Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, May - June 2001, page 8

Special Report

 

American Muslims Remain Committed to Bush, Call for End to Unconditional U.S. Support for Israel

 

By Delinda C. Hanley

Six American Muslim leaders called on President George W. Bush to end America’s unconditional support of Israeli at an April 9 press conference held at the National Press Club in Washington, DC. Referring to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s recent state visit, the American Muslim Society’s Sohail Ghannouchi said Sharon somehow managed to paint Israel as the victim of Palestinian aggression. He returned to Israel with what he thought was a green light for his policy of closures and political assassinations. “We ask for a foreign policy that is consistent with our American values,” Ghannouchi told reporters.

Howard University’s Imam Mahdi Bray read a letter to the president from the Muslim groups which read, in part:

“As a matter of our belief in justice and out of concern for America’s image and interests abroad, we offer the following recommendations to U.S. policymakers:

“1. Stop U.S. military aid to Israel, ensure that Israel does not use American-made weapons to target or attack civilian populations under any circumstances, and investigate the use of weapons containing depleted uranium;

“2. Stop abusing the U.S.’s veto power in the United Nations which allows Israeli aggression to continue unhindered, tarnishes America’s image and damages American interests abroad;

“3. Call on Israel to end the siege on Palestinian territories and send humanitarian relief to ease the suffering of Palestinians as a result of Israeli aggression and apartheid.

“For the past six months, American Muslims and all people of conscience have watched with outrage the ongoing Israeli siege of the Occupied Palestinian Territories...The abuse of American-made weapons, including helicopter gunships, rockets and tanks to attack civilians and to destroy Palestinian homes, towns, villages, and refugee camps is cause for particular concern on the part of American Muslims. As American citizens, we are outraged by our government’s continuing unconditional support for Israeli aggression and the blocking of any United Nations Security Council resolutions aimed at curbing this aggression or providing protection to Palestinians.

“America’s blind and unwavering support encourages Israel to disregard U.N. resolutions and international demands for justice. This is unacceptable, illegal and immoral. These resolutions call for the total and unconditional withdrawal of Israeli forces from occupied Palestinian territories. They confirm the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and lands. They require Israel to remove all settlements built as a result of occupation. These principles have been and must be the starting point of any serious peace negotiations.

“Until Israel meets its obligations under international law and ends its oppression of the Palestinian people, we call on our government to behave as a true honest broker and stop its unconditional support for Israeli occupation,” the letter concludes.

“Muslims remain committed to their support of Bush,” declared Anisa Abdul Fattal of the United Association for Studies and Research. Reminding reporters that Muslims supported the president in his election campaign, she noted that policies that seemed pro-Israeli are not specific to Bush. Bush is working in a climate in which 190 representatives and 85 senators recently sent letters asking the president to sharply reassess U.S. policy toward the Palestinians, she pointed out. “It’s not shocking or surprising that Bush and Powell have made statements that the U.S. remains loyal to Israel,” Fattal said. “The U.S. has a special relationship with Israel regardless of who is in office.

“Bush has only been in office a couple of months, and his Middle East policy is still under construction,” she said. “Allow him a reason-able time of transition. Former President Bill Clinton waited until the signing of the Oslo peace accords to enter into Middle East policy discussions.”

Expressing the Muslim community’s optimism regarding the Bush administration, Fattal concluded by saying that, at the very least, Bush is inviting all groups to participate as he reviews U.S. policy. “We never had that opportunity with Clinton,” she pointed out. “Under the previous administration the Muslim community didn’t have a place. Islamic roundtables took the place of Muslim appointments in the White House.”

Council on American-Islamic Relations media director Ibrahim Hooper seconded that opinion: “Bush has been more open to obtaining other points of view. The previous administration’s slavish support for Israel harmed the U.S. internationally. The previous administration used international politics to keep the domestic pro-Israel lobby satisfied.

“Bush and the people he has selected to be around him are more interested in the international image of America,” Hooper continued. “They are more sophisticated and more international in their outlook. They certainly will try to please the pro-Israel lobby in America. But it won’t be long until they see that is not a good choice to make.

“The veto of the U.N. resolution, blaming the violence on the Palestinian side, calling on Arafat instead of Sharon to stop the violence…these kinds of things are expected,” Hooper said, “but of course they make us unhappy. We call on President Bush to change U.S. blind support of Israel. Our country is losing its interest and respectability in the Middle East and the rest of the world.

The primary improvement seen in the Bush administration is the imposition of international law, Hooper concluded. The U.S. now recognizes signed treaties and U.N. laws. That alone is better than the policy of the previous Democratic administration, Hooper said.

The final speaker to address reporters was the Islamic Institute for Palestine’s Rafik Jabr, who talked about “facts on the ground”—or in the “killing fields” of the occupied territories. When Jabr recently asked a little boy in the West Bank how old he was, the child replied, “I’ll be seven in July…if I live.”

These things have to stop now, Jabr asserted. “Anyone with a conscience, no matter what their faith, cannot let Israel continue killing unarmed boys each day,” he state.

When asked if Muslim voices are being heard in the new administration, Hooper quipped, “Our voices have never been heard in any administration—the Eid gatherings were window dressings. We must have influence in decision-making that will affect policy, not just dinners at the White House. Things are developing slowly. The tone of this administration is not so one-sided. The coming weeks will tell.”

Delinda C. Hanley is the news editor of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs.

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