I visited the United States of America for the first time on a journalistic and study mission in 1991, months after the Gulf War, which resulted in the death of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi and Kuwaiti brothers and great devastation in the region…
That visit lasted about two full months… and it came after a series of articles in which I, like most Arab writers and intellectuals, criticized the performance of Washington and its allies in the war… in addition to my sharp criticism of its exaggerated bias towards Tel Aviv… in exchange for not pressuring it to recognize in word and deed the national rights of the people. Palestinian..
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After two months of interviews in several American states and in Washington and New York, I returned to Tunisia and wrote a series of articles under the title: “The America we do not know”… (?!!)
I returned to America 3 times, including a study and press visit in 2004, a year after the occupation of Baghdad and the establishment of wholesale military bases in the region…
I again wrote articles entitled “The America We Do Not Know”…
I visited the most important countries in Europe and Asia dozens of times on journalistic and academic missions, including Britain, France, Germany, Belgium, Spain, and Italy…
Today… after about 4 months have passed since the “Al-Aqsa Flood” and the explosion of new international conflicts in Palestine and in the entire region, I say: Unfortunately, our politicians do not know well America and the great powers… including the European Union countries, “the traditional partner…”
Why?
Because I discovered during my tours in America, Europe, and the world, east and west, that we do not know each other… and we do not know America, the countries of Europe, and its allies well.
We do not know many of its fatal weaknesses… nor do we know precisely many of the strengths of the American, European and Asian societies and elites… nor of China, Russia and Latin America…
We attribute them, insult them, praise them, and flirt with them politically without knowing them well… their faults and their virtues… including their plans to perpetuate military and economic hegemony and scientific and technological superiority… while tempting hundreds of thousands of our youth and our scientific and cultural elite to emigrate…
I have repeatedly received different echoes after such articles from Western and Arab diplomats, intellectuals, and friends…
Many agreed with me and others opposed me… because of my calls to « put things in order » and to abandon the « conspiratorial approach »… without giving up the right to criticize the « double standard policies » when dealing with the Arab-Islamic world and the Tel Aviv authorities…
The result of hundreds of my academic and journalistic visits to America and Europe were many conclusions, including two:
+ The first is that most Arab intellectuals and politicians do not know well America and the Western countries that they criticize, insult and oppose… and they often insult them without understanding the complexities of decision-making and its behind-the-scenes in Washington and in European governments…
They do not understand well the complex scene in the United States and Western industrialized countries and the behind-the-scenes conflicts between those with interests and those with principles… between the money and arms lobbies on the one hand and the diplomats, intellectuals and specialists in strategic studies on the other…
In both camps there are a large number of wise people and supporters of dialogue between cultures and civilizations and just and comprehensive peace…
+ Second: If peoples afflicted by occupation, poverty, and backwardness have the right to criticize the mistakes of Washington’s rulers, the rich countries militarily and economically, and the old and new colonial powers, then the “other side” of America and the Western countries that dominate most of the world’s wealth, its governments, and its peoples must be recognized.
We must first understand the secrets of its progress and the internal and external reasons for the backwardness of our Arab countries and “Third World” countries in general…
The right to criticize the positions of Washington and NATO capitals should not hide a glaring fact, which is that most of the peoples of the Arab-Islamic world, Asia, and Africa do not have a clear picture of the strengths within the American and European societies and their giant scientific, cultural, and geostrategic institutions.
America and Europe are not only aircraft carriers… they are home to the most prestigious universities, study and research centers, and the finest medical, cultural, artistic, journalistic and security institutions in the world…
Therefore, two things must not be confused: the right to criticize the foreign and military policies of Washington, Brussels, Paris, London, Berlin, and others, and the duty to be open to global societies and universities… and to scientific, cultural, and economic progress in the United States and its Western allies…
Hundreds of millions of Arabs and supporters of peace around the world have the right to demonstrate against the use of the “American veto”… and to defend the rights of the people of Palestine and the occupied peoples everywhere… while criticizing the agendas of the old and new arms, media and financial lobbies…
But we must realize again that countries’ policies are governed by the logic of « intersection of interests » and not « conspiracies »…
States and popular and official decision-making institutions must improve the use of their many cards to serve their interests and the interests of their people.
There is no way to convince the other to partner with you unless he is convinced that his interests intersect with yours… similar to what China, India, Japan, Turkey, partly Iran, and some Asian and African countries have succeeded in.
Just an opinion..