A recent Jordan Times article by a columnist named Musa Keilani provides an insight into how the Arab world views the liberation of their brother Arabs from the regime of Saddam Hussein. The article, appearing in a mainstream newspaper of Jordan, recognized as a moderate Arab state that maintains diplomatic relations with Israel, is nonetheless typical (for the Arab world) in its expression of the view that a liberated Iraq at peace with Israel is anathema to the very essence of Arab identity.
The Jordan Times article begins by stating that Israel will manipulate the US victory in Iraq in order “to demolish whatever the Arab world believes in and stands for in the context of the wider Middle Eastern conflict. This could start with US-engineered Iraqi recognition of the state of Israel leading to Iraqi oil supply to Israel, and trade and commercial relations between the two countries that would come at the expense of the Arab and Muslim identity of Iraq and its people.” In other words, the writer explains, the Arab identity itself precludes peace with Israel.
The nightmare scenario for the Arab world is laid out by Keilani in the Times thus:
“[I]f the US and Israel were allowed to have their way in Iraq, then occupied Iraq would be turned into the strongest ‘ally’ of Israel in the region.... That Iraq, the erstwhile strongest Arab challenger to Israel's designs in the Middle East, is turned into an entity that would ridicule the very idea of the Arab strategy to deny Israel the much-sought legitimacy in the region…. Furthermore, Iraq’s resources... would be used to further Israeli objectives and interests.... Israel stands to reduce a sizeable part of its oil bills if Iraq were to be the source of its energy needs. Indeed, it might take some time before Israel manages to practically realise its goal of reopening the Mosul-Haifa pipeline, but one could bet it is going to be done sooner rather than later. Many other ‘projects’ - including channeling Iraqi water to Israel – would follow, since the huge Iraqi al-Haditha Dam is only tens of kilometres away from the Jordanian border.... [T]here could be an Iraqi embassy in occupied Jerusalem and an Israeli embassy in occupied Baghdad as the first step.”
“Occupied Baghdad”, of course, refers even to an Iraqi government-ruled city, so long as that government is established as a result of the American liberation of Iraq from Saddam Hussein.
As for Iraq itself, the Jordanian column declares, “violent confrontations in the weeks and months ahead… [will] only result in forceful repression by the occupying forces and their supporters... riding atop American battle tanks.” The “occupying forces” here refer, again, to the forces that successfully deposed the Iraqi regime – the US, Britain and their lesser allies, including Kurds and Iraqis themselves. “There are many dangers awaiting the Arab world and they are lurking behind the American occupation of Iraq,” Keilani writes, “We refuse to be taken in by American pronouncements that all Washington intends to do in Iraq is build democracy... and that it plans to quit the country once this task is accomplished and the country is handed over to an elected Iraqi government.”
While calling even the US-led liberation itself the product of a “deception that was played out before the world in the build-up to the war and during the course of the military action that toppled the Saddam regime in Baghdad….”, the Jordanian article says, “that does not mean the US should feel free to walk out of Iraq. The Iraqis are now shattered… unable to live today.” Why? “The US military has wrecked the country and it is a US responsibility to restore security and stability and create a situation where the Iraqis are able to lead a normal life….”
The Jordan Times article begins by stating that Israel will manipulate the US victory in Iraq in order “to demolish whatever the Arab world believes in and stands for in the context of the wider Middle Eastern conflict. This could start with US-engineered Iraqi recognition of the state of Israel leading to Iraqi oil supply to Israel, and trade and commercial relations between the two countries that would come at the expense of the Arab and Muslim identity of Iraq and its people.” In other words, the writer explains, the Arab identity itself precludes peace with Israel.
The nightmare scenario for the Arab world is laid out by Keilani in the Times thus:
“[I]f the US and Israel were allowed to have their way in Iraq, then occupied Iraq would be turned into the strongest ‘ally’ of Israel in the region.... That Iraq, the erstwhile strongest Arab challenger to Israel's designs in the Middle East, is turned into an entity that would ridicule the very idea of the Arab strategy to deny Israel the much-sought legitimacy in the region…. Furthermore, Iraq’s resources... would be used to further Israeli objectives and interests.... Israel stands to reduce a sizeable part of its oil bills if Iraq were to be the source of its energy needs. Indeed, it might take some time before Israel manages to practically realise its goal of reopening the Mosul-Haifa pipeline, but one could bet it is going to be done sooner rather than later. Many other ‘projects’ - including channeling Iraqi water to Israel – would follow, since the huge Iraqi al-Haditha Dam is only tens of kilometres away from the Jordanian border.... [T]here could be an Iraqi embassy in occupied Jerusalem and an Israeli embassy in occupied Baghdad as the first step.”
“Occupied Baghdad”, of course, refers even to an Iraqi government-ruled city, so long as that government is established as a result of the American liberation of Iraq from Saddam Hussein.
As for Iraq itself, the Jordanian column declares, “violent confrontations in the weeks and months ahead… [will] only result in forceful repression by the occupying forces and their supporters... riding atop American battle tanks.” The “occupying forces” here refer, again, to the forces that successfully deposed the Iraqi regime – the US, Britain and their lesser allies, including Kurds and Iraqis themselves. “There are many dangers awaiting the Arab world and they are lurking behind the American occupation of Iraq,” Keilani writes, “We refuse to be taken in by American pronouncements that all Washington intends to do in Iraq is build democracy... and that it plans to quit the country once this task is accomplished and the country is handed over to an elected Iraqi government.”
While calling even the US-led liberation itself the product of a “deception that was played out before the world in the build-up to the war and during the course of the military action that toppled the Saddam regime in Baghdad….”, the Jordanian article says, “that does not mean the US should feel free to walk out of Iraq. The Iraqis are now shattered… unable to live today.” Why? “The US military has wrecked the country and it is a US responsibility to restore security and stability and create a situation where the Iraqis are able to lead a normal life….”