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Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, September-October 2008, pages 65-66 Waging Peace U.S.-Arab Business Relationships Encouraged at USAEF Conference
IN CONJUNCTION with the American Middle East Economic Affairs Committee (AMEAC), the U.S.-Arab Economic Forum (USAEF) held its annual conference in Washington, DC May 7 to 9, on the theme, “One World. Two Cultures. Endless Possibilities.” The forum aimed to stimulate relations between the United States and the Arab world through business and economic exchanges that increase reciprocal partnerships. Business leaders, policymakers, academics and journalists from the U.S. and around the world were in attendance to hear panel sessions concerning economics, business practices, and social and political issues. The Israeli-Palestinian Roadmap and The Landscape for Peace Central to almost any discussion of the Middle East is Israel’s continued occupation of Palestine. Economically, the Palestinians obviously are the most severely hurt, but Arab/Israeli tensions depress economic opportunities in neighboring states and in Israel as well. Time and again, panelists referenced the centrality of this issue and the pressing need for a peaceable solution on political and social as well as economic grounds. “It is neither moral, nor human, nor Jewish, I argue, to maintain this siege,” said Daniel Levy, senior fellow with the New America Foundation and the Century Foundation. Israel’s de-industrializing of Gaza through its unrelenting control of the borders has all but collapsed businesses in the Strip. “What we’ve done to Gaza’s economy in one year may take decades to recover,” Levy said. “Never in modern history has a conflict enjoyed as many windows of opportunity as the Arab-Israeli issue,” observed Hesham Youssef, chief of staff for the League of Arab States. “One window is with us today, but closing very fast,” he declared. “It needs an Israeli partner as determined as we are to establish peace.” According to Dr. Zaid Abu Amr, president of the Palestinian Council on Foreign Relations, “the Israelis want the land, the peace, the security, all of it.” The U.S. is acknowledged for its role as mediator in the conflict, he added, but it should also be taken to task for being an uneven arbitrator. “Someone has to say to the Israelis enough is enough,” argued Dr. Abu Amr. “Although there is a lot of American movement, our impression is the U.S. is not doing enough to deliver the Israeli side. There is a great deal of anxiety that 2008 will end without the peace agreement,” Dr. Abu Amr concluded. To that end, Ambassador Afif Safieh, then the PLO Mission’s representative to the U.S., noted that Israel has “an unwritten alliance with the only remaining superpower, which becomes more important than a written agreement because there are no constraints of a formal alliance and the responsibility that entails.” Whatever new administration takes the reins in January of 2009, there was consensus among the panelists that the Israeli-Palestinian issue must be treated as a top priority. According to Ambassador Safieh, however, “If there were a political willingness, what was occupied in six days can be evacuated in six days, and they can rest on the seventh. After that we can embark on the journey of nation-building and economic recovery.” Policy Implications for the New Administration “Public opinion in the Middle East has no confidence in the United States,” stated Dr. Shibley Telhami of the University of Maryland. That represents around 70 percent of people in the Middle East, according to recent surveys. “The next president is going to face a crisis of confidence,” Dr. Telhami warned. “Yet most countries would rather have good relations with America, despite all of this.” Nasser Beydoun, AMEAC’s chief operating officer, agreed with this assessment. “This is the only president to leave American credibility throughout the world at zero,” he said. That makes it easier for the next president to improve matters, he pointed out. “However, we have got some real rebuilding to do,” Beydoun said. Even business relations in the Arab world have been damaged, Beydoun added, referring to Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) turning the Dubai Ports deal into a political issue in which “he bashed Arabs and Muslims and got away with it.“ The problems of perception the next president will have to address are many. According to Dr. John Duke Anthony, president and CEO of the National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations, Washington doesn’t always mean what it says, and this duplicity is coming back to haunt the U.S. Americans are seen in a bad light, he noted, “through violations of the Geneva Conventions, which we lobbied for dramatically, yet are actively violating through our super support of Israeli actions, as well as and through sermonizing and moralizing versus reacting to the realities on the ground.” The next president will have to deal with a reality that fewer than 10 percent of people in the Middle East believe that the United States is there to spread democracy, according to Dr. Telhami. “Something we’ve been pretending in our foreign policy is that through rhetoric democracy will happen. We have to come to grips with the fact that’s not how it works.” When asked if there is one piece of advice he would give the incoming president, Dr. Telhami responded: “Remember that issues are about policy, not values, and remember that Palestine is the prism through which America is viewed.” —Josh Walsh |
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