy, which privileges neither Jews nor Arabs. Maybe this Fort Hood tragedy can spur the United States to turn its gaze to what is really at stake in the Middle East. We know what will happen if we fail to take act now and boldly. All that we will lack is the details of where, when and the
names engraved on the next victims' tombstones.
But what could have been foreseen was that our refusal to face reality in the Middle East would spawn unintended and deadly consequences.
Instead of responding to each such tragedy, by debating which country in the Middle East we should invade next, the moment has come for the
United States to peep behind its own self-imposed veil.
America would not have gone to war in Afghanistan and Iraq had Osama bin Laden and the international terrorist network of al-Qaeda not launched the attack on the World trade Center and Pentagon. So, when did our troubles with the Islamic world start? It was not at the time of the Crusades. The United States didn't exist in the twelfth century. It was rather after the 1967 Six Day War, when Israel's lopsided victory over its Arab neighbors, so shamed these societies based on honor and saving face, that they began scrambling for answers. Islamic fundamentalists who had prior to this moment operated on the fringes of these Middle East societies took center stage. They argued that the defeat of the Arab armies was God's punishment for lack of piety. In 1971, I was living in Egypt, wearing mini-skirts in downtown Cairo to a part-time job I had as a disc jockey and announcer for Radio Cairo. However, by 1979, the fundamentalist Ayatollah Khomeini deposed the Shah of Iran, who had been Israel's only friend in the Middle East. In 1981, Islamic militants had assassinated Egyptian President, Anwar Sadat, for signing a peace treaty with Israel. When I returned to Cairo in 1984, female
college students were draped in veils.
America's seemingly inexplicable problems in the Middle East, do not require mystical knowledge to unravel. The Arab-Israeli conflict is at
the root of our troubles. Terrorism is merely a "gangrene." Its
opportunistic toxins seek out oozing, festering boils in the political landscape caused by endemic conflict and unresolved grievances.
President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hilary Clinton have been given a historic moment to throw off our nation's blinders. After all, the American public is exhausted with the blood sacrifice its soldiers are forced to make on an empty altar. Our policy towards Israel must shift from an emphasis on the long-term survival of the Jewish state, to the long-term survival of the Jewish and Palestinian peoples. This should be so, even if it means pushing Israel to the next stage in its national evolution, the transition into a secular democracy, which privileges neither Jews nor Arabs. Maybe this Fort Hood tragedy can spur the United States to turn its gaze to what is really at stake in the Middle East. We know what will happen if we fail to take act now and boldly. All that we will lack is the details of where, when and the
names engraved on the next victims' tombstones.
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