March 24, 2003	Monday	Muharram 20, 1424

LONDON: As Baghdad burned, there was no need for Jacques Chirac and Tony Blair to throw crockery. All the china was already broken. Can it ever be mended? What road map is there to lead Britain back into Europe after this catastrophe? The latest plate hurled across the channel was Tony Blair’s extraordinary claim in the Commons this week that the filthy French caused the war: had the French signed up to a second resolution at the UN, Saddam might have backed down. “Shock and dismay” was expressed by Dominique de Villepin, the French foreign minister, counting Blair’s 12 angry references to France in prime minister’s questions. Denis MacShane, the UK Europe minister retorted: “It is not helpful for France to maintain a line of abuse.” Which was rich from the lips of a man recently given to pungently undiplomatic tirades against his confreres. Francophobic fury is not confined to pro-war British tabloid The Sun.

The rift is deep, and the cause an unbridgeable divide on relations between Europe and the Bush regime. Had France allowed the second UN resolution to pass, they would have sanctioned a US timetable for war they strongly opposed. Tony Blair’s argument that the French caused the war is Jesuitical sophistry. A second resolution would have made war equally certain, with a legitimacy most of the world withheld. It was always abundantly clear once US troops were dispatched that nothing was ever going to stop those tanks in their tracks, no matter how many weapons Blix found and destroyed. The US allowed a UN process to delay proceedings hardly at all. Rumsfeld shrugged and said a resolution didn’t matter a flea, nor did it matter if Britain joined the fight, nor even if the Turks said no entry. The sum total of Blair’s constraining influence now looks vanishingly small, his diplomacy badly misjudged, British power diminished.

France, on the other hand, has played a blinder. Blair seethes in fury at Chirac’s success in galvanizing world opinion against war. Chirac gambled and won: had all the other UN Security Council members been swayed to support America, it would have been another story. (In truth, the US didn’t even care enough to try very hard to get Security Council support from little countries it couldn’t find on the map.) Now it is Tony Blair who is virtually isolated at the EU table.

Chirac surfs the crest of a popular wave: whether he has the vision to parlay that into permanent EU dominance depends on whether he can ever put Europe before French interests. But now for the first time there is a genuine European grass-roots politics that transcends national borders. From Greece to the Shetlands, the majority in every country opposes the war, regardless of their leaders’ stance. An authentic European peoples’ voice has emerged, conscious of its own identity. The tragedy is that this wave of feeling, well-lead, might have carried the British into the euro and at last into “the heart of Europe”. But Tony Blair has disqualified himself from making use of this unique moment, stymied and silenced on any future European vision.

It was always self-serving snobbery to call Europe the Greeks to the US Spartans, but yet another patriotic email just in from America is a reminder: Indeed, the Atlantic is widening daily. Old Europe does have an alternative, gentler model of capitalism to offer — and Europeans know it. Sadly, Tony Blair can never share that sentiment now.—Dawn/The Guardian News Service.Palestinians Saddam remains a hero

By Conal Urquhart

BETHLEHEM: He may be facing his last desperate days in Baghdad, weakened, beleaguered and isolated as American and British forces close in, but Saddam Hussein remains as much a hero to Palestinians as he ever was. They celebrated every Scud missile that streaked across the West Bank sky en route for Tel Aviv in 1991 and they long for a repeat performance.

The other day small groups of Palestinians protested against the attack on Iraq while the local radio stations put Saddam Hussein’s most recent speech to music.

Yasser Arafat almost destroyed his credibility by supporting Iraq in 1991 and this year the pledges of support are muted and directed at the Iraqi people rather than their dictator.

At the entrance to the Daheisha refugee camp in Bethlehem around 40 men gathered on Saturday. They were surrounded by boys who carried Iraqi flags and icons of Saddam Hussein. It was a small number of protesters from a camp of 10,000 residents. “We have to do something,” said Najah Oda, the protest organizer.

Among the protesters, the faults of Saddam are recognized but count for little when weighed against his perceived support for the Palestinian cause.

“Saddam represents the consciousness of the Arab people. Regardless of the bad things he has in him, he is still better than the rest of the Arab leaders. He is the only one that has stood up to the Israelis,” said Abbas Dhara.

But elsewhere across the Arab world the picture is less clear. Television images of riots in Cairo convey a deceptive message. Three days into the war in Iraq the more interesting story from the capital of the most populous country in the Arab world is how overwhelmingly apathetic the vast majority of the population appear to be. As of Saturday the biggest demonstration numbered three thousand, in a city of 18 million people.

That protest was at the al-Azhar mosque where expectation was high that after prayers on Friday the rage of the faithful would threaten the ramparts of Egypt’s pro-American regime. The theatrics were at times impressive — sticks and stones and shoes hurled at police out of a mighty mosque door, police firing surprisingly gentle streams of water back — at no point did it seem things were going to get out of control.

The worst nightmare of the Egyptian government is that the televised spectacle of Baghdad burning will serve as the violent detonator of a general anger in Egypt arising, primarily, from the fast declining economy and relentless impoverishment but also from the perceived complicity of the Americans in Ariel Sharon’s long-running war on the Palestinians.

One form the nightmare of the Egyptian government takes is that the masses will storm the American Embassy, and perhaps the adjoining British one too. Certainly it is what the demonstrators who have been gathering every day at nearby Tahrir Square would desire. On Thursday at Tahrir was the venue, as every remotely politicised person in town knew, for the citizens of Cairo to come out and express their rage. In the event, 1,500 people turned up, lost in the immensity of a square that could fill two million.

The impact of the demonstration was further muted by the inability of those gathered to agree on common chants, the problem being that there were three groups represented: The Islamists, nationalists and leftists.

It is among Palestinians that the embattled Iraqi leader still finds widespread support. Since the beginning of the Intifada in 2000, Saddam’s popularity has further increased thanks to his donations to suicide bombers and people whose lives have been damaged by the violence. Unlike other nations, Saddam’s representative give cheques directly to the people, as much as pounds sterling 15,000 for the family of a suicide bomber.

Away from the protesters, it is difficult to find anyone in Daheisha with a bad word for Saddam despite their reluctance to protest in his favour.

Milhem Said, a shopkeeper, said that he supported Saddam’s every step whether it was right or wrong. “We hoped that after taking Kuwait he would take over the whole of the Gulf, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and then Israel.” And in Mohammad Horob’s workshop the only decoration is a poster of Saddam next to the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem.

He explained that the Palestinians no longer had the stomach to protest against the war. “All our leaders have been assassinated or are in Israeli jails.”

“People are disillusioned with demonstrations after two years of violence.” Nizar Alysa, a youth worker, was the one discordant voice in the refugee camp, describing Saddam as ‘cruel and crazy’. He uses the Palestinian issue as a diversion, he said.

But even his friend disagreed with him. “Saddam is no worse than any other Arab leader even Yasser Arafat. The difference is that he is the only one that stood up to Israel,” said Jihad Naif.—Dawn/The Guardian News Service.