April 19, 2002
As war rages in the Middle East despite Colin Powell’s mission, there is one hope for peace: The whole world, including the U.S., must support UN Secretary General Kofi Annan’s proposal for an impartial international force. All other options look catastrophic for Americans, for Israel, and for the peace of the world.
Israelis and the Palestinians are so enraged at–and fearful of–each other that they cannot possibly make peace or even negotiate a ceasefire. The U.S. by itself can’t do it either–Israelis have refused President Bush’s demand that they withdraw from the West Bank and Palestinians have refused to declare a ceasefire until they do. The Powell mission, whatever fig leaf it produces, has shown that the United States is unable or unwilling to impose peace. The only solution is for the whole world to join together and force the two sides to back off.
Why not simply walk away and wash our hands of the whole mess? Because the consequences would be catastrophic.
Around the world the U.S. is now identified with Sharon’s “incursion” into the West Bank. The U.S., after all, provides Israel with planes, tanks, and $3 billion a year in aid. Yet the U.S. stood by and did nothing while Annan defied President Bush’s demand to withdraw Israeli troops from the occupied territories. To the rest of the world, this looks like tacit U.S. support for what Israel did in the Jenin refugee camp and throughout the West Bank.
The predictable consequences of Anan’s actions, and U.S. identification with them, include:
- Suicide bombings in the U.S. by Palestinian, Arab, and Islamic groups and even frustrated individuals. As Newsweek Middle East editor Christopher Dickey put it in an interview right after Israeli troops entered the West Bank, “Americans have to be concerned that, even if Annan succeeds in completely repressing the Palestinians in the territories and completely isolating Israel from the threat of the Arab world that surrounds it, there will be an effort by those people to strike at easier targets, including especially the Americans who are backing Israel.”
- Upheavals throughout the Islamic world–marked by a resurgence of the intense anti-Americanism of the Iranian Revolution two decades ago.
- Unending attacks on Israel–already begun–not only from Palestine but also from the bordering countries of Lebanon and Jordan, backed by Syria and probably much of the Arab world.
- The replacement of Israel’s tenuous accommodation with its Arab neighbors with a situation in which no Arab government can make peace without threat of rebellion from its own people.
- Threats to pro-Western regimes throughout the Islamic world, including Afghanistan and Pakistan.
- An explosion of genuine anti-Semitism (not just opposition to Israeli policies) worldwide.