Lopsided U.S. foreign policy cause for concern

A very selective small multi-national group of specialists and commentators on Middle East got together privately last week on the outskirt of the French Capital. It did not take them long to conclude that this American president's Middle East peace plan is so biased in Israel's favour that it even surprises, on occasion, Israel's premier himself.

In fact, when the United States President, George Walker Bush, delivered his speech of June 24, the Israeli press were unanimous in commenting that Israel's Ariel Sharon could not have outlined a better peace plan for the Palestinian issue.

Unfortunately, many Arab politicians and commentators often wrongly conclude that Israel is shaping the current administration thinking. Yes, Israel influences Bush's thinking on the Middle East, but indirectly.

Indeed his thinking is shaped more directly by political alliances, lobbyists and opinion currents in the United States itself.

The author of Suez, Kieth Kyle records an excellent account of the confrontation in 1956 between Eisenhower's administration and the pro-Israel lobbies at the time.

Campaigning for his second term, Eisenhower's secretary of state appeared before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to discuss the Arab/Israeli conflict.

According to Kyle, John Foster Dulles was "given a sharp reminder of the domestic political dimensions of his problem, when he was subjected to several hours of questioning. Much of it, from such pro-Zionist Democrats as Wayne Morse of Oregon and Hubert Humphery of Minnesota, was a hostile and sardonic nature."

Dulles responded with a remark that still rings true today. "Our difficulty," he said "derives very largely from the fact that the Arabs believe that the U.S., when it confronts problems which relate to Israel, is in the last analysis dominated by domestic political considerations."

Dulles then expressed the hope that "in the pending political campaign the discussion will be on such level as to dissipate the idea."

Dulles was so irritated with the Zionist lobby that a few days later, on March 2, he took the extraordinary step of taking up the issue with Abba Eban, the then Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Kyle narrates that in a "bitter dressing down" of the ambassador, the secretary of state complained of "the political campaign being waged by the Israelis against the administration, the paid advertisements, the mass meetings, the resolutions, the demands of Zionist organisations and the veiled threats of domestic political reprisals."

Back in 1956, an American president could actually confront the Israeli lobby and still win a second term in office (George Bush senior tried this in 1992 but drastically failed, despite the fact that he was groomed as hero of Gulf War).

In today's political math in Washington someone like Benjamin Netenyahu, who started as a salesman in a furniture company, is allowed to publicly instruct the current president on how to properly apply the "Bush doctrine".

And just to make sure that the president learns his lessons well, Netenyahu can easily round up 98 (out of hundred) senators to tell them what they need to do.

For any American president nowadays, to govern effectively and to stand for a second term, he must remain in tune with powerful domestic forces.

Anyone who thinks otherwise will be making a vital mistake. We, Arabs, are often the greatest offenders when we often tend to believe that a president can afford to defy the wishes of the Congress, or the political groups and alliances that put him in the White House.

We ought to understand what kind of changes have taken place in the last decade under the nose of President Bill Clinton, despite the South Lawn historic handshake, and despite the Oslo accords signed earlier, by the Israel's Yitzhak Rabin Labour Government and Yasser Arafat's Palestine Liberation Organisation.

Two highly-important developments can be cited: First, the American Jews who have been historically known as being Democratic Party's traditional supporters, have switched their loyalties to the Republicans who now see as staunch pro-Israel.

Also Jewish political donors, millionaires and influential Jewish columnists who, in major American newspapers such as The New York Times and The Washington Post, help shape public attitudes, should not be ignored.

A Gallup poll asked Americans last May, about their sympathy towards Israelis and Palestinians. The result showed that support for Israel was far greater among Republicans (66 per cent to eight per cent for the Palestinians) than among Democrats (40 per cent to 20 per cent).

Secondly is the alliance between the Republican right wingers (the so-called neo-conservatives) and fundamentalist Christian groups, such as the Southern Baptists, the largest Protestant denomination in the U.S.

These two groups form the core of Bush's political support. Both strongly support Israel, although for different reasons. They put him in the White House. For Bush to defy them would be political suicide.

These Christians base their faith on a literal reading of the Bible. They believe that America must stand by Israel because God promised the Holy Land to the Jews. These neo-conservatives have been around for some time. In fact they were extremely anti-Communists during the Cold War.

Now the Soviet Union, 'Evil Empire' in Ronald Reagan's phrase, is no longer there, the neo-conservatives turned their loathing to America's new enemy, "international terrorism" and its alleged supporters.

Israel's propaganda and its supporters in the U.S. have persuaded them that Ariel Sharon's war against the Palestinians is part of this "global war". Therefore, Israel in their opinion, must be number one priority of the U.S. foreign policy.

Jews, unlike Arabs, are immensely active in shaping American public opinion. Three Jewish organisations play a major role in lobbying for Israel.

These are:
* The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) with a staff of 130 and annual budget of $19.5m and 60,000 members. Its main target is the Congress.

* The Conference of Major American Jewish Organizations is made up of heads of 51 major Jewish organisations in the U.S. Its main targets are the administration and its leaders. It has easy access to the Pentagon, National Security Council and State Department.

* The Washington Institute for Near East Policy which also targets the administration. It is now headed by Dennis Ross who was the U.S.' chief peace process coordinator during the Clinton administration and is widely believed to be responsible for the Oslo demise.

Mustapha Karkouti is the former president, Foreign Press Association in London.