In his recently published book, The Arab Centre: The Promise of Moderation, former foreign minister of Jordan Marwan Muasher makes a genuine case for the so-called Arab Centre through his own experience as ambassador to Israel and the United States, spokesperson at peace talks in Madrid and Washington and as deputy prime minister in charge of reform.
It is not often that an Arab diplomat writes about his experience being so close to the internal workings of Arab politics. The dark side of Middle Eastern politics is usually explained and revealed to us by non-Arabs; Israelis, Americans and others.
The Arab perspective is rarely narrated or discussed by those who were part of the decision-making apparatus or who at one point were instruments of its top operators.
Muasher, who is now a senior aide to the president of the World Bank, is a liberal Arab intellectual who has attempted to reflect his commitment to democracy, openness and reform on his politics.
He has been close to both the late King Hussain and King Abdullah of Jordan, executing the kingdom's policies on peace with Israel, building closer relations with the West, coordinating positions with the moderate Arab states and introducing a blueprint for major political, social and economic reforms in Jordan.
His book touches on all of these experiences, the Arab Centre being the common denominator and moderation being the political banner which Muasher both defends and dissects citing why and how it had failed to achieve its goals.
The timing of the book's release is crucial. It comes just when Arab punditry has declared the failure of Arab moderates, comprising mainly Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), at least in terms of dealing with the Arab-Israeli conflict.
The moderate camp has consistently pushed for a negotiated settlement between Israel and the Palestinians within the framework of regional peace based on the Madrid Conference principles and the agreements and accords which followed.
From the early 1990s onwards the moderate camp appeared to be in control of the locomotive that pulled the often bulky train of pan-Arab politics, achieving in the process an interim agreement between Israel and the Palestinians, a final peace treaty between Jordan and Israel and most importantly an Arab peace initiative.
But by early 2008 and even before, that train had come to a stop in the middle of nowhere. Out of breath and short of ideas, members of the Arab Centre camp appeared to be losing momentum.
The US invasion of Iraq in 2003 had truncated earlier attempts to neutralise Iranian influence on Arab politics and check the spread of religious radicalism. Israeli intransigence and the absence of proactive US pressure on its leaders had derailed the peace process and reversed Palestinian fortunes.
Polarisation
The Arab world has become even more polarised than before, with Hamas and the PNA at loggerheads, Lebanon on the brink of civil war and the moderate camp retreating before a growing Syrian-Iranian alliance.
The West has done little to support the moderate camp. Europe was either sidelined or stayed away by choice, while the Bush administration's policies have undercut the credibility of the "promise of moderation."
America's Arab allies had no influence in Washington anymore and the relationship became one-sided and patriarchal at times.
The West's biggest failure was, and remains, in appeasing Israel. For the Arab citizen across the region, Israel was above the law and the West applied double standards when it came to questioning Israeli policies.
As much as these policies had hurt the Palestinians, destroying their institutions, partitioning their lands and strangling their economy, they also scorned Arab moderate proposals.
At some stage the Arab moderate camp appeared to be in collusion with Israel and the US as they waged war on Lebanon's Hezbollah and later Hamas. In the view of many in the region, the Arab centre had become hostage to the US-Israel right.
Muasher may differ with some of these conclusions, but the debate is still heating up on what is next for the policy of moderation in the face of notoriously radical Israeli position on the final status negotiations with the Palestinians.
The moderate camp may still be reeling from the latest political upset in Lebanon and the fact that one year after Hamas' coup in Gaza, the Islamist organisation has not floundered. The Arab peace camp has been dealt many blows during the Bush era and its strategies have been fractured.
Today that camp is still facing many issues including the fate of Iraq, the challenge of terrorism and Islamist militancy, pressing political and economic reforms and regional stability in light of a possible Israel-Iran confrontation. The need to review and amend policies has never been more urgent.
Muasher's book throws some light on what went wrong and how to address future challenges, especially where the West's relations with our region are concerned.
But the subject warrants serious debate at all levels in the Arab world especially that the crux of the region's instability, which is the Palestinian Question, has not been answered yet.
Osama Al Sharif is a veteran journalist based in Jordan.
