Morocco: Two Anniversaries

200 Years of Friendship

By Jamal Amiar

King Hassan II's planned visit to Washington for festivities marking the 200th anniversary of the American Constitution and of the American-Moroccan Friendship Treaty of 1787 comes at a time when Rabat is trying to improve its relations with the US government and with the US public.

In recent years, some top US public relations firms have worked on Morocco's image in the US with projects ranging from commercial advertising through golf tournaments to academic conferences. Some projects were pegged to the 25th anniversary of King Hassan's reign in 1986. This summer, the US Postal Service will issue a stamp commemorating the 1787 Treaty. Politically, however, Morocco's results in enlisting the Reagan administration's support have been mixed. For instance, while US military aid to Morocco peaked at $101.3 million in 1983, by 1986 it had been nearly halved, to $51.8 million, and although economic aid increased slightly, it did not compensate for the military cuts.

Moroccan-US relations turned downward early in 1984 when a Congressional mission to North Africa suggested that Morocco's attitude toward negotiations to end the Saharan conflict was not constructive and that US military aid be cut. For Rabat, Washington was letting it down at a crucial moment. In August, 1984, King Hassan signed the Treaty of Oujda with Muammar Ghadaffi's Libya. From Hassan's point of view, his partnership with Libya brought him partial isolation of the Polisario and some economic benefits to compensate for Washington's lack of support.

Hassan to Focus on Bilateral Issues

Subsequently, his North African rival, Algerian President Chadli Bendjedid, was welcomed in Washington in April of 1985 and returned with access to the US foreign military sales program, which provides loans for purchases of US military equipment. It was a high point in US-Algerian relations.

Since then, US-Moroccan relations have improved on many fronts. In the autumn of 1986, Morocco denounced the Oujda Treaty with Libya, which clearly pleased Washington. Over the past 12 months, Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger and other Reagan administration officials have visited Rabat and a highlight of these renewed contacts should be King Hassan's visit to Washington.

During his visit to Washington, King Hassan is expected to work towards strengthening existing bilateral agreements with the US. A joint US-Moroccan military commission supervises arms sales, technical assistance, and joint military maneuvers. The US Central Command has landing rights on two military airstrips in Morocco, which are conveniently located midway between the US and the Persian Gulf, at the entrance to the Mediterranean.

US Air Force landing rights and US use of a telecommunications station that has operated in Morocco since the early 1960s are both due for renegotiation in 1988. Surprises are not anticipated, but Morocco probably expects increased US military aid and some support in dealing with its creditors. While Morocco's military situation is on the whole stable, its economic situation is not. In March, Paris club creditors rescheduled over five years Moroccan debts due over the next year. Still, debt has reached a level of 109 percent of the GNP, the equivalent of $17 billion.

Current monetary problems and past political misunderstandings, however, seem not to jeopardize the bilateral relationship or its potential. Morocco and the US both enjoy good communication channels with all parties to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and this could be used to reconcile the positions of the parties. Equally important, the improvement of relations between Washington and Algiers on one hand, and Washington and Rabat on the other, could create opportunities for a negotiated settlement in the Sahara. As with other Middle East problems, the means are at hand. The question in the last two years of the Reagan administration, is perhaps primarily one of US will.

One Year After the Hassan-Peres Meeting

By Jamal Amiar

In late July 1986, King Hassan II and Israel's then-Prime Minister Shimon Peres met in Ifrane, Morocco. Although that meeting was a surprise to some analysts, those familiar with Moroccan history and the course of Israeli-Moroccan relations recognized that the meeting at Ifrane represented the continuation of Morocco's role in the search for an Arab-Israeli peace.

Relations in Morocco between Jews and Arabs have been characterized by mutual tolerance and peaceful coexistence. Across the country there are sites associated with religious leaders venerated by both Jews and Muslims. Politically, Moroccan Jews have not forgotten steps by King Hassan's father, Sultan Mohammed, to protect them from racist laws passed in France by the Vichy regime during the Nazi occupation in the early forties. During those years, Sultan Mohammed, Morocco's Islamic leader, appeared at official ceremonies with his colleagues, the religious leaders of Morocco's Jewish community.

When fighting broke out in Palestine after World War II, Sultan Mohammed called upon Moroccans—Muslims and Jews—not to be caught up in the conflict. In 1956, independent Morocco's first government and constitutional assembly both included Jews.

Moroccan Jews remember these events and, in Israel, it is no coincidence that a forest near Jerusalem has been named after the Moroccan king, and that there are similar plans for a square in the city of Ashkelon, whose mayor was born in Marrakesh.

Today, some 18,000 Jews still live in Morocco, by far the largest Jewish community in an Arab country. Those who have left Morocco for Israel, Europe, or North America have organized into a World Rally of Moroccan Jewry. Morocco welcomes visits by its former Jewish citizens, and the number of American, French, and Israeli visitors to Morocco of Moroccan origin has reached the thousands.

In recent years, several Israeli officials have visited Morocco. Moshe Dayan met Hassan el-Touhami of Egypt in 1977 to lay the ground work for Egyptian President Anwar Sadat's visit to Jerusalem. Even before that, Yitzhak Rabin had visited Morocco. Israeli leaders of Moroccan descent—including Abu Hatzera, Rafi Edery, and Meir Shitrit also visited Morocco. Before his public visit to Morocco in 1986, Shimon Peres had twice visited that country secretly, first in 1977, and again in 1981. Menachem Begin had also been invited, but he refused when King Hassan told him the visit would have to be secret.

It was in this context of previous meetings and harmonious Muslim-Jewish relations that the 1986 Peres visit took place. At that time Peres was leading the Israeli unity cabinet and looking for ways to present himself to Israeli voters as a peace candidate. King Hassan was active as head of the Jerusalem committee of the Islamic conference, as well as president of the Arab League.

Arabs Willing to Talk to Israelis About Peace

With the Israeli electorate deadlocked between the no-compromise Likud policies of Yitzhak Shamir, and the ambiguous peace policies of the Labor coalition, Peres visited Morocco. His reception clearly demonstrated that Arabs are ready to talk to Israelis about peace when the Israelis are ready to talk about withdrawal from the occupied territories. While the meeting helped normalize Israeli-Arab contacts, it also pointed out that Palestinians must be included in discussions of an Arab-Israeli peace. These two processes go hand-in-hand: face-to-face human encounters which break stereotypes and alleviate fear are necessary to ensure mutual understanding and, eventually, political compromise.

Since the meeting in Ifrane, Peres has visited Egyptian President Mubarak twice, and Peres' position with the Israeli peace camp has been reinforced. Last March Peres held two important meetings with Palestinians: he met three well-known PLO supporters from the occupied territories—Al-Fajr editor Hanna Siniora, Gaza lawyer Fayez Abu Rahme, and Bir Zeit University professor Sari Nusseibeh— and he held a meeting in his office with 16 prominent Palestinians from the occupied territories. As in Ifrane, the conversations were about the prospects for an international conference and the issue of Palestinian representation. The fact that the Fez Peace Plan of 1982 was the center of the Moroccan-Israeli discussion highlighted two central Middle East issues: recognition of Israel and Palestinian rights. While the Fez plan implicitly recognizes Israel ("it is so implicit that it is explicit," declared King Hassan to the Paris-based Radio Europe 1 last April 12), the Fez plan also calls for the recognition of the legitimate rights of the Palestinians, which include the right to establish their own independent state. Such clarifications can only help progress towards a settlement based upon the principle of territory for peace. Those Israelis and Arabs who oppose this principle will find their opposition more difficult to defend in light of contacts between Israelis and Palestinians, which help reduce mutual fear and isolate the war-mongers.

In his interview with Radio Europe 1, King Hassan also praised Shimon Peres' desire for negotiations and a settlement. The Moroccan king stressed that to meet one's enemy is a precondition to peace. "Discussion is neither an abandonment, nor treason," he said. "Therefore, if Shimon Peres wants to see me, on the condition that he does not disappoint me politically as he did the first time, I don't see why I wouldn't meet him again."

Jamal Amiar is a New York City-based journalist specializing in US-Arab relations and North African affairs.