Trouble on the Streets

The Arab street is rumbling. for weeks, protesters across the Middle East burned Israeli and American flags and brandished banners in support of the Palestinians. Satellite channels broadcast reports on Palestinian suffering, as well as talk shows on which guests vent their rage. But the Arabs are not only shooting off their mouths. From bases in southern Lebanon, Hizballah and Palestinian guerrillas stepped up rocket and mortar attacks on Israeli targets. A band of Egyptian teenagers even tried to sneak into Israel, saying they wanted to join the battle.

Whenever the Israeli-Palestinian dispute erupts in crisis, as in Israel’s latest incursion into Palestinian territories after another round of Palestinian suicide bombings, a wave of Arab anger is sure to follow. In the past, most of the rants and threats turned out to be just that — empty talk. But some Western diplomats and Middle East analysts worry that, this time, the Arabs might mean it. The new element, they say, is a hardening Arab belief that despite years of peacemaking, Israel will never allow an independent Palestinian state and that the U.S. will support Israel no matter what — and the Arabs cannot stand back and do nothing. “It smells a little like May 1967,” says an Arab diplomat, referring to the Arab mood on the eve of the Six-Day War.

Fortunately, that still seems like an exaggeration. Far from being inclined toward war, all 22 Arab states agreed in March, during an Arab summit in Beirut, to offer Israel “normal relations” in exchange for a withdrawal from the territories Israel captured in 1967. When U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell shuttled between Beirut, Jerusalem, Ramallah and Damascus last week, it was a sign that the U.S. wants to prevent Middle East chaos.

But with Powell failing to achieve an Israeli-Palestinian cease-fire, there is rising concern that the latest crisis may be threatening other Western and American interests, including the stability of Arab allies, hopes of toppling Saddam Hussein and even the continuing supply of cheap oil. Some are concerned about losing hearts and minds in the Arab world at a time when the U.S. is waging war against Islamic extremism. “The street is important,” says a U.S. official. “This is ground zero in the war on terrorism.”

Anger is directed at the U.S. and Israel in equal measure. In Jidda, a prominent Saudi businessman with close U.S. ties dashed off a letter to President Bush, saying he feared Washington “will lose the support of all your friends in the Middle East.” In e-mails and Internet chat rooms, informal networks organize boycotts of American products, from Hollywood films to fast food. There is no sign that Arab producers will use the “oil weapon” and follow Saddam Hussein’s decision to halt petroleum production to spike up world prices. Nonetheless, Arab leaders — especially those with close links to the U.S. or relations with Israel — have been quick to react, lest the anger turn to domestic unrest. In Egypt, after days of protesters chanting “Where is the Egyptian army?” the government cut off most contacts with Israel. “When it comes to decision making,” says Egyptian government spokesman Nabil Osman, “we listen to public opinion.” In Jordan, authorities prevented a potentially volatile march on the Israeli embassy in Amman with a massive deployment of security forces. King Abdullah II’s government says it is considering options including the expulsion of Israel’s ambassador. Queen Rania, herself a Jordanian of Palestinian origin, even led one protest. Anger has turned to violence in some Middle Eastern countries. In the small Persian Gulf nation of Bahrain, where the U.S. maintains a major naval facility, a demonstrator died after a throng of protesters broke through the gates of the U.S. embassy. Another protester was killed in Alexandria, Egypt when police fired rubber bullets to stop a mob from marching on the city’s American cultural center. In the most troubling incident to date, an apparent terrorist attack on the Tunisian island of Djerba targeted one of the last remnants of North Africa’s 2,000-year-old Jewish community. The attack, which may have been timed to coincide with the start of the trial of five al-Qaeda suspects in Frankfurt, left 16 people dead, including 11 German tourists. Arab leaders think the U.S. must do more to pressure Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon into ending Israel’s incursion and making peace with Arafat instead of humiliating him. “Without active U.S. assistance, the region will face many problems,” said Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri after meeting President Bush at the White House. Hariri was the first of several Arab leaders to visit Washington. Bush is also hosting King Mohammed VI of Morocco, who recently postponed his own wedding because of the crisis. This week, Bush receives Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz al Saud of Saudi Arabia, the author of the recent Arab peace initiative. Believing Bush too biased in favor of Sharon, he turned down previous invitations. Abdullah resisted pressure from other Saudi officials to cancel this trip too, but his message will be just as blunt: The Middle East crisis is worsening, yet the Administration is still waffling.