Salim Nazzal

As with all bankrupt companies their owners resort to selling off their contents at cheap prices in order to alleviate the losses and damage. The USA is doing this now with it’s so called Arab Allies. The USA stated recently that it wants a peaceful transition of power; this is a clear message to Mubarak to go.

This time America has acted more” wisely” than it did under the Tunisian uprising when it supported Ben Ali against the Tunisian revolution .And definitely much wiser than it did during the Iranian revolution, when it stood against the nation of Iran. But in the end it abandoned the Shah who didn’t beg them restoring his power, nor even for a Palace, but for a grave to rest in.

It is certain that Mubarak and other Arab rulers have not read Churchill's famous statement that there are no permanent friendships or enemies but permanent interests.

The question rose during the Iranian revolution as to whether the USA sees these leaders as allies or clients. To this question it was not possible to give a definitive answer by that period. However, history confirmed that the USA does see these leaders as clients who provide a service they need. But when their people revolt against them America seeks to cooperate with the new power because its own interest comes before their "friends".

Unfortunately Arab leaders did not learn from the Shah experience who thought that by being assigned the task of guarding U.S. interests in the Gulf, he would have USA insurance forever .But history has provided us with the golden rule that the legitimacy of rulers comes first and last from their own nations and not from outside.

The same scenario was repeated with the Tunisian president who committed the same sin of putting the interest of the USA before his people. On the seventh of January the spark of revolution took place, and Ben Ali found himself in the same position as the Shah of Iran. His last speech when he said he understands his people was too late after 23 years of power; no one would listen to him any longer. He was abandoned by his people and by the USA and France whom he served. His tragic end has to be a good lesson to Arab leaders that the USA only cares about its own interest first, which is the oil, and “Israel”, while the aspiration of Arabs to live under democratic regimes is its last concern. If Ben Ali thought for a moment that the act of a young educated man burning himself because Ben Ali’s regime closed all hopes before him, he might have understood that this was a clear message that the situation had reached an unbearable level. In the end Ben Ali has been on a plane for seven hours flying from one country to another with not one single so called ally willing to take him as a political refugee, France would not even allow his plane to refuel.

I really don’t know how many of Arab leaders have given themselves a few minutes to think and to contemplate their own role of appeasing the USA and "israel" at the expense of their own people. These leaders have lost the confidence of people, and their friends in Washington could easily abandon them too.

And now we see the same scenario repeated in Mubarak Egypt, who was considered a strategic ally to the USA and Israel, but now his fate is being auctioned like expired goods to be disposed of as soon as possible.

What matters for the USA now is to reduce its losses and weave a relationship with the new forces in Egypt for the continuation of their interests. But I doubt it would be able to succeed in this because everyone knows the extent of U.S. support for the regime of President Hosni Mubarak over the last thirty years. Mubarak lost his people and his "allies" left him.

Before Ben Ali and Mubarak there was Anton Loud in south Lebanon who was a Quisling for “Israel” .He murdered his own people, he did everything to make the life of the Lebanese hell to please Zionists. When the Lebanese resistance won the war and pushed the Israeli army towards the occupied Palestine, they left Anton Laud’s soldiers behind even as they were begging them to take them. Those who managed to go inside the Zionist state were treated like animals according to one of them in a TV interview. He expressed his regret that he put himself in the hands of Zionists, but it was too late. He who sells his soul to Zionists to destroy his country enters the history as a cheap traitor.

I do not know if there still time for Arab despotic leaders to do something to stop the Tsunami of popular revolution which has became like a snow ball.

Arab leaders need to understand that listening to and meeting the grievousness of their people is their own salvation and their own legitimacy. Those young men and woman who are revolting now in Egypt deserve a decent life... They want freedom, they want social justice.

The prime challenge for Arabs in the current revolution is to move from the old fashioned Sultan like state where the rulers behave as if they own the state to a modern state where the rights of citizens and the will of the people are respected.

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Dr. Salim Nazzal is a Palestinian-Norwegian historian in the Middle East, who has written extensively on social and political issues in the region.