George Corm, former Lebanese
minister of Finance
(1998-2000), is a renowned
economist, politologist and
writer of various reference
books on the Middle East. He
tackles the Israeli-Arab
conflict as this area of the
world witnesses new upheavals
of violence to an utmost never
reached, and as the American
army reinforces its control
over the last Taliban
strongholds in Afghanistan
within the framework of a
large-scale military offensive
in response to the anti-American
attacks on New York and
Washington.
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 19th
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 20th
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.
