Things Fall Apart . . .
GINSBERG, MARC
Things Fall Apart . . . And the Arab League summit isn't held. BY MARC GINSBERG THE ARAB LEAGUE summit scheduled to begin in Tunisia on March 27 abruptly collapsed in disarray. Just as most of...
...It also highlights, by contrast, the success of the courageous independent Arab reformers who met in Alexandria, Egypt, in March to issue an inspiring proclamation calling for human rights and democratization throughout the Arab world...
...Regrettably, too many Arab rulers have had their heads in the sand, ignoring demands from their people for change, ignoring the growing threat to their regimes from Islamic extremists...
...But judging by the jockeying that took place, it was not a great day for Arab democrats...
...In that speech, Bush committed the United States to a new "forward strategy of freedom in the Middle East...
...It is too early to tell how much Arab democratization was set back by the summit's cancellation...
...The reluctant autocrats of the Arab League simply cannot be allowed to dictate the terms of engagement in the battle against extremism...
...The league's Tunis debacle highlights its increasing isolation from the 350 million Arabs it represents, who are clamoring for a new deal from their fearful leaders...
...Since the organization's founding in 1945, these affairs have tended to showcase Arab disunity...
...The Tunisians blamed the Egyptians and the Saudis...
...But no longer...
...The loudest protests came from Washington's two principal allies, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, nations where democracy and reform are in very short supply...
...But the Tunis summit was important to the Bush administration and to a growing cadre of courageous Arab democrats and dissidents: For the first time in its 69-year history, the Arab League was actually planning to debate real democratic reform...
...The other, led by Morocco, Jordan, Tunisia, and several similarly reform-minded Persian Gulf states, asserted that the threat of Islamic terror, which targets Arab as well as Western regimes, demanded a concrete reform agenda, whether instigated by Washington or not...
...Its premature publication set off predictable criticism from Arab autocrats, who denounced it as a Washington-dictated "one size fits all" program...
...From the moment Arab foreign ministers arrived in Tunis for their presummit preparatory meetings, things began to spin out of control...
...The Alexandria Declaration, which can be read at arabreformforum.com, endorses the separation of legislative and executive powers, the loosening of restraints on the media, and legalization of political parties, as well as the abolition of emergency laws, political crimes, and state security courts...
...The conferees also announced that a continuing "Arab reform forum" will monitor progress in the region...
...Even getting the issue onto the agenda of a meeting that fell through should be viewed as a victory of sorts for the united States...
...officials were resigned to settle for half a loaf, hoping that the summit would embrace a call for democratic change that, however tepid, might push the region toward greater freedom...
...They naively thought a steady stream of charitable donations to the radicals, coupled with a hefty dose of anti-Americanism, would insulate them against terrorism...
...With the initiative already under attack and off the summit's agenda, U.S...
...By refusing to act—by rejecting internal reform as a threat to their own autocratic rule— Arab leaders play right into the radicals' hands...
...Hiding behind the status quo is no longer a viable option...
...Just weeks before the planned summit, however, the London-based Arab daily Al Hayat published a bootlegged copy of the Bush administration's new "Greater Middle East Initiative," the strategy that was supposed to be unveiled in June at the Group of 8 Industrialized States meeting in Georgia...
...Homegrown Islamic terrorists have now struck in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Jordan, and, of course, Iraq...
...Meanwhile, Arab foreign ministers are scurrying around Middle East capitals trying to pick up the pieces and get the meeting rescheduled...
...toothless, three "no's" after the 1967 Middle East war (no negotiation, no recognition, no compromise) to the Beirut summit that endorsed a stillborn Arab-Israeli peace plan two years ago, league extravaganzas have been short on action and long on grandiosity...
...The bickering over how to address democratization divided countries into two camps...
...Ordinarily, the implosion of an Arab League summit would raise few eyebrows in Washington...
...Nevertheless, when the red carpet was unexpectedly rolled up, it sent shock waves throughout the Arab world...
...President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt publicly accused the Tunisians of acting in bad faith...
...until the terror attacks of September 11, the United States showed little interest in Arab democracy, preferring to work with Arab autocrats...
...And the emergence of al Qaeda-like splinter groups throughout the Middle East poses a clear and present danger to regimes aligned with Washington...
...One, led by Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Syria—the three most important Arab League states—resisted a broad reform agenda...
...Arab television and newspapers are having a field day unloading on the region's leaders for the fiasco...
...Plainly, empowering Arab democrats to produce change inside their own societies is an essential strategy against Islamic radicalism...
...As President Bush said in his landmark November 6, 2003, speech commemorating the 20th anniversary of the National Endowment for Democracy, Arab rulers "should ask themselves whether they will be remembered for resisting reform, or for leading it...
...ambassador to Morocco in the Clinton administration, is managing director of Northstar Equity Group, an affiliate of APCO Worldwide in Washington, D.C...
...The summit, its agenda ripe with controversy, would have unfolded against a backdrop of Arab emotions inflamed by Israel's assassination of Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the escalating uncertainties of Iraq's future, and pressure from Washington to democratize...
...Just as most of the league's 22 leaders—including a delegation from the Governing Council of Iraq—were preparing to head for Tunis, Tunisian president Zine el-Abidine ben Ali pulled the plug...
...The ministers could not agree on a timetable or agenda...
...From the Khartoum Summit that issued the infamous, and Marc Ginsberg, U.S...
...Recriminations have been flying fast and furious...
...Ironically, this record has only contributed to the Arab masses' despairing sense that their leaders have little sway over regional events...
...But the roots of Islamic radicalism, as Americans have come to understand, lie in the stagnation of Arab economies and the failure of Arab regimes to reform their societies and permit more freedom...
Vol. 9 • April 2004 • No. 30
