Moshe Dann: How Must the West Guide the New Middle East?
[The author, a former assistant professor of history, is a writer and journalist living in Jerusalem.]
Two enormous appetites have suddenly arrived at the Middle East’s table: democracy and consumerism. Ravished from years of famine and abuse, the people revolted and opened the doors to the well-stocked pantry and kitchen. Yet despite having overthrown tyrants, they are not now unruled. Two strict overseers are watching: Islamists and the military. Crowded with tribes, Sunnis and Shiites, and colonialist operators who function like combinations of parasites and predators, the well-laden table is still a game of who gets full plates and who survives.
Revolutions taking place in countries that have been ruled by dictators and exploited by foreigners are breathtaking in the possibilities that they offer. But they can, like so many others before, become hideous monsters of abuse and destruction.
Americans and Europeans have dined at this table for years, supplying abundant feasts for tyrants who served their interests. A mild rebuke here and there, but the weapons kept pouring in; good for business was the polite mannered morality that determined the menu.
And now, having watched this partying from the window, the youngsters have come in for their share. A demographic necessity, they want education, decent jobs, freedom to express themselves, gender equality, and all the other things they see on TV. Their weapons are small: communication devices they hold in their hands, videos and computers, promising that dreams come true....
Western foreign policies, guided by maintaining political and economic hegemony, have ignored the social and moral content of their assistance and funds. As long as there is no connection between the money and what it does, the West will contribute to future disasters. Economic interests that exploit natural resources should promote nation-building, not private portfolios; that should direct Western foreign policy. There needs to be synergy that is sympathetic to social needs and problems.
Recent uprisings have opened the table to many new guests. It would be a terrible waste to make people scramble for crumbs, when they could eat with dignity and self-respect....
Read entire article at Pajamas Media
Two enormous appetites have suddenly arrived at the Middle East’s table: democracy and consumerism. Ravished from years of famine and abuse, the people revolted and opened the doors to the well-stocked pantry and kitchen. Yet despite having overthrown tyrants, they are not now unruled. Two strict overseers are watching: Islamists and the military. Crowded with tribes, Sunnis and Shiites, and colonialist operators who function like combinations of parasites and predators, the well-laden table is still a game of who gets full plates and who survives.
Revolutions taking place in countries that have been ruled by dictators and exploited by foreigners are breathtaking in the possibilities that they offer. But they can, like so many others before, become hideous monsters of abuse and destruction.
Americans and Europeans have dined at this table for years, supplying abundant feasts for tyrants who served their interests. A mild rebuke here and there, but the weapons kept pouring in; good for business was the polite mannered morality that determined the menu.
And now, having watched this partying from the window, the youngsters have come in for their share. A demographic necessity, they want education, decent jobs, freedom to express themselves, gender equality, and all the other things they see on TV. Their weapons are small: communication devices they hold in their hands, videos and computers, promising that dreams come true....
Western foreign policies, guided by maintaining political and economic hegemony, have ignored the social and moral content of their assistance and funds. As long as there is no connection between the money and what it does, the West will contribute to future disasters. Economic interests that exploit natural resources should promote nation-building, not private portfolios; that should direct Western foreign policy. There needs to be synergy that is sympathetic to social needs and problems.
Recent uprisings have opened the table to many new guests. It would be a terrible waste to make people scramble for crumbs, when they could eat with dignity and self-respect....