The victimization of America (by Sattar Kassem) Media Monitors Network

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Posted: October 06, 2001

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The victimization of America

by Sattar Kassem

Certainly, the attacks on the United States have roots. As an Arab, I understand why so many Arabs and Muslims hate the U.S. and look at it as a power of evil. The U.S. is being accused of robbing the wealth of the Arabs and insisting on dominating the Arab countries, particularly the Gulf States. It is also labeled as a supporter of Arab and Muslim dictatorships that have no respect for basic human rights. But above all, the U.S. is the prime supporter of Israel, which is considered a strange cancerous body in the area. The U.S. extends economic, political, diplomatic and military aid to Israel without the least consideration for Arab feelings, and exerts great efforts to obstruct attempts toward Arab independence or unity. For the sake of Israel, partially at least, the U.S. has so far attacked Libya, the Sudan, Iran, Afghanistan, the Syrian troops in Lebanon, and Iraq, and have been imposing embargoes in one way or another on these countries. Besides, the U.S. has been trying relentlessly to prevent Arabs and Muslims from acquiring weapons of mass-destruction while at the same time it doesn�t even criticize Israel�s nuclear arsenal.

On the other hand, the Arabs have a very long history in seeking the heart of the U.S. So many Arab leaders have been trying for several decades to explain to the U.S. the importance of mutual interests based on friendship, and some of them have been behaving as puppets. So many Arab intellectuals, writers and lecturers have been trying to convey a message of friendship and cooperation, but the American leadership has been irresponsive and insulting. At the best of times, when there is a kind of cooperation or a rising trust among Arabs with regard to American policy in the area, the U.S. president announces more military or economic aid to Israel, disregarding completely the fact that the Arabs have feelings, that they are humans. And the American president would bluntly justify that peace in the Middle East would be only brought about through a strong Israel.

American policy towards Arabs and Muslims goes extravagantly beyond reason to the extent that one would think that this great country is actually run by amateurs who have very little knowledge of psychology, or whose hearts have been driven away from the truth. There is a great Arab nation that accounts for hundreds of millions of people, that extends over an area stretching from the Atlantic to the Gulf and rests over great wealth looking toward a friendship with the U.S., but receives only defiance, humiliation and an endless chain of bombs falling from American-made warplanes.

As events unfolded, it became clear that the U.S. is not actually interested in friendship with the Arabs based upon mutual respect but rather in subjugating them. Somebody might listen to Arab leaders praising the relationship with the U.S. as built on equal footing, but these are dictators who are very much hated by their own peoples and are not an illuminating source for understanding Arab feelings toward the U.S. Over the years, the U.S. has persistently and intentionally pushed the Arabs into a corner and mounting its pressure against them to the point that the law of physics concerning pressure and explosion became applicable to the behaviour of Arabs toward the U.S. Some Americans might argue against this, but here I am just conveying how the Arab majority perceives and understands the situation.

It is unfortunate that the U.S. has been manipulated by Zionist and Jewish pressure groups to an extent that it lost direction and discretion in building healthy relations with the Arabs. The Zionist and some Jewish machinery has been pumping so much faulty information about the Arabs and Muslims in an effort to mislead the Americans and create a negative public attitude against them. This machinery has so much media and financial power, and has dug so deep into the American system of elections and the influence connected with it. These lobbies, together with Israel, have been working hard on American Congressmen and the White House personnel so as to insure the continuous flow of aid for Israel at the expense of the Arabs, and have been utilizing the concept of anti-Semitism to the utmost in an effort to terrorize Americans from expressing themselves or questioning American policy in the Middle East.

Israel and the lobbies connected with it have not only been monopolizing American policy in the Middle East but also have been working hard on distorting the image of the Arabs and the Muslims. As a direct result of their propaganda, misconceptions about the Palestinians, the Arabs and the Muslims have developed and intensified. And as a result of Arab unwillingness to counteract, the American public is still unaware of the profit America gains from trading with the Arabs and of the annual $3.2 billion in economic and military aid given to Israel from the American government.

The result must be clear: hatred of the U.S. in Arabia and the Muslim world has been soaring. There are hundreds of millions of frustrated and furious Arabs and Muslims who could be easily mobilized. In the end, it is the Americans, the Arabs and the Muslims who pay the price. What about Israel and the Zionist and Jewish lobbies in the U.S.? They are now sitting there pouring more fuel on the already blazing fire.

The Muslims and the Arabs would love to have a friendly U.S., but first the American politicians and the American public should free themselves from misconceptions and Zionist manipulations. Part of realizing this responsibility should fall on Arabs and Muslims, but it should be stated clearly that Arab and Muslim public opinion remains very sensitive to an American foreign policy that favours Israel. Instead of waging an attack or imposing an embargo on Arab and Muslim countries every now and then, the Americans need to learn that the stronger victimizes himself if he always thinks that power need not be coupled with wisdom.