What is it with the Arabs? Why is it that they are sitting back passively watching the travesty unfold? Why do they remain 'a powerless people', as Edward Said once described them, when so much is at stake. Arab intellectuals, interviewed by Omayma Abdel-Latif, grapple with an answer to the most pressing questions Clovis Maksud Lebanese Political writer and former Arab League diplomat "We are all angry. But anger is a healthy thing if it can be strategised... Anger is dynamic but it has to have a sense of direction. The underpinnings of this direction are not obtainable now. This, in a way, explains why the Arab mainstream are alienated. Being alienated makes people angrier. But we would not want our anger to turn into hatred. "I believe there are steps which should be taken to get out of this cycle of frustration. However, within the framework of realism, such steps do not seem feasible. "One such step would be that the Arab League should have met in an emergency meeting almost a month ago. The second immediate step would involve breaking relations with Israel. "A delegation of some heads of Arab states should head to the UN to seek a mandate to bring about an end to this bleeding process, and dispatch peace-keeping forces to the borders of the green line. These are the steps that should be made to end the Arabs' alienation from the Arab political system. The fact that they don't sound realistic given the current situation would only add to the futility of the whole scene. "Arabs are becoming more alienated from the Arab political system. We are going through a historic dilemma where we have to choose between Wolfowitz and Perle, between fundamentalists led by Bush and obscurantists led by Bin Laden. "We have to reclaim our mainstream not only in the Arab world but throughout the world. There is a global consensus that the United States projects power ruthlessly and that it has lost the art of persuasion and is dictating its will on the world. And all we have to do is to accept the fact that -- with total impunity -- the Israelis go and kill anybody they want in the name of fighting terror. This is a complete assumption of power. Why don't the Arab states ask the US: "Is Israel an occupying power or not?" "Some people say that Arabs should renounce the peace process. But there is a qualitative difference between organised resistance and what I describe as "resisters". "What is happening in Palestine is that the Oslo agreements resulted in an amnesia for proper strategic thinking. Oslo did not extract from the Israelis the fact that they are occupiers because occupation is temporary. Israel does not consider itself an occupier. In a way the confusion is built in. This is why I say when the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) was the vanguard of resistance, there was a plan whereby you could have all forms of struggle. They negotiated, threatened civil disobedience and if all other forms of non-violent struggle failed, they could turn to armed struggle. What you have now is that while people witness daily attacks and systematic alteration of the demographic as well as the geographic nature of the land, there is no clear framework of resistance. "Without such a framework, there will be no resistance. Instead there are resisters, therefore any resister takes the law of resistance in his hands. But from now on, this has to be regulated. The side of the problem is that it remains ethically unfair that the Palestinians are left to fend for themselves and confront the monstrous Zionist project. This is an Arab national responsibility. One step towards achieving this is to put an end to the fragmentation of the national narrative which has become a characteristic of the Arab world. This is why one feels it is imperative that the discourse and not the principle itself of Arab nationalism should be revised to be able to face up to the new realities." Hisham Sharabi Palestinian academic "There is no visible exit from where we stand today, hence this situation of almost total frustration and despair. But to every situation, there is an end or a promise of change. In our situation we feel as though [we are] in a pressure cooker and it seems to me that with the latest events in Palestine and Iraq, we are approaching the final point of the pressure. So one has the sensation that surely something's got to give. "To shift to the political analysis with regard to three issues, first [we need to understand] what can be expected from the Arab political order regarding this situation that has reached its zenith. Surely, one is still pinning hope that a unified Arab position may emerge from the next Arab summit which will be held -- hopefully -- soon. "Secondly, with regards to the situation in Iraq, we are beginning to witness what has been forecasted by many analysts: namely the emergence of a unified resistance. The tendency of the US- led occupation administration to emphasise the ethnic and religious divisions of the Iraqi people has failed to achieve its results and what they feared the most may be coming about. In Palestine where the Israeli government had hoped to crush the will of the resistance after the terrible persecution it inflicted on the Palestinian people and the systematic destruction of their livelihood, the Palestinians are more determined to resist and stay the course. There is an urgent need, however, for a united liberation front to provide the new framework of resistance. "The third point has to do with the larger picture, not only in Europe but also across many parts of the world. People have become more and more aware of what is happening in the Middle East and have begun to understand that the only way to deal with what they call "terrorism" is through addressing the issues which put the Arabs in a state of total frustration and anger. This might be another element which will bring about some radical changes in the Arab world. "As for the peace process, I think it has irreparably broken down through Israeli actions and US policies. Things may change only if US President George W Bush fails to win elections, because only then a new thinking may emerge. I believe that the demise of this US administration would bring about new hopes and possibilities. "Some say that the picture could not be bleaker. But as I said, in every situation, no matter how bad it is, there is still room for change. We are 300 million people sitting in a very important area in the world and what happens here affects the whole world. So even if we are down, we are definitely not out." Dr Ali Fayyad Member of Hizbullah's politburo "Israel has left us with hardly any options. Bullets seem to be the final arbiters. We cannot go on posing the question of who will be the next target and which country will perform the dance of death. In my view -- culturally, politically and psychologically -- defeat is not acceptable and the principal malady is precisely this dominating sense that we have lost out. "I think America's moment in the Middle East is about to be over. It had two functions during the past four decades: as a broker in the negotiation process and a protector of the Arab regimes. The Bush deal with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has dealt a lethal blow to the so-called peace process and left the Arab regimes with a cruel mixture of delusion and betrayed promises. "The strategy of a peaceful settlement has failed miserably and the Arabs cannot continue to rely on it. I think the end result which the Arabs should conclude from the Bush-Sharon deal is that the strategy of resistance remains our only viable option. "But we should also note that the implications of this deal extend beyond the Palestinian question. Also at stake here is the logic which governs international relations since the deal rendered United Nations resolutions regarding the Arab-Israeli conflict irrelevant and useless. "I think the crisis is not just confined to the Middle East. Europe and the whole international community should be also involved because this is not just about the Arab world, it is about a new international order being imposed. "As for the Arab rulers, I think what we are going through should prove too troubling for them to resume the old game. The decaying Arab political elite should be held responsible for this sense of frustration and inaction engulfing the Arab world. And the onus now should be on the popular forces which stood up to Israel inside Palestine, those who stand up to the Americans in Iraq and the resistance in southern Lebanon. I believe the only framework for any forthcoming Arab action should be a framework of resistance in order to seal decades of illusions and imagined transformations." Khaldoun Al-Naquib A Kuwaiti sociologist "First of all some sense has to be made not only of what went wrong but also of what lies ahead. There is a need to contemplate the nation's essence and to listen to society's dialogue with itself. "It is not just a question of the fate of the peace process because in my view the issue is not about peace. All peace treaties are over and it is absolutely nonsense under such circumstances to talk about a peace process which has long been dead. "I think this is about our confrontation with the West -- a confrontation which began well over a century ago and is coming to a head now. I mean "we" as Arabs and Muslims, but not as Muslims in a religious sense. This confrontation is being imposed upon us and we are in our worst state of affairs, while the West is in its best conditions, so we are in a disadvantaged position. It is a difficult historical dilemma for us particularly when our rulers are siding with the West and not with their own people. They think they can survive by siding with the West. All the issues we need to deal with are associated with this historical confrontation. At some point it looks as though our rulers are conniving with the West and we are in a corner. The Gulf, for example, is being reoccupied, though this time it is accepting this willingly. "I think it is up to the political and social forces to come up with a plan on how to maneuvre and find a space through which to solve the Palestinian and Iraqi questions. On Palestine, the Bush-Sharon alliance has already put an end to the nonsense about [establishing] two states in Palestine. In my view, there is only the way that was being pursued by Hamas and Islamic Jihad. The Palestinians' right of return has to be forced down the throat of the Western powers. They need to be told that there is nothing left in the West Bank in which to establish their "viable" Palestinian state. The Iraqis should also continue to do whatever they can to drive the Americans out of their country. "I think the real dilemma is that there is clearly no visible leadership in the Arab world that is capable of guiding us. Maybe a leadership will emerge to fill this terrible vacuum. "One should also note that the picture is not that bleak. There are small victories here and there. For example, I believe that the Palestinians have managed to destroy the Israeli dream of expansionism. The US is also finding it difficult to colonise Iraq as they thought they would. Let's hope that the turmoil will translate itself into a leadership whose main goal will be to unite the Arabs. I think we are in dire need of an Arab Bismarck." Dr Muhammed Bin Abdullah Al-Zulfa Member of the Saudi Shura Council "The Arab scene does not augur well. While the Arab nation has been through many critical junctures throughout its history, the picture, however, could not be bleaker. I still believe that only vibrant societies can survive hardship. Ours are not societies that are mired in the past as some would like to portray them, but we happen to be located in an area of strategic and geographical importance. "I think the real problem lies in the fact that it doesn't seem that our peoples and regimes learn from history. The problem of the Arab world is our historic dilemma of how to shape the relationship between the ruler and the ruled. "While I would put the onus on those political regimes which led us to this deadlock, however, one has to remember that these regimes did not emerge from a void. They did not descend from the sky. They walked right out of the dominant political legacy which prevails in the Arab world. These regimes which chose acquiescence to US designs and their security have basically choked the life out of politics. "I don't think violence against our enemies or against those regimes is an option either. Violence will render us incapable of ruling ourselves and will invite foreign intervention on the basis that they -- the big powers -- want to protect their interests in the region. I therefore believe that reform is our one and only path. "The Arab governments reject any calls for reform under the guise that it would be considered meddling with internal affairs but they just feel threatened to lose their seats of power. I think the only way forward is a call for national reconciliation. We have to put our house in order first and this should be done through a new kind of social contract between the ruler and the ruled." Leith Kubba An Iraqi academic "I think the overwhelming sense of outrage in the Arab world has two causes: the increasing levels of Israeli violence and terror inflicted on the Palestinians, in flagrant breach of international norms and laws, while the second point of contention is the US-led occupation of Iraq which is also in breach of the Geneva Convention. "It is most troubling to see a state acting like any military group with no respect for international norms. There should be an Israeli accountability act, otherwise the message to the rest of the world would be that might is right, [promoting] a complete disregard for the rule of law. "This poses a dilemma and a huge challenge for the Arab world because politics and the whole concept of international relations have degenerated into nihilism and violence. It is also a dilemma in the sense that despite this we are asked to -- and have to -- adhere to international law and non-violent strategies. This also means a return to the old world order where Arab governments were acting as mediators between their people and the outside world, particularly with the US and Europe. This order has been sealed because they have proved themselves not to be the good managers they claimed to be. These governments failed to maintain this order. "I believe that we are on the verge of a new world order in which the status quo cannot be maintained. I think one of the important characteristics of this new order is the awakened masses of citizens who will demand broader participation and governments that can face up to the challenge. We will also have increasing numbers of military groups who don't necessarily have a social or political agenda. So there will be a tough balance between those three elements and the Arab world will be a theatre for some tough battles among those elements. I think the new world order will be shaped by how such a conflict unfolds in the Arab world."
