Mitzpeh

Shibley Telhami, author of the First-Year Book, The Stakes: America and the Middle East, and Anwar Sadat Professor for Peace and Development, spoke to a room full of students and others at Stamp Student Union on Oct. 27, about America’s role in the Middle East in the near future.

“There are enormous challenges facing the new president,” Telhami said, “and many of these challenges that are related to the Middle East are indirectly also global challenges.”

Telhami spoke mostly about the war in Iraq but also discussed the Arab-Israeli issue and the relation between the two.

“The Arab-Israeli issue is the prism of pain through which Arabs, and increasingly, Muslims, look at the U.S.,” said Telhami, who went on to explain that most cultures have a “prism of pain,” which gives them a view of the world and distorts people’s view of reality.

Arabs, according to Telhami, view the world through military defeat, and thus, the conflict with Israel shapes their view of the U.S. His research indicated that was the most important issue in how most Arabs feel about America.

Telhami also warned listeners about giving into prisms of pain. Since our prism of pain is Sept. 11, we cannot allow that to distort our view of Arabs as a whole. The same thing is occurring overseas, where Muslims feel the U.S. is out to oppress them, according to Telhami’s research.

“More and more Americans see Muslims as a threat, and in the Muslim world, majorities think the U.S. is out to get Muslims, not out to get militants.”

Even Turkey, Telhami said, which is a modernized nation, not fundamentalist, has a population whose majority feels the purpose of the Iraq war was to weaken Muslims.

“My fear,” Telhami said, “is that we’re not differentiating between bin Ladenism … .and between the rising Islamic nationalism.” He went on to say this problem is similar to America’s inability to distinguish between communism and legitimate local progressivism during the Cold War.

Telhami also explained that the distrust of the U.S. by Arab Muslims will be a significant issue in spreading democracy in the region. People will concede to having a stable dictatorship, rather than have the U.S., whom they view as a threat, enter and institute democracy, Telhami said.

“There is a difference between a support for Israel and seeking a fair peace, and support for Israel and not intervening to bring about an end to the conflict,” said Telhami, in response to an audience member who asked how America could be looking for a peace deal while being pro-Israel.

Students who attended were pleased with Telhami’s impartiality. “[The lecture] wasn’t biased in any way,” said Rebecca Weintraub, a freshman English major.  “Sometimes, when people write about the Middle East … they tend to be biased towards one side.”

Some stated their opinions on the issue itself. “America has to reassess its role and desire to spread democracy and reassert who its enemies and allies are,” said freshman Elan Mosbacher, a business and government and politics major.

Telhami agrees. “If there is a lesson to be learned … since the Iraq war, that lesson is that we cannot do it alone, and that alliances are indispensable for the U.S.”

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