Instead of ordering the assassination of Sheikh Yassin, the founder
of the Islamic Resistance Movement, also known as Hamas, Prime Minister
Sharon could have easily had his occupation forces arrest him. Sharon's
spokesman, however, insisted that the wheelchair-bound cleric "deserved
to die." When it comes to Arabs, due process of law is apparently
no longer an ingredient of Sharon's "democracy." Worse yet,
there are Americans who condone such outlaw tactics.
Yassin's murder was to tell Hamas that the Sharon regime will not shirk
from assassinating all of their activists. Yet, if Sharon hoped that
the violent elimination of the revered cleric would cow Hamas into ending
its desperate retaliatory suicide bombings, he badly miscalculated.
Governments around the world, except Congress and the White House, condemned
the assassination, not only as vicious but, more importantly, as extremely
counterproductive. The prime minister of the impotent Palestinian Authority
under Israeli occupation called Sharon's move "crazy and very dangerous.
It opens the doors wide to chaos."
As was to be expected, throughout the Muslim world angry demonstrations
erupted in protest to the sheikh's murder. Militants threatened: "Sharon
has opened the gates of hell." If Sharon wanted to elevate the
insanity of the tit-for-tat war of nerves, he surely succeeded.
For us Americans, Sharon's death sentence on the sheikh was an unmitigated
disservice. In the eyes of the Muslim world, we Americans have been
financing and condoning the brutalities of the Israeli occupation since
its inception in 1967, even though we and our NATO allies are guaranteeing
the sovereignty and security of the state of Israel.
Realistically, the occupation serves no valid purpose for anybody. Yet,
the Bush administration has done nothing to use America's great moral
and physical power to end the agony. When the Security Council wanted
to condemn Yassin's assassination, our American delegate vetoed this
simple act of moral concern and political fence-mending.
By condoning Sharon's stupid intransigence, we Americans are making
ever more enemies among Muslims and probably turning more of them into
terrorists. The President and his advisers are obviously unaware of
how much good will toward America their ignorant policies have been
squandering in the Middle East.
When I visited with Arabs along the Persian Gulf before the invasion
of Iraq, they seemed relieved that U.S forces had freed Afghanistan
from the reactionary Taliban and would continue to eliminate al-Qaida
from the region. That, however, remains an urgent, yet unfinished project.
Instead, we invaded Iraq and there attracted far more terrorists from
inside and outside the country than anybody had anticipated. As if we
did not have enough trouble on our hands, we denounced NATO allies who
objected to our timing, we urged Muslims and Arabs to change their backward
ways, and we denounced the pro-Arab broadcasts of al Jezeerah, the only
fully independent television station on the peninsula.
Annoyed with al Jezeerah's criticism of our policies, the Bush administration
countered the station with its own voice for the Arab world. Calling
it "Al-Hurrah," i.e., The Free, in Arabic, the station has
not been well received. Anybody who knows today's skeptical, often bitter
mood of the Muslim masses could have predicted that an Arabic version
of Fox News would have a rough time charming native listeners.
In a critique of Al-Hurrah, the Arab publication Al Bawaba wrote: "Al-Hurrah
was meant to reduce anti-American sentiment in the Middle East. The
anti-Americanism in Arabia is mainly the result of US double standards
and selective morality when it comes to the Arab-Israeli conflict. If
that is to remain without change, Al-Hurrah will be close to mission
impossible. The Americans refuse to press Israel to abide by the 31
UN Security Council resolutions which it had ignored. The US also refuses
to mention Israeli weapons of mass destruction. … Many believe
Al-Hurrah is a waste of efforts and resources, because polishing the
image of the US devil is as popular as selling Bibles in Mecca."
America has many knowledgeable Mideast experts, yet incompetents with
an unrealistic agenda continue to make our policies.