New Local Publication: HABARI Connection The Public i, a project of the Urbana-Cham- paign Independent Media Center, is an HABARI Connection is on the move. While still forming an organization of com- independent, collectively-run, community- munity leaders, HABARI Connection is looking forward to its next fun community oriented publication that provides a forum event, the Health and Beauty Expo in MAY. Staying true to the mission, HABARI for topics underreported and voices under- Connection hosts a Financial Success Seminar and Minority Job Fair, Health and represented in the dominant media. All Beauty Expo, as well as participates in the Community Court Watch. With a growing contributors to the paper are volunteers. number of community supporters, this is an organization to watch. Everyone is welcome and encouraged to submit articles or story ideas to the editorial November 2006 collective. We prefer, but do not necessarily restrict ourselves to, articles on issues of local V6 #9 impact written by authors with local ties. FREE Classes: The opinions are those of the authors and do not reflect the views of the IMC as a whole. • G.E.D. WAR AND PEACE IN THE EDITORS/FACILITATORS: Brian Dolinar • High School Diploma Darrin Drda MIDDLE EAST davep • Even Start (for parents Belden Fields Bob Illyes and children up to age 7!) Paul Mueth Tim Schwab • English as a Second Laura Stengrim Marcia Zumbahlen Language! THE PUBLIC I JOIN NOW OR WHEN YOU’RE READY! Urbana-Champaign IMC 202 Elm St. / P.O. Box 973 CALL 384-3530 Urbana, IL, 61801 217-344-8820 Urbana Adult www.ucimc.org The UC-IMC is part of the Education Community Shares Program. SUSTAINING CONTRIBUTORS Get Involved with the Public i You don’t need a degree in journalism The Public i wishes to express its deep appreciation to the following sustaining contrib- utors for their financial and material support: to be a citizen journalist. We are all experts in something, and we have the SocialistForum: An Open Discussion and Jerusalem Cafe ability to share our information and Action Group, Meets 3rd Saturdays of the 601 S. Wright St, Champaign; 398-9022 knowledge with others. The Public i is month, 3-5 pm, at IMC, Broadway & Elm. (U) The AFL-CIO of Champaign County Lebanese girls from the village of Shaara in front of their destroyed home (Left), and an Israeli always looking for writers and story peace demonstration (Right). ideas. We invite you to submit ideas or World Harvest International That’s Rentertainment proposals during our weekly meetings and Gourmet Foods 516 E. John, Champaign; 384-0977 (Thursdays at 5:30pm at the UCIMC), 519 E. University, Champaign to post a story to the web site Union of Professional Employees (UPE) National Fish Therapeutic Massage (http://www.ucimc.org), or to contact 113 N. Race, Urbana, 239-3400 one of the editors. The Natural Gourmet AWARE, the Anti-War, Anti-Racism Effort • Become a citizen journalist; write a 2225 S, Neil, Champaign; 355-6365 Meetings every Sunday at 5pm at the IMC news story or opinion piece. The Social Equity Group, Financial West • Make a tax-deductible contribution. Socially Responsible Investing Tribal Life, Inc. U.S., Israel and the War/Impeachment Religion and Politics in U.S., Israel, • Help distribute the Public i around the 217-766-6531, http://triballife.net/ Champaign-Urbana area. Middle East Referenda the Middle East Lebanon • Help with fund-raisers. If you or your organization would like to become a sustaining contributor to the Public i, Kenneth Cuno Robert Naiman Valerie Hoffman David Green • Join the editorial board. or would like more information , please call 344-7265, or email [email protected]. Page 1 Page 2 Page 5 Page 7 November 2006 V6 #9 The United States, Israel and the Middle East by Kenneth M. Cuno This is a slightly revised version of the remarks I prepared for an October 26 public forum sponsored by AWARE Presents on "What Should be the U.S. Policy in the Middle East? The Con- frontation of Israel with its Neighbors." I’d like to begin with some observations about the way that we in the U.S. discuss Israel and the Middle East. All too often our discussions are unproductive due to the rhetorical moves we make, and so I’m going to mention some examples before discussing our policy. For a long time I’ve been bothered by the way we use the terms "pro-Israel" as opposed to "pro-Arab" or "anti-Israel." We need to stop thinking and speaking in these simplistic terms, which imply that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a zero-sum game. To label someone or some idea as pro-Israel or anti-Israel implies that the existence of the State of Israel is at stake. It isn’t. Israel is by far the strongest power in the Mid- dle East, and the majority of the Arab states are now eager to normalize relations, as soon as a satisfactory Israeli-Palestin- ian settlement is reached. The issue is Israel’s boundaries, not Israel’s existence. The real existential question is the Palestin- ian question—the question of whether they will achieve self- determination in a territorially viable state, which is their right. The "pro-Israel" v. "pro-Arab" or "anti-Israel" dichoto- my only serves the interests of those who see some advantage in promoting the conflict. A good example of that is the on- going campaign to smear academic Middle East Studies pro- grams and even academia as a whole as "anti-Israel." Another sterile exercise is the "blame game." We who are interested in a just political settlement need to stop playing that game, debating who is at fault, who is the Professor Cuno teaches the history of the modern Middle East at UIUC. The framed newspaper is the first aggressor, who "started it," and so forth. There is plenty of edition of Al-Ahram from 1876. blame on both sides for the continuing conflict. Both sides are guilty, to paraphrase the late Abba Eban’s words, of almost "never missing an opportunity to miss an opportu- nity" for peace and normalization. However, it is an asym- Semitism," "racism," "terrorist state," "apartheid state," and so very clear if one reads the UN General Assembly resolution metrical situation, in which the Palestinians have had on to those we oppose. These terms generate more heat than of 1974. The absence of any racial doctrine in the founda- much less control over events, and less influence over the light, and are only useful if you’re preaching to the choir. tional Zionist texts is equally clear. On the other hand, there public debate. Here are a couple examples of the blame Terrorism is the targeting of civilians or non-combat- is a mixture of de jure and de facto discrimination against game. Some of Israel’s "new historians" have implied that ants for political ends. It is a strategy, albeit an ugly, repre- non-Jewish (mainly Palestinian) citizens in Israel that is anal- in the early 1950s Ben-Gurion missed an opportunity by hensible one. Terrorism is practiced by virtually everyone, ogous to racial discrimination in the U.S. half a century ago. not responding to secret peace "feelers" from Egypt and because it is effective, at least some of the time. We should The term "apartheid" is more appropriate to the situation in Syria. Well, maybe, but we have no way of knowing what denounce terrorism, but we should remember that terror- the West Bank, which is why Israelis on the left will use this might have happened if he had. Arafat was also blamed for ism is not an ideology, and no organization or state is term—not to condemn Israel as a whole but to warn against "rejecting peace" at Camp David in 2000. But in actuality essentially a "terrorist" organization or state. Nor is any the direction they see their country going in. the Israeli-American offer was unacceptable. An inability religion. There are Muslim terrorists (and other kinds), but As for U.S. policy toward Israel and the Arab-Israeli conflict, to agree is not the same thing as "rejecting peace." there is no such thing as "Islamic terrorism." our policy has not been consistently the same, but has evolved "Peace" is another problematic term. Maybe we should Arab and Muslim objections to Israel are not due to an in zigs and zags. Approximately 40 years ago Israel became a stop kidding ourselves that the parties in this conflict are inherent anti-Semitism. Arab and Muslim anti-Semitism is strategic ally of the US. Before then and since, though, the U.S. seeking peace. Between Israelis and Palestinians the conflict a product of the Arab-Israeli conflict, not a root cause of it. made periodic attempts to reconcile the two sides—and to rec- has always been about land. Nowadays Israelis are divided Holocaust denial in the Arab and Muslim world is moti- oncile our Israeli alliance with our Arab alliances—by mediat- between those who would accept a state within boundaries vated by the misperception that Israel was created and is ing the conflict and working toward a settlement. Starting in based on the June 4, 1967 frontiers and those want to annex supported by the West in compensation for the Holocaust. the 1960s that policy of mediation was occasionally abandoned part or all of the Occupied Territories, either out of security On the Israeli side there is nakba denial.—Palestinians in favor of relying on Israel as a strategic asset in our efforts to concerns or nationalist irredentism.