Why
Arabs Aren't Buying Uncle Sam
By AZADEH MOAVENI
Time Magazine
August 20, 2002
Sometimes a cigarette isn't just a cigarette. Nowhere is that more
evident, these days, than in Cairo. For four consecutive summers,
I've met friends for drinks at the Greek Club downtown in the Egyptian
capital, but this year there's a new ritual to our gathering: Before
sitting down, everyone tosses their pack of cigarettes onto the
table for a brand inspection. Gauloise (French), Cleopatra (Egyptian)
and Rothmans (Canadian) pass without comment, but a pack of Marlboros
demands explanation. Boycotting American cigarettes has become a
standard political statement in a city where the vast majority of
urban professionals are both smokers and fierce critics of Israel's
military campaign in Palestinian territories. In the minds of many
Cairenes, Israel and the United States have become inseparable.
The logic of the cigarette boycott may be questionable like
many other "American" goods on the boycott list, the Marlboros
on sale in Egypt are actually produced here but it does provide
an emotional outlet for anger against America, whose unconditional
support for Israel, people believe, enables what they see as the
Jewish state's ongoing assault on Palestinian society. The guilty
Marlboro-smoker must typically have prepared some defense, as my
friend Amr did last week: "I just came back from Ramallah,
and I'll have you know, it makes no difference on the ground what
you smoke."
The boycott has its parallel in consumer life across the Middle
East, as many Arabs seek to their match their buying habits to the
common political view of the U.S. as a self-serving, hypocritical
power that threatens the region. And that image alarms not only
merchants trying to move American products, but also Washington's
policy makers, who see it as a dangerous distortion of the administration's
real foreign policy message. That's why the White House recently
created an "Office of Global Communications," whose task
will be to clean up America's image abroad by, for example, clarifying
to Arabs angry at Israel's misdeeds why they shouldn't hold the
U.S. accountable. It isn't the policies that produce hostility abroad,
goes the thinking in Washington, but poor salesmanship nothing
that an overhaul of the country's public diplomacy apparatus won't
be able to fix.
A Council of Foreign Relations task force recently addressed this
very issue in a report that offered Washington prescriptions for
repairing its image. An example message in the report suggests the
United States can begin by reframing its ties with Israel as a "commitment
to the survival of Israel" rather than as an expression of
"unconditional support." Perhaps if Arabs understood how
deeply sympathy for Israel runs across American political and religious
groups, they might be less dismayed by the Bush Administration's
green-light for Israel Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's military actions.
Reading the report, one wonders how seriously its crafters take
their own recommendations. Most Egyptians I know have a sophisticated
understanding of how the Bush Administration's support for Israel
works, and what it means. "Sharon is a 'man of peace,' Israel
must defend herself, but the Palestinians can just go drown,"
says Ahmed Mounir, a U.S.-educated businessman, as we watch al-Jazeera
in his living room. Mounir has family in the U.S., and a deep desire
to feel differently about a country that schooled him, and in many
other ways earns his admiration. But he's disappointed by how little
effort the Bush administration makes to engage with Palestinians,
to meet and take seriously their leaders, and to treat Palestinian
needs and aspirations on the same level as those of Israelis. Mounir
and his family have already canceled their usual summer trip to
the East Coast, their affection for the U.S. having shifted to a
belief that it's a country "hostile to Arabs, as a people,
as a nation." This is what the CFR report terms "attitudinal
resistance" to American policy, and its depth and intensity
is unlikely to be reversed by slick re-packaging.
Some planners in Washington believe they may have an easier time
reaching the next generation of Arabs, and are pleased by the early
success of their new Arabic-language station, Radio Sawa ("together").
Unlike the staid and preachy Voice of America (VOA), Radio Sawa
targets a youth audience with trendy American and Arab pop music,
attempting to get Washington's take on the news across in snippets
that infrequently interrupt the Top 40 barrage. So far, only Arab
audiences in Jordan, Dubai, and Kuwait have been able to tune in
to Radio Sawa (the signal doesn't reach Cairo or Beirut clearly),
but its popularity doesn't necessarily signal an acceptance of an
American political message. Because its clear in Cairo that many
Arabs are happy to go on consuming American products from
cigarettes to radio stations while remaining fiercely critical
of American policies. Just ask the staff at McDonald's in Cairo,
who have grown accustomed to their outlets being attacked in anti-Israel
protests by the same university students who are usually on line
for fries.
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