NOT BAD, CHABIBI - Democracy is spreading in the Middle East. George W. Bush is responsible and Europe is maintaining its silence
Good morning from Hannes Stein! Revolution is breaking out in the Middle East and Europe is sound asleep. This revolution is about Democracy and Human Rights – in Lebanon, it is also about National Sovereignty – but Europe is going about its daily business quite unperturbed. For anyone who doesn’t have an idiot’s knowledge of history, the heady year 1989 comes to mind. Yet not a “peep” from Europe. So what? I am not going to start complaining now that European intellectuals have nothing to say about the New Middle East. There has always been a herd of them on hand that one can rely on to trot out political absurdities. Does anyone remember how the Portuguese novelist José Saramago glimpsed the “Ghost of Auschwitz” in Palestinian Ramallah? Does anyone recall the nonsense pedalled by Guenther Grass and Martin Walser before and after the American invasion of Iraq?
The fact that writers have neither ideas nor any new insights is completely okay. This is simply undeniably a part of their profession. But where are the others, the normal people? Is there nothing that attracts their attention?’
I shall start at the edge of the picture and gradually work my way in towards the centre. Here goes: In an interview in the American magazine “Newsweek”, Prince Saud announced that women will be allowed to vote at the next unfree elections. In Saudi Arabia! When Crown Prince Abdullah glided in to land at Bush’s ranch in Texas after September 11th, he demanded that all female air traffic controllers be removed from their posts. (To Dubya’s eternal discredit, it must be pointed out that the Americans did not show Abdullah the Republican middle finger at this point.) However, suddenly now women will be at least treated as humans at these show elections. Also Dictator Mubarak in Egypt declared before assembled television cameras that a little “more freedom and democracy” would do his country good. His court writers scribbled this down in their notepads as he dictated that he had no objection to facing an opposing candidate at the next presidential elections. That is about as revolutionary as it has got in Egypt since the time of the Pharaohs. Hosni Mubarak then went on to speak of a “historic decision in the 7000 year-old March of the Nation towards Democracy”.
In reality, it is like this: Of late, if the Egyptian regime has again resorted to throwing another member of the Opposition in the can, the monthly cheque from Washington has been late in arriving. And Dr. Rice is putting her visit off.
The only intact fascist regime in the region is Syria. Suddenly, however, young Assad can no longer fathom out the world around him. His dictator dad did business with the Superpowers – but he now finds himself at a sandy impasse again: surrounded by a semi-democratic Turkey, a democratic Israel and an Iraq where the US-Army is based. When Bashar el-Assad’s Secret Service knocked off another disobedient politician in Lebanon with a bomb, it was not “business as usual”, but instead the people there came out and demonstrated.
After considerable fuss, young Assad remembered all of a sudden that his country was harbouring members of the Iraqi Baathist regime. (For the last two years he had persistently denied this.) At this rate, the Iraqi weapons of Mass Destruction that vanished overnight will reappear in the end. In Lebanon, however, we are seeing something that Middle East experts only evoke with a fearful whisper – the Arab road. This Arab road, if we look at it, is colourful and sexy. It brings transparency. It topples governments and brings the Opposition to power. It is no fan of occupation (Why have European newspapers never applied this word with relation to Syria and always named only the Israelis occupiers? Just a question.)
With this, we are nearing the centre of the picture. The centre of the picture is not the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, even though there are also things to report from there that are worth getting worked up about: the new Palestinian president – are you paying attention? – wears a suit and tie. No fancy dress uniform like that Operetta dictator Augusto Pinochet Arafat. "Only superficial people do not judge by the outward appearance” wrote Oscar Wilde. This means Mahmoud Abbas is probably signalling through his respectable clothes that he intends to behave in a respectable manner. Indeed, he half volunteered to participate in a seminar on democracy in London that Tony Blair kindly put on for him. Most Palestinians reacted not with joy, but with anger to the most recent suicide attacks in Tel Aviv.
Not bad, Chabibi. And yet all of these factors, as stated, are merely phenomena on the periphery.
The centre of the picture is this. With their invasion of Iraq, the Americans have toppled the cruellest regime in the Middle East. They have put an end to the Sunni Arab minority’s (20 percent of the population) domination of the Shiites (60 percent) and the Kurds (20 percent) and now what was previously concealed under a layer of totalitarian concrete can now see the light of day. Namely, amidst a great deal of mess, stench and chaos: 1. an almost completely developed civil society in Kurdistan and 2. a new political theology among the Shiites. This political theology stipulates that the State must not be mixed with religion –precisely for religion’s sake. (“The hem of spirituality’s robe must not be polluted by politics.”) Looking to the long term, this unpolitical political theology of the Shiites could be as deadly for the Mullah Dictators in neighbouring Iran as any military attack. In any case, it is the foundations upon which Iraqi democracy will be built in time. Against all the Terror attacks. Against all the bombing massacres. The Americans, and this is really the case, are becoming increasingly less important there. Their soldiers are only safeguarding the conditions which will allow the democratic revolution to mature.
There is a single icon for this complicated process. I am thinking of the image of the Iraqi woman who, on the 30th January 2005, held up her violet-stained finger: she had just voted for the first time in her life and her finger acted as proof that she had cast her vote. And now please listen carefully to Lebanese Druse leader Walid Jumblatt, a die-hard America hater and Anti-Semite, who if necessary could subtitle any Michael Moore film in Arabic. Well, Walid Jumblatt recently said the following: “I was cynical as regards Iraq. But when I saw the Iraqi people voting – eight million Iraqis – that was the beginning of a new Arab world. The Berlin Wall has fallen.” Let’s hear that again, as it is so beautiful: The Berlin Wall has fallen in the Arabian peninsular. Paul Wolfowitz did not say it. Jeff Gedmin did not say it. Hannes Stein did not say it. The anti-American Walid Jumblatt said it.
“The source of my confidence that freedom truly is for everyone is not only that democracy has spread around the world; allowing so many different cultures and peoples to enjoy its bounty, my confidence also comes from living in a world of fear, studying it, and fighting it. By dssecting this world, exploring the mechanics of tyranny that operate within it and analyzing how individuals there cope with it, one can understand why Modern History has witnessed a remarkable expansion of Freedom. There is an universal desire among all people not to live fear. Indeed, given achoice, the vast majority of people will always prefer a free society to a fear society.”
This is what Natan Sharansky writes in his noteworthy recent book “The Case for Democracy”*. Sharansky was interned in a Gulag under the Soviet regime because he had demand permission to emigrate to Israel and he had joined a Human Rights committee. At the time, there were still canny observers in the west who believed the Soviet Union was a power that commendably kept a lid on many minor ethnic conflicts around the globe. It was believed that openly confronting this Power would lead to catastrophe. The reputed historian Arthur J. Schlesinger wrote thus: “Those in the United States who think the Soviet Union is on the verge of economic and social collapse; ready with one small push to go over the brink are wishful thinkers whoa are only kidding themselves.” Ronald Reagan alone, the despised and loathed Cowboy president, the B-movie actor, the reactionary, the anti-communist offspring of the Cold War declared in a visit to Berlin in 1988: “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”
In many respects, George W. Bush is a continuation of Reagan. Incidentally, he has read Sharansky’s book. Good morning everybody.
*SHARANSKY, Natan and DERMER, Ron. The Case For Democracy: The power of Freedom to Overcome Tyranny and Terror, Public Affairs, New York. 303 s.
Written by Hannes Stein
In DIE WELT, Literarische Welt/Freiheit
The fact that writers have neither ideas nor any new insights is completely okay. This is simply undeniably a part of their profession. But where are the others, the normal people? Is there nothing that attracts their attention?’
I shall start at the edge of the picture and gradually work my way in towards the centre. Here goes: In an interview in the American magazine “Newsweek”, Prince Saud announced that women will be allowed to vote at the next unfree elections. In Saudi Arabia! When Crown Prince Abdullah glided in to land at Bush’s ranch in Texas after September 11th, he demanded that all female air traffic controllers be removed from their posts. (To Dubya’s eternal discredit, it must be pointed out that the Americans did not show Abdullah the Republican middle finger at this point.) However, suddenly now women will be at least treated as humans at these show elections. Also Dictator Mubarak in Egypt declared before assembled television cameras that a little “more freedom and democracy” would do his country good. His court writers scribbled this down in their notepads as he dictated that he had no objection to facing an opposing candidate at the next presidential elections. That is about as revolutionary as it has got in Egypt since the time of the Pharaohs. Hosni Mubarak then went on to speak of a “historic decision in the 7000 year-old March of the Nation towards Democracy”.
In reality, it is like this: Of late, if the Egyptian regime has again resorted to throwing another member of the Opposition in the can, the monthly cheque from Washington has been late in arriving. And Dr. Rice is putting her visit off.
The only intact fascist regime in the region is Syria. Suddenly, however, young Assad can no longer fathom out the world around him. His dictator dad did business with the Superpowers – but he now finds himself at a sandy impasse again: surrounded by a semi-democratic Turkey, a democratic Israel and an Iraq where the US-Army is based. When Bashar el-Assad’s Secret Service knocked off another disobedient politician in Lebanon with a bomb, it was not “business as usual”, but instead the people there came out and demonstrated.
After considerable fuss, young Assad remembered all of a sudden that his country was harbouring members of the Iraqi Baathist regime. (For the last two years he had persistently denied this.) At this rate, the Iraqi weapons of Mass Destruction that vanished overnight will reappear in the end. In Lebanon, however, we are seeing something that Middle East experts only evoke with a fearful whisper – the Arab road. This Arab road, if we look at it, is colourful and sexy. It brings transparency. It topples governments and brings the Opposition to power. It is no fan of occupation (Why have European newspapers never applied this word with relation to Syria and always named only the Israelis occupiers? Just a question.)
With this, we are nearing the centre of the picture. The centre of the picture is not the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, even though there are also things to report from there that are worth getting worked up about: the new Palestinian president – are you paying attention? – wears a suit and tie. No fancy dress uniform like that Operetta dictator Augusto Pinochet Arafat. "Only superficial people do not judge by the outward appearance” wrote Oscar Wilde. This means Mahmoud Abbas is probably signalling through his respectable clothes that he intends to behave in a respectable manner. Indeed, he half volunteered to participate in a seminar on democracy in London that Tony Blair kindly put on for him. Most Palestinians reacted not with joy, but with anger to the most recent suicide attacks in Tel Aviv.
Not bad, Chabibi. And yet all of these factors, as stated, are merely phenomena on the periphery.
The centre of the picture is this. With their invasion of Iraq, the Americans have toppled the cruellest regime in the Middle East. They have put an end to the Sunni Arab minority’s (20 percent of the population) domination of the Shiites (60 percent) and the Kurds (20 percent) and now what was previously concealed under a layer of totalitarian concrete can now see the light of day. Namely, amidst a great deal of mess, stench and chaos: 1. an almost completely developed civil society in Kurdistan and 2. a new political theology among the Shiites. This political theology stipulates that the State must not be mixed with religion –precisely for religion’s sake. (“The hem of spirituality’s robe must not be polluted by politics.”) Looking to the long term, this unpolitical political theology of the Shiites could be as deadly for the Mullah Dictators in neighbouring Iran as any military attack. In any case, it is the foundations upon which Iraqi democracy will be built in time. Against all the Terror attacks. Against all the bombing massacres. The Americans, and this is really the case, are becoming increasingly less important there. Their soldiers are only safeguarding the conditions which will allow the democratic revolution to mature.
There is a single icon for this complicated process. I am thinking of the image of the Iraqi woman who, on the 30th January 2005, held up her violet-stained finger: she had just voted for the first time in her life and her finger acted as proof that she had cast her vote. And now please listen carefully to Lebanese Druse leader Walid Jumblatt, a die-hard America hater and Anti-Semite, who if necessary could subtitle any Michael Moore film in Arabic. Well, Walid Jumblatt recently said the following: “I was cynical as regards Iraq. But when I saw the Iraqi people voting – eight million Iraqis – that was the beginning of a new Arab world. The Berlin Wall has fallen.” Let’s hear that again, as it is so beautiful: The Berlin Wall has fallen in the Arabian peninsular. Paul Wolfowitz did not say it. Jeff Gedmin did not say it. Hannes Stein did not say it. The anti-American Walid Jumblatt said it.
“The source of my confidence that freedom truly is for everyone is not only that democracy has spread around the world; allowing so many different cultures and peoples to enjoy its bounty, my confidence also comes from living in a world of fear, studying it, and fighting it. By dssecting this world, exploring the mechanics of tyranny that operate within it and analyzing how individuals there cope with it, one can understand why Modern History has witnessed a remarkable expansion of Freedom. There is an universal desire among all people not to live fear. Indeed, given achoice, the vast majority of people will always prefer a free society to a fear society.”
This is what Natan Sharansky writes in his noteworthy recent book “The Case for Democracy”*. Sharansky was interned in a Gulag under the Soviet regime because he had demand permission to emigrate to Israel and he had joined a Human Rights committee. At the time, there were still canny observers in the west who believed the Soviet Union was a power that commendably kept a lid on many minor ethnic conflicts around the globe. It was believed that openly confronting this Power would lead to catastrophe. The reputed historian Arthur J. Schlesinger wrote thus: “Those in the United States who think the Soviet Union is on the verge of economic and social collapse; ready with one small push to go over the brink are wishful thinkers whoa are only kidding themselves.” Ronald Reagan alone, the despised and loathed Cowboy president, the B-movie actor, the reactionary, the anti-communist offspring of the Cold War declared in a visit to Berlin in 1988: “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”
In many respects, George W. Bush is a continuation of Reagan. Incidentally, he has read Sharansky’s book. Good morning everybody.
*SHARANSKY, Natan and DERMER, Ron. The Case For Democracy: The power of Freedom to Overcome Tyranny and Terror, Public Affairs, New York. 303 s.
Written by Hannes Stein
