By Salama A Salama Matters of national security are surfacing yet again. The annual National Democratic Party conference is expected, among other things, to discuss Egypt's regional role. Meanwhile, there is no denying that the entire Middle East is slipping gradually into the hands of the US and Europe. Since the Palestinian issue was internationalised, Arab countries have accepted -- and at times solicited -- Western intervention. The more Israel got stronger and we got weaker, the more we depended on outsiders. Our weakness created a political vacuum and others stepped in. Now they are telling us what to do with our region, regimes and culture. And Palestine was only the beginning. Look around you: from Syria to Lebanon, from Iraq to Sudan, from North Africa to the Horn of Africa, it's always the same story. We don't seem to have any say at all. Lebanon was a taste of things to come. We talked but no one listened. In the end it was outsiders who decided when and how the crisis would end. The final decisions were made in Paris, Brussels, or Washington -- not in the Arab League, Cairo, or Riyadh. Paris and Washington put together Resolution 1701, and NATO provided the forces that would keep the peace. The UN did little aside from facilitating the whole thing. No country was allowed to send troops other than ones approved by Israel. The Arabs -- including the Lebanese -- weren't consulted about the nature of the troops, their task, and their rules of engagement. Even when Israel agreed to let German naval units monitor Lebanese shores to prevent weapons from reaching Hizbullah, Israel maintained its naval blockade until the German foreign minister arrived in Tel Aviv to discuss the matter. Israel insisted that the Germans monitor the entire territorial waters, 50 miles deep from the shore, without Lebanese participation. The Lebanese government didn't like it but had to give in. Meanwhile, the EU was instrumental in encouraging the formation of a national unity government in Palestine. The EU persuaded Hamas to shift its position on peace with Israel. On the upside, that effort was commendable, for it would allow financial aid to be resumed to the Palestinians. On the downside, no Arab country seemed to have such clout with Hamas. In Darfur, things are just as bad. Egypt has ceded its traditional role in Sudan and is now reduced to doing the bidding of the Americans and the Europeans. The latter want international troops -- again read NATO -- deployed. The whole matter is being discussed exclusively by the US, the UK, France and Germany, the same dream team we've seen acting in Lebanon only recently. The only conclusion, if you ask me, is that Sudan will be divided sooner or later. So NATO, Israel and the US have stepped into the void left by Egypt and the Arabs. This is a fact and we have to come to terms with it. We have to discuss such matters with urgency. We need to face the facts and come up with a solution. We need to know what can be done within our means and under current international circumstances. The Arabs need to discuss amongst themselves and be clear before rushing any further to comply with US, NATO and Israeli wishes.
