Perspectives

The horrendous attacks of September 11 have released a torrent of verbiage, with many “explanations” that generate little understanding. Imagine that a tremendous comet had fallen in Europe in the late 16th century. The Catholics would say it was God’s visitation owing to Protestant heresy. The Protestants would explain that it was the work of the Pope. The British would blame the Spanish, the Spanish would blame the English and everyone would blame the Jews. The governments would recommend the tried and true solutions: a crusade against the enemy, expulsion of the Jews, prayers and unity behind the leadership. Several witches might be burnt at the stake. The Inquisition would take the opportunity to seize the assets of heretics, and the British would take the opportunity to persecute the Jesuits.

In our times too, the witch hunts began early. The attacks were blamed on all Islam, or on the Israeli Mossad, the British and the ETA. Everyone tried to sell their own wares. A Palestinian Imam recommended that President George Bush convert to Islam. The Israeli government blamed the Palestinians, and evinced euphoric certainty that the US would now give the Israeli government the green light to wipe out the enemy. The Russians likewise are seeking to leverage on the attacks to destroy the unfortunate Chechens. The Palestinians blamed the attacks on American policy toward Palestine. The doomsayers predicted economic collapse, the superstitious touted forged predictions of Nostradamus.

The attacks on the US were the release of an alpha version of a new “technology” for destroying modern civilization. What was done by one archfiend can and will be done by other rogues. The origins of these attacks need not be related to the Middle East or even to politics. Civilization has many enemies, with diverse motivations. Fortunes can be made by proper speculation in stocks. Cults may be convinced they need to bring about the end of the world and the second coming. Blackmailers will find it convenient that they can paralyze a continent with a nominal investment. It will probably take several such attacks before there is a coordinated and serious effort to control the threat.

There may not be a feasible solution, but we will not even begin to find out until we define the problem properly, rid ourselves of preconceptions and separate the trickle of possible facts from the flood of dysinformation and false leads. Every government and group and sees their concerns at the center of these momentous events, and wants to leverage on them to advance their own narrow aims. They fail to realize that if the bin Ladens - existing or potential - succeed in wrecking civilization, it will not matter very much who rules in Saudi Arabia or Israel or Egypt.

All governments are forming policy based on the narrowest interests, and in keeping with a narrow understanding of events. The attacks are understood in the context of eliminating one villain. Einstein noted that we cannot solve problems using the thinking that created them. George Bush Jr. who is no Einstein, is trying to prove that Einstein was wrong. The US created Bin-Laden by supporting the Afghan rebels against the Soviets Now they hasten to create a new coalition of potential bin Ladens to fight the original one. Iran and Syria are invited to join and are offered generous subsidies and advantages that will enable them to advance the fortunes of their own terror proteges. The US and the world seem to be clueless about what this coalition will do. George Bush’s stirring speeches, full of calls for action, initiating crusades to eliminate evil and bring about infinite justice, heralding the spending of vast sums, made it obvious that neither he nor anyone else has any specific idea of what to do, other than the understanding that something must be done. The American people have rallied round the flag and suited up for battle, but nobody knows in which direction to march.

The American solution at present is typically American: keep throwing money at the problem until it is solved. In the long run, this solution may work. However, it is not very efficient, and may cause considerable collateral damage both to American interests and to innocent bystanders. A war in Afghanistan, a second Vietnam, will not solve the problem. If ever the war is won, Osama bin Laden would long since have removed himself and his organization to safer quarters. Extradition and trial of bin-Laden will not solve the problem either, if the network he established remains intact, or can be transformed into a different group.

The Arab governments are worried about the same problems that concerned them on September 10, before the world changed. Bin-Laden and his associates, the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, are the most dangerous enemies of the governments of Saudi Arabia and Egypt. Yet neither government is willing to give the Americans full cooperation, because they are afraid to appear to be traitors to Islam or puppets of the Americans.

Osama bin Laden himself, the almost certain culprit in these attacks, has explained in great detail his supposed grievances against the Saudi government for allowing American Christian infidels to pollute the two holiest places of Islam, Mecca and Medina, by the presence of their soldiers, and against the Americans for allowing the Israeli Jewish infidels to pollute Al-Quds by their presence (see http://www.mideastweb.org/osamabinladen1.htm).

It is not wise to take the explanations of a man like bin Laden at face value. The real causes of the attacks probably have little to do with religion or policy toward Israel or American soldiers in Saudi Arabia, and a great deal to do with mundane human weaknesses: greed and lust for power. It is probable that bin Laden conceived of the idea of taking over Saudi Arabia with its petroleum reserves, using Islamic fundamentalism and the Israeli issue as a means of recruiting support. The factors cited as the cause of the phenomenon are nothing more aggravating factors or preconditions. American sponsorship of autocratic mukhabarat (secret service) regimes, Islamic fundamentalism, the legitimization and public sponsorship of hate philosophies and ambivalent policies toward terrorism, are all fertile ground that have allowed bin Laden and his Al-Qaeda network to flourish, but they are probably not the causes of the problem.

In our own little part of the world, Israel and the Palestinians have both tried to use the attacks on the US to further their own ends. However, it is more probable that the attacks, and the changes in US policy that they generate, will overshadow our little conflict. The Israeli government has not made much headway in convincing the US administration that the Syrian intelligence apparatus, the Iranian-financed Hizbullah and the Hamas are part of the problem, rather than partners in the solution. The Palestinians, at least for the immediate future, have not convinced the US that changes in US policy to support the Palestinians will eliminate Islamist terror. Part of the Palestinian leadership made a great effort to slam on the airbrakes of the “hate America, hate Israel” locomotive of the Intifadeh. They could not stop enthusiastic Hamas supporters from holding aloft pictures of Osama bin Laden in a demonstration, or prevent a show at An-Najah University celebrating the first anniversary of the violence that terminated the peace process, complete with reenactment of the “suicide operation” by Palestinian “martyrs” in an Israeli pizza parlor and American and Israeli flags used as door mats.

Daoud Kuttab has forecast that the Intifadeh has ended. Indeed, under obvious US pressure, the sides agreed to meet. Yasser Arafat proclaimed a cease fire, which his own Fateh organization, as well as the Hamas, immediately repudiated. Within hours of the Peres-Arafat meeting, heavy fighting broke out in Rafah, leaving three Palestinians dead. It is unlikely that the hate genie that was nurtured so carefully over the last eight years by the Palestinian leadership can be enclosed in a bottle very easily. Chairman Yasser Arafat and the PNA, we are told, are not in control, and that appears to be the case.

For their part, the Israeli government is doing their best to further Sharon’s plan for perpetuating the nightmare status quo in the occupied territories, and there is nothing much to be done about that either. Once the Intifadeh began, it destroyed first the peace process, and then the Israeli peace movement. What is shattered in a minute cannot be mended in a decade. Each Palestinian attack added another guarantee of the perpetuation of the Israeli occupation, and drove Israeli public opinion further into the hands of the settlers and their allies. There is practically nobody left to oppose Sharon. Indeed, if the PNA is no longer in control, what is the point of negotiating with them or making concessions?

For the US, the Palestine-Israel conflict is presently a minor annoyance, a side issue that must be prevented from interfering with the main business at hand. They understand that Israel will provide any assistance that can be given in any case, and therefore there is no reason to accede to any Israeli requests. Any Israeli pressure on the Palestinians will interfere with the American “coalition.” The attacks have limited the scope of operations that the US will permit to Israel, rather than expanding it, regardless of whether or not Yasser Arafat gives blood or confiscates photos of Palestinians dancing with glee at anti-American demonstrations. For US policy, Israel and the Palestinians are like 19th century Victorian children, who should be seen and not heard, and allow adults to get on with their affairs.

Ami Isseroff

Rehovot, Israel

Despite All - Shana Tova - A happy New Year to all our Jewish readers

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