Afterthoughts : Imperial decline and prospects for a just peace in Palestine
Walden Bello, Richard Javad Heyderian
Philippine Daily Inquirer
September 28, 2010
As Southeast Asians, we deeply feel the pain and suffering that has gripped the ancient holy land. Our region has been
at the crossroads of different cultures and religions. Islam, and its rich cultural heritage, has been part-and-parcel
of many Southeast Asian societies for centuries. The region is home to the biggest Islamic country, Indonesia, with
hundreds of millions Muslims being citizens of the other countries in the region.
Our own country, the Philippines, is home to a large Muslim community mainly concentrated in Mindanao and Sulu. But it
is not only people from Malaysia, Indonesia, and Brunei – Muslim-majority countries in the region – that have been
concerned with the Israel-Palestine conflict. Indeed, the conflict now has direct relevance to the thousands of
Indonesian and Filipino families who have relatives working as domestics or construction workers in Israel, the West
Bank, and Gaza.
Palestine and the global conscience
The plight of the Palestinians is embedded in our consciousness, and their torment and agony are etched in our
conscience. Perhaps, one of the few benefits of globalization is that people from all corners of the world can be
continuously reminded of the imperial atrocities of Israel and the U.S. in the Middle East and other places. To us, and
hundreds of millions of people around the world, the situation in Palestine represents the pinnacle of injustice in a
world that has been dominated by imperial calculations and a cold-blooded realist outlook.
For more than half-a-century, the gushing wound of Palestine has assaulted the global conscience. However, we are yet to
see a just resolution of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. At this moment of reflection and gathering, the question we
must raise is to whom should we ascertain the responsibility for such a protracted humanitarian tragedy, if not to the
“Empire”? History, as our dearest witness to the greatest atrocities and crimes, tells us that justice and peace have
been the eternal victims of an imperial design that has dominated West Asia for centuries. In the last 200 years, the
French and the British colonizers subdivided the region into separate spheres of influence – indeed, Western imperialism
is an old phenomenon in the Middle East. In the early 20th century, the British laid down the foundation for the rise of
a “Zionist” exclusionary state, a process that enjoyed active French military assistance and partnership. The birth of
the colonial settler state of Israel in 1948, though it was at the auspices of the United Nations, was masterminded by
the United States. Israel’s blatant territorial seizures during the Six Day War in 1967 and the Yom Kippur War of 1973
could not have been carried out without the unconditional support of the United States.
Unconditional US support
Israel’s bloody role in the Lebanese Civil War, culminating in the Sabra and Chatila as well as the Qana Massacres, and
recent attacks on a besieged, densely populated Gaza stand as a testament to the naked force of the Israeli military
machinery backed by US support. It is not unrealistic to assume that military aggression has actually become the
continuation of Israeli foreign policy by other means. Insincere, if not meaningless, peace talks and negotiations have
become a comfortable political veneer for an uncompromising Israeli regime that has in actuality relied on superior
military hardware, much of it provided by Washington, to perpetually bludgeon Palestinians. US pressure on Israel is the
key to the resolution of the conflict. Israel knows very well that its “survival” and stability is contingent on a
full-spectrum, sustained, and expansive US support.
What we condemn the most is the impunity by which Israel conducts its vicious military operations in Palestine – thanks
to immutable, blind, and unconditional American support. It is precisely such a culture of impunity that results in the
reckless pounding of Palestinian homes and the massacre of innocent individuals in Lebanon, West Bank, and Gaza.
Moreover, what we should denounce is imperial hypocrisy. How can the ‘mighty’ and ‘benevolent’ America speak of
‘democratizing’ the Middle East – through its invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq – when it turns a blind-eye on crimes
against humanity perpetrated by its regional ideological ally, Israel. We know how frustrating the situation in the
Middle East can get, but let us remember that beyond war and violence, the true path towards bringing lasting peace to
the region is a just, peaceful, and lasting resolution of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
In his famous “Cairo Speech”, President Barack Obama promised a new era in the US’ relations with the Islamic world. It
was a speech that rekindled the hopes of a billion Muslim around the world for a ‘just peace’ in the Middle East. In
fairness to him, President Obama is among the few recent American presidents that have focused on the ‘peace process’
right-off-the-bat – signaling a more constructive vision for the region. However, Obama’s eloquence is yet to translate
into a substantive end to decades of mindless support for Israel. We are yet to see the White House exerting ‘effective’
and ‘sustained’ diplomatic pressure on the hardliners – Netanyahu, Lieberman and his acolytes – who have captured the
Israeli state apparatus.
Imperial Decline and Zionist Panic
Nonetheless, our hopes for a more just and free world should be anchored on a propitious development: an ‘imperial
decline’, which has enfeebled arrogant America. The global financial crisis has exposed the weak foundations of
America’s ‘real economy’. For decades, ‘Friedmanite Economics’ dominated a post-Keynesian America, wherein unfettered
financial markets served as the engine of growth. While drowned in an ecstatic mood of post-industrialist
hyper-consumerism, America boosted its military prowess by surpassing the combined military expenditures of al other
countries. The collapse of the Soviet Union inaugurated an era of unipolar global politics. In the post-Cold War period,
guided by imperial hubris and realist strategic calculations, the US expanded its military reach across the globe.
Today, however, caught in what is turning out to be permanent stagnation, militarily overstretched, and domestically
polarized across fierce ideological lines, the U.S. has to come to terms with an emerging multi-polar world, where
America is no longer “the one”. The end of the ‘unipolar’ moment for America is drawing near, if not already here.
In the context of the Middle East, “An America in decline means a Zionist Israel in panic”. What we are witnessing today
is not only the gradual decline of American power, but also the increasing isolation of Israel. The rise of anti-Israeli
hardliners in Iran, growing discontent within the so-called ‘Arab Street’ against their subservient governments, and the
emergence of a more ‘assertive’ Turkey are fundamentally altering the balance-of-power in the Middle East. America’s
decline is creating a huge regional political vacuum, which is being increasingly filled-up by regional powers – mainly
Iran, Turkey, and even Qatar – though some, like India, have used their more important role to shore up US influence in
the region. The deepening crisis in occupied-Palestine, instability in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the proliferation of
piracy and terrorism across the region have encouraged local powers to step in and resolve conflicts on their own more
nuanced, long-term oriented, and hopefully more constructive terms. What these regional powers understand is that while
America can leave whenever the going gets tough – as demonstrated in the Vietnam War – they in turn have no choice but
to face the perils of instability brought about by imperial interventions in the region. In short, they are forced to
manage the mess created by America. It is such sobering realization that is pushing the local powers to consider the
creation of a more constructive security and conflict-resolution framework designed to bring about stability and ‘just
peace’ in the region.
New developments
In the opinion of many, the rise of a diplomatically pro-active and politically constructive Turkey, under the Justice
and Development Party (AKP) and with the guidance of Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu, represents the most positive
development in recent years. Turkey is not only a bridge between the East and the West in geo-strategic terms, but also
a trustworthy and influential broker that could contribute greatly to an effective and just resolution of the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Being a major NATO-member, a long-term Israeli partner until recently, the region’s
biggest economy, a regional techno-industrial hub, a fledgling democracy, a candidate for European Union membership, the
emerging regional great power Turkey occupies a privilege position in the affairs of the region – especially in the
peace process. Its critical stance towards Israel following the Gaza Flotilla Massacre sent a strong message to Israel
that it could no longer act with impunity without exacting grave regional costs. It is time that the international
community recognizes Turkey as an important actor in the Palestinian peace process. Israel’s current actions, such as
the expansion of illegal settlement or ‘colonies’ and continuous military aggression against the civilian population in
Gaza and the West Bank, will further anger a Turkish public that is deeply sympathetic to the plight of fellow-Muslim
Palestinians.
Unfortunately, what we see so far is more of American kowtowing in the face of Israeli lobby. It is highly regrettable
to see few powerful, well-organized and well-funded lobby groups, such as AIPAC, effectively determining America’s
Middle East foreign policy, supporting everything the Zionists do, with only a tap on the wrist when it involves human
rights violations. For instance, in recent days, to salvage the most recent round of peace talks, President Obama and
Secretary of State Hilary Clinton have been reduced to pleading to Israel to continue its suspension of illegal
construction activities on the West Bank instead of commanding Tel Aviv to do so.
Washington’s support encourages Israel’s expansion of its illegal settlements on the West Bank, its bludgeoning and
strangling of Gaza, and piratical ventures like the infamous attack on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla.
The Acquiescent Arab states
The neighboring Arab countries are also essential and central to the just and peaceful resolution of the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Let us remember that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict drew-in the neighboring Arab
countries – culminating in three Arab-Israeli wars in 1948, 1967, and 1973. The broader Arab-Israeli conflict is rooted
in the birth of the state of Israel in 1948, which coincided with the forcible expulsion of hundreds of thousands
Palestinians, who were harassed and murdered by Israeli militia gangs. The support of the Arab states for the
Palestinians was not consistent, but it was the 1979 peace agreement between Egypt and Israel that radically shifted the
balance of power in favor of an ascendant NATO-backed Israel. Since then, most Arab countries, under the U.S. pressure,
have normalized their relationship with Israel. In the 2002 Arab Peace initiative, many Arab countries came very close
to total acquiescence, manifesting an urge to recognize the state of Israel in exchange for certain concessions from
Israel. Meanwhile, Israel came nowhere close to committing itself to any compromise on issues such as the ‘right of
return’ for millions of Palestinian refugees around the world, the division of East Jerusalem, and the creation of an
independent Palestinian state based on the provisions of the Oslo Agreement or the original United Nations Partition
Plan. This explains why in the last decade countries such as Iran and Turkey emerged as the ‘vanguards’ of Palestinian
rights, while the main Arab powers such as Egypt and Saudi Arabia increasingly lost influence in the greater Islamic
community.
Ironically, while America preaches “democracy” and human rights in Iraq and Afghanistan, or in Iran, it says little
about gross human rights violations in allied Arab autocracies such as Egypt and Saudi Arabia. It is precisely such
hypocrisy that has frustrated growing numbers of young Arabs, even the educated middle class, and radicalized them
against the U.S. For many Arabs, the U.S. is not the harbinger of democracy, but a patron of brutal autocracies in the
Middle East. Although the Arab autocrats seem to be reluctant to confront Israel on the issue of Palestine, the
so-called Arab Sreet is neither pacified nor indifferent. Millions of Arabs across the region harbor strong feelings
vis-à-vis Palestine, and they are highly critical of their own governments’ normalized, if not ‘cordial’, relations with
the U.S. and more especially with Israel. Although the fate of democratization in the Arab world is far from certain,
the empire’s continuing support for autocratic but acquiescent Arab regimes will lead to nothing, but greater
state-sponsored repression and increasingly violent popular backlash.
New Actors and the future
But even as the Arab states remained submissive toward Israel, the emergence of a new player, the Hezbollah in Lebanon,
gave hope. The Hezbollah’s inflicting two military defeats on Israel, in 1992, when It forced Israel to withdraw from
Lebanon, and in the summer of 2006, when it defeated the invading Israeli Defense Force, did a lot to revive Arab pride.
I was in Beirut on a peace mission in the summer of 2006, and I witnessed the overflowing testimonial of support for
Omar Nasrallah, the head of Hezbollah, throughout Lebanon. More important, the Hezbollah’s triumphs underlined to Israel
that the military equation is changing, and that the only hope for Israel’s survival in the end lies in a just,
negotiated solution to the Palestine issue.
At the end of the day, the twilight of the empire, the growing isolation of Israel, the rise of Iran and Turkey, the
growing radicalization of the Arab peoples, and the rise of new actors like Hezbollah and Hamas will contribute to
moving the region toward just and viable solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict in the long-term. Nonetheless, unless
President Obama begins to discipline the hardliners in Israel, a just and peaceful solution is highly improbable in the
short-run. This is Obama’s chance to prove that his eloquence is built not on hot air, but on a genuine commitment to
bring about just and lasting peace to the region.
We stand by the Palestinian people in their continuing resistance to Israel’s genocidal drive to obliterate them as a
people and we call upon the international community to demand that enough is enough.
(Walden Bello is a member of the House of Representatives representing Akbayan and senior analyst of Focus on the Global
South. He led peace missions to Iraq shortly before the American invasion in 2003 and to Beirut in the summer of 2006,
when Israel invaded Lebanon. Richard Javad Heyderian is an aide in his office who specializes in Middle Eastern issues.
This article is adapted from a recent talk delivered by Bello at the Conference for a Just Peace in Palestine in New
Delhi, India)
ENDS