A football ground for big powers

It was bound to happen. When you imprison, humiliate, rob and starve an entire people while leaving them bereft of even the faintest hope their world will disintegrate.

Is it surprising that the Palestinians are turning against one other when their government has been squeezed to the extent it cannot even pay its security forces and civil servants?

Should we blame that government when its prime minister has to resort to travelling around with a begging bowl and smuggling the resultant cash into his own country?

Or a prime minister who has been targeted for assassination and is treated as a global pariah? Can we hold a people to account when their daily life has been turned into a living hell. Let's face it. They were never given a chance. They've been set up for failure.

Like Iraq, which is officially mired in a civil war, and Lebanon that suffered 15 years of bloody sectarian strife, Palestine has fallen victim to outside interference. All three resemble battered footballs kicked around by foreign players in pursuit of their own ends.

Western powers with their stated high and noble so-called "values" have nothing at all to be proud of within this region. For all their fine talk of democracy they go out of their way to take sides in pursuit of their own interests.

Their care not one jot for the suffering of ordinary people. The countries of this region are their political playgrounds; their peoples mere fodder for the West's proxy conflicts and strategic goals.

Under the guise of spreading democracy they back the horse that is most pliable to their demands and then proceed to set it against the opposition.

This is evident in Lebanon where the first Cedar revolution launched by pro-Western politicians was lauded as an expression of people power, while the second initiated by Hezbollah is either being ignored or condemned outright.

The US calls upon the international community to back the pro-Western Siniora government even though without Shiite members it is no longer legitimate under the Lebanese constitution.

It's a similar story in Palestine which was urged to hold free and democratic elections and when the outcome wasn't to the West's liking, the US, Europe and Israel conspired to bring down the Hamas-led government.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair want support for President Mahmoud Abbas in his call for unconstitutional early elections, ignoring the fact that Abbas is a political appointee sans a democratic mandate.

Indeed, last Friday Rice promised to ask Congress for tens of millions of dollars for the security coffers of Abbas, even as funds for the Palestinian National Authority are frozen. Money for guns is no problem, but money for salaries, hospitals and schools is a no-no. This is just about as unethical as it gets.

Same tactics

The same tactics were used in Iraq following the 1991 Gulf War. Then Iraqi Shiites were encouraged, armed and funded to rise up against the leadership only to be abandoned to their fate when push came to shove.

A prime beneficiary of the West's divide and rule tactics is, of course, Israel.

A strong and unified Iraq led by a pan-Arab nationalist was perceived as a long term threat to Israel. Now that Iraq is occupied this threat has been quashed.

A cohesive Lebanon married to Syria presented a problem for Israel's security. Syria was effectively ousted from Lebanon but before Israel could draw a sigh of relief, Syria's ally Hezbollah gained popular support and is currently pushing for a third of all parliamentary seats that will give it a veto over Lebanese policy.

It is, therefore, in Israel's interests that the March 14 movement remains in charge.

It is further to Israel's benefit that Mahmoud Abbas gains the upper hand in Palestine as he has not only recognised Israel's right to exist, he has been anointed by the US.

Conversely, Iran would gain clout were the Coalition to withdraw from Iraq and Hezbollah succeed in its aim to topple the current Lebanese government. At the same time the failure of Hamas to keep a grip on the Palestinian National Authority would constitute a symbolic setback for Tehran.

It's evident that the Middle East is being torn apart by proxy conflicts based on conflicting ideologies.

Prior to the 2003 invasion Iraq was a homogenous nation and the vast majority of Iraqis described themselves as Iraqi first and Shiite, Sunni, Kurd or Turkmen second. It was inconceivable to most Iraqis then that three years on their country would be gripped by civil war.

The Lebanese, too, have little appetite for further in-fighting following so many war-torn decades. And the survival of the Palestinians has always stemmed from their togetherness in the face of Israel's oppression.

Iraq, Lebanon and Palestine are all victims of a larger power play over which they have little control.

As things stand, the future for all looks bleak. But there's hope. If in 2008, the Americans vote for a President who is willing to set aside preemptive wars and instead mend fences with any country in the region prepared to do the same, this rotten game with people's lives could finally be over.

Linda S. Heard is a specialist writer on Middle East affairs. She can be contacted at lheard@gulfnews.com