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What If It's Not Israel They Loathe?

(Jerusalem Post) Amir Taheri - I just spent the month of Ramadan in several Arab countries. On the basis of anecdotal evidence (there are no free elections or reliable opinion polls in the Arab world), I came to believe that the Palestine-Israel issue was low down on the list of priorities for the man in the street but something approaching an obsession for the political, business, and intellectual elites. When it came to ordinary people, almost no one ever mentioned the Palestine issue, even on days when Arafat's death dominated the headlines. Farmers, shopkeepers, taxi drivers, and office workers never mentioned Palestine. The reason why the elites fake passion about this issue is that it is the only one on which they agree. In many cases, it is also the only political issue that people can discuss without running into trouble with the secret services. Conventional wisdom also insists that the U.S. is hated by Muslims because it is pro-Israel. But is it not possible that the reverse is true - that Israel is hated because it is pro-American? Right now there are 22 active conflicts across the globe in which Muslims are involved. Most Muslims have not even heard of most of them because those conflicts do not provide excuses for fomenting hatred against the United States. Thailand is building a wall to cordon off almost two million Muslims in southern Thailand - a wall higher and longer than the controversial "security fence" Israel is building.
2004-12-03 00:00:00
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