RJLiban

The stated issue is the efficiency of the international, American, European, Arab and UN actions in the Middle East. Do these actions set bounds to the military escalate in the region following the hundreds of victims caused by the Palestinian Intifada ? Beyond the efforts made in order to settle the most urgent problems, it is clear that the situation in the Near East and the Middle East remains stagnant.

PALESTINE-MIDDLE EAST : "THE OSSIFICATION" OF THE WESTERN STRATEGY

The intolerable escalation of violence in Palestine is a main concern for all of us and a matter which needs thinking over. I was among those who once said that the Israeli-Palestinian agreements of Oslo (1993) would not succeed and that on the contrary they would lead to an escalation of spectacular violence in the Middle East. At that time, I was given a rough handling by everybody, including some European parliamentarians who had asked me to account for my critic. To my mind, it is possible today to analyze with greater serenity what had happened and what is to be done.

Since the end of the Cold War, we have witnessed an ossification of what the West considers as its strategic interests in the Middle East. In other terms, many dogmas and beliefs with respect to the region have become so rigid not taking into consideration any evolution. Amid this doctrine, very much in relation to the Middle East, are the security of Israel and that of oil supply. The point I wish to stress is that a naïve economism prevails in this region, which worsens the current situation. Many have absolute irrational hopes that I personally denounced in the second volume of my book "The Shattered Near East" (Le Proche-Orient éclaté).

At the end of the Gulf war and the liberation of Kuwait (1991), the Middle East should have been the new pattern of a better international order, where right and justice would reign at last, where aggressors should and would be punished, where the rights of the oppressed would finally be acknowledge by the international system. There is a wide contrast between these hopes and this massive ossification of the so-called "strategic" interests of the West, which look today more like colonial interests. Thus, ten years later, we are facing an American strategic stance Europe tends to align with. As a matter of fact, the French difference, as the European difference was mainly French, is completely vanishing. We are all prisoners of dizzy words and concepts which might prevent us from understanding the present conjuncture and from seeing the increase of instability, violence and absence of law. A fact which has not taken place since the beginning of the 19^th century, more exactly since the Anglo-French domination over the Middle East.

THE USE OF THE RELIGIOUS IDENTITY

Some great traditions are shared by all populations, especially the tradition of the natural law which forms the basis of modern international law. If we do not respect these traditions and we refer to the Coran, the Bible or the Gospel, no international order is likely to be set up. Only then the Huntington theory of the war of civilizations becomes a self-realizable prophecy as the managers of the international system keep on using the religious in the management of this system, thus creating the conditions for the war of religions. One example of this investment of the religious is the Islamic movements, which at the beginning were widely financed by the United States. We have witnessed the capacity of such Islamic movements to both orbit the United States and be anti-American within the same historical consciousness.

This is the case of this explosive blend in the Iranian revolution in which converge interests to overthrow communism and the Soviet Union and to develop an anti-Western feeling, which in fact, represents an anti-colonialism movement causing great repercussions in the whole Arab world. This use of religion was then made in Bosnia as well as in Chechnya, where the West does not condemn Russia but, on the other hand, does not prevent the Islamic mobilization. I persistently denounce the dominating intellectual thesis in both the United States and France, according to which we can modernize Muslim countries only through Islam and we should not try to give credit to and spread the democratic and secular principles considered to be reserved for the white zone, the noble zone of the world.

THE INVESTMENT OF JUDAISM

The investment in the reinforcement of Judaism has been as strong as that made for Islam. For instance, in order to negotiate the clause of the most favored nation at the time where the Soviet Union still existed, the Americans made it a condition that Soviet Jewish dissidents leave the country. We gradually witnessed the United States massive investment in the consecration of the memory of the Holocaust, which has become the memory of the 20^th century. This consecration abolishes the distinction between Zionism and Judaism, which had allowed many people to contest the violation of the international law by the state of Israel without being accused of anti-Semitism. We are more and more aware of the pivotal important place the Holocaust is given in the Western culture under the umbrella of the American culture. This event gives legitimacy to the creation of the State of Israel and moreover allows the extension of the colonization without prompting any real indignation in the West.

It may be recalled that colonization stems mainly from the United States. Colonizing religious militants are often American citizens and mostly Jews from New York. Jews from the Soviet Union did not constitute the major part of the settlers’flow to the occupied territory ; these remained prudently in the territories taken in 1948. This is a phenomenon I described in my book entitled "The Shattered Near East" and which seems to be accepted as a normal fact. Demonstrations of protest are mere frowns. Therefore Israel is a sacred and pivotal space of the Western memory. Consequently, it is above all laws and the region in its whole must be at the service of its security notwithstanding its infractions of international law. As a matter of fact, this was the justification for the Gulf war, the upholding of the embargo on Iraq as well as of the entire policy of containment I mean to explain.

Nowadays the major problem is that the West wants the Arab world to develop the type of sensibility Americans and Europeans feel towards the Jewish communities and especially the Israeli communities. This is absolutely inconceivable for historical and objective reasons : Arabs did not experience the traumatism of the anti-Semitic actions, of the Holocaust and the horrible massacres perpetrated against Jews. This is the height of colonialism and we should not be afraid of saying so. Only colonialism can reach such surrealism. We could have believed that with the end of the Cold War and communism, the investment in the religious would stop. However, what we are witnessing is a growing movement fueled by the academic circles in the universities.

THE VIOLATIONS OF INTERNATIONAL LAW

The second noticeable phenomenon is the abuse of international law. Since the Gulf War, the United States in a more or less tacit consent with Europe hurt the credibility of the international law. This evolution leads to a complete aversion of the peoples of the region to any idea of democracy emanating from the West. This is extremely serious as it gives credibility to what I call the "millenarism" of Islamic movements or the naïve belief that the mere reestablishment of the socio-political conditions prevailing at the birth of the Prophet would offer again the possibility to the Islamic "nation" to be powerful and respectable. The "two set of standards" principle applied by the Western powers in the Middle East diminish the credibility of the values of law and justice which might constitute a common ground for communication.

Theories, such as Lebanese Hizbullah’s, which support that only armed struggle could liberate the peoples of the region from this violence exerted on them, are gaining credibility as the West does not apply the principles of international law equally among the different States of the region. Indeed, it was the first time that an Arab country, Lebanon, had obtained the unconditional evacuation of Israeli army (May 2000) from its territory thanks to the support of the State, the army and the population. I had no doubt then that the example of the Hizbullah was going to spread in Palestine, if the Israeli would not decide at last to allow the establishment of a Palestinian State, seven years after the Oslo agreements.

Not to mention the human rights, which are blinds for the West whenever facing an unfriendly regime. Western countries accuse these regimes of not respecting the human rights, at their convenience. However, when the regime is a friendly one, even the various reports of the organizations dealing with human rights would not reveal anything suspicious. In this case too it is a trick, the colonialism trick. Therefore I think that in order to change this established fact we should draw on the past of the anti-colonial struggles, which are parts of Europe itself. It was Europe, which had developed the anti-colonialism. It is the encounter of colonized peoples’ struggle with Europe anti-colonial liberating thinking that has allowed the liquidation of colonialism. It is thus high time we came back to this literature in an attempt to get rid of this intellectual prison in which we are confined today.

THE SECURITY OF ISRAEL AND THE OIL

The Western conception of strategic interests is therefore very simple : everyone should work for the security of the State of Israel. Nowadays, Arafat is being criticized for badly carriying the role of the police. Lebanon has been the victim of huge retaliations since 1978, i.e. for 22 years, only because the security of the State of Israel was not guaranteed. Therefore Israel has both a sentimental value in the Western psychology and the role of the guardian of the Western interests in the Middle East. Memories written by Chaim Weizmann, the first president of the State of Israel, constitute a proof of the success Israel has always reached in "selling" its cause to the Western powers. Zionism has promoted its cause by confirming that the creation of a Jewish state in the Middle East would make it the natural guardian of the Western interests. The only factor that has lately reduced the strategic importance of the State of Israel is the direct American military presence in the Middle East following the Gulf war.

Oil is the second strategic interest in the Middle East. The Western states always fear to be forbidden the access to the oil wells. The ephemeral embargo of 1973 has without any doubt kept Western fantasizing alive. During Kissinger’s office period, a rapid intervention force was constituted in order to be sent to the Gulf. Unfortunately, the Iraqi regime has offered the United States the pretext for finally establishing a direct military presence in the region. This presence is in perpetual increase and has led the newly elected American president to order air raids on Baghdad instead of trying firmly to stop the bloodshed engendered by the Intifada. It was his first highly symbolic action : it is the proof of a total surrealism, that of all the colonial management.

A NAIVE ECONOMISM

The third strategic objective, which has greater interest for Europe than for the United States, is the control of the migration flow to the European countries. This leads to the naïve economism, which constitutes the third factor I am going to discuss and whose pillars are : a classical economical reform, privatization, opening of the market, decrease of the customs duties, adherence to the World Trade Organization and to the Mediterranean free trade area. However, in this part of the world where the private sector is neither competitive nor powerful and has not joined the virtuous circle of industrialization, this economical program is completely absurd. On the other hand, it is in contradiction with the wish to stop migratory flows as it increases the unemployment rate and the emigration applications. Yet, we still behave as if the adherence to the Mediterranean free trade area will abolish unemployment, as if privatization is the panacea for all evils, and the Middle East a region with a highly dynamic private sector. Such is certainly not the case.

On the contrary, we are facing a private oligopolistic management that depends upon annuities and corruption. This conjuncture widely restrains development. Going into luxurious hotels in Qatar, Marrakech and Egypt and "doing business" would be enough to settle the problem and restore peace. No doubt that this has only increased the tensions and the violence is now greater than ever. The main question to be asked in this case is how this surrealism is accepted ? How the journalists, who have this vocation of intellectual and moral power could be part of the game ? Journalists are not the only party to be considered : intellectuals and writers are also concerned.

THE CONTAINMENT DOCTRINE

The device of strategic interests was followed up with the containment doctrine and the Rogue States or hostile states. One example is the confrontation between Iraq and Iran (1980-1988), which were opposed to each other and then put in quarantine at different levels. These states play the role of a very practical foil. In Lebanon, the Syrian ascendancy has been confirmed, thus respecting the agreement of 1976 upon the red lines.

It is obvious that the Israeli withdrawal causes a certain unbalance to the equation of these lines, however, we feel that the United States do not intend to change this Lebanese status quo. Anyhow, the Taef agreements (1989) have been conceived in such a manner as to prevent the Lebanese constitutional powers to function in the absence of an external mediator.

Nowadays, we notice that the implemented policy is very rigid and does not change. Which leads me to state that the Western conception of its own strategic interests is highly ossified. Performing any change to the exceptional status of the State of Israel, which is also a nuclear power, is likely impossible. However, it is also said and repeated continuously that Iraq and Iran will not be allowed to possess massive destruction arms, whereas Israel possession of the nuclear arm is considered normal. The military withdrawal from the Arab-Persian Gulf and the lift of the embargo on Iraq and Iran are almost unlikely to happen. All the American prestige lies beneath this operation. Unfortunately, this has become an integral part of the ossification of the Western strategic doctrine. Is it possible to change it ? Is it possible to ask Syria to withdraw from Lebanon? Is it possible to conceive an economical development in the region ? Is it possible to lift the embargo on Iraq ? How to ?

THE NECESSITY OF AN ECONOMICAL DEVELOPMENT IN THE REGION

In fact, we may wonder about the reasons which prevented these huge energetic resources from starting up a real industrial development in the region. The kind of development which might ensure employment to millions of young Arabs who become active every year and are denounced as being extraordinarily fertile, giving birth to a lot of children. Oil is not in any way used to give a stimulus to the real industrial revival these countries need, in order to overcome the demographic and the employment crisis, on which thrive all the "millenarisms". Therefore, economical incoherence is constantly increasing and the more we resort to free trade, even between us fellow Arabs, the more we loose employment opportunities. If I had had the possibility in Lebanon, I would have stopped all the agreements concluded with the other Arab countries, including agreements with Syria, until I could develop an almost competitive industry and agriculture. I believe that this system could not eternally last.

In conclusion, I know that the "Dialogue of Civilizations" and the "Dialogue of Cultures", are the themes of both the French speaking Heads of States and the United Nations summits for the year 2001. However, I beseech you not to fall into the trap and to walk back on the path of law, morality and justice. Religions should be put aside in this matter of management of the international system. They are exploited, and manipulated. However they are not at stake. I'd rather had proposed as a theme for the French speaking Heads of States summit, the "Social Breach" in the Third World countries or in the world, which is more present in the impertinent spirit of the French cultural exception. This theme of the "Dialogue of Civilizations" is one way to avoid tackling directly the political problems and to endure the present sufferings undergone by Iraq, Palestine or Lebanon. The press has an important role to play : it should not constitute an extension of the authorities, which manage the international system. It should, on the contrary, constitute a moral power, which denounces the misdemeanors. We should not accept the idea that the realpolitik, is the only serious approach. Thank you.