Introduction The US and Israel call for a policy of «regime change» in the Middle East through covert and overt military intervention, following the example of the US invasion of Iraq and Israeli assassination of Palestinian leaders. The ideologues argue that the current leaders in the Middle East are corrupt, incompetent and despotic and that […]
Introduction
The US and Israel call for a policy of «regime change» in the Middle East through covert and overt military intervention, following the example of the US invasion of Iraq and Israeli assassination of Palestinian leaders. The ideologues argue that the current leaders in the Middle East are corrupt, incompetent and despotic and that «democratic reforms» and «free market economies» can only be achieved through an externally imposed «transition to democracy».
Critics of this policy argue that real democracy would increase anti-imperialism, boost support for the Palestinians, deepen Israel’s and the US’s isolation, limit US investment, and redistribute wealth in the Arab countries. They further argue that the US and Israel’s track record so far (Iraq and Palestine) did not lead to democracy and prosperity, but corrupt rule, puppet regimes and massive poverty. They argue that the «democratic ideology» is not about democracy at all, but about imposing greater US-Israeli political and economic power and control, achieving recognition of Israel by Arab client regimes, direct US control of oil and Israel’s access to cheap oil and water.
Arab Public Opinion
Democracy implies that majoritarian public opinion will find expression via elected political representatives. On every major issue, however, Arab public opinion is overwhelmingly much more critical of US policies and practices than the current authoritarian rulers who the US and Israeli Zionists criticize and seek to replace.
A recent poll conducted in June 2004 by the respectable pollster, John Zogby, with a sample base of 3,300 Arabs in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates found that favorable opinions of the US ranges from 20% in Lebanon to 2% in Egypt. Among the countries whose regimes are most closely allied with the US and in need of democratic reforms, the vast majority of the population was hostile to the US government. In Morocco, 89% were against US policy, in Saudi Arabia 96%, Jordan 85%, Lebanon 80%, Egypt 98% and the United Arab Emirates 86%.
Moreover the historic tendency is toward increasing hostility toward the US. In Morocco pro-US opinions declined from 38% to 11% between 2002-2004, in Saudi Arabia from 12% to 4%, in Jordan from 34% to 15%, in Lebanon from 26% to 20% and Egypt from 15% to 2%. The only exception to this general trend was the United Arab Emirates where there was a slight increase from 11% to 14%.
Considering the repressive climate imposed by the pro-US regimes in these countries, the extraordinary level of opposition to the US is unprecedented. It is an act of courage to state opposition to official state policy in countries like Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Egypt and Jordan, where the opposition has been jailed, tortured or worse.
This opposition is not based on «envy» of US prosperity or «blind hatred of all things American» or «the product of Arab-Muslim hostility to modernity», as politicians of both major US political parties claim and is echoed by the US mass media, academics, pundits, journalists and the leaders of the major Zionist organizations. Arab opposition is directed mostly at US policy – the invasion, occupation, destruction and colonization of Afghanistan and Iraq and the unconditional US support for the Jewish fascist regime of Ariel Sharon and his genocidal policies against the Palestinians. Arab opposition is directed against US threats of new wars and military attacks against Iran, Syria and Saudi Arabia. The opposition is based on US policies seizing and privatizing public petroleum companies and turning them over the US multi-national corporations. This is a rational, democratic opposition voiced against US imperialism and not against all things «American». As the pollster Zogby pointed out, US policies toward Iraq, «terrorism», Arabs and Palestine draw extremely low ratings, while Arab attitudes towards US science and technology, freedom and democracy, people, movies, television and products and education fared somewhat better (Aljazeera. Net, July 23, 2004).
Nevertheless favorable Arab views toward these cultural aspects of the US and its people are declining. Since they view the US public voting for legislators and Presidential candidates who are unconditional supporters of Israeli ethnic cleansing and the invasion of Iraq, the US public is increasingly held responsible for the crimes of empire.
Wars of conquest and pillage provoke widespread opposition throughout history. Military threats and racist labeling of neighboring nations and people generalizes hostility in every epoch. The overwhelming Arab opposition to US policy, leaders and institutions is historically justified, morally legitimate and based on democratic principles of national sovereignty and self-determination.
The US and Israeli calls for «democratic reforms», and «nation building» would enfranchise millions of Arabs currently excluded from political participation, and allow mass democratic, nationalist and populist parties to emerge from illegality and gain adherents. «Democratic reforms» would allow the 90% plus of the Arab public to debate in public and write and speak in a mass media free of control by the current pro-US despotic monarchies and republics. New representative, democratic regimes more responsive to the current majorities would emerge. But the results of true democratic reform would lead to greater official support for the Palestinians, greater opposition to US military intervention, greater public control over oil and domestic markets, greater independence in foreign policy and the transfer of hundreds of billions of petrodollars from the US bonds and stocks into public services (health and education), industry and job creation.
Washington, the neo-conservatives (Gentiles and Jews), and Israel know very well that real democratic reform and «regime change» from below would be harmful to their global and regional empire building. The last thing in the world the US and Israel want is for the 90% of the Arab people to have freely elected representatives who reflect their nationalist and social welfare concerns.
When Washington and Israel call for «democratic reforms» and «regime change», what they really mean is the imposition by force and cooptation of a regime which will serve their interests against the 90% of Arab public opinion. The real meaning of «regime change» is found in Iraq and Afghanistan, where the US has imposed puppet rulers who are protected by US or surrogate forces. «Elections» are then managed by the colonial/puppet regime to give a veneer of «legitimacy» to colonial rule.
For Israel, the imposition of US-imposed puppet regimes means Arab recognition, access to oil, favorable investment and trade opportunities, weapons sales and regional power. The US proposal of democratization has nothing to do with any democratic principle. It has everything to do with even more violent, direct dictatorial rule than exists today among the pro-US client regimes. «Regime change», in the direction which the US and Israel propose, would entail several new Iraqi-style wars, invasions and seizures of assets. It would require greater destruction of the limited public spaces that currently exist to silence the 90% plus majorities who oppose current US aggression. There is absolutely no mass social base among any of the democratic aspirants in the Arab world in support of a US imposed regime change precisely because of its profoundly anti-democratic, anti-national character. In the Middle East and North Africa less than 10% support current US politics, even less would support new interventions in their own countries. The only political ‘base’ the US has for its «Mid East democratization» is its regional partner – Israel. The leading advocates for a US-Israel partnership to impose regime change in the Middle East are the Zionist ideologues in the US government and in the mass media.
For the moment the Iraq democratic resistance has blocked Washington’s grandiose plans for regional conquest dressed in the rhetoric of «democratization» and «regime change». Nevertheless, Washington and Israel can be expected to launch new attacks against Iran, Sudan and Saudi Arabia, to carve out imperial enclaves – even against the wishes of over 90% of the Arab people.