_______ ____ ______
/ |/ / /___/ / /_
// M I D - E A S T R E
A L I T I E S
/ /|_/ / /_/_ /
/\\
Making Sense of the Middle East
/_/ /_/ /___/ /_/
\\
www.MiddleEast.Org
FLASHBACK to 30 June 1997
News, Information, & Analysis That Governments, Interest Groups,
and the Corporate Media Don't Want You To Know!
-------------
MER - IF YOU DON'T GET IT, YOU JUST DON'T GET IT!
www.MiddleEast.Org/subscribe
---------------
BRITISH DEPARTED PALESTINE, LEAVING CIVIL WAR
NEED FOR "ARAB COMMUNITY" MORE URGENT THAN EVER
"Until the Arabs undue the negative legacies the
British left them, and which the Americans have
continued to play upon and manipulate ever
since, the Arab world will continue to be
hopelessly subjugated and backward,
divided and dominated."
"Contrary to contemporary assertions, the
British and the Americans have done far
more to prevent democracy in the Middle
East, and to inhibit independent economic
development as well, then they will ever admit."
"Only if the Arabs finally bring an end to
their legacy of British and Western colonialist
past and establish a real 'Arab Community'
can they hope to have real independence and a
serious role in the modern world."
MER Editorial - www.MiddleEast.Org - 6/30/1997:
The British leave Hong Kong today, in 1997, a glittering financial
empire. But one shouldn't forget the British left Palestine, just
50 years ago, a political, financial, and psychological mess.
After fracturing the Arab world with artificial boundaries and "client-
regimes" -- most of which continue to this day -- the British ran from
Palestine leaving a civil war to explode between Jewish immigrants they
had encouraged and indigenous "natives" they had repressed. That
conflict too continues to this day.
In other senses, though, the West doesn't completely leave. Even with
Hong Kong, deeply embedded financial and cultural structures remain in
place. For the Palestinians, and indeed for all the Arabs,
Western imperialism has continued to control the political as well as
financial destiny of the Arabs to this day.
CIA penetration of the Middle East has expanded decade by decade since
the British departure. American manipulation of Arab "client-regimes"
has become something of a political art-form -- controlling the region
through local agents, a limited number of American military forces, and
considerable CIA and covert penetration.
Another considerable difference looms large as well. Hong Kong lacked
natural resources; and so the British were forced to build up the human
and service resources of the small area on the Asian coast.
In the Middle East, the natural resources -- petroleum, "black gold",
and then the huge amount of petrodollars that ensured -- were well
understood to be the main prize of the huge region. And the West has
proceeded to relentlessly exploit these resources for their own
benefit; caring little about the human and service resources of the
area. Indeed wanting to continually drain the petrol resources has
required the West to seriously inhibit indigenous Arab institutions and
democracy -- lest the Arabs seek to end the neo-colonial bondage they
have been subjected to for so long.
"ARAB COMMUNITY" URGENTLY NEEDED
Until the Arabs undo the negative legacies the British left them, and
which the Americans have continued to play upon and manipulate ever
since, the Arab world will continue to be hopelessly subjugated and
backward, divided and dominated.
Lastly it should be said clearly, contrary to contemporary assertions,
the British and the Americans have done far more to prevent democracy
in the Middle East, and to inhibit independent economic development as
well, then they will ever admit.
The Europeans have come together in recent years to form the "European
Community" with largely open borders, unrestricted trade, easy travel,
and unrestricted press. Only if the Arabs finally bring an end to their
legacy of British and Western colonialist past and establish a real
"Arab Community" can they hope to have real independence and a serious
role in the modern world.