Watching warily
- From: ARIEL BOLUDOVSKY <boludovsky@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: 30 Aug 2005 13:01:27 GMT
Watching warily
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ORLY HALPERN, THE JERUSALEM POST Aug. 25, 2005
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Two weeks ago, Arab superstar Hani Shaker gave a packed mega-concert
outside of Amman. The thirtysomething Egyptian pop singer was performing
in the southern amphitheater of the ancient Roman City of Jerash as part
of the annual Jerash Cultural Festival. The festival attracts the top
singers in the Arab world as well as performers from Europe, and
thousands of Arabs from Oman to Lebanon.
The mostly young crowd filled the stone benches of the amphitheater while
waiting patiently for the superstar to walk onto the stage. They waved
posters emblazoned with Shaker's face and clapped every time someone from
the orchestra came out, thinking that Shaker was about to arrive.
At about 9:30, an hour and a half after the appointed time, Shaker walked
out to an electrifying roar from the audience as thousands got to their
feet and screamed at the top of their lungs.
The small, stocky heartthrob smiled sweetly back at the audience,
bringing his hands to his mouth and releasing them in the gesture of a
kiss.
Within moments, he began singing his first song. Unlike the sweet, sticky
sounds of the love songs so popular among both the young and the old in
the Arab world, Shaker began with a nationalist tune reminiscent of
something by a marching band. The crowd hooted its approval: they knew
the song.
But it was when he sang the words, "that we will fight for the return of
the Arab lands," that the crowd went wild. Jumping instantaneously back
on their feet, they clapped their hands above their heads and shouted.
When citing "Arab lands," the singer was claiming permanent Arab
ownership of Israel too, and the ecstatic response indicated that for
this crowd of mainly Jordanian youth ? many of Palestinian descent ?
there is little interest in a two-state solution.
A series of formal meetings and informal conversations I have had with
Arabs of all backgrounds and ages in Jordan in recent weeks confirms the
relative extremism of the young, and the relative pragmatism among some
members of the older generation: Although they have deep misgivings about
Israel's motivations for leaving Gaza and Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's
intentions in the West Bank, many older Arabs see disengagement as a
positive move if only because they believe it will make life easier for
Gazans.
Israel's disengagement from Gaza has been front-page news in the Arab
dailies and a lead story on Arab satellite TV networks. While, among
Palestinians, surveys have consistently shown that the pullout is almost
universally regarded as a triumph of "armed resistance," among Arabs in
Jordan, at least, attitudes are more mixed.
"When an Arab thinks about how the Palestinians live, how they are
unemployed and tired of life, he then thinks that maybe disengagement is
good for them," said Ahmed Toumaleh, a Jordanian commentator and poet,
echoing the thoughts of several other academics, politicians, journalists
and businesspeople I spoke with.
Toumaleh, 40, is the director of the Shu'man Cultural Center. He was born
in Saudi Arabia, where his father, a Palestinian refugee from Ramle,
taught school. I met him as he sat with his friend Jamal over a bottle of
arak and small plates of Arab appetizers on the patio of the Diplomat
Coffee House in Amman. His expectation of an easing of conditions for
Gaza's Palestinians, he made plain, was accompanied by a deep mistrust of
Israel.
"The political view is that this is not a disengagement," Toumaleh went
on, looking at me squarely. "It's a redeployment. If the Israeli
government could be trusted in solving the Palestinian problem, the step
of disengagement from Gaza would be welcomed even by the Arab
nationalists."
Somewhat surprisingly, I encountered fewer reservations from an Amman-
based representative of an Islamist group.
Indeed, it was surprising that the man agreed to speak to me at all.
Islamist politicians categorically refuse to speak to the Israeli press
in principle, since to do so amounts to a recognition of Israel.
THE OFFICE of the Wasat Islamic Party is located at the end of a dingy
corridor on the second floor of an unremarkable cement building across
the street from the Agricultural College of the University of Jordan. The
party, whose name means "center" or "middle," was founded in 2001 and has
had three MPs elected to parliament. I waited in a large, sparsely
furnished room on a plastic chair as an old TV broadcast verses from the
Koran. One of the party's leaders arrived after about 10 minutes,
apologizing for keeping me waiting. The traffic, he said.
It was no problem, I told him. It's not every day that Islamist party
leaders agree to talk to The Jerusalem Post.
It was only when we stepped into a smaller office room ? dominated by an
enormous photograph of the Dome of the Rock, seen between two branches of
an olive tree forming a symbolic V-for-victory sign ? and I handed him my
card, that we both realized how the meeting came about.
"Oh," he said, looking at the card, "You don't write for The Washington
Post."
"No," I replied.
Did he now want to cancel the interview? He hesitated, looking at the
business card. "It's OK," he said finally. "We can continue."
I asked him what he thought about the Israeli withdrawal.
"We are pleased," he said quietly. "We think it will decrease the cycle
of violence in the region. We hope that it will improve the situation. We
want a Palestinian state."
If I had been surprised that he was talking to me, I was more surprised
still when he went on to imply a certain tolerance, albeit short-term and
as an unfortunate function of Israel's military strength, for the fact of
Israel's existence.
"Step by step, there will be a Palestinian state. And it's the best thing
for the short term," he said, "to make treaties between the Palestinians
and" ? he hesitated for a few moments ? "the Israelis."
He declined to elaborate on his long-term vision, saying only that
compromise was necessary because "Israel is stronger."
He also didn't tell me what most everybody else I spoke to in Jordan did:
that the Arab world fears the Gaza pullout is a tactic by Sharon to
create a weak Palestinian state, ultimately controlled by Israel, and a
strong, expanding settler community in the West Bank.
Comments to a similar effect made last year by Sharon's closest adviser,
Dov Weisglass, are cited over and over again by Arab diplomats,
intellectuals and academics.
In an (unscientific) on-line poll taken last week by Al-Jazeera's
English-language Web site, 47 percent of the 7,521 respondents said that
they believed that "tactical maneuvering" was behind the withdrawal. In
striking contrast to Palestinian opinion surveys, in which 75 percent of
those polled have ascribed the Israeli departure to "resistance," only
18% cited this reason in the Al-Jazeera survey. Nineteen percent thought
world opinion was responsible, and 9% cited security reasons.
"Peace" was not even listed as one of the options.
"People don't trust the Israelis to follow up," Imad Hmoud, the former
editor-in-chief of Jordan's Al-Ghad newspaper, told me over tea in the
outdoor foyer of Amman's five-star Four Seasons Hotel, a popular hangout
for local journalists. "But there has to be a Palestinian state," added
Hmoud, who publicly supports a peaceful two-state solution.
Another journalist, sitting with us, added that, "The people say, 'Sure,
sure, Israel is withdrawing from Gaza but it might go back at any
moment.'" Unlike Hmoud, this journalist asked not to be named.
"It's a good step," said Issam Qadmani, managing editor of Al-Ra'i
newspaper, who was also enjoying the cool Amman evening on the hotel
balcony. "But we hope it's not a last step. We need assurance that it's
part of the road map. We hope there will be a second, third, and fourth
step to finish the whole problem so the Palestinians can make their own
country."
SECOND TO the widespread Arab fear of "Gaza first, Gaza last" is the
concern that the Palestinians will screw up the opportunity presented by
the Israeli pullout.
Many Arab commentators have described disengagement as a test for
Palestinians and urged, in the run-up to the Israeli departure, that the
Palestinians neither fight among themselves nor attack the departing
Israelis.
"We are our own worst enemy," wrote Ahmed Al-Jarallah, editor-in-chief of
Kuwait's Arab Times, in a column for his paper. "We don't know how to
regain our stolen rights in a peaceful manner while Israel is able to
hijack the rights of others through similar methods."
That attack on Israel notwithstanding, he went on: "While President Bush
is defending Islam and denying its connection with terrorism, we
criticize him and refuse to join his war against terrorism. When Sharon
decides to withdraw Israeli troops from the Gaza Strip and Southern
Lebanon, we try to obstruct and delay this process to claim victory for
Hamas, Hizbullah and Islamic Jihad. We are confused and try to cover up
our failures. We are our own enemies, not Bush or Sharon."
Some Arabic newspapers have been warning the Palestinians that the
Israeli right-wing is awaiting their failures. Others, such as Akhbar al-
Arab, have asserted that Israel is trying to push the Palestinians into a
civil war by forcing the Fatah-supported PA to disarm certain factions
and arrest wanted terrorists. The Jordanian Addustour recently wrote that
Israel was behind eruptions of fighting between Hamas and PA security
men.
BEYOND AN improved life for Gazans, some Arabs see other advantages to
the pullout. While many Israelis fear a rise in support for terror groups
following their purported vindication in forcing Israel out, one Arab
journalist told me that if the situation improved for Gazans, the
popularity of the Islamic extremists would decrease. "Peace brings an end
to support for terror," he said.
With their own economy in mind, some Jordanians say they hope for more
stability, which will lead to more prosperity. "Look at the Palestinian
course," said Hmoud from Al-Ghad. "During the intifada, there was no
market. That affects Jordanians because Jordanians invest in the
Palestinian Stock Exchange. I myself invested."
"The violence on both sides must stop," said Qadmani, the Al-Ra'i editor,
punching out his cigarette in the ashtray. While most Israelis would
blame Palestinian terrorism for the violence of the past five years, he
went on to make the almost universal Arab assertion that only Israel
could ensure a change for the better: "The Israelis have the land, not
the Palestinians. The Israelis own everything: the land, the air and the
people. So they must give the Palestinians a chance."
Surprisingly, again, it was the Islamic leader who suggested ? as ever,
not without criticism of Israel ? that disengagement might create
constructive momentum. The pullout, he said, "will affect our view on
Israel... It's possible that disengagement will give a direction for
peace. And instead of [the Palestinians] spending money on weapons, and
building houses destroyed by Israelis, it will be spent on improving
lives." n
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This article can also be read at http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?
pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1124938374192&p=1074657885918
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