Word: arabism
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...there was the media riot over Vice President Dick Cheney's hunting accident. Last week there was a bipartisan congressional riot over the Bush Administration's approval of a deal to transfer the management of six U.S. ports from a British company to one owned by the United Arab Emirates. And then there is the constant, combustible throb of Islamic unrest, most recently the intramural explosion of Iraq's Sunnis and Shi'ites, which has devastated the possibility that civil order will arrive in that benighted country anytime soon...
...Jimmy Carter's support for relinquishing control of the Panama Canal-difficult to explain politically but in the nation's best long-term interests. Does anyone actually believe that the management suits in Dubai would run those ports any differently from the suits in Britain? Wouldn't the new Arab owners be even more conscious of security, since they wouldn't want their newly bought assets destroyed by terrorists? Several intelligence experts told me last week that Dubai has been our most reliable Arab ally since Sept. 11. Even Richard Clarke, the former Bill Clinton and Bush counterterrorism specialist...
...There are good reasons for that. Hamas, having just won a resounding election victory, is not about to make a series of declarations that they might see as a symbolic surrender. Instead, Hamas's representatives responded to the threat of financial sanctions by making their own tour of the Arab and Islamic world seeking pledges of financial support to make up for any shortfall created by politically motivated funding cuts...
...Hamas appears to have made some diplomatic headway, having met with Turkey's Prime Minister, accepted an invitation to Moscow and even won France's endorsement of Russia's policy of engagement with the new government. The Egyptian foreign minister seemed to sum up the moderate Arab response, characterizing the U.S. call to cut funding as premature: "We should give Hamas time," said Ahmed Abul Gheit after meeting with Rice. "I'm sure that Hamas will develop, will evolve. We should not prejudge the issue...
...Turkey, Russia, France, and the moderate Arab regimes certainly agree with the U.S. and the Israelis that a Hamas government that engages in terrorism is intolerable. But they're more inclined to give Hamas the opportunity to govern responsibly rather than to immediately take steps to topple or force it to make symbolic concessions. Hamas will be judged less by its symbolic declarations than by its actions, and those that are advocating giving Hamas time to prove its bona fides will use that position as leverage against any move by Hamas to end its cease-fire...