Shays Forced to Defend U.S. Policy Towards Israel
By Andrew Kosow
WASHINGTON, Oct. 07, 2002–A combative Connecticut Rep. Chris Shays (R – 4th) chaired a subcommittee hearing Tuesday that was designed to discuss how America can better communicate with the Arab world but degenerated into a contentious debate about U.S. policy towards Israel.
“Arabs love American culture but deplore American policy in the Middle East, particularly with regard to Israel,” said witness John Zogby, a well-known pollster who is president and CEO of Zogby International. He cited a poll that showed young Arabs in the Middle East generally like all aspects of American life and values but, like their elders, abhor U.S. policy.
“If it is just policy then I think the differences are unbridgeable,” said Shays. “We are not changing our policy towards Israel.” He went on to say that after Sept. 11 he feels more sympathetic to the Israeli side and that terrorism will only make the American government do the opposite of what the terrorists are hoping to accomplish.
The hearing entitled, “Are We Listening To The Arab Street?” was before the Government Reform subcommittee on national security, veterans affairs and international relations – and consisted of three separate panels of experts.
The rhetoric and acrimony became particularly harsh during the testimony of the second panel of five experts, four of whom held pro-Palestinian views.
“There is an asymmetry of compassion and pressure,” said James Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute. “No compassion for Palestinians and no pressure on the Israelis.” He said that because of this bias, “when President Bush professes to care about the Iraqi people [in his speech Monday night] it does not ring true.”
Shays said that the U.S. government would not publicly engage in dialogue with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat or the Palestinian Authority because it believes he uses terrorism. “Until terrorism stops, how can we negotiate?” said Shays.
“U.S. policy was always to negotiate in the past,” said soft-spoken panelist Dr. R.S. Zaharna, an assistant professor of public communication at American University.
“That was a mistake,” shot back Shays. “Because that says that if you do violent acts then we would negotiate.”
Earlier during the hearing, Shays said he was embarrassed by what he considered the lack of American response after the terrorist bombings of the U.S.S Cole in Yemen and Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia and added sarcastically that the terrorists were probably worried that maybe “we were gonna sue them.”
In later testimony James Zogby tried to reiterate criticisms of Israel that he had mentioned earlier, but was cut off by Shays, who asked Zogby not to repeat himself to make his points.
“Repetition can be the mother of learning,” an exasperated Zogby said. “But I see I have failed today.”
Zaharna did try to soften the debate by thanking Shays for attempting to understand differing opinions. She said that the reason there is such vitriol is that Arabs have such high expectations of America: “There is still a love of the American people and their values which makes the pain double.”
In the third panel, the Washington bureau chief for the Arab satellite news channel Al-Jazeera, Hafez Al-Mirazi, answered critics of his organization who say it exacerbates anger in the Arab world by showing provocative images of Palestinian suffering. “We give airtime to Israeli casualties but there are more Palestinian victims.” Al-Jazeera is the only non-government controlled television station in the Arab world.
Shays said he had a better feeling about Al-Jazeera after the testimony, and added that he was delighted they attempted to address difficult issues. But, he said, he would be “horrified if people thought I was complimenting the programming.”
Shays said after the hearing that he was shocked to learn that the Zogby poll, conducted earlier this year, said young Arabs have a more positive view of America than older generations. “It is something we can build on and gives me hope.”
He also said the hearing produced an informative debate but that he was not persuaded by the witnesses’ arguments to change American policy.
“If Israel disappeared tomorrow, we would still have these problems,” Shays said.
Among the other witnesses Tuesday were Ambassador Chris Ross from the U.S. Department of State and Yigal Carmon, the president of the Middle East Media Research Institute.
Published in The Hour, in Connecticut.
