MER - Washington - 16 February, 1998:

   The Arab client regimes, including that of Arafat, are doing what they can to keep their people in check.  Both In Jordan and in the occupied "autonomous" parts of Palestine demonstrations and public gatherings have been outlawed at the behest of the United States.
 
    This interesting Associated Press report titled "Arab Anger Grows at U.S." was published a few days ago and written by Anthony Shadid.  In this article even bought-off and controlled Middle East experts such as Michael Hudson, and Arab intellectuals such as Tahseen Bashir, feel the need to speak up (rather gently and without any accompanying actions) against American policies.
 

       "IF AMERICA ATTACKS, THE DOOMSDAY WILL TAKE PLACE"

    CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - Carrying a model of a Scud missile, thousands of Palestinians march in support of Iraq. Yemenis jump off buses by the hundreds to join an anti-American protest. And in Jordan, attack
dogs are unleashed to keep protesters at bay.

    Across the Arab world, from Egypt to the Arabian Peninsula, popular unease at the prospect of an attack is mounting along with anger at a United States seen as arrogant and blindly loyal to Israel.

    The swelling opposition is the latest blow to Washington's credibility in the region. The United States' standing, bolstered by the 1991 Persian Gulf War, has dwindled amid a Middle East peace process that
is more process than peace and another year of American-backed U.N. sanctions that have forced Iraqis into humiliating poverty.

    In a more democratic Arab world, Washington might have a tougher time ensuring acquiescence for an attack from already reluctant Arab governments.

    ``The leaders feel the opposition in their bones,'' said Michael Hudson, an expert on the Arab world at Georgetown University. ``If that opposition were actually articulated in the political process, I think
many of these governments would be even more opposed.''

    The United States has warned that it will attack Iraq unless U.N. weapons inspectors are given complete access to sites Iraq considers sensitive, in particular the presidential compounds of Saddam Hussein.

    The United States and Britain have warned of the danger Iraq's weapons of mass destruction pose to the world.

    But to many Arabs, Iraq is more an object of pity. While the West formulates the conflict as one with Saddam himself, Arabs tend to see it as bullying of a people made to suffer needlessly.  Except in Kuwait,
where memories remain vivid of the 1990 invasion, Saddam is rarely mentioned in conversations about a military strike.

    ``An attack on Iraq is considered an attack on the Arabs, all of them,'' said Essam Abdel-Meguid, a 33-year-old vendor in Cairo, where the voice in support of a strike is rarely if ever heard.

    Popular sentiment runs much the same way elsewhere:

    The Palestinian authority, under U.S. pressure, banned protests after thousands burned American flags and hoisted posters of Saddam.  Several carried a 10-foot model of a Scud missile.

    Egypt's top Muslim cleric told hundreds of Egyptians and leaders of several opposition parties Friday that ``we will not stand idle'' if the United States and Britain attack Iraq.

    Riot police in Jordan broke up a protest of hundreds who defied a ban on demonstrations Friday to shout support for Iraq. Police wielded clubs and used attack dogs. Eighty were arrested.

    In Yemen, women students in traditional black head scarves and cloaks led a demonstration of 5,000 through the capital, San`a, on Saturday. Hundreds jumped off buses and abandoned cars to join the protest, shouting pro-American and anti-Iraqi slogans.

    In many ways, the opposition to a U.S. attack has united the Arab world's fractured body politic: Arab nationalists, leftists and Islamic activists have lined up together.

    Even Arabs who sympathize with the United States express bewilderment at what they see as America's unflinching support for Israel, a country they blame for the impasse in negotiations. Why, they ask, does the United States not bring the same fervor to the peace process as it brings to keeping Iraq in line?

    ``The public in the Arab world, even in countries like Kuwait, they cannot accept this,'' said Tahsin Bashir, a political analyst and former Egyptian ambassador to Canada.

    Iraq, it seems, has picked up on the anger.

    On Saturday, it warned the United States not to underestimate the support it enjoys across the Arab world. It said Arabs' reaction would be ``the decisive factor'' in upsetting the status quo.

    ``If America attacks, the doomsday will take place,'' said Al-Jumhuriya, a Iraqi government newspaper.