By Mordecai Briemberg
Both Donald Rumsfeld, the U.S. Secretary of War, and Osama bin Laden agree. As soon as the U.S. declared war on Afghanistan, Rumsfeld said that American citizens would be less secure than before, more vulnerable to terrorist attacks. And Osama bin Laden said that without an end to Israeli atrocities against Palestinians, the mass murder of Iraqis through military siege, and the end to U.S. military occupation of Saudi Arabia, there would be no greater security for Americans than there has been for the people of the Middle East.
It is clear from their statements that these two enemies, each enemy of the other, both our enemy, that only elementary justice in the Middle East can help lead us away from the twin horrors of war and terrorism.
Control of oil is the key goal of U.S. policy in the Middle East. The greatest threat to U.S. control is democratic governments in the region responsible to their own people, using the resources for the benefit of their own people.
To block democratic and sovereign governments, the U.S. (like England and France before them) created and control dictatorships from Egypt to Saudi Arabia and as they once did with Iran. The great "coalition" constructed by Bush and Blair is with puppet regimes. And the reason the bombing of Afghanistan was so delayed was because of the growing fear these dictators have of the wrath of their own people.
With each new atrocity against the Palestinian people, the Iraqi people, the Afghan people, popular anger in the Middle East against the corrupt and dictatorial ways of their imposed rulers grows more intense. That is why Blair and Rumsfeld and Powell rush to the region for their emergency consultations.
As the U.S. extends its Òwar against terrorismÓ, as it openly announces it will, this ÒcoalitionÓ most likely will collapse utterly.
Hence the importance of the U.S. second ally in the effort to block democratic, sovereign governments in the Middle East: Israel.
It has been massive U.S. military, financial and political aid that has maintained Israel over the past half century as the Òcop on the blockÓ. A settler-colonial state to attack secular Arab nationalism and progressive social movements. This is why Israel has waged continuous wars, invading and occupying Egypt, Lebanon and Syria, defying international laws, committing war crimes and ripping up United Nations resolutions.The main direct victims have been the Palestinian people. That is why justice for the Palestinians - at least an end to Israeli occupation and implementation of the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes - is indispensable for peace in the Middle East. And security in our own country.
Hear the words of South African Bishop Desmond Tutu. He spoke on a Christmas visit to Palestine in 1989, when South Africa still suffered under apartheid. ÒI am a black South African, and if I were to change the names, a description of what is happening in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank could describe events in South Africa.Ó
While we remained deaf to these words and to the humanity of the Palestinians, there daily conditions worsened enormously... and with it anger throughout the whole region and beyond.