KARACHI: US policy towards Palestinians comes under fire
By Our Reporter
KARACHI, Sept 17: The continuing US policy of ignoring Israeli state terrorism against Palestinians and intense American unilateralism since 9/11 tragedy and its invasion of Iraq came under scrutiny on the first day of a two-day international seminar here on Wednesday.
The US attitude has undermined the previous international understandings and widened the gap between US and Europe posing a threat to Muslim states, the speakers emphasized, adding, the solution of the Palestinian issue is a matter of urgent necessity not only for the Palestinians, but also for the US and Europe as well.
The seminar on “US-European relations in contemporary international setting: implications for the developing world” opened as Israel is considering banishing Yasser Arafat and even taking his life, if necessary.
Karachi University’s Area Study Centre for Europe , in collaboration with Hans Seidel Foundation is playing host.
The academics lamented the Israeli moves and criticized the US for vetoing the Security Council resolution against Israel.
The tone was set by the UK-based Palestinian scholar and activist Ghada Karmi, who in her keynote address, spoke of the US double standards as a result of which dictatorship in the developing countries was flourishing. She said that war in Afghanistan and Iraq was imposed in violation of the international law.
She maintained that since the horrifying events of Sept 11, 2001, the Bush administration, pressured by the neo- conservatives in Washington, has become far less tolerant of opposition to the principles it wishes to espouse in international relations. It was far more demanding that the rest of the world endorse its assumptions and practices, she wondered.
In this context, she cited the examples of Syria and Turkey and said how Syria, the only Arab state in the Security Council and an outspoken critic of the war, buckled under an American threat of attack, because it was accused of harbouring members of the Saddam regime in the immediate aftermath of the war.
Iran is another state in the sights of the US and is under close scrutiny, Ms Karmi said.
She reminded the audience that in June when the student riots took place in Tehran and other Iranian cities, the hardliners in the American administration blatantly supported the rioters, and propaganda against the ruling regime was beamed from American-controlled TV and radio stations.
Although subsequently the US administration softened its tone, seeing that its intervention into Iran’s internal affairs might serve only to undermine the reformists in the Iranian government, the pressure still continues, she maintained.
“The issue now is that of Iran’s nuclear programme and the fact that it has not fulfilled its commitments under the nuclear non-proliferation treaty. Put simply, this means that Iran is suspected of trying to make nuclear weapons,” she said.
“Ever since the fall of Saddam Hussein, the US has worked to garner international pressure on Iran to open its nuclear programme for an inspection. It has cajoled allies with promises of improved relations and threatened sanctions on companies that deal with Iran.”
Dr Karmi emphasized that the US had managed to persuade Europe to tie economic agreements to progress on the nuclear issue. As a result, she said, the EU had signalled that it would find it difficult to continue the current negotiations on the Trade and Cooperation Agreement with Iran, and under strong American pressure, Japan had postponed signing an important and much- needed $2bn contract for oil exploitation in the Iranian Azadegan oilfield.
She said a “coalition of the willing” had emerged among the states which are afraid of displeasing America and are in need of its economic and/or military support.
The behaviour of such states, she said, now needed to be interpreted through the prism of the new American hegemony.
At the same time, she said, local actors have emerged and they were acting as surrogates for American interests at regional level. The most effective of these, Israel, was an interesting example, she said.
“This is not so much a surrogate as a favoured ally in a strategic alliance with the US, and in this sense Israel has to be seen, not in its geographical setting, but as part of the Western world. It has profound implications for the Arab and Islamic worlds,” she said.
“Israel, which perceives itself to be surrounded by hostile Arab and Islamic states, seeks to neutralise them.”
She further said that it was owing to an active Israeli campaign to promote friendly bilateral relations that Turkey, for example, had been removed from the list of adversaries, important for Israel as it sits right on the borders of Syria and Iraq.
She also referred to numerous theories about the role of Israel in encouraging the US to go to war on Iraq which have been propounded.
“It has been pointed out that a majority of the White House close advisors and key members of the administration are active supporters of Israel and that Israel has a direct input into American decision-making. It is argued that, in attacking Iraq, the US was responding to an Israeli imperative to ‘take out’ one of its most significant enemies in the, Middle East.”
“The current US campaign against Syria and Iran is also Israeli-inspired,” she said, adding, “it is certainly striking that the US has proscribed Hizbullah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad organisations that threaten Israel alone, and the EU has now followed obediently with a ban on Hamas.”
“It is not only in the Middle East that the Israeli/US strategic alliance manifests itself. South Asia is a case in point,” she said, adding, the first-ever visit by an Israeli prime minister to the Indian sub-continent took place last week, developing a rapidly growing alliance between India and Israel mushroomed in the wake of the September 11 attacks and common fight against “Islamist terrorism” that emerged at that time.
Ghada Karmi pointed out that today Indian officials speak of a tri-partite alliance of America, Israel and India. “Israel sells India $2bn worth of armament annually and is set to replace Russia as its biggest arms supplier. This must be seen as a triumph for American policy.”
India, which was once the leader of the Third World, and was opposed to colonialism and capitalism, was now firmly moving towards the American sphere.
Referring to Pakistan’s changing stance vis-a-vis Israel, under US pressure, as reflected in Gen Pervez Musharraf’s statements about the need to re-appraise the status of diplomatic ties with Israel, she said it must be seen in the background of Indo-Israeli relations.
“But perhaps the most relevant conflict in this context is the one over Palestine. For a moment in April, there was a window of opportunity when the US had ended its war on Iraq with promises of a new beginning for that wretched country, and then it was talking resolutely about resolving the Israeli-Palestine conflict through the Road-Map to peace.
The occupied territories, she said, are mired in a terrible war of attrition that neither side can win and the US, mired in its own mess in Iraq, lets it all go on. If ever there was a case for a separate European initiative, it is surely this one, emphasized Ghada Karmi.
She said that terrorism has not been tamed; instead the anger and frustration against the US and its allies had worsened, providing a fertile ground for further violence.
In both Afghanistan and Iraq, she said, the coalition partners had seriously under-estimated the complexity of the tasks they had undertaken.
“The UN is divided and weakened, and the chaos in the Middle East is growing with the faint hopes of liberal intellectuals there that the neo-conservative project might just work and bring democratic governance, now shattered. And, most importantly the gulf between Europe and the US is growing even wider.”
She called upon the European countries to put their act together and assert their economic power, vis-a-vis the ME and the developing world.
Mr Toheed Ahmed, additional secretary (policy planning) ministry of foreign affairs, who was the chief guest at the inaugural session, in his brief remarks referred to the principles guiding Pakistan’s foreign policy, especially vis-a- vis Kashmir and India.
Earlier, Director of the ASCE, Dr Naveed Ahmed Tahir, gave an overview of the prevailing trans-Atlantic relationships and its implications on the developing world. The session was presided over by the Vice Chancellor, University of Karachi, Dr Zafar Saied Zaidi.
