Editorial arab News: Cynicism With Reason

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Saturday 12 January 2008 (04 Muharram 1429)


Editorial: Cynicism With Reason


12 January 2008 —


We ought to be celebrating President George Bush's declaration that a Palestinian state is "long overdue". We ought to be positively over the moon about his newly discovered belief that the Palestinian people "deserve it". We should be excited by his call for an end to the Israeli occupation, all the more because "occupation" is a word so rarely used by the Americans in relation to the Israelis.

But there will be no dancing in the streets of Ramallah or Jericho or any other Palestinian town — or any Arab one. On the contrary, the only visible Palestinian response so far was an anti-Bush demonstration in Ramallah, albeit involving a relatively small number of people although there would certainly have been many more but for the massive police presence.

It is impossible to feel any excitement about Bush's words — because no Palestinian, no Arab believes he will, or can, deliver. Call it skepticism; call it cynicism. But there are good reasons — the most powerful being that we have been here, heard it all, too many times before, and to no effect.

But there are two specific reasons on this occasion. The first is Washington's historic alliance with Israel, which despite the ringing words about a Palestinian state, Bush himself fully re-endorsed during his visit this week. We can be absolutely certain that Washington is not going to exert the pressure needed to force the Israelis into making the necessary concessions for there to be a fully sovereign Palestinian state. Even if Bush wanted to (which has to be seriously questioned), Congress would not let him; certainly not in the limited time available.

The second is the man himself. He has proved a disaster of a president — for the US, for the Middle East, for the world. Everything he touches turns to dust and ashes. Iraq, Afghanistan, maybe now even Iran. And not just in the Middle East. The American recession — it is already happening — can be laid directly at his door. Thanks to a financially disastrous combination of massive military spending hikes and tax cuts, he will bequeath to his successor a record national debt of a minimum of $9 trillion and possibly far more if the Democrats are to be believed. He will surely go down in American history as the most incompetent president ever and the deathly "Bush Touch" will go into the English language as his only lasting legacy to the world.

We would love to believe otherwise, to be firmly convinced that his efforts will bring the peace that has eluded the Middle East for 60 years. There is no reason to doubt his sincerity. Like every US president since the creation of the Israeli state, he would love to be the one that manages to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli issue — and he is desperate to leave something that is not another disaster.

But we have the Bush record with its damning testimony of failure and disaster. That is the reason for the skepticism and the cynicism. It is an overpowering reason.


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