In These New Times

Yvonne Ridley

Redress

27th January, 2011

Yvonne Ridley argues that the tide has turned in the Arab world now that the people have breached the fear barrier, and predicts that oppressive and corrupt Arab regimes, which have been propped up by the US and its European allies, will begin to tumble like dominos.

”…the first thing to do is send Air Force One around the region to collect all the dictators, tyrants and despots on the US payroll and take them back to Washington. Like pet poo in New York’s Central Park, you have to take responsibility for your dogs’ mess.” (Yvonne Ridley)

The Arab world’s sleeping giant has finally woken from its slumbers after years of being drugged and mugged by the West.

Having witnessed – and experienced – first hand the brutality of the Egyptian and Tunisian police and their undercover stooges, I can tell you that the uprisings of the masses took real courage.

Over the years, dictator Hosni Mubarak has traded on their fear, using some of the foulest methods of intimidation imaginable.

But as with their counterparts in Tunisia, the Egyptian people are losing their fear and tearing away the chains of oppression.

The Pharoah’s police state is now teetering as another day of protests begins.

Whatever the outcome over the next few weeks, I think it is clear that America and Britain can no longer manipulate and control the politics – or lack of it – in the Middle East.

Washington’s silence over the weeks of civil unrest on the streets of Tunisia was almost deafening, so when Barack Obama chose to congratulate the uprising only once Zine El Abidine Ben Ali’s plane was in the air, his message of support rang hollow. Today, he urged the Egyptian authorities to show restraint.

The world’s most powerful man’s weasel words tripped from his lips as blood was shed on the streets of Cairo, Assiut, Alexandria, Mansura, Tanta and Aswan as the people faced down 2.5 million uniformed and plain clothes thugs using water cannon and teargas.

The truth is the scenes of civil unrest from Tunis to Cairo speak volumes about US and Western interference as much as the actions of the tyrants they have bankrolled and supported.

All of them have seriously underestimated ordinary Arabs. The brutality of tyrants has been allowed to go on for countless decades and the silence of the Western superpowers today exposes their own deep-seated racism and double standards towards the people.

Is the blood of an Arab worth less than that of an American? It’s a rhetorical question and we all know the shameful answer.

With the exception of Iraq (and let’s not go down the road of who created and supported Saddam), all of the governments in the Middle East are identified by their Western-installed family dynasties, sham democracies and rigged elections punctuated by extreme reaction to any signs of dissenting voices.

While these leaders have lived a life of luxury bordering on obscene, they’ve carried out their orders from Washington, London, Paris and beyond without question – and this goes for the corrupt Abu Mazen [Mahmud Abbas] and his Palestinian Authority. If ever there was a dictator-in-the-making it’s this odious pygmy of a man.

As Robert Fisk has pointed out, the emergence of the Palestine Papers are as damning as the Balfour Declaration. The right of return for millions of Palestinians, for instance, was traded and eroded beyond measure.

From the West Bank to Gaza and the refugee camps beyond, Abu Mazen sold his people down the river. And the fact that Hillary Clinton’s predecessor, Condoleezza Rice, saw no problem in moving the Palestinians half way across the world to settle in South America, exposes the real contempt US administrations have for the Arab people, not to mention those living in Latin America.

And for why? For Israel, a festering pustule not the size of a South African game park, squatting in the Middle East. The creation of this nuclear-powered Frankenstein state and the determination to force it on Arabs will turn out to be America’s and Britain’s biggest ever mistake.

But it’s not just the US to blame. Britain under Tony Blair has been a prime mover in overseeing the brutalization of the Arab world.

The UK’s intelligence service, MI6, drew up plans to help the Palestinian Authority crush the Islamic political movement Hamas and armed groups in the West Bank.

Documents – part of nearly 1,700 transcripts and emails leaked to Arab TV channel Al- Jazeera documenting more than a decade of Israeli-Palestinian talks – shed light on a little-known role played by British security services in shoring up the corrupt PA’s security apparatus. It was all done on Blair’s watch.

The West has bribed, bullied and cajoled Arab leaders into accepting the vile Zionist state, to the detriment of their own people, and this is now coming back to haunt them.

The movement of the masses isn’t just about oppression under tyrants; it is also about the creation and maintaining of Israel and the unconditional support it is given by the West and the West’s puppet leaders in the region.

Well, the sleeping giant has finally woken up and when the people start to lead, their leaders will and are becoming irrelevant.

Israel’s biggest ally, Mubarak, must now be planning an exit strategy, wondering to where he can flee – or even if he can rely any more on his Western puppet masters. They all turned their back on Ben Ali, didn’t they?

In Lebanon, America’s friends are folding as a prime minister is appointed who will support Israel’s arch enemy Hizbullah, and from the West Bank to Gaza, Hamas is being seen as the peoples’ choice…

It’s only a matter of time before the rest of the tyrants come tumbling down like a pack of cards.

The game is up. It is over.

The Arab world is going to start and choose its own leaders. We in the West might not like the choices of the people but we should respect their wishes.

Western leaders have a great deal to think about in the coming weeks as the Arab people decide how to shape their future in the Arab world.

But the first thing to do is send Air Force One around the region to collect all the dictators, tyrants and despots on the US payroll and take them back to Washington.

Like pet poo in New York’s Central Park, you have to take responsibility for your dogs’ mess.