|
The Roots of the anti-Americanism in the Arab World |
|
|
|
|
Wednesday, 20 April 2005 |
There is unquestionably a great deal and a very strong and widespread
Anti-American feeling in the Arab world. A feeling which
sometimes boils to very severe hatred and spills overtime in frequently
very atrocious incidents. I would like to emphasize and from the
start that this discussion relates more to the American establishment,
the small stratum from the topmost of the ruling hierarchy from the
successive administrations and not to the average American men and
women who I think are very nice, compassionate and extremely friendly.
For decades, the United States since its independence has practiced a
policy of non-participation in alliances or the affairs of other
nations, this isolationism has stemmed from George Washington’s
farewell address in September 1796, which was confirmed in the Monroe
Doctrine of 1823 and observed by the successive administrations both
Republican and Democrats until the opening of the 20th century.
Even then there was a good deal of isolationist feelings which
contributed to the American people's rejection of President Wilson’s
international ideal of the league of nations. Isolationism was
only relinquished after the shock of Pearl Harbor which after a lot of
hesitation forced the United States to enter the war against Nazi
Germany and its fascist allies, the involvement of the United States
guaranteed the defeat of the axis but it also saw the victors, Britain,
France and the others including the Soviet Union in severely weakened
states very devastated and in increasingly powerless positions.
The only real victor was the United States which emerged in spite of a
lot of loss of blood and treasure practically unscathed. The
increasing powerlessness of the previous powers in the Middle East
resulted in a great political and strategic vacuum to which the United
States was drawn and within a very short time became the truly dominant
power and came very slowly to replace the previous powers as the number
one power in the world and in the region. This dominance was to
prove only a short lived thing, because the Soviet Union has started to
challenge the position of the United States and was continually
threatening its super power position in a very nasty cold war and
finally with its acquisition of the atomic bomb in the early fifties
became a real challenge to the United States assuming a super power
status itself and posing very serious threats to America’s interests
all over the world and especially in the Middle East.
Since the beginning of the last century and after a long period of
isolationism. America started to get involved in policies outside
its borders and in the affairs of states outside its borders, but this
has been associated from the beginning with a great deal of
anti-American feeling a very genuine and widespread amongst the
Arabs. This I think has basically stemmed from two main
sources: America’s unlimited and unquestioning support of Israel
and its policies. The backing in the Middle East of various
hereditary regimes and the pseudo republics, which are all without
exception corrupt, useless and without any real support from their
people and who have reached the summits of political and administrative
power either on the back of few military vehicles, or after
assassinating their fathers, or their other predecessors, or after some
grossly distorted and manipulated elections. These regimes have
universally failed to deliver, they have continuously failed the
aspirations of their people, provide a minimum of freedom of speech,
due processes of law, equality for women, and the basic requirements of
democracy and the other developments sorely needed in the Arab
world. These were the structures on whom America came to depend
upon in securing its widening and increasingly vital interests in the
Middle East after it came to assume the status of a super power after
the end of the Second World War during the closing decade of the last
decade of the first half of the 20th century and all the second half.
The second reason for these phenomena was and is still America’s
unlimited and unquestioning support of Israel. Israel was
proclaimed a state in a part of Palestine on the 14th of May 1948, when
the British mandate over Palestine expired, the new state was to occupy
the part of Palestine which was allocated to it under the United
Nations resolution which has partitioned Palestine between the Arabs
and the Jews. The Jews were to establish the homeland which was
promised to them on the 2nd of November 1917 by Earl Balfour, who was
then Britain’s foreign secretary. The United Nation’s resolution
partitioning Palestine was secured after a massive pressure from the
Truman administration on various Latin American and African countries
and to prove his commitment to the newly established state President
Harry Truman officially recognized it only few minutes after its
declaration and continued during his tenure to provide it with all its
financial, economic and diplomatic needs. This policy was
continued by all the successive US administrations until today
irrespective of the damage it caused to the Arabs and their
aspirations, and very often to America’s own interests in the region.
When the Jewish state was established, the neighboring Arab countries
refused to recognize it and invaded it the following day. The Arabs
failed to throw the Jews in the sea as they were hoping and the
conflict stalemated for a year during which Israel was able to expand
its territory by about a quarter, and finally the war was ended by a
series of cease fires from January to March 1949. The tensions
with the Arabs continued and were punctuated by three major wars during
which a lot of human life and resources were destroyed until
today. The unlimited American support all of which has added to
the animus against the Americans, which has already resulted from its
support to the ruling elates and the awful regimes in this part of the
world.
The clock has turned once again and with the collapse of the Soviet
Empire. The United States is now back to the position of the
supreme power, but I am afraid all this power and influence can be very
seriously threatened at least in this extremely vital part of the world
by this very gross anti-Americanism. America’s latest adventure
in invading and occupying Iraq and the way it behaving in our country
has added a lot of salt to an already very serious wound.
Dr. Najeeb Hanoudi
Amman, April 20, 2005
email:
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
|
