30 January 2002

Bush Administration Seeks Input from Arab-Americans

Washington -- A senior State Department official has called on Arab-Americans to understand the incremental nature of policy making, and not to give up on U.S. policy toward the Middle East.

"The policy process can be incremental, slow, bureaucratic and incredibly frustrating. But that's the process we have, and it's not limited to Middle Eastern issues," said Jon Alterman, Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs.

He made his remarks January 30 at Al-Hewar, an Arab-American community organization and cultural center based in Vienna, Virginia, near Washington.

Alterman stressed that the broad goals of U.S. government policy in the Middle East are ones the audience would likely share: reducing suffering in the region through resolving long-running conflicts, ending arms proliferation, encouraging economic development and greater political openness.

Alterman gave a detailed explanation of the convoluted process of foreign policy formulation, and highlighted its openness to a large number of inputs and influences. If policy-making was a simple process, then "lobbying wouldn't be a multi-billion dollar industry in Washington," Alterman said.

U.S. officials and lawmakers are eager to hear the views of the Arab-American community, Alterman said. He stressed how important it was for Arab-Americans to communicate their views to them.

"People in the government really care. They want to listen. They want to hear from you. They really honestly do. They want to understand the Middle East. This is an unprecedented opportunity for you to educate. But it's an opportunity that you have to be proactive in taking," said Alterman.

Much of his appearance was devoted to answering questions and comments from members of the audience, many of whom challenged U.S. policies towards the Palestinian-Israel conflict and Iraq, and asked about the influence of pro-Israeli lobbyists on U.S. policies.

Alterman asked members of the audience to explain to their friends and relatives in the Middle East how the American system works, and he told them that he would communicate to his colleagues the views and comments he heard from Arab-Americans.

"You can be assured that the first thing tomorrow I am going to go back into work and I'm going to tell people what I've heard from you and they're going to listen because a lot of them said, before I left, 'tell me what happens.' Is it going to change our policy overnight? No, it probably won't ... But I hope that this can be part of a larger process of a lot more interaction and involvemen on your part as well as ours," said Alterman.