RAY HANANIA Most Arabs do not understand that their future is directly tied to the public whims of the United States. If America sees you as an ally – usually through need (oil and military support in the region), America will help you. If America sees you as a threat, it will try to destroy you, or at the least make your life miserable. Look at American foreign policy. The United States claims to be an ally of Saudi Arabia, yet the perception of Saudis in America is negative. In fact, the Kingdom has done more for Americans than any other foreign country, certainly more than Israel has done. Saudi Arabia has helped to stabilize the price of oil on the world's petroleum market and this has made gasoline more affordable for US consumers. For Americans, energy is their most important vulnerability. In the blink of an eye, OPEC could dramatically increase the price of oil and bring Americans to their economic knees, and use that to force Americans to embrace justice and reconsider their hypocritical support of Israel's oppressive policies. And what does Saudi Arabia get for its support of America? In truth, Americans, overall, have a negative view of the Saudi people and government. Saudi Arabia is constantly vilified in the mainstream American news media, on television, in movies and in American literature. It's really a strange relationship. But while Americans are hypocrites and two-faced about Saudi Arabia, the Kingdom is genuine in wanting to support the US. Yet Saudi Arabia could do far more. It could help change how Americans view the Arab world. Through a sophisticated and strategic communications campaign, the Kingdom could target US congressional districts where notorious Arab-haters pillory Arab rights and justice for the Palestinians and promote anti-Muslim stereotypes and hatred. The Arab world has few real friends in the United States, and even fewer in the US Congress where peace and justice in the Middle East are regular casualties of the powerful and well-financed pro-Israel movement. Congress is the Arab world's number one enemy. Instead of trying to influence American politics through the anti-Arab Congress, the Arab world should take its case directly to the American people, something they have never done effectively. The truth is it is easier to influence the public through strategic communications, messaging, media and public relations, all the mechanics of success that the Arab world has failed to use effectively. The Arab world is just bad at communications. They have justice on their side but they can't seem to connect the dots with the American public. The old saying when I was a child in the 1960s remains true today: Israel has a lousy case, but great lawyers. The Arabs have a great case, but lousy lawyers. With lawyers being our representatives and spokespersons. In lieu of strategic communications to influence the beliefs of the American people, the Arab world has surrendered to American foreign policy, preferring to use obsequious diplomacy to achieve what would have been called a “détente" in the 1970s. Back then, America decided not to go to war with the Soviet Union and maintain a tolerable level of relationship that was always on the brink of conflict. America is actively leading conflict in the Middle East targeting countries it opposes and balancing its interests against what it dislikes in other Arab countries. But eventually, when the oil dries up, American foreign policy will change and become more aggressive and more negative toward the Arab countries that it “tolerates" today. The Arabs shouldn't wait for that to occur. They shouldn't sit back and hope that things will improve, nor should they continue with current policies that pander to American energy excesses. Americans, like the rest of the world, should learn to be energy efficient. And they should pay the market rate for oil the way the rest of the world pays the market rate for American products, such as foodstuff and technology. And Saudi Arabia should revive a new coalition of Arab countries under a banner other than the useless Arab League, and then pour funds into a massive strategic communications campaign to re-educate Americans about the justice of the Arab cause in Palestine, the Gulf and throughout the Middle East. Arabs and Muslims are good people. Not many Americans really believe that, instead absorbing the brainwashed bias and hypocrisy that they receive every day from the American media and the anti-Arab US Congress. The Arab world can't wait for justice or the rule of law to arrive of its own accord. It should actively fight the real war for the hearts and minds of the American people. If Americans knew the truth about the Middle East, they would support our demands for justice. They just don't know the truth. And that is our fault as Arabs. — Ray Hanania is an award-winning Palestinian American columnist and radio talk show host. Reach him at www.RadioChicagoland.com
