New
Year Reflections
By Ramzy Baroud
07 January, 2007
Countercurrents.org
2006
was yet another year of tribulations in the ever tumultuous Middle East.
It defied all early expectations that 2005 would be the worst for many
years to follow. It ended on a sad note in Palestine, and left wide
open the chance for many appalling possibilities that stretch from Baghdad,
to Lebanon, to Mogadishu, and elsewhere.
Like January 2005, January
2006 brought about momentous elections, the former in Iraq, and the
latter in the Occupied Palestinian Territories; both occasions, which
had the potential of becoming icons of democratic experiences, led to
unmitigated disasters, exposing the American democracy charade for what
it truly was, a farce, pure and simple.
The 120 Iraqi parties that
fielded candidates in the country’s 2005 first nationwide elections
since the toppling of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, revealed
the country’s sectarian divisions; expectedly, Iraq’s Sunni
population boycotted the elections, fearing that their participation
was a rubber stamp in a highly suspicious US experiment aimed at dividing
the country by stripping it of any national cohesion, thus smoothing
the progress of a more manageable occupation. Sadly, many Iraqis allowed
the US plan to fester civil strife bordering on civil war, which left
countless innocents dead or maimed; The outcome of those divisions never
expressed itself as clearly as it did in 2006, which left even the most
optimistic amongst us anticipate nothing less than a full-fledged civil
war morphing out of the current chaos.
Meanwhile, most Americans,
as articulated in the Congressional elections of November 2006, expressed
resentment for their country’s war in Iraq like never before on
any foreign policy issue. Though their rejection of the Republican Party’s
candidates was an illustration of their refusal of the Bush Administration
staying the course mantra, the election brought back a divided Democratic
Party that is equally supportive of the war, but wishes to convey its
position in so clever a way so as to appear in disagreement of Bush’s
war management style, but without offering any substantial policy shift.
The elections will also likely position Democratic Senator Hillary Clinton
of New York and Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona at the helm
of Presidential candidates to follow the current lame duck president.
Clinton is a staunch pro-war and pro-Israel savvy politician, and the
latter wants to see a dramatic increase in the number of American troops
in Iraq, as a way out of the quagmire. Using his constant opposition
of President Bush’s foreign policies, McCain is unlikely to pay
the price of Bush’s past failures, which, to varying degrees have
damaged the credibility of most Republican politicians.
Like Iraq in the passing
year, Palestinians embarked on 2006 on a hopeful note. Occupied and
facing the most intense Israeli state terror regime, they delivered
an awesome blow to those who contended that Palestinians were morally
inferior to Israel for failing to espouse democratic governance. Though
no occupied nation should be subjected to such cruel judgement, Palestinians
prevailed, voting in what was described by former US President Jimmy
Carter as the ‘most transparent’ and democratic elections
in that region in many years. The outcome of the vote was equally spectacular,
for it defied all expectations by sidelining the ruling elite –
despite generous financial and political backing from the US, of which
they were and are still inundated - and bringing to power a political
movement, Hamas, who despite it militant reputation, was clearly more
in tune with the aspirations of Palestinian voters.
Soon after, Hamas found itself
utterly isolated, and Palestinians were subjected to cruel collective
punishment for their democratic choice, all with the backing and support
of the US, Israel and President Mahmoud Abbas.
The year 2006 has closed
with the dreadful shadow of civil war hovering over Gaza closer than
ever before, as 17 people were killed and many more wounded in past
weeks, following an assassination attempt orchestrated by some Fatah
faction against Palestinian Prime Minister, Ismail Haniyeh. Unconditional
US support of Abbas is strengthening the latter’s position, who
has declared, in defiance of all democratic principles, his intent on
dismantling the Palestinian Parliament and call for early elections.
Lebanon didn’t fair
much better in 2006, as a 34-day war, which was clearly premeditated
at least a year in advance, brought the country’s thriving economy
into a total state of paralysis. The war, which followed Hizbollah’s
capture of two Israeli soldiers at the Lebanon border wreaked havoc
in southern Lebanon, but destroyed much of the civilian infrastructure
throughout the country as well, as far as its northern border with Syria.
The July-August Israeli assault on Lebanon killed over 1200 Lebanese
civilians and an unspecified number of Hizbollah fighters; Hizbollah,
which not only managed to shock Israel, but the world with its military
preparedness and steadfastness, fired hundreds of rockets into Israel,
killing 157 Israelis, mostly soldiers. As many members of the international
community demanded an immediate end to the fighting, the US cheered
Israel on, upholding its tired slogan of Israel’s ‘right
to defend itself’; the delay in ending the war however, wrought
disaster on America’s ongoing plan to coerce Iran – the
main backer of Hizbollah - into abandoning its nuclear program, giving
Tehran instead a stronger bargaining position as it was indicated in
the Baker-Hamilton report, a culmination of incessant deliberation and
research by the Iraq Study Group (ISG). The report recommended that
the US must engage Iran and Syria to escape its terrible fate in Iraq.
The ISG which was formulated
at the behest and urging of the US Congress to decipher and thus conceive
a new American outlook on the ‘deteriorating’ situation
in Iraq presented its recommendations to President Bush in December.
Though the report had the courage to address the Iraq fiasco in the
most honest depiction possible, and also the audacity to openly link
the Iraq war to the absence of peace in Palestine, it failed to set
a clear course of action out of Iraq and into a new era of realistic,
thoughtful and inclusive foreign policy in the Middle East, denying
2006 that jolt of hope needed to offset some of its dreadful disappointments.
With Iraq left with no positive
scenarios, hopes for a lasting Palestinian democratic experience turning
into daring predictions of a civil war, coupled with bloody Israeli
onslaughts against Gaza and the West Bank, Lebanon still bleeding under
the outcomes of war and its own political mayhem, Bush’s ‘vision’
for a democratic Middle East of 2005 has enlivened factionalism, sectarianism
and the prospect for a regional civil war in 2006; this is yet another
reckless American-Israeli experiment that if fully actualized, shall
harvest untold political instability, debase America’s reputation
even further and expand the list of innocent victims who have fallen
as profusely as ever in this passing year.
One is only left with the
hope that 2007 may bring some comfort and a moment of peace to the poor,
the dispossessed and the resilient masses all around the world, who
cannot afford to surrender their genuine hope, humble prayers, and whatever
price necessary to achieve peace and freedom for themselves, for all
of us.
-Ramzy Baroud’s latest
book is The Second Palestinian Intifada: A Chronicle of a People’s
Struggle (Pluto Press) is available at Amazon.com and also from the
University of Michigan Press.
Leave
A Comment
&
Share Your Insights