Before I address the Middle East, I want to say something about my time in China. I lived there for nearly 11 years. I like to write about China and talk about my experiences, when people are willing to listen. One One thing that I learned is that people who never lived there can’t understand it. That also should not be taken to mean that everyone who lived there understand it – not all become immersed in the culture, they see China but they don’t really experience. Now, when people want to talk to me about China, I think that they must be talking about some other China that I don’t know about.
I went to China to teach after earning my BA in international Business and having such courses as Intercultural Communication, which I also taught for a couple of years. While there, I earned my MA in International Relations. I didn’t just live on campus, I lived in the community, in a Uighur community. My two daughters were born there. I have a different level of understanding than most do, certainly much different than someone who never lived there. I am particularly annoyed by politicians who try to talk like a China expert,
In my last year in China, I had a colleague who had lived in Egypt for a while. He said the same thing about Egypt, “I lived there. Trust me when I say, you don’t understand”. I understood what he was saying.
So, with that said, let’s look at Americans, politicians and others, talking about the Middle East. They are going to solve problems? How? They don’t understand the Middle East.
First, you can’t solve problems that you don’t understand. That is something that I shouldn’t have to say, but I do. I can’t think of any American politician that can solve the problems in the Middle East. Yes, some have had some limited success with the Abraham Accords, etc., but they haven’t solved the problems, and I’ll give you a few reasons why they haven’t and can’t.
Let me say again, they don’t understand the culture. They don’t understand the people. They don’t understand the governments. They don’t understand Islam. They just do not understand.
They try to address situations from a Western, American, Christian, Democratic, Capitalist point of view and they expect them to just accept the American way. “If only they would just be like us, there would be no problems”. That’s one of the biggest problems.
Then there’s another problem – the people of the region understand that most of their problems were caused by the West, especially the U.S. and Britain. To have the one who broke everything come in and tell them how to fix it, well… I wouldn’t be open to that. In this region, we’re dealing with people who understand that the U.S. created the situation with Iran by overthrowing their elected government and supporting a tyrant. They understand that the U.S. and Britain carved up the region and redrew borders to fit their own needs as they sought control over the oil supply. Until a U.S. President owns up to all of this, admits it to them, and says “I’m sorry for that, but let me try to help fix some of these problems and we’ll take a different approach”, it just isn’t going to happen.
The U.S. is not an honest dealer or negotiator in the peace process. Look at it this way. If you were going in to a basketball game and the referees were wearing the uniform of the opposing team, you would have some concerns. That’s what the U.S. does when they “negotiate” in this region. The U.S. is squarely on the side of Israel – either because religion, or the President is trying to win the vote in New York and Florida. There are ulterior motives behind their favoritism for Israel. It’s like having a divorce lawyer who is your spouses cousin and they’re in business together. The U.S. cannot honestly and fairly negotiate a deal with a country opposed to Israel.
I undertook the study of International Relations, and the Middle East Region including the Palestinian-Israeli issue, much later than most in this field. Well before I took up this course of study, I had come to realize that the government lied (and still lies) about a lot. They lied to the American people about the Vietnam War and more. I knew this, so I wasn’t too surprised to learn that they lied about the Iranian Hostage Crisis in 1979 and they lied about the Palestinians and the root of the problem in Israel-Palestine. Perhaps the greatest lie that they tell is religious propaganda about the Palestinians and Jews being at war for thousands of years. It’s only been about 100, and it’s not entirely over religion. It’s about the right to the land, and the right to have access to the land where they lived for centuries and built their holy sites. If American politicians do not stop bringing their religion and myths into their vision for the region, they certainly can’t resolve the conflict.
For my entire life, I always heard Middle Eastern people referred to as Arabs, and the conflict with Israel called the Arab-Israeli conflict. Well,again, I learned from my studies that they are not all Arabs. There are Persians, Kurds, … Get it? This “they all look alike to me” mentality is racist and bigoted and is just another reason why people with this narrow view should not be offering to negotiate on behalf of Israel.
To cut this short, I’ll just say again, I don’t know any American President or other politician who is qualified to address this issue. I don’t know of anyone who understands it. I don’t know anyone who understands that the U.S. simply does not have the good will in the Muslim World needed to accomplish this.
What it comes down to is this: The only people who understand the region – the culture, the history, the politics, the conflict, are those who live there. They, and only they, can work it out.They may need some help and support, like a married couple who goes to therapy to learn how to communicate better – but only they can resolve the problem. The U.S. tries to enforce resolutions that fit the U.S. desires and objectives, that’s not a resolution.
Some third party, who has some understanding of the region, can help to mediate and bring more of the Muslim world closer together by bringing them, slowly, towards agreements based on their common interests. Only once there is more stability and less hostility in the Muslim World can they unite around issues related to Israel-Palestine.
I know that there can be peace in the region, even among Islamic factions – look at my e-book on Kuwait. This is a start.
We can also start by having the U.S. take an up-close and personal examination of its role in the situation, change its approach, and stoip trying to enforce an American solution on the Muslim world.
