In the Opening Address of the World Economic Forum in January of this year,
the US Secretary of State, Ms. Condoleezza Rice, took the opportunity to
reassure business leaders and national political leaders of the “resilience” and
“sound” state of the US economy with a deceptive spring in her step as she
headed to the podium.
Being a leading US politician however, most had gathered to hear the most
recent, ‘redefined’ US assessment on the increasing levels of instability across
the globe; the Middle East in particular, given the special interest involved of
an ever-rising price tag against the oil barrel.
Rice focused her address on “ideals”. She emphasised the need for “optimism in
their power” in overcoming current political and economic challenges faced today
throughout the world. As she enumerated the various regions undergoing
“turbulence”, from Kenya to Pakistan, the tragic fate of Gaza was unsurprisingly
‘off the agenda’.
I wasn’t surprised to be very honest, and by the end, it was clear that Gaza
didn’t fit well with the model she was seeking to put forward. Turbulence in
Gaza was as good as turbulence in a far-off galaxy being the obvious deduction.
In her speech, Rice highlighted that the United States would continue to adopt
an "ideals-based" approach to foreign policy, stressing that without confidence
in the appeal and effectiveness of “our” ideals of “political and economic
freedom, open markets and free and fair trade, human dignity and human rights,
equal opportunity and the rule of law” the world could never resolve the
challenges that it faces. She called this approach “American Realism”.
Close observers may recall the very American approach of Democratic Realism
advanced by Charles Krauthammer. A vision that recommends the spreading of
democracy by use of force at the behest of the US, unilaterally or
pre-emptively, particularly in the Middle East. Krauthammer must have drawn
inspiration from the National Security Strategy drawn by Rice in 2002 in which
she declared that the US enjoys a permanent right to resort to force to
eliminate any perceived challenge to its’ global hegemony.
In Gaza, the slyness of these “universal ideals” that Rice supposedly upholds is
revealed before the eyes of the world.
In January 2006 around 450 International observers flocked to Palestine, and the
186-member EU Election Mission concluded that the election had seen “impressive
voter participation in an open and fairly contested electoral process that was
efficiently administered by a professional and independent Palestinian Central
Elections Commission”. The elections in 2006 represented the unbroken will
of the Palestinian people after more than 40 years of a brutal Occupation.
Palestinians would have been excused had they forlorn the ballot box and
resorted to alternative means to deal with the very immediate violence and
injustice they are forced to live with on a daily-basis under Occupation. But
they chose their own path, a commitment to democracy; one that Rice should have
welcomed and supported given her adherence to her stated “universal ideals”.
The strong democratic display should have raised hopes of greater flow of
International aid into the West Bank and Gaza to further entrench the
achievements of a vibrant democratic spirit; a spirit that needless to say, is
quashed severely in the neighbouring states of US-allies in the region - the
likes of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain, and Qatar to mention a few.
Gaza today however, as documented in a report issued by eight UK-based human
rights organisations, stands on the verge of collapse. The reality of Gaza
according to certain quarters has been “dwindling” for a while now. Let’s state
it as it is; Gaza stands shattered. The horrific reality for the 1.5 millions
Gazans within its’ ghettos speaks of a persistent injustice whose ruthlessness
worsens with the passing hour; all this without a word of criticism from Rice,
let alone condemnation.
The number of those living in extreme poverty has rocketed with 80% of families
in Gaza dependant on humanitarian aid. The Rice “ideal” of economic development
in Gaza refers to dismantling the Gaza economy and the impoverishment of its’
people: a people that have been dispossessed for more than sixty years, forced
to give up four-fifths of their native homeland and reduced to living in
Bantustans monitored moment-to-moment by the Israeli Occupation Forces.
Collective punishment and the rule of law have no meaning within the confines of
the world’s largest open-air prison. If the Gazans voice resistance to brutality
we’ll turn off their lights, as Rice nods in agreement, or freeze them to death.
Actually, that was a while back. The equations have changed once again. The
response to exercising the Rice “ideal” of political and economic freedom in
Gaza, is to threaten Gazans with a Holocaust.
By no means did the brutality and genocidal violence perpetrated against the
Palestinian people begin in 2006 after they chose their own
democratic ‘roadmap’. What is also true however is that, if anything, the
oppression and punishment has turned far worse since the Palestinian cast their
votes into the ballot.
The democracy of Palestine tells of a people and of a tragedy that has remained
faceless and without a voice. Victims obscured from the eyes of the world by
deceptive slogans and “ideals” that only justify the harsher rounds of violence,
which increase in severity by the day. The “universal ideals” of Rice have
stripped the humanity of the suffering child of Gaza now forced to live on
crumbs thanks to the “diplomacy” of Rice and her allies.
If that wasn’t enough punishment, Rice “effectively instructed [Mahmoud]
Abbas to "collapse" the joint Hamas-Fatah national unity government” and in
a covert attempt, the US sought “to overthrow the elected administration by
force through its Fatah placeman Muhammad Dahlan” according to a leak
recently documented by Seuman Milne in the Guardian.
Almost an year earlier, speaking at the Centennial Dinner for the Economic Club
at New York, Rice asserted that due to American Realism the US is “a nation
with New World eyes, that looks at change not as a threat to be feared, but as
an opportunity to be seized”. It is clear that “change” in Gaza has not only
been seized, but forced thanks to American Realism – not surprisingly in
opposition to the will of the Palestinian people.
In the end, one may question whether these are double-standards or the claimed
“universal ideals” at work. Rice, in my view, has certainly kept to her
“universal ideals”: ideals that divide the world according to the “you are
either with us, or against us” paradigm. Democracy is fine, as long as it
fits with “our” interests. The role of the US in the overthrowing of democracies
in South and Central America is a tragic reminder of how “American Realism”
handles people power.
“American Realism” she said at the beginning of her speech, “enabled
the United States to come into being in the first place”. The Palestinians
obviously destined to share the fate of Native Americans; Israel, with the United
States of the past. Today Israel reserves the right to equally practise
“American Realism”, whilst expecting the backing of Rice who cannot but express
her full support to Israel - it’s “American Realism” after all!
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