OTHER VIEWS
Egypt Must Act Like An Ally
from allies, more should be expected
and demanded. Twenty years after
he war against terrorism will
President Anwar Sadat's assassination,
not end if we neutralize sav-
sustaining American foreign
age killers, their
aid to Egypt remains central
training facilities
to our national interest. It
and handlers, elusively clan-
should not stop.
destine bank accounts and
However, if we do not lean
regimes that support them.
on
Egypt, a long-time friend
This is also a battle of defi-
and leader of Arab public
nitions, words, and market-
opinion, no remote chances
ing; it is about the contents of
exist for anti-American feeling
malice poured out against the
to subside in the Middle East.
U.S. by Arab newspapers and
Egypt's influence on
other Arab media outlets.
KENNE TH W
Palestinian attitudes is greater
With dozens of Arab writ-
STE IN
than any other Arab state.
ers and commentators spew-
Spe cial
If Israeli Prime Minister
ing out venom toward the
Comm entary
Ariel Sharon's remarks [about
U.S., we need our Arab coali-
• the U.S. allegedly appeasing
tion partners and those who
certain Arab countries to gain their sup-
seek our support to reduce their hateful
port in our coalition building] warrant-
attacks on the U.S. Credit the Jordanian
ed a reply from the Bush White House
government for reducing anti-American
as "unacceptable," the repeated abuse of
media attacks.
America in the Egyptian press is indis-
Origins for anti-American feeling can
putably unacceptable.
be found more or less regularly in the
Palestinian, Saudi, Syrian, Iraqi and
London Arab press. But the U.S. has a
A Bigger Concern
special and necessary relationship with
In this realm of words and marketing,
Egypt; it is in Cairo where the first
we have an uphill battle in dealing with
effort to tone down anti-American anger
autocratic regimes that do not permit
must start.
open criticism of their own govern-
No, I do not suggest telling others
ments. Most Arab citizens live under
what to write or what to think. But
pervasive government scrutiny, making
the press in much of the Arab world the
Kenneth W. Stein teaches Middle
only release mechanism for anger and
Eastern History and Politics at Emory
frustration built up from other sources.
University in Atlanta. His e-mail
In Egypt and other Arab states, the core
address is kstein@emory.edu
Atlanta
culprit is Israel and its leaders. But plen-
ty of abusive language is reserved for the
U.S.
It is sheer nonsense to believe that if
the U.S. administration or Congress
altered its pro-Israeli positions in any
small or drastic fashion, the Arab press
would stop vilifying America and its
leaders.
Dislike for the U.S. is broader and
deeper. It cuts to American-led encir-
clement of Iraq, the century-long intru-
sion of Western values, Washington's
alliances with moderate Arab leaders,
almost exclusive U.S. focus on domestic
issues, and the absence of a reliable
superpower patron or the Arab world in
the post-Cold War period.
Said the extraordinary articulate Hani
Shukrallah, in al-Abram Weekly, Oct. 4-
10, 2001, "Bin Laden and his cohorts
are not a function of an inherent hatred
of democracy by 'Islamic civilization'
but of its increasing obliteration at the
hands of 'Western'-driven capitalist
globalization."
About-Face Needed
All year, the Egyptian press has regu-
larly attacked American policy and
President Bush, Vice President Dick
Cheney, and Secretary of State Colin
Powell by name.
After the terrorist attack, an
Egyptian writer wrote in the presti-
gious Egyptian weekly al-Ahram, Sept.
13-19, 2001:
"Peoples around the world once felt
for the U.S. as a champion of liberty,
democracy and self-determination,
[now there is] universal suspicion and
mistrust, a transformation [due to]
Washington's misuse of power and
abuse of the moral foundations upon
which it built its civilization. ...Anger
and frustration at Washington's foreign
policies [is] not confined to the
Middle East or, more accurately, to
Arab and Islamic peoples."
Said the editor of Cairo's Akhbar
al-Yawm two days after the Sept. 11
attacks on America: "The United
States is the object of hatred in
scores of countries."
Cairo's Al-Akhbar, Sept. ,20, 2001,
the most consistently virulent anti-
American and government support-
ed paper, implied that U.S. leaders
themselves were responsible for the
death of 6,000 American citizens.
We cannot alter what religious
leaders rule about suicide attacks,
how jihad (holy war) is defined,
what is written in Arab textbooks or
what private television stations say
about us. But we can, and must, ask
our friends to turn down the deci-
bels of anti-American rancor.
Notice how the Egyptian government
numbed initial anti-American public
response to the Oct. 7 bombing in
Afghanistan. Proof: if the Egyptian lead-
ership has the will and the courage, slan-
derous attacks against America can be
significantly diminished.
❑
APPEASEMENT from page 39
diabolic tactics. None. And to find
reasons for the hatred only gives cred-
ibility to those who practice murder
with abandon.
Qualify Support
There is no such thing as a "propor-
tional" response to wanton killing. As
U.S. Rep. Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., said
during a recent hearing: "I am tired
of hearing the idiots in the State
Department continue to talk about
Israel using so-called disproportionate
force or asking Israel to use restraint
in the fight against terrorism."
Unfortunately, his is a lone voice.
But the saddest development on
Bed Falbaum is a former reporter, an
author and a Farmington Hills public
relations executive. He teaches journal-
ism part-time at Wayne State University
in Detroit.
10/12
2001
40
the aftermath of Sept. 11 is that a
significant part of the organized
Jewish community is either silent in
the face of the Bush administration's
shift in policy and the world's ration-
alization or, indeed, the president's
policy maneuvers.
Some 50 leaders of Jewish organi-
zations have sent a letter to the presi-
dent, overall, expressing their sup-
port.
Unqualified support is troubling
because these leaders must under-
stand the implications of their posi-
tion and they must surely compre-
hend that it is harder to change poli-
cy once established than to stop its
enactment or, at least, amend it to
limit damage.
They surely also support the con-
cept that to oppose President Bush
on this point hardly implies disloyal-
ty. One might well be doing the pres-
ident a favor. The president is not
infallible and dissent is still a valued
component of freedom.
The developing political scenario is
troubling; it contains contradictions;
it is appeasement. It is dangerous to
create alliance with terrorist states
such as Syria and Iran, and with
Palestinian Authority leader Yasser
Arafat, while maintaining that the
U.S. will root out terrorists and
regimes that harbor them.
Not only is the proposed shift in
policy appeasement, but it rewards
terrorism. Those who blindly support
the president in his new policies,
without doubt, are contributing to
unjust pressure on Israel.
Power's Role
Squeezing Israel at this point is not
the answer. Is there anyone, including
the Bush administration, who really
believes that terrorism will stop if
Israel is more accommodating?
New York Times columnist Thomas
Friedman, for many years a supporter
of Arab politics, has, in the last year
or two, apparently had a conversion,
writing many pro-Israel columns. On
blaming Israel, he writes that he never
heard bin Laden demand that Israel
return to pre-1967 borders on
exchange of a promise that he will ask
his "martyrs" not to fly planes into
office towers.
Friedman was unequivocal on how
to deal with terrorism, stating that the
world must use all the power available
and then some.
Indeed, the U.S. and world have
the power to stop terrorism, but that
power does not include appeasement,
rationalizations, equivocations or
compromise.
The question is will it use the com-
ponents of the power that will work?
❑