I have always felt that an obsession on an Israeli-Palestinian peace (a fool’s errand if there ever was one), has blinded this country and the rest of the world to the real dangers of the Middle East. If by some miracle Israel and the PLO were to come to some equitable arrangement, the Syrian, Hezbollah, Iranian hostility would not calm down one bit. Islamic imperialism would still be out there and growing, Pakistan would still be threatening India and the Egyptians would still be persecuting the Copts. The Palestinian hatred of Israel is merely a byproduct of the larger Islamic worlds refusal to accept a non Islamic state in the middle of the umma. The fact of the matter is that on June 4, 1967 when the Arabs were talking about the “occupied territories” they were referring to Tel Aviv, Haifa, Netanya, Beersheba, Ashkelon, and Tiberias and they still are. The heart of the conflict is not Israel-Palestine (I even hate using the term “conflict” because it implies that two parties have claims on each other when Israel wants to be left in peace and “Palestine” wants to annihilate her), but the instability, intolerance, and inherent violence of Arabic culture.
by Caroline Glick
Tunisian president’s regime was not the only thing destroyed. The Two main foundations of ‘expert’ Western analyis of the Mideast have also been undone.
If at the height of the anti-government protests in Tunisia last week, Israel and the Palestinians had signed a final peace deal, would the protesters have packed up their placards and gone home?
Of course not.
So what does it tell us the nature of US Middle East policy that at the height of the anti-regime protests in Tunisia, the White House was consumed with the question of how to jump start the mordant peace process between the Palestinians and Israel?
According to Politico, as the first popular revolution in modern Arab history was in full swing, last week the White House organized two “task forces” to produce “new ideas” for getting the Palestinians to agree to sit down with Israeli negotiators. The first task force is comprised of former Clinton and Bush national security advisers Sandy Berger and Stephen Hadley.
The second is led by former US ambassador to Israel under the Clinton administration Martin Indyk.
And as these experts were getting in gear, US President Barak Obama dispatched his advisor and former Middle East peace envoy under the Bush 1, Clinton and Bush 2 administrations Dennis Ross to Israel to meet with Israeli and Palestinian leaders to ask them to put out “new ideas.” Amazingly, none of these task forces or meetings has come up with anything new.
Again, according to Politico, these task forces and consultations generated three possible moves for the Obama White House. First, it can put more pressure on Israel by announcing US support for a “peace plan” that would require Israel to surrender its capital city and defensible borders.
Second, the US can pressure Israel by seeking to destabilize Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s government.
And third, the US can pressure Israel by pumping still more money into the coffers of the unelected Palestinian government and so raise expectations that the US supports the unelected Palestinian government’s plan to declare independence without agreeing to live at peace with Israel.
So much for new ideas.
THEN THERE is the unfolding drama in Lebanon. It is hard to think of a greater slap on the face than the one Hizbullah and Syria delivered to Obama last Wednesday. Hizbullah brought down Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s government with the open and active support of Syria while Obama was meeting with Hariri in the Oval Office.
And how did Obama respond to this slap in the face? By dispatching Ambassador Robert Ford to Damascus to take up his new post as the first US ambassador in Syria since Syria and Hizbullah colluded to assassinate Hariri’s father, former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri six years ago.
Reality is crashing in on the Obama administration. But rather than face the challenges presented by reality, the Obama administration is burying its head in the sand. And it is burying it head in the sand with the firm support of the inbred US foreign policy elite.
The overthrow of Tunisian President Zine El Abedine Ben Ali last Friday is a watershed event in the Arab world. It is far too early to even venture a guess about how Tunisia will look a year from now. But it is not too early to understand that Ben Ali’s regime was not the only thing destroyed last Friday. The two main foundations of “expert” Western analysis of the Middle East have also been undone.
The first foundation of what has passed as Western wisdom about the region is that the only that thing that motivates the proverbial “Arab street” to act is hatred of Israel.
For nearly a generation, successive US administrations have based their Middle East policies on the collective wisdom of the likes of Ross, Hadley, Berger, Indyk, George Mitchell, Dan Kurtzer, and Tony Blair. And for nearly a generation, these wise men have argued that Arab reform, democracy, human rights, women’s rights, minority rights, religious freedom, economic development and the rule of law can only be addressed after a peace treaty is signed between Israel and the Palestinians. In their “expert” view, Arab autocrats and their repressed subjects alike are so upset by the plight of the Palestinians that they can’t be bothered with their own lives.
Tunisia’s revolution exposes this “wisdom,” as complete and utter piffle. Like people everywhere, what most interests Arabs is their own standard of living, their relative freedom or lack thereof, and their prospects for the future.
[…]
ON THE face of it, the Tunisian revolution vindicates former president George W. Bush’s policy of pushing democratization of the Arab world. As Bush recognized in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, the US is poorly served by relying on dictators who maintain their power on the backs of their people.
Bush got into trouble however by seeing a straight line between the problem and his chosen solution of elections. As the Hamas victory in the Palestinian Authority and the Muslim Brotherhood’s victories in Egypt’s parliamentary elections on the one hand, and the undermining of pro- Western democratically elected governments in Lebanon, Afghanistan and Iraq on the other hand made clear, elections are not the solution to authoritarianism.
The Tunisian revolution provides several lessons for US policymakers. First, by reminding us of the inherent frailty of alliances with dictatorships, Tunisia demonstrates the strategic imperative of a strong Israel. As the only stable democracy in the region, Israel is the US’s only reliable ally in the Middle East. A strong, secure Israel is the only permanent guarantor of US strategic interests in the Middle East.
Second, the US should proceed with great caution as it considers its ties with the Arab world. All bets must be hedged. This means that the US must maintain close ties with as many regimes as possible so that none are viewed as irreplaceable.
Saudi Arabia has to be balanced with Iraq, and support for a new regime in Iran. Support for Egypt needs to be balanced with close relations with South Sudan, and other North African states.
[…]
Read it all here: Tunisia’s lessons for Washington
Tags: Caroline Glick
