In the years following World War II most of the Arab countries gained their freedom from British and French rule. For the first time they began to have regular dealings with Americans. They liked the Texans and other Americans who came to help drill wells, build pipelines, and establish the oil industry. These people did not come as conquerors. They represented a new modern world. They were competent, friendly, and knowledgeable. They brought new ideas, modern technology, and a sense of equality. They were well paid, but they created far more wealth for the Arab people than they took. The Arabs were extremely pleased.
Now, 50 years later, most Arabs still admire Americans, but many of them have also acquired an intense dislike for the United States. What went wrong? It is a long and complicated story, but it is important for us to understand.
The first and biggest problem is the Arab Israeli dispute. After World War II the Americans believed that the Nazis were the epitome of evil, and they believed themselves to be magnificent heroes for fighting and defeating them. The proof of this was established when the concentration camps were liberated at the end of the war. The Nazis were evil, and the worst example of their evilness was the Holocaust. The Jews were poor innocent victims. The Americans were great heroes because they defeated the Nazis and liberated the Jews.
For the American media, the Jews were the good guys. American sympathy poured out to them. In the past many Americans had been anti-Semitic. That quickly came to an end. Nazis were evil. Anti-Semitism was evil. Jews were good. Americans were good. The United States and most other countries were eager to help the Jews establish a national homeland of their own.
Few people had ever heard of the Palestinians. If they would not allow the Jews to come live in their ancient homeland, well then they must be anti-Semitic. Therefore, they must be evil. The United States had one hundred percent sympathy for the Jews and zero percent sympathy for the Palestinians and anyone else who opposed a Jewish homeland.
Because the Palestinians refused to turn over their land to a completely different, unrelated people, they were considered to be evil. This was totally unfair, but the United States, like all other countries, has its own prejudices and priorities. All of the Arab countries had great sympathy for their Palestinian brothers and no sympathy for the Jews. This just convinced Americans that the Jews were once again poor innocent victims, who deserved American support.
Israel was established. It quickly became a modern democratic state, and it has continued to receive full American support to this day. The Palestinians were swept out of the way, and most of them are still living in refugee camps. This is an intolerable situation for the Palestinian people and an intolerable situation for the entire world. The Palestinians have now suffered at least as much during their 50 years of exile as the Jews did during the 5 years of the Holocaust. The problem has also caused a gigantic amount of suffering for Israelis, Arabs, Americans, and the entire world. It is obvious that this is not a problem that will heal with time. Every decade it has gotten worse.
The Israeli Palestinian problem has festered and putrefied. It is causing a gigantic amount of ill will between Arabs and Americans. The United States and Europe helped to cause the problem. It is absolutely necessary that they help to find a solution. The map shows one possible compromise that provides a sovereign, independent nation-state for both Israel and Palestine.
There is a second important issue that has intensified the Arab dislike for America. The United States has been interfering with the natural course of the modern revolution in the Islamic Middle East. Just like everywhere else, the Arab world has been caught up in the transition from traditional society to democratic market society. This means that traditional rulers—monarchs, aristocrats, and tribal leaders—must be replaced by oligarchs and/or dictators as part of the transition to democracy.
It may be that many conservative Arabs would like to call off the entire transition to modern democratic market society. This revolution is causing gigantic amounts of problems and is taking them away from their roots as a conservative Islamic society. The problem is that social evolution only moves in one direction. You cannot go back for reasons of nostalgia. Eighty years ago in the old society, Arabs got their daily food from their animals or from peasant agriculture. Now they go to the store and buy their food. The Arab population is about four times higher than it was eighty years ago. The old system cannot possibly feed the modern population. The market system of food production and distribution is gigantically more productive. It is not possible to use a modern economy and still retain the old political and social institutions. The Arab countries cannot go back to the old form of society. They have no other choice but to go forward.
Traditional Arab society did not emphasize industry and did not use any form of democracy or elections. This means that the transition to democratic market society was always going to be a difficult process. In the past when an Arab dynasty declined, the strongest available new leader usually took charge and established a new dynasty. This process has continued in modern times, although in a somewhat modified form. Since monarchy and tribal rule are now being replaced, the strong new leaders usually govern as dictators.
The problem is that the United States has an intense dislike for dictatorship. This is left over from its World War II and Cold War propaganda. America very much prefers to see oligarchic rule with a democratic facade rather than dictators. Oligarchs are a collective group of industrialists, bankers, merchants, lawyers, and anyone else who has achieved wealth in the new market economy. In most of the Arab world this class of people has not achieved enough success and power to take control of the government. For the most part the only alternative to traditional rulers has been dictators. Since the United States is adamantly opposed to dictators, it has been supporting the traditional monarchs. This constitutes gross interference in the revolutionary process, and has led to a great deal of trouble.
The United States came into conflict with Gamal Nasser. It has tried to prevent revolution in Iran, and tried to intervene in civil war in Lebanon. It has opposed Muammar Qaddafi, Hafez Assad, Saddam Hussein, and every other revolutionary leader. Of course, it has not helped that all of these revolutionary leaders have supported the Palestinians against Israel.
This kind of American interference in Arab government has generated a great deal of anger among the Arab people. Some of them approve of the dictators who seize power and some do not, but almost all of them do not want outsiders like the United States to intervene in their political affairs. This is a very natural attitude.
The vast majority of Arab people do not like Israel, and do not like foreign interference—especially from countries that support Israel. This means that they have come to dislike the United States. At the same time Israel and the United States have made absolutely zero effort to resolve any of the legitimate concerns of the Arab people. The U.S. and Israel maintain that their actions are entirely blameless, completely correct, and absolutely necessary. If there is a problem between them, it is totally the fault of the Arabs and their evil dictators. This is the perfect recipe for turning Arab dislike into open hatred, which is exactly what has happened.
We now have a situation where most Arabs have major grievances against Israel and the United States, neither of which seem to be willing to make any compromises to alleviate this situation. At the same time the Arab governments are too weak to engage in open conflict with either country. Since there does not seem to be anyway to resolve the dispute, the animosity just festers and grows worse. A hundred million Arabs are seeking a way to apply pressure on Israel and the U.S. to force them to change their policies, and the Arab governments are unable to find an effective way to accomplish this. Because of this leadership vacuum, the Arabs have turned to non-governmental organizations to find a solution.
When two hundred million people desperately want leadership to accomplish some goal, it is inevitable that someone will step forward to provide it. Various terrorist groups and Islamic religious organizations have arisen to do just that. This solution is abhorrent to the United States. Americans believe that religious leaders should play only a minor role in politics, and that terrorists are nothing but criminals.
Under normal circumstances this is an entirely understandable attitude, but the United States and Israel have backed the Arab people into a corner. The Palestinians have rights as human beings and citizens of this planet. All Arab countries have a right to national sovereignty and to expect foreigners to refrain from intervention in their domestic political affairs. These rights are being blatantly ignored by Israel and the United States. Arab governments have been unable to enforce these rights. The result has been that individuals like Osama bin Laden and religious leaders have begun to take steps to fill this vacuum. This should not come as a surprise to anyone
Islamic religious leaders and terrorist groups are now waging open warfare with Israel and the United States. America has begun to fight back. This is a natural and understandable reaction. When Americans are engaged in a fight, they tend to think only about winning it. They assume that the United States is always in the right, and that anyone who uses violence against us is evil and deserves to die. This situation, however, is more complicated than that. The American government claims that the problem stems from a few religious fanatics and criminal terrorists. This is obviously not true. Every single person who is familiar with the Arab world acknowledges that the real problem is much deeper than that.
The terrorists and anti-American religious leaders are in fact champions of the Arab people. They have stepped into the leadership vacuum that has arisen from the weakness of Arab governments. Killing them will not solve the problem. Victory in this conflict will not come on the battlefield. The United States and Israel must acknowledge that the Palestinians and Arabs have legitimate grievances. They must take steps to deal with these grievances. Until that is done, the conflict will only grow worse. Terrorists who are killed will be replaced by new terrorists. The conflict will continue to escalate.
Saddam Hussein and the government of Iraq have already stepped forward to help provide leadership for the Arab cause. The United States is fully capable of crushing that government and replacing it with a new one. But that will not solve the problem. Every single Arab government is telling the United States that it is on the wrong track. These leaders know what they are talking about. They know that a popular revolution led by hard-liners in their own countries is an increasing possibility. The entire history of the modern revolution confirms this possibility. They are begging the United States to reconsider its actions.
The history of the transition from traditional society to democratic market is replete with many examples of revolution and militant dictatorship. It is a time when ordinary people stand up, demand their rights, and demand a government that will fight for their interests. It is also a time of paranoia, fear, and violence. Today the Arab people are becoming more paranoid, more fearful, and more violent. The United States believes that it is fighting this trend. It is not. It is encouraging it. This is the wrong policy.
There are 250 million Arabs. They control half of the world’s oil. They have legitimate grievances. They have the sympathy and support of a billion Moslems. The majority of these people have begun to believe that Western Christianity and the Jews are out to destroy the Islamic religion. This is not true. This belief comes in large part from the paranoia that often accompanies modern social change. The actions of the United States and Israel are feeding that paranoia and inflaming the conflict.
The United States should not think of this conflict as a war that must be won. We should think of it as a misunderstanding that must be ended. Under the present circumstances at the beginning of 2003, if the United States insists on picking a fight with Iraq, there is a good chance that it will lead to a political, economic, and military disaster. Such a fight is not necessary. Contrary to American opinion, the Arab dictators are not evil monsters whose mission in life is to attack Western freedom and democracy. They are a normal and natural part of the transition to democratic market society in the Arab world.
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