Palestinians plight main cause of U.S. anger in Islamic world

“I think the moment to rectify the situation is now,” he told a forum in Washington last week about his new book, “Beyond the Age of Innocence: Rebuilding Trust between America and the World.”

In the thought-provoking book, Mahbubani, now a Singapore university dean, describes positive U.S. contributions to global society and how the superpower abruptly walked away from the world when the Cold War ended.

He also conveys his own anguish over deepening distrust and resentment of the United States.

Even in East Asia, where its rise as an economic power was made aided by U.S. political, military and financial support, “the tone of conversation about America, sadly speaking, has turned negative,” he said.

“In my conversations, when I travel around the world, I discover there are two sets of conversations -- there is one set of conversation when you have Americans in the room and everybody will say the right, nice things and how wonderful America is.

“And then the Americans will leave the room and the real conversation begins. And inevitably, the comment comes up: “Who do these people think they are?’”

Mahbuban recounts that when he asks Muslim friends what is "the number one issue" for resenting the U.S., the Palestinians plights was cited as the main reason.

“My fear -- and this by the way is a very real fear -- is that 10 years from now, 20 years from now, if we get things wrong, then the level of anger in the Islamic world may be much heavier, much stronger than it is now,” warned Mahbubani.

“The purpose of my book is to tell Americans that these are the voices I hear when they speak about you in private.”

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