Peculiar reaction from some Arab radical groups

By Kesava Menon

MANAMA (Bahrain), SEPT. 12. Most Governments of the Arab world have condemned Tuesday's terrible terrorist attacks in the United States of America and almost all the radical groups in the region have disowned responsibility. But a section in the Arab world has displayed its unerring penchant for shooting itself in the foot by displaying a smirk of satisfaction that the U.S. got only what it deserved.

A number of the condemnatory statements issued by West Asian political groups come with an unpalatable corollary. While the attacks were condemnable, these communique state, they must nevertheless be seen in the context of what Israel has been doing to the Palestinians. And in the context of the U.S. administration's silence, perhaps complicity, in Israeli actions. This at a time when the U.S. believes it has suffered the most vicious and insidious attack since Pearl Harbour and is gathering itself for a ferocious retaliation.

The streak of satisfaction in the Arab world over Tuesday's events is traceable to the rage that has developed over the past year against Israel and its chief ally. Israel has killed civilians, demolished houses and uprooted farmlands and used air power to blast Palestinian buildings.

A parallel is, thereby, drawn to Tuesday's events when aircraft were used to blast down New York's World Trade Centre and a portion of the Pentagon and thus cause many civilian casualties. From this perspective, Tuesday's attacks are viewed as measures whereby justice as done.

What this section of Arab opinion does not realize is that the comparison does not really stand scrutiny. Israel has killed civilians often in circumstances where the possibility of such ``collateral damage'' should have been foreseen. But there has hardly been a case where Israel has inflicted deaths on innocent civilians (as distinguished from those believed to be involved in militant activity) as a matter of policy since the uprising began a year ago.

Even in those cases where an intention to kill civilians has been discernible in the Israeli actions, their decision-making circles have been able to disown responsibility with a measure of plausibility. It can be no one's case that the attack on the World Trade Centre was anything but an action with a deliberate intent to cause civilian deaths.

Apart from the dubious morality involved in drawing a parallel between Tuesday's events and Israel's actions, this section of Arab opinion has shown a profound lack of prudence. All the indications are that the U.S., the West in general, Russia and a whole host of countries besides are gearing themselves for a concerted focused drive against global terrorism. If this drive does gather pace, those who conduct it might not stop to draw fine distinctions between degrees of militancy or even between active militants and their sympathisers. Once militancy becomes the criterion whereby the targets of this drive will be chosen, those who conduct it might not stop to consider the validity of the politics underlying militancy. The Palestinian cause might become a victim of this process.

It is not just the Governments of the West that militant groups will now have reason to fear. Governments of States such as Turkey, Algeria and Egypt have been forced to put some restraints on their drive against militancy by the previous U.S. administration that placed some emphasis on the process of law.

During the Clinton administration most definitely, perhaps even earlier, U.S. officials had often pressed these regional Governments to do away with special courts and other mechanisms that could deal with militancy more roughly and readily. After Tuesday's attacks, the Bush administration is not likely to show such delicacy.

There is a peculiar streak of machismo in the region which induces many to respect the likes of Osama bin Laden. The Saudi dissident and his associates are perceived as brave souls who can dare defy the West. Regional Governments that have been fighting militancy are incensed at this tendency to eulogize the likes of Osama.

They have also felt that the U.S. had so far pressed for procedural correctness only because the U.S. itself has not been directly affected by the depredations of these groups. Now that the U.S. itself has been subjected to one of the worst terrorist attacks ever, Middle East Governments will expect Washington to better appreciate the methods they have used to combat militancy.

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Section  : International
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