Why they hate us

Chicago Tribune

Published September 13, 2001

Some of the more searing images from Tuesday came not from New York or Washington, but from the Middle East, where Palestinians cheered, laughed and fired weapons like fireworks, rejoicing in the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

No hard evidence has been offered that the mastermind of this tragedy was Saudi terrorist Osama bin Laden, or radical Palestinians, or Iraq's Saddam Hussein. But a general link to the political turmoil in the Middle East seems to be emerging.

And there are those images, robust applause at the spilling of American blood.

That has provoked a plaintive question in classrooms and around dinner tables in this country: Why do they hate us so much?

In the Middle East, there are plenty of political explanations for this. In the minds of many Arabs and Muslims, the primary sin of the United States has been its unshakable support for the state of Israel, a bedrock ally and the only Western-style democracy in the region.

The U.S. supplies Israel with $3 billion a year in aid and sells weapons--from F-16 fighters to Apache helicopters and missiles--that the Jewish state has used to crack down on the Palestinian intifada and kill its leaders.

Despite past U.S. efforts to broker a peace deal, this country is seen as the primary reason Israel is a thriving and formidable nation and the state of Palestine is still just a gleam in Yasser Arafat's eye.

What's more, the U.S. for 11 years has been the driving force behind United Nations sanctions against Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. American and British warplanes continue to enforce no-flight zones over northern and southern Iraq.

There is lingering animosity in South Asia and North Africa over U.S. attacks--cruise missile strikes in Afghanistan and Sudan--the last time bin Laden's forces attacked U.S. interests, bombing embassies in East Africa in 1998.

In the broader Islamic world, the Third World and poorer nations of the southern hemisphere, the tension with America has sharpened since the end of the Cold War. Coating it all is a politics inflamed by religious fanaticism.

Then there is the matter of pure envy. Even in the club of industrialized democracies--our peers and allies--there is resentment at America's stature as the world's richest nation, its sole superpower, its predominant culture.

That, in a nutshell, is why they hate us. That does not begin to suggest that such hatred is rational or logical. But it exists.

There are those who rejoiced in the shedding of American blood, but the celebration will subside and the realization will dawn that terrorism has done them a grave disservice.

What happened this week will change the dynamic of how America views the Middle East, and not to the liking of those who carried out this outrage. It will harden U.S. attitudes toward the cause of the Palestinians. They, in all likelihood, did not carry off these terrible acts. But there will be a sense that their war has now been exported to U.S. soil, claiming U.S. casualties.

The Palestinians have grievances. We have a few of our own now, thanks to fanatics who apparently sprang from the cauldron of Middle East politics.

Americans must guard against any urge to vent their outrage against Muslims and others of Arab background in this country. We have an unfortunate history in this regard, the mistreatment and internment of Japanese Americans in the aftermath of World War II. Let's not repeat it.

Indeed, most Muslims are utterly appalled and unnerved at acts of violence carried out in the name of their religion.

So then, say it. It is more essential than ever that those of the Islamic faith publicly and unequivocally denounce the fanatacism that leads to such acts as suicidal terrorism.

If there was a reservoir of U.S. sympathy for the stateless Palestinians, it may well be drained by that joyful reaction to tragedy this week.

Will sympathy be restored? In time, perhaps, if those who tried to terrorize America are brought to justice and the world stands as one in condemnation of their crimes.

Copyright © 2001, Chicago Tribune