We do not know if the Arabs had a role to play in the recognition by Argentina and Brazil of a Palestinian state on the basis of the 1967 borders. All we know is that President Mahmoud Abbas has thanked the two countries for taking such an initiative. We also know that these two countries, which were the United States' backyard for many decades, have become under leftist rule more liberated and independent in making sovereign national decisions. Their recognizing a Palestinian state would not have been possible had they not rejected US tutelage of their foreign policy. In fact, Brazil went further than this when it coordinated its efforts with Turkey, and the two countries put forth a draft for resolving US-Iranian disputes, one which was aborted by Washington. If we were to go back thirty years in the past, we would find that an important country in the Middle East, namely Iran, had changed its alliances. After having been a main ally of Israel, it became its main enemy, outbidding all of the Arabs in supporting their cause, as well as their isolated revolutions in Gaza and Lebanon. Taking advantage of their disputes, their weakness and their fragmentation, it was able to extend its influence to Iraq, the issue of which has become an asset for compromise between it and the United States. All evidence indicates that Washington does not mind giving Iran a role to play in this country of Iraq, which used to be an Arab country and has today turned into a group of smaller states, one Shiite, the second Sunni and the third Kurdish. It is no thanks to the Arabs that Iran changed its stance on Israel. Rather, this was thanks to its shedding off US tutelage. Turkey is another important country in the region, and during the decades preceding the Islamic Revolution, it represented with Iran the first line of defense of US and Israeli policy in the face of the Arabs. It has taken it longer than Tehran to enter the phase of transformation we are now witnessing. It is using the Palestinian Cause and the issue of Jerusalem to restore some of its Islamic identity, and is returning to play its role as a regional power in the Middle East, sacrificing its old alliance, without great concern for US tutelage, and trying to set up its interests as the basis for its relationship with Washington. It has succeeded in doing this (it refused to have the war on Iraq launched from its soil), without US anger having any impact on the new direction it is taking. Once again, it is no thanks to the Arabs that Turkey is turning from a country allied to Israel to one seeking to establish alliances with its neighborhood by distancing itself from the Hebrew State. Distancing itself from Israel and from US tutelage has, both in the case of Iran and in that of Turkey, represented a gateway for forming ties, at both the popular and official levels, with its Arab neighborhood. In other words, the Palestinian issue is the basis of this. On the other hand, we find in Arab circles those who call for marginalizing the Palestinian Cause, and for making it last in the list of priorities. Moreover, pathetic officials and theorists who call for surrendering everything to Israel in exchange for nothing, without concern for national security or for a sense of humanity, are not impossible to find. We also find that the United States has been successful at the Arab level, to a great extent, in making enmity towards Iran supersede enmity towards the Hebrew State, and in convincing the Arabs that its resounding failure to convince Israel to resume meaningless negotiations with the Palestinians is the starting point for negotiations over a permanent solution. The relative distance of Argentina, Brazil, Turkey and Iran from US policies has made them regain some of their independence and come closer to us. Will we awaken some day to find ourselves in the same position as those countries? Will we return to being ourselves?
