Threat of Middle East's Balkanisation is real

Editorial Page

By Sami Khiyami
Mon, 19 Mar 2007, 11:07:00

AMERICA'S strategy in the Middle East, devised by Washington's hawks - the ultra nationalists, neocons and Christian Zionists - smells of oil and domination. It has been based on two objectives.

First, US global dominance must shape further globalisation; while the present rules of the world economy left open opportunities for rising stars like Russia, China and India, it was clear to some Washington extremists that, in addition to technology, the US would need to control the world's oil. The second is to give paramount importance to Israel while sidelining the interests of the Arabs.

Such objectives can only be achieved if the coherence of Middle Eastern societies is undermined. So the aim is not confined to toppling regimes, but extends to questioning the foundations of nation states. A policy has been designed to encourage sectarianism, ethnic divides, regional xenophobia, and the eventual Balkanisation of the Arab Middle East. Sadly, the outcome may be the partition of several states, producing smaller entities, regarded as easier to manage and dominate.

It was necessary for the US administration to sugarcoat its policy with promises of freedom and democracy, long awaited in the region. The hawks needed an excuse to implement their plan, and the tragic attacks of 9/11 provided it. Ironically, US retaliation seems to have faded as a priority, with those responsible enjoying impunity while the Iraqi people continue to pay the price.

But the US has slipped into a ruthless Iraqi swamp. President Bush has now come up with a new initiative. Apparently disregarding the recent Baker-Hamilton report, it divides the Middle East into two categories: the so-called moderate states abiding by American rules, and the extremist 'renegade' states. It also seeks to escalate tension with Iran in preparation for a possible all-out confrontation. And it is about increasing the US military presence in Iraq in the short to medium term. The initiative appears to be a last attempt to maintain exclusive control over Iraq. It is not unreasonable to think that this could lead to the tearing apart of the country. To move forward, two questions need to be addressed: is America's final goal domination, partition or an honourable exit? And why are al-Qaida terrorists and other death squads attacking innocent civilians exclusively, whereas legitimate resistance forces are restricting their operations to military targets?

The weekend conference in Baghdad over the future of Iraq, attended by the US, Syria and Iran, could be a prelude to more fruitful negotiations. Syria was able to impress upon the US that it can't afford to be as biased in dealing with highly sensitive conflicts. The US must help create a climate of understanding between the West and the Arabs. A stable, secular and prosperous Middle East is the best way to undermine terrorism.

Syria also made clear that it will spare no effort to safeguard the integrity of Iraq, based on these steps: a timetable for the evacuation of foreign forces without causing a security vacuum; recall units of the Iraqi army whose loyalty is towards a unified Iraq; review the Iraqi constitution to strengthen the central authority; reverse the banning of the Baath party; a national reconciliation conference engaging the countries of the region; a subsequent international conference to sponsor reconstruction.

Any collapse of Iraq would threaten the coherence of societies in neighbouring Syria, Lebanon and the whole Gulf region. The nations ruling the world need to be wiser, fairer and more determined than in the past to find both a solution to the Iraqi conflict and also the Arab-Israeli conflict.

© Copyright 2003 by ittefaq.com

60 years after Partitioning of Palestine, residents stranded between checkpoints, Wall & settlements

Feature translated by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC - Saturday, 02 December 2006, 03:12

by Palestine News Network Last Wednesday, November 29, was the sixtieth anniversary of the United Nations General Assembly Resolution 181, the UN Partition Plan for partitioning Palestine of November 29, 1947. It was considered the first decision that called for partitioning Palestine and the creation of two Arab and Jewish states. Thirty-three countries approved the decision, 13 voted against it and 10 countries abstained. Now, as 2006 is passing away, the Palestinians are living between checkpoints, isolated behind the huge concrete Walls and more than 160 settlements hotting several hundreds of thousands o settlers have bee constructed. Qalqilia city, in the northern part of the West Bank, lived and still living the partitioning resolution, as it lost lands to Israel in 1947, then lost more lands in 1967 and now is losing what is left for the construction of the Annexation Wall. Resident Abdullah Amin J'eidy, was born in Qalqilia in 1920, he lived the different stages Palestinian had to go through, he was 27 when the partitioning resolution was passed, and now he is living in Qalqilia that became totally isolated by the Wall. “We heard about the resolution, but we never saw it”, J'eidy said, “and in 1948 we felt the true loss of our land after Israeli occupied the historic Palestine”. “They stole my land, and they barred me even from seeing it again, I still have papers proving my ownership, but they don't' care”, he added, “Now am here, I will not move from what i have left, I will not give my land away”. He still remembers his lost land, he still remember the first Kibbutz installed there, his old neighbors and every details of what he lost. Qalqilia municipality said that after the Partitioning order, 80% of the farmlands were annexed to Israel, and that Qalqilia used to be 50.000 Dunams, but now only 10.000 are left. Dr. Ali Abdul-Hameed head of the Regional and Civil Planning center in Al Najah University in Nablus, said that the Partitioning order was theoretical and was never implemented. “Now, sixty years after it was approved, the Palestinians are living in isolated cantons, separated by settlements and checkpoints blocking the entrances of the cities and villages”, Abdul-Hameed stated, “the plan Sharon presented in the early eighteens aimed at dividing the West Bank into five sections, now it is implemented with 620 checkpoints spreed all over the West Bank”. Professor Ibrahim Abu Jaber, head of the Studies Center in Um Al Fahim, said that the Partitioning resolution gave the Palestinians 70% of the land to the Palestinian and 30% to the Jews. “Although i reject the resolution, it is still better than what is going on today, now Israel is also expelling the Bedouins from the Negev, and the Arabs from several areas”, Abu Jaber said, “I am an Bedouin from the Negev, my family and I were expelled, and we are living in Kafer Qassim after Israel issued a military order annexing all of the agricultural lands to use them for military proposes”. “After the Partitioning resolution was passed at the UN, I became a refugee in my own land”, he added. The UN Partition Plan for Palestine (Full text)

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