In recent years, one phenomenon that directly impacts on Israel and our regional standing has become increasingly prevalent in the Arab world. It is the belief that anything bad that happens in the region is the result of an Israeli and Western conspiracy against Arab interests. The chief culprit is always Western and Israeli intelligence agencies, like the Mossad, the CIA or the British MI6.
One recent example of this is in the former chairman of the Jordanian Writers Union, Fakhri Qi'war, who claimed the Mossad was behind the fatal bombings in Amman in November. Anyone who happened to be in Sinai after the bombings there would have heard locals repeating the claim that Israel was responsible for the atrocities, since "Al-Qaida does not have a terror infrastructure in Sinai." Many even claim that Bin Laden and Zarqawi are fictions of Western intelligence agencies' imagination, created to take the blame for attacks carried out by the CIA. After all, they argue, if this were not the case, they would have been caught long ago.
Other examples are accusations that Israel was behind the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri because of his links to Syria, and the claim that the Mossad and the CIA were behind the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington, which, they claim, served American and Israeli interests. In this context, the urban legend that Jewish employees of companies in the Twin Towers were tipped off about the attacks and did not go to work on September 11 is often repeated.
This phenomenon is prevalent among all levels of Arab society, including the educated classes. Among those who subscribe to the theory are officials, such as diplomats, army officers, academics and senior civil servants. After the death of Yasser Arafat, I was asked by one Arab diplomat, "What is the truth?" In other words, did Israel really murder him? And the phenomenon is not limited to the Middle East; it occurs among people of Middle Eastern descent now living in the West. That explains why Muslims living in the United Kingdom blamed Israel for carrying out the London bombings this summer.
What is the reason for the spread of these conspiracy theories, how should we deal with them, and do they affect Israel in any way? The phenomenon has a profound influence on the Arab world - so profound, in fact, that it has created a sort of alternative, parallel reality, perceived by many to be true.
Every conspiracy theory contains two elements: It is connected to a real event, and it aims to explain or interpret reality. In the age of open communication, Internet and the mass availability of information, the power of these conspiracies should have dwindled. But the opposite is true: Improved communications merely give these theories a wider audience. These theories appear to fulfill some psychological need - an explanation of the weakness of the Arab world against Israel and the West. Indeed, these theories are most often promulgated by the weaker side, which is looking for explanations for its weakness. Beyond this, there are extremists who spread these theories in order to harm relations between the U.S. and Israel and the Arab world.
These theories do, indeed, create fear, suspicion and hatred. Such emotions play into the hands of Arab extremists, who reject any compromise with Israel and refuse to improve ties with the West. In fact, these theories undermine Israeli efforts to broker peace deals with its neighbors and deter huge sections of the population in Arab countries from becoming closer to Israel and the West.
These theories cause the most harm to the Arab world itself, since they take responsibility for heinous acts away from the Arabs themselves and place it on outsiders. This is why the Arab world has not carried out the soul-searching that is so overdue. There are very few Arab voices speaking out against the phenomenon. One such voice is that of Qatari commentator and lecturer Dr. Abed al-Hamid al-Ansari, who recently called on the Arab world to stop blaming Israel for all the attacks in the Middle East.
And how should we relate to the phenomenon? First of all, we must be aware of it and understand its extent and its negative effect on the Arab world and on Arab states' relations with Israel and the West. Secondly, we must make our voice louder in the Arab world, just as the Foreign Ministry's Arabic division has done in the two years since its creation. This division has managed to get Israel's point of view into the Arab press and has provided a wide audience in the Arab world with reliable information. This has been achieved thanks to professional, Arabic-speaking staff and an Arabic-language Internet site. Beyond this, we must bear this phenomenon in mind when making decisions that have regional consequences. Many times, our thinking is different from that of our neighbors, and what seems to us to be our natural right could be perceived by the other side as a terrible conspiracy. An awareness of the extent of the phenomenon is an important part of understanding the region and our ability to exist here in peace and prosperity.
The writer is the deputy director of the Foreign Ministry's Jordanian, Syrian and Lebanese division.
