On November 21, Senator Arlen Specter (R-Pa) introduced what he called
"The Saudi Arabia Accountability Act of 2003." Three days
later Representative Anthony Weiner (D-NY) initiated the same action
in the House.
The bill demands that the Saudi government share all intelligence on
terrorists with the United States, even if not solicited to do so. Reciprocity
is not offered. The Saudis are being ordered to desist from any kind
of aid for whatever the U.S. government deems to be terrorism. Not even
the families of terrorists may be helped. The bill interprets all support
to Palestinian resistance against the Israeli occupation as aid to terrorism.
If the President is not satisfied with Saudi compliance to the far-ranging
congressional demands, the Specter-Weiner bill authorizes him to prohibit
export to Saudi Arabia of any military and economic goods or services
listed in the Arms Export Control Act and on the Commerce Control List.
Last not least, the Specter-Weiner bill restricts travel of Saudi diplomats
to a 25-mile radius from their offices.
In their justification for the measure, the authors offer anecdotally
documented charges against the Saudi government and Saudi individuals.
The bill's "Findings" concede, however, "that, since
the May 12, 2003, suicide bombings in Riyadh, the Government of Saudi
Arabia is making a more serious effort to combat terrorism."
Nevertheless, the bill's authors and sponsors are obviously unconcerned
over the negative impact that humiliation of Saudi Arabia, "the
epicenter of Islam," would have upon the Muslim world. The Saudis
are to open their records and cooperate with U.S. authorities unconditionally
while the White House mysteriously rejects requests by both Congressmen
and the Saudi government to allow the findings of the 9/11 Commission
to be made public.
It is hard to understand why Congress would want to rub more salt into
the festering wound of America's relations with Arabs and Muslims when
both we and they are victims of al-Qaeda terror. The Saudis that earlier
did not take the fanatics in their own society seriously enough have
since been severely stung by the terrorist suicide bombings in Riyadh.
The Saudi-American Forum, in its protest against the insensitivity of
the Specter-Weiner bill, reminded Congress that the Saudis "questioned
thousands of suspects, arrested more than 600 individuals, broke up
a number of Al-Qaeda cells, seized large quantities of arms caches,
extradited suspects from other countries, and set up joint task forces."
The authors and sponsors of this counterproductive legislation are among
the most vociferous among the Congressmen who persistently claim to
be friends of Israel but do nothing constructive to bring peace to the
Middle East. They condone the brutal occupation policies of the Sharon
regime and are eager to spend more billions of American taxpayer dollars
on Israel's armed might, including its weapons of mass destruction.
Devoid of a realistic assessment of the psychology of terrorism, they
apparently still believe that only overwhelming military force can eliminate
anti-American and anti-Israeli terrorism.
Time and again, Arabs and non-Arabs worldwide point to the plight of
the Palestinians as the root cause of the outrage that spawns and sustains
Muslim terrorists. "It is time that the United States comes to
understand the effect of its foreign policy and the consequences of
that policy," writes Jamal Kashoggi, former deputy editor of the
Arab News in Jeddah. "But unfortunately such rationalization is
still not part of the American reality."
If Congress wants to serve the national interest in the war against
Muslim terrorists, it needs to find ways to reduce rather than increase
the alienation between Muslims and Americans. Why is it so hard to concede
that the Palestinian resistance to occupation and the growing opposition
to Sharon's intransigence among Israelis are justified?
The President's "road map" is going nowhere. Yet, not a single
national leader, Republican or Democrat, dares to come up with what
is needed: a compelling, pro-active American initiative for peace and
reconciliation between Israelis and Arabs. That would be in the best
national interest of both the United States and Israel.