by Hasan Abu Nimah

Despite hard lessons and costly results, Washington continues to navigate its foreign policy using the Israeli political compass. This has been clearly harming American interests worldwide. It has particularly worsened American relations with the Arab and Islamic world at a time when such relations need urgently to be repaired.

Why Washington insists on treading the dangerous route of putting Israeli desires before its own basic strategic interests is a question that haunts many. One may ask why anyone should be able to define US interests better than policy makers in Washington themselves. And the answer to this very valid question is that neither the good nor the awful results of American policy affect America alone; they affect all of us. We share the costs and therefore we have every right to be concerned, even to question the validity and the wisdom of the foreign policy of any country when the impact of the consequences so directly bears upon us.

US foreign policy does not operate in a vacuum. We are concerned because our interests are so closely involved and often threatened.

If the US president decides to reward Sharon for any reason with American assets, then that is an American matter. But when such a reward is paid for by the Palestinian people, then the president's decision is illegal and wrong, and that gives the right to the victims to oppose and question it; moreover, those charged with defending and enforcing international legality and law also have a duty to act.

I am referring here specifically to the letter of guarantees which President George Bush handed to Ariel Sharon over a year ago, stating that the facts Israel has, over the years of occupation, created on the ground - which is occupied Arab territories - are irreversible, and removing such "facts on the ground" should not be considered in any settlement that may one day happen. What also should not be considered, according to Bush's letter of guarantees, is the implementation of the Palestinian refugees' right of return. The refugees can only be accommodated in what will be a Palestinian state, the letter stated. On the one hand, the little land left for that imaginary "state" was further reduced by excluding the created facts on the ground; on the other, the shrunken land will have to accommodate possibly millions of returning Palestinians.

But what is more stunning is the US decision to ignore international law, ignore recognised Palestinian rights, ignore the roadmap, the product of the Quartet of which Washington is a significant member, and determine unilaterally what Sharon can cut for himself from Palestinian rights in advance. Except for meaningless bleats here and there, no one in the "international community" has dared challenge this flagrant assault by Washington of the Palestinians and their rights in international law.

Washington has the right to protect Israel, to arm Israel and pour money into Israel in any quantity its leaders may choose and its people may tolerate. But when such protection exceeds the limits of the state to protecting illegally occupied territory of many neighbours, when arms are used to consolidate war gains, and when money is used for colonising and for building settlements on illegally occupied territories, then Washington is supporting the aggression and sharing with Israel the responsibility for committing it.

Bush is fond of saying that any state or person that harbours, arms or aids terrorists in any way is equally guilty of any crimes committed by the terrorists. Why should not the same logic apply in other situations? Isn't a country that arms and protects another country that commits armed aggression and colonises the land of others also implicated in the crime?

Recently, following the Israeli disengagement from Gaza, Washington seems to have ignored all the lessons of Iraq, of the failure of the war on terror, and of the consequences of unilateralism by fully adopting the Sharon concept that the Gaza disengagement is all Israel has to do towards settling the historic conflict.

There is a new push for other countries in and outside the region to normalise relations with Israel. This, again, is both dangerous and counterproductive. Dangerous because it will encourage Israeli intransigence to dig deeper in the West Bank and to create more facts on the ground, rather than follow the "disengagement" from Gaza with a withdrawal from the rest of the occupied territories, thus paving the ground for an acceptable settlement. And counterproductive because it will aggravate further the strained relations between the US and the people of the region whose conviction is being strengthened by Washington's open bias to Israel.

I did not meet one single person this week who did not point accusative fingers at Washington for pushing Islamabad to start the process of establishing normal relations with Israel, for pushing leaders from the region to visit Israel or for intensifying the pressure on Syria - whose land has been occupied by Israel since 1967 - and Iran, simply because that is what Israel wants Washington to do, or for pushing Arab and other countries to normalise relations with Israel.

The United Arab Emirates is busy denying the opening of an Israeli diplomatic office in Dubai which Israel claims is open. Israel has also been leaking news that it is conducting secret negotiations with many Arab countries towards establishing diplomatic relations. The largest majority of the people in the region blame Washington for that, even more than blaming those who succumb to American pressure for keeping needed good relations with the Bush administration.

This way any momentum resulting from the historic withdrawal from Gaza, regardless of its causes, will be lost. Building on that momentum would have greatly served long-term Israeli interests by cutting short their detrimental plans of expansion, continued aggression and occupation. It would also have marked a radical change in US policy towards the region by encouraging Israel to proceed on the course of reversing occupation and colonisation rather than endorsing further aggression and defiance of international law.

Such a policy change may strain Israeli-American relations now but it certainly will serve Israeli and American interests in the long run. It would do far more towards defusing regional rage against US policies in the region than all the costly efforts Washington has been undertaking since Sept. 11, 2001.

The belief that Israel entangled Washington in its regional wars, and Washington entangled its friends and allies, dragging them to the front line is gaining credence daily. Even the tragedy of New Orleans is traced to the same entanglement. Americans say that money and human resources spent in Iraq reduced the ability of the Federal government to either prevent in good time or to deal with the tragedy on the Gulf of Mexico.

Israel's political compass has been misleading America for decades. How many shipwrecks does America need to suffer before it wakes up to this devastating reality?

This article was published in the Wednesday, September 7, 2005 edition of the Jordan Times. It is used here with permission.