While the Arab Spring may have allowed the people of Egypt to throw off the yoke of oppression and Mubarek's dictatorship, it has also given the long outlawed Muslim Brotherhood a new place at the table and called Israel's longest standing peace treaty with its largest arab neighbor into question.
Last week, when terrorists used Egypt as a springboard for unilateral murderous attacks near Eilat, and then fled back to Egypt to meld in with Egyptian military and police, the nation was outraged when Israel fired on the suspected killers, resulting in the unfortunate deaths of some innocent Egyptians. This type of hiding behind the civilian population is often played out in Gaza as well, with the population decrying "collective punishment." Where is the sympathy for the innocent Israelis killed on the bus? Of course it is wrong for the Israelis to collectively punish but perfectly acceptable in the arab mind to kill any Israeli for the sole reason that they are Israeli. That sort of collective guilt is evidently okay.
Unfortunately, the new Egyptian power system seems quite headless at present. Egyptian commandos had to save five Israelis trapped in their embassy from a marauding horde last week. My hebrew is a bit rusty but I seem to remember the expression Bak book blip p'cock, a bottle without a cork.
It is strange that with all of the unrest in the arab world, the genocide in Syria, now blessed by their Russian handlers, the unrest in Egypt, Yemen, all over the map, they never fail to go after Israel when things look bad an they need a straw dog. I heard an egyptian yesterday talking about the need to avenge arab pride and couldn't help thinking of a half century ago with Nasser.
The third pincer is sure to be the Palestinian request for statehood, now something that I believe will indeed happen and end up going to the General Assembly. With the Islamists now arm and arm with the European and American left, it appears to be a fait accompli. A left that is quick to chide Israel but remains suspiciously silent at a host of atrocities by the other players in the region. And while I think that the timing of statehood is not necessarily acceptable to Israel, I think that it is inevitable. And after the radical islamists continue to bomb and murder and otherwise drive their unpopular neighbors into the ocean or back to Germany or Poland, the left can throw their hands up and slink away and never consider how badly they have been co-opted by a blatantly militarist and thinly disguised war strategy.
Unfortunately, Oslo is now officially dead and neither the PLO or Hamas is willing to accept Israel's right to exist with defensible border security. They will get a state and a foothold and chip, chip, chip for the foreseeable future until they can recover the whole land of Eretz Israel in its totality.
Israel is much to blame for any of these probabilities. Gaza has always been unsustainable, the avocation of jailer an affront to sensitive jewish psyches and the Likud government too willing to cede power to the right wing fundamentalists and settlers. Of course, when your very life and existence is threatened, it is hard to think about concepts like sustainability. It is funny that Israel sees itself as relatively weak strategically, surrounded by larger foes yet those very neighbors see it as a strong institutionalized power. Both sides are in an odd race to claim the greater victimhood in order to frame world opinion.
When the cork does blow in the region, especially if it is accompanied by concerted force from Iranian backed Hezbollah in Syria and Lebanon, or a militarized and radicalized Egypt, things are going to get ugly very quickly. The stars are aligned very oddly at present and Israel is going to be largely on its own, along with a wide swath of the american bible belt.
Netanyahu has always been a little bit too cute, weighing the probabilities with a callous eye and seemingly quite insensitive to the real suffering of the occupied. Much of which is admittedly self inflicted. The mideast needs a new paradigm. Hopefully there will one day soon be fresh thinking that breaks the players away from the continuous cycle of squalor, violence and terrorism and can provide viable solutions for all of the inhabitants of the region.
Today, Maen Areikat, the PLO ambassador to the United Nations, said any new Palestinian state should be free of jews. Interesting, since approx. 1.3 million muslims live as full citizens in the jewish state. Guess it doesn't work both ways. They will be the first country to ban jews since Nazi Germany. Don't hold your breath waiting for the left to decry a muslim only state where jews are forbidden. Where is the condemnation from the progressive left regarding sharia law, a law that makes it a crime punishable by death to leave islam? Is it not a fundamental human right to believe, or not believe, as you choose?
3 comments:
US support of Israel was a major reason for 9-11. There, I said it.
Okay, an anonymous commenter is making an attestation with a whole splash of bravado. There, you said it.
I am more than happy to debate any issue with you. If you have a moral code that doesn't comprehend the sometime necessity of standing with your allies and supporting a people and a country born at the literal steps to the oven, well I would guess we won't have whole hell of a lot to talk about.
Many people in this country felt we would have been better served supporting the axis in World War II. Guess it's all how you're wired.
Well, the indifference towards Israel and the p c attitude that the admin. and libs have towards the Muslims, plus the horrible econonomy, cost them Weiners seat.
The voters in that heavily Jewish, Democratic district, elected Turner, a Catholic Republican over Weprin, an Orthodox Jew. This upset echos your concerns and perhaps (I doubt It) is a wakeup call to the administration.
JS
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