A recent commentary by Robert Satloff - executive director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP), the pre-eminent pro-Israel think tank - acknowledges a small part of what has gone wrong with US policy on the Middle East. Unfortunately the article, which appeared in the Washington Post, recommends remedies that promise only to make matters worse. Prompted by the resignation of Karen Hughes, the undersecretary of state for public diplomacy who was so hopelessly out of her depth that even her critics felt sorry for her, the article cites a window of opportunity to correct "a failure to prioritize ideological warfare over public relations." Instead of efforts aimed at "winning Muslim friendship for America," Satloff writes, the focus should be "on identifying, nurturing and supporting anti-Islamist Muslims." This raises suspicions which are quickly confirmed when he explains, "This strategy would involve overt and covert ways to assist anti-Islamist political parties, non-governmental organizations, trade unions, media outlets, women's groups, educational institutions and youth movements as they compete with the radicals."
For all the criticism - much of it earned - heaped on Satloff's organization, a regular visitor to WINEP reports that its members frequently "ask a lot of the right questions" about the Middle East. They just tend to always fall back on the same pre-packaged answers. So it is in this instance, with Satloff calling for an aggressive program of open co-option and secret infiltration that is a) already in existence; and b) already discrediting Arab and Muslim reformers as "collaborators" with the United States and Israel.
It can only be hoped that neither senior officials nor regular citizens will be taken in by his call to arms for a campaign of subversion to undermine existing regimes in the Islamic world. Governments in the region are already given to bouts of paranoia when it comes to academics and development workers. The last thing we need is for these regimes to become even more suspicious - and for them to be largely justified in doing so.
Satloff has been a part of public diplomacy by hosting a show on Al-Hurra, Washington's Arabic-language television channel. His show is fittingly called "Inside Washington," but what has his access taught him? Has he seen any evidence that the Palestinians get a fair hearing in Washington? Has he been privy to some compelling reason for the United States' long-time practice of preaching democracy and freedom while simultaneously subsidizing those for whom the rule of law is tantamount to treason?
Mutual acceptance, peace and friendship cannot be built on a foundation of manipulation. Instead, they have to develop from shared interests. These can only be identified and pursued if and when the United States stops expecting Arabs and Muslims to acquiesce in their own subjugation. People like Satloff - who has also written a book on Muslims who helped Jews escape the Nazis - have much to offer the debate, but only if they eschew the notion of an Islamic world that can be bent to the will and the wiles of outsiders.
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