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Ambassador James C. Rosapepe recently interviewed former US Ambassador to Morocco Edward Gabriel on current challenges in the Middle East. Ambassador Gabriel was the Ambassador to the Kingdom of Morocco from 1997 until 2001, when he focused on trade negotiations, bilateral education and cultural exchange programs, increasing security and military cooperation, and strengthening U.S.-Moroccan commercial relations. Ambassador Rosapepe served as the U.S. Ambassador to Romania from 1998 until 2001.
ROSAPEPE: One of the effects of the crisis in Syria is the migration crisis in Europe. I think in America we hear a lot about how it affects the Germans and how they look at it, and how the folks in Hungary look at it, and how the folks in Sweden or Austria or Switzerland look at it. They are our allies, and that’s important. But I’d been interested in your sense, because of your expertise in the Middle East, how does the migrant crisis from the Middle East in the last year to Europe look in the Middle East?
GABRIEL: To a few countries in the Middle East, it could be their downfall. Let’s take Lebanon first. Lebanon is now 40 percent Syrian. Meaning 40 percent of Lebanon has Syrian refugees or displaced Syrians inside its borders. That would be like all of Canada and half of Mexico coming to the United States over four years. We couldn’t handle it. In a country of three to four million people…
ROSAPEPE: How do they handle it in Lebanon?
GABRIEL: It has been a charity cause until now. Now I have to say that America is the largest single contributor worldwide to the humanitarian needs of refugees and I applaud them there. In Lebanon though there is a problem. Lebanon has a delicate balance of religions. They are part Shia, part Sunni, part Christian, and part Druze. So they have this careful balance throughout the country and now they’ve got this influx of refugees.
ROSAPEPE: Who I presume are primarily Sunni?
GABRIEL: Who are predominantly Sunni. But the problem is you’ve already got a half a million Palestinian refugees from ’48 forward from the Israeli-Palestinian problem living in camps because the Lebanese cannot afford to integrate them and upset the balance of power in that country. So there is no home for them and there is not going to be an integration policy in Lebanon. 1,600 communities have been affected and they are absorbing these people as charity causes and trying to deal with them.
But that brings up a good point. America needs to think about not only helping the refugees but how do we help support win-win economic and social programs in Lebanon and the other host countries. And I think we will see more of that, as well as educational programs. We have more than half a million kids in Lebanon alone without schooling and the Ministry of Education is doing second shift education. We are looking at e-learning as well, and other ways to support them.
ROSAPEPE: Good. Is the US government doing much specifically for the education of the kids in those areas?
GABRIEL: Yes, they are beginning to throw some money at it, but not enough. There’s not enough concerted effort internationally. The United States quite frankly is doing its share in terms of funding and in terms of hosting donor conferences. But let me say something. There are 1.4 or 1.5 million Syrians in Lebanon. We are arguing about whether or not we can absorb 10,000 refugees in the United States, which is 100 times bigger than Lebanon.
Jump down to Jordan. Now 25 percent of the country is Syrian. They have the same kind of problems that I mentioned, except in Jordan they can better absorb these people, as long as they can create win-win opportunities. But even there, it is going to be a challenge.
This is huge. If Jordan or Lebanon were to start to collapse or fall apart over this, what would the Middle East start to look like? So the refugee problem is very much our problem. It is one that we are doing well with funding but not doing so well in terms of absorbing some of these refugees that can be properly vetted, contrary to what some of the politicians are saying.
Audio Interview: https://soundcloud.com/caaliveatmeridian/sets/ambassador-gabriel
The views presented in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent the views of any other organization.
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Interview with Edward Gabriel, U.S. Ambassador to Morocco
August 1, 2016
Ambassador James C. Rosapepe recently interviewed former US Ambassador to Morocco Edward Gabriel on current challenges in the Middle East. Ambassador Gabriel was the Ambassador to the Kingdom of Morocco from 1997 until 2001, when he focused on trade negotiations, bilateral education and cultural exchange programs, increasing security and military cooperation, and strengthening U.S.-Moroccan commercial relations. Ambassador Rosapepe served as the U.S. Ambassador to Romania from 1998 until 2001.
ROSAPEPE: One of the effects of the crisis in Syria is the migration crisis in Europe. I think in America we hear a lot about how it affects the Germans and how they look at it, and how the folks in Hungary look at it, and how the folks in Sweden or Austria or Switzerland look at it. They are our allies, and that’s important. But I’d been interested in your sense, because of your expertise in the Middle East, how does the migrant crisis from the Middle East in the last year to Europe look in the Middle East?
GABRIEL: To a few countries in the Middle East, it could be their downfall. Let’s take Lebanon first. Lebanon is now 40 percent Syrian. Meaning 40 percent of Lebanon has Syrian refugees or displaced Syrians inside its borders. That would be like all of Canada and half of Mexico coming to the United States over four years. We couldn’t handle it. In a country of three to four million people…
ROSAPEPE: How do they handle it in Lebanon?
GABRIEL: It has been a charity cause until now. Now I have to say that America is the largest single contributor worldwide to the humanitarian needs of refugees and I applaud them there. In Lebanon though there is a problem. Lebanon has a delicate balance of religions. They are part Shia, part Sunni, part Christian, and part Druze. So they have this careful balance throughout the country and now they’ve got this influx of refugees.
ROSAPEPE: Who I presume are primarily Sunni?
GABRIEL: Who are predominantly Sunni. But the problem is you’ve already got a half a million Palestinian refugees from ’48 forward from the Israeli-Palestinian problem living in camps because the Lebanese cannot afford to integrate them and upset the balance of power in that country. So there is no home for them and there is not going to be an integration policy in Lebanon. 1,600 communities have been affected and they are absorbing these people as charity causes and trying to deal with them.
But that brings up a good point. America needs to think about not only helping the refugees but how do we help support win-win economic and social programs in Lebanon and the other host countries. And I think we will see more of that, as well as educational programs. We have more than half a million kids in Lebanon alone without schooling and the Ministry of Education is doing second shift education. We are looking at e-learning as well, and other ways to support them.
ROSAPEPE: Good. Is the US government doing much specifically for the education of the kids in those areas?
GABRIEL: Yes, they are beginning to throw some money at it, but not enough. There’s not enough concerted effort internationally. The United States quite frankly is doing its share in terms of funding and in terms of hosting donor conferences. But let me say something. There are 1.4 or 1.5 million Syrians in Lebanon. We are arguing about whether or not we can absorb 10,000 refugees in the United States, which is 100 times bigger than Lebanon.
Jump down to Jordan. Now 25 percent of the country is Syrian. They have the same kind of problems that I mentioned, except in Jordan they can better absorb these people, as long as they can create win-win opportunities. But even there, it is going to be a challenge.
This is huge. If Jordan or Lebanon were to start to collapse or fall apart over this, what would the Middle East start to look like? So the refugee problem is very much our problem. It is one that we are doing well with funding but not doing so well in terms of absorbing some of these refugees that can be properly vetted, contrary to what some of the politicians are saying.
Audio Interview: https://soundcloud.com/caaliveatmeridian/sets/ambassador-gabriel
The views presented in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent the views of any other organization.
