Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, May 2000, pages 53, 56-57

Northeast News

Clinton Leaves Mixed Middle East Legacy

By David P. Johnson Jr.

While President William Clinton can take at least partial credit for a number of Middle East successes, in particular the Wye, Hebron and Oslo agreements, he nonetheless will leave a mixed legacy, failing to achieve a lasting peace in the region, according to a former White House Middle East adviser.

“I have a nagging sense that Clinton could have done more,” William B. Quandt, professor of government and foreign affairs at the University of Virginia, told an audience at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology March 14.

Dr. Quandt, who served as National Security Council adviser on the Middle East in the Carter administration, said even though Clinton had a limited knowledge of foreign affairs when he took office, he learned about the Middle East quickly. “Whatever else you may say about Bill Clinton, he’s not stupid. He’s a quick study,” Quandt said.

However, the analyst went on to say that Clinton showed considerable caution dealing with the region, which may have resulted in lost opportunities for peace. For instance, during the first year of Clinton’s presidency, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzak Rabin agreed to an Israeli withdrawal from the Golan Heights. Then-U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher delivered the message to Syria. However, when Syrian President Hafez Al-Assad wanted to know to which boundary—the June 4, 1967 line giving Syria access to one shore of the Sea of Galilee, or the 1923 international border, which put that entire body of water within the former Mandate of Palestine—Rabin became irritated and called the deal off.

Quandt said Clinton, probably not realizing the significance of the situation, didn’t attempt to pressure the Israelis into resuming the indirect discussion. “There is no evidence Clinton ever picked up the phone to say, ‘What do you mean?’ to Rabin and to pressure him,” Quandt said.

He also noted that Clinton strongly admired Rabin. “It was the draft dodger admiring the general,” Quandt said wryly.

Despite Clinton’s inexperience with the region, Quandt said that Clinton’s empathetic style enabled him to be trusted both by the Israelis, who had been reassured by the strong support Clinton received from Israel’s U.S. lobby during the election, and by the Palestinians. It was an odd situation, “simultaneously making him both the most pro-Zionist and pro-Palestinian president in U.S. history,” Quandt said.

He also questioned the effectiveness of Clinton’s Middle East team. While he praised Clinton for retaining former Bush administration Middle East adviser Dennis Ross, Quandt said some of the other officials, in particular former Secretary of State Warren Christopher and his successor, Madeleine Albright, could have been more effective.

After watching Christopher fail to make headway in the region, Albright maintained a lower Middle East profile to ensure that the difficult region would not damage her own reputation, Quandt said.

He said negotiations often require a respected diplomat, such as Bush Secretary of State James Baker, who could deliver a forceful private message. “There’s no James Baker [in the Clinton administration],” Quandt explained. “Madeleine Albright isn’t very interested in the Middle East. She saw what happened to Warren Christopher, who went 23 times to Damascus and came away empty-handed.”

Quandt also criticized Albright’s calling herself “a handmaiden” for Middle East peace, asking the group if they could imagine Henry Kissinger, the high-profile secretary of state during the Nixon and Ford administrations, ever referring to himself as “the errand boy for Middle East peace.”

Clinton’s use of the word “facilitator” to describe his own role in the region also fell short, Quandt said. Although Clinton was not involved in the Oslo negotiations between Israel and the PLO, he was able to reap a huge publicity benefit from the subsequent agreement by presiding over the famous handshake between Yasser Arafat and former Israeli Prime Minister Rabin on the White House steps. “He [Clinton] is a master of symbolism,” Quandt said.

Quandt said, however, that Clinton often becomes so heavily involved in the details of policy he is unable to let events go forward. By the time he has finished tinkering with a proposal, the best opportunity to present it may have been lost.

In addition, Clinton was hampered by having a Congress that was not only controlled by the opposition Republicans, but was also heavily influenced by pro-Israel forces. Yet, Quandt pointed out, former Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu was quite unpopular with the American public and Clinton might have been able to be more aggressive in pressuring Israel to make a land-for-peace settlement.

In response to several questions about the future, Quandt expressed doubt that Clinton will pull off a lasting peace deal before his term ends. He noted the prominence of domestic political considerations in Clinton’s “permanent campaign,” now working on behalf of Vice President Al Gore’s presidential run and Hillary Clinton’s Senate bid in New York. Quandt also said Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak does not appear very generous in what he offers for negotiation, while discontent about the peace process is mounting among Palestinians. Although he admitted “the Palestinians are getting a really lousy deal,” Quandt said that in the current climate, if they could win a few enclaves in the West Bank and Gaza and “a toe hold in Jerusalem, it would not be a bad outcome.”

“It would be a miracle for Clinton to claim Israeli-Palestinian peace,” he said.

Scholar Questions Barak’s Record

In a lively and well-received talk Feb. 16 at the Cambridge Forum, Dr. Edmund R. Hanauer, executive director of Search for Justice and Equality in Palestine Israel, lambasted Israel’s policies as racist and shortsighted.

Describing himself as “a Jewish human rights activist,” Hanauer was negative in assessing current Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak. In considering whether Barak is an improvement over his predecessor, Binyamin Netanyahu, Hanauer said, “The short answer is no.”

Hanauer said the Israeli-Palestinian dispute revolves around several issues: borders, the Palestinian right of return, settlements, water, and a Palestinian state.

He endorsed justice for Palestinians for two reasons: first, as an end in itself, and second, as the ultimate means of guaranteeing security for Israel. “Justice for Palestinian Arabs and security for Israeli Jews are interchangeable,” he said.

Tracing the history of the creation of Israel, Hanauer pointed out that in 1947 two-thirds of Palestine’s residents were Arab. “Clearly, this land had people,” he said, in reference to the Zionist claim that Israel was “a land without people for a people without land.”

He charged that failure by the United States to link aid to Israel to human rights improvements by Israel, makes the U.S. culpable. “The U.S. claims to be a neutral party, but the U.S. has played an insidious role in blocking the peace process,” Hanauer stated. He also noted that money to the Jewish state, over $3 billion a year, comprises about one-quarter of the entire U.S. foreign aid budget worldwide.

Later, in response to questions, Hanauer urged the American public to pressure the U.S. government to act for peace. “The United States is doing this in our name and with our tax dollars,” he said. “The people in this country who support Palestinian rights have been largely ineffectual.”

He noted that international pressure on South Africa ended apartheid.

In response to other questions, Hanauer discussed the Israeli peace movement. Citing various groups, he said the Israeli Coalition Against House Demolitions rebuilds Palestinian homes destroyed, while the Women in Black regularly protest Israeli policy.

Asked about human rights violations by the Palestinian Authority, Hanauer agreed that the Authority abuses human rights, but added that Israel’s policies are worse. “As bad as the human rights violations of the Palestinian Authority are,” he said, they “pale in comparison” with those of the Israelis.

Commenting on Palestine’s long history of successive foreign occupations, Hanauer said a Palestinian resident told him, “Israel is the first occupier to throw us off our land.”

In fact, Hanauer said, Israel violates 29 of the 30 articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Noting that most (93 percent) of Israel’s land is managed by the Jewish National Fund under a covenant that restricts its use to Jews, Hanauer asked his audience: “Can you imagine what we would say about a fund in Boston set up to protect white or Christian property? We would label it racist or anti-Semitic.”

He closed with a warning against nuclear war. “Another war could destroy the whole area. You have to prevent the next war before it starts. It may take decades, so people shouldn’t get discouraged. Otherwise it’s a very dark future for both peoples.”

For more information on the Israeli peace movement, look at the Web site <http://www.jewishpeacefellowship.org>.

Students Protest Israeli Bombing of Lebanon

Braving frigid winds whipping across Boston’s vast City Hall Plaza, some 200 people, mainly students, gathered Feb. 17 to protest the recent Israeli bombings of Lebanon, as well as the 22-year Israeli occupation of south Lebanon. The protesters marched in a large circle carrying Lebanese and U.S. flags and posters decrying the attacks.

The event was organized by the Association for Peace in Lebanon, AFPIL, a group of students at area universities working with the Trans-Arab Institute and the Massachusetts Chapter of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee.

 Boston University graphic design student Rania Awde, who was born in the U.S. of Lebanese parents, deplored the recent Israeli attacks on three Lebanese power plants and the continued targeting of civilians. “It’s a matter of human rights,” she said. “Israel is breaking international law.”

She also criticized the American media’s frequent dismissal of such protests as “Israel-bashing” or “anti-Semitism.” “The media is very biased,” she charged. “People have to realize that you have to question the media.”

Awde also pointed out inconsistencies within American policy in the region. “When Kuwait was occupied by Iraq, the U.S. stopped them cold,” she stated, citing the contrast with U.S. toleration of Israeli occupation of the Golan Heights, the West Bank and Gaza since 1967, and of parts of Lebanon since 1978.

“People get killed everyday in the south of Lebanon and it doesn’t get reported,” said Nadine Kassis, a Boston University human physiology student.

Betty Anderson, a former staffer at the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs office in Washington, DC who now teaches Middle Eastern history at Boston University, said the bombing of civilians and the destruction of the power plants are the main problems.

“The big issue is bombing civilians,” Anderson said, adding that petitions urging the U.S. to pressure Israel to stop the attacks will be presented to Massachusetts Senators Edward Kennedy and John Kerry. “The key is to keep up the energy,” she said. “The students organized all on their own.”

The Israeli attacks in early February followed the deaths of five Israeli soldiers in Lebanon in attacks launched by Hezbollah guerrillas from Lebanese soil. Israel has pledged to withdraw from Lebanon by July 7.

For more information, contact AFPIL at (617) 562-8222 or via e-mail at: < This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it >.

Teachers to Learn About Arab World

Teachers from around Massachusetts will have the chance to immerse themselves in Middle Eastern history and culture during a day-long program to be held in May and sponsored by the Boston Globe newspaper and the Middle East Policy Council (MEPC).

To be held at St. John of Damascus Church, a large Syrian Orthodox church in Dedham, Mass., the workshop will cover the geography, history, culture, religion and traditions of the Middle East. At lunch, participants will be transported to Medieval Spain, with an Arabic lunch presented as a banquet at the Alhambra Palace in 15th century Spain, considered by scholars to be one of the high points of Arab cultural achievement.

“This is very gratifying to me personally,” Bezreh said, adding that she has childhood memories of being misunderstood as the only Arab-American in class. “I remember as a little girl being the only one eating Syrian bread, everyone else had their white bread,” she recalls.

Bezreh said that although in multicultural, contemporary America things are much better now, confusion about the Middle East still abounds. “We have a lot more to do, especially about Islam,” she said. “There are a lot of misperceptions about Muslims.”

As part of the workshop, teachers will receive various educational materials, including a worksheet listing quotations about Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad. Participants are asked if the statements come from the Old Testament, the New Testament or the Qur’an. Bezreh said the teachers are usually surprised to learn that all of the statements are from the Qur’an.

The teachers also will take tours of the church. Explaining, Bezreh said previous teacher programs have been held at the Globe’s offices in Boston, but this time, “We wanted people to see a church that had its origins in the Arab world.”

Bezreh has conducted similar programs on China and the Ancient World and would like to hold future workshops on India and Africa. For more information, call (781) 449-1230.

David P. Johnson is a Boston-based free-lance writer specializing in international affairs.