Arabs View Albright With Scorn Secretary Of State-Designate Faces Daunting Challenges In Mideast

Here are things about Secretary of State-designate Madeleine Albright that you might not know unless you are a regular reader of the Arab press:

She is a frustrated old maid.

President Clinton promised her a husband if she could get U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-

Ghali, an Egyptian, fired from his job.

She is Jewish, a Zionist, in Israel’s back pocket and, it goes without saying, hates Arabs.

She does the Macarena.

Of course, only the last of these assertions is factual. But judging by the furious, mean reaction to Albright in the Arab world, Clinton’s choice to lead the diplomacy of the world’s only superpower already faces some formidable challenges in the Middle East.

Here, in the Middle East, where American secretaries of state in recent years have played critical roles in advancing the peace process in part by emphasizing their impartiality some respected Arab commentators are convinced that Albright’s appointment heralds a new American tilt in Israel’s direction.

Ironically, the assumptions are being made about a foreign-policy professional whose work has been concentrated on Europe and who - outside of her ambassadorship at the United Nations - has a relatively thin track record on the Middle East.

In Washington, Deputy State Department spokesman Glyn Davies appeared speechless when told of some of the more personal attacks that have been leveled against Albright. “Statements of that kind are without foundation, biased and reprehensible. Any press comment portraying her along these lines is a lie - and that’s about the most charitable one can be on something like this.”

As for any alleged pro-Israel bias, Davies said, “It’s inaccurate to describe her as coming into this job with those kind of prejudices.”

A U.S. government official said that as a longtime foreign policy expert active in the Democratic Party, Albright naturally worked with many supporters of Israel. But she also has taken positions contrary to those of Israel, he said. A recent example is the just-completed deal allowing Baghdad to sell $2 billion in oil to relieve malnutrition and disease in Iraq: Israel opposed it at the United Nations, while Albright was a principal supporting it.

Still, the image of Albright as Israel’s new champion at the State Department persists in the maledominated Islamic world. “That horrible, Macarena-loving woman,” was the way one otherwise pro-U.S.-leaning academic in Saudi Arabia dismissed Albright in an interview this week. “Madeleine Albright is no friend of the Arabs.”

The Saudi-owned international Arabic daily Al Hayat on Saturday asserted that Albright was not Clinton’s choice but “the choice of the Jewish lobby in America, just as William Cohen is at the Department of Defense.

“It has become very difficult to find one position (in the Clinton administration) that is not held by a Jew,” the paper claimed.

For the record, Cohen’s official biographies list him as a member of the Unitarian-Universalist Church.

As for Albright, she was born in Czechoslovakia to a Roman Catholic family; as an adult, she became an Episcopalian. Married in the United States, she and her husband had three daughters before their divorce in 1982.

Some of the criticism of Albright began even before Clinton announced that she would succeed Secretary of State Warren Christopher. It stems from her part in ousting Boutros-Ghali, a role interpreted by many Arabs as a personal vendetta against a distinguished Arab leader simply for being too independent and fair.

The United States has insisted that it vetoed a second term for Boutros-Ghali, not because he is an Arab, but because the administration wants a secretary-general who will press harder for reforms at the world body.

Still, Egyptian newspapers, in particular, have been livid over the treatment of their countryman.

One editorial cartoon referred to Albright using an Arab word that means maid or spinster and showed Clinton offering her a husband if she would bring down Boutros-Ghali. Another portrayed her knocking out Boutros-Ghali in a boxing ring, then striding off to tackle her next victim, “The Arab World.”

In print, meanwhile, commentators accuse her of suppressing a U.N. report last spring that criticized Israel for the bombardment of a U.N. peacekeepers camp in southern Lebanon where scores of sheltering refugees were killed. She also is painted as heartless when it comes to the suffering of the Iraqi people after six years of U.N.-imposed sanctions.

Walid Muallem, Syria’s ambassador to the United States, was quoted as saying that Albright will have to work very hard to overcome her negative image among Arabs. “She must redouble her efforts to understand their cause,” he said.

But Egyptian Foreign Minister Amr Mousa offers a rare conciliatory voice. Egypt “does not reject or fear the appointment,” he said, and looks forward to cooperating.