The leaked diplomatic cables that have caused such consternation among heads of state should cause much greater concern in the general public. What the cables reveal is a vastly misguided foreign policy in the Middle East, the continued implementation of which is the greatest danger on earth to America. How much of this policy is incompetence and how much ideological deceit is debatable.

The consequences, however, are not. The failure of successive American administrations to admit to and deal with the political realities on the ground in the Middle East will inevitably result in the further demise of U.S. power in one of the most important — and volatile — regions of the world.

Quoting Middle East analyst Robert Fisk, “It’s not that U.S. diplomats don’t understand the Middle East; it’s just that they’ve lost all sight of injustice. Vast amounts of diplomatic literature prove that the mainstay of Washington’s Middle East policy is alignment with Israel, that its principal aim is to encourage the Arabs to join the American-Israeli alliance against Iran, that the compass point of U.S. policy over years and years is the need to tame/bully/crush/oppress/ ultimately destroy the power of Iran.

“There is virtually no talk (so far, at least) of illegal Jewish colonial settlements on the West Bank, of Israeli “outposts,” of extremist Israeli “settlers” whose homes now smallpox the occupied Palestinian West Bank, of the vast illegal system of land theft which lies at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian war. And incredibly, all kinds of worthy U.S. diplomats grovel and kneel before Israel’s demands, many of them apparently fervent supporters of Israel as Mossad bosses and Israel military intelligence agents read their wish-lists to their benefactors.”

It is time for the U.S. to admit to and act appropriately on the truth, which is that an emerging alliance in the region — Turkey, Iran and Syria — has the allegiance of the Arab street. And this alliance will emerge triumphant over Western imperialism precisely because U.S. policy is so unjust. There is no excuse on earth for the U.S. to support Arab dictators against the people of the region, or Israel at the expense of the human and civil rights of the Palestinians. There is no excuse on earth for the continuation of the concentration camp called Gaza, which exists because the U.S., Israel and the Arab dictators are afraid of real democracy in the Arab World.

We so desperately want America to benefit from the riches — natural resources and others — of our homelands. And we so desperately want the Arab people to benefit from the riches of America. It’s not going to happen if policies don’t change, and soon.

Perhaps the most condemnation should be reserved for the Arab dictators. They care nothing about their own people, they care only about staying in power. The blood of the Palestinians is on all their hands. Their time is limited.