Author: Richard Cohen
Publication: The Washington Post
Date: March 13, 2001
Colin Powell has the brain of a
bird. He has torn himself from his roots as a black man and, on his maiden
trip to the Middle East, humiliated himself just to please the Israelis.
I could go on and on in this vein, but before I do, I ought to say that
these words are not mine. I am merely paraphrasing the Egyptian press.
The "brain of a bird" characterization
comes from the pen of Muhammad Abd Al-Mun'im, writing in Al-Akhbar, a very
popular Cairo daily. The paper itself put it this way:
"The American secretary of state
did not hesitate to demonstrate humiliation and submission when he recently
visited Israel; he stood humble, a Jewish yarmulke on his head, in front
of the memorial to the false Holocaust of the Jews in WW II." You can look
it up.
And if you do -- a good place is
the Web site of the Middle East Media Research Institute -- you will soon
discover that this lighthearted and understated critique of Powell is hardly
exceptional. Throughout the Arab world, the most ugly and ridiculous anti-American,
anti-Israeli and antisemitic diatribes are routinely published in the press
or aired on radio and television -- and always with either the acquiescence
or the prompting of the government.
The Holocaust is often trivialized.
Israelis are often characterized as mendacious and devious Jews who live
up to every imaginable antisemitic stereotype. Conspiracies abound, and
they account, as they must, for the plight of the Palestinians and even
the Iraqis who suffer under the U.N.-imposed embargo. Most of this junk
is printed in government-supported newspapers since somehow, while the
evil Israelis have a free press, the virtuous Arab world does not.
An ugly attack on Colin Powell would
be lamentable in the best of times, but since around 1948, these have not
been the best of times in the Middle East. Instead, the region has been
at almost constant war, some of it the inevitable consequence of the creation
of Israel, some of it the inevitable consequence of the downright refusal
of Arab governments to level with their people.
It is instructive to contrast the
rhetoric of, say, Ehud Barak, with Yasser Arafat. The former Israeli prime
minister often peppered his public remarks with words such as "compromise"
and "sacrifice." Indeed, his peace plan was a combination of the two. Israel
would lose, and the Palestinians would gain.
On the Arab side, however, the language
is quite different. Here, neither the press in general nor most public
figures employ the language of compromise. Here and there an intellectual
speaks out. Recently, for instance, Zakariya Muhammad chastised his fellow
intellectuals for always denouncing Israel but never the lawlessness of
the Palestinian Authority, and others have even questioned the logic of
the current uprising. But for the most part, the Arab world is totally
unprepared for the accommodations it must make. In the press, Israel is
not a foe -- it is unmitigated evil.
That's why the Al-Akhbar attack
on Powell is important. Egypt is one of the more moderate of the Arab states.
It has a peace treaty with Israel. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak clearly
would like to see peace in his region, and he has been instrumental, from
time to time, in keeping the peace process going.
Yet he not only permits a government-subsidized
newspaper to engage in gutter racism and antisemitism directed against
the American secretary of state, but the paper itself runs this stuff knowing
it will get no protest -- not from the government or, more important, from
its readers. They have become so accustomed to this drivel that they see
nothing wrong with it. It is ordinary, prosaic -- the truth.
You might argue that the Arab world's
poisonous press is the least of the region's problems. After all, when
you have Palestinian children attending summer camps in which the curriculum
is hatred of Israel and Jews, or when Palestinian mothers feel honored
when they lose a son in an uneven match-up with an Israeli soldier -- guns
beat rocks every time -- then it might seem that what's in the press is
insignificant.
But the Arab press provides an insight
into public opinion -- to what leaders are willing to say at home in Arabic,
not in English at some Washington seminar. For a long time, we were advised
to overlook the ugliness of the Arab media and concentrate instead on the
wondrous working of the peace process. But that process has stalled, and
it has done so, I think, not because the most recent Israeli government
failed to compromise but because Arab governments, particularly the Palestinian
Authority, failed to lay the groundwork for peace. See for yourself.
It's in the papers.
