Arabian Nights – And Other Myths of the Middle East
To hear Scheherazade tell the story, it sounds almost plausible.
“If we can end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and create a two state solution we will unite the Arab world to confront our existential enemy nuclear Iran.”
The biggest myth of all is that any of the Arab States or Iran gives a damn about the fate of the Palestinians or a Palestinian State. Not a single Arab State or Iran has ever seriously used its petrodollars to improve the lot of the long-suffering Palestinian people. They have however, spent billions to inflame the conflict for their own political purposes.
Hamas and Hezbollah do not receive money and military support because they are fighting a war of liberation, but rather as a diversion for the populace of Iran and the Arab States so that they do not focus on their own internal problems. Moreover, the Palestinians are merely pawns in a game where Iran wishes to establish itself as leader of the Muslin world. The new Persian Empire that rules the petro-rich gulf is their goal; the Palestinian problem is just a useful sideshow.
Ordinary Arabs are certainly sympathetic to the plight of the Palestinians but their governments use this sentiment to manipulate them and divert their attention. Do the Arab States really want peace and in the process loose their favorite internal propaganda ploy? The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the propaganda gift that just keeps on giving and the Arab States would be loath to give it up.
President Obama’s recent visit to the region will undoubtedly be cheered by the throngs in the Arab street as he reiterates his message - I have Muslim relatives and more empathy for your plight than any previous U.S. President. Reaching out to the Arab and Muslim world is on the face of it a very legitimate strategy. The problem he faces is that there are always two sides to a grandiose speech - The intent of the speaker and the take-away message by the audience. There is a very real danger the Obama empathy message will be read as a wink and a nod that he’s really on their side and the Arabs are going to get a much better deal with him in the White House. So when the Arab street goes wild for the charismatic young President, we had better ask ourselves what are they cheering about, his speech or the secret message they may perceive he is sending? You can only imagine their disappointment if nothing concrete materializes.
As for actually creating a two state solution, easier said than done may be the understatement of the year. Those who blithely espouse a two state solution begin by ignoring the irreconcilable differences between large and vocal minorities on both sides.
On the Israeli side, the country has not yet come to grips with its own identity. Israel is either a Jewish state in its historical homeland, the Middle East, or it is the reincarnation of a God-given pre-Roman Israel in which case it will not give up the West Bank. For those that take the first position a two state solution is potentially within reach. For those that take the latter position, such as the settlers, a viable two state solution ranks somewhere between exceedingly difficult to absolutely impossible.
While we may not like or agree with the aggressiveness of the settlers they have biblical history on their side. The problem they face is Israel cannot annex the West Bank without turning the country into a binational state. And given the demographics, a state in which the Arab residents will eventually outnumber the Jewish population. Furthermore, it is exceedingly unlikely that the recently elected Netanyahu government will challenge the settlers in any significant way. On the other hand it will never go the next step and annex the West Bank.
The Netanyahu government will make some conciliatory noises but only as a gambit to pressure the U.S. into preventing Iran from going Nuclear. Even if with pressure from the Obama administration Netanyahu were replaced with a more flexible Tzipi Livni government a true confrontation with the settlers is exceedingly unlikely.
On the Arab side a large proportion of the population see the Israelis as outsiders who were given Arab land as compensation for atrocities committed in Europe. Recreating a Jewish State in the Middle East after nearly two millennia clearly raises some difficult issues with the former inhabitants of “Palestine”. The starting point of the current Palestinian negotiation is the 1967 “green line”, which has all but been obliterated by the Israeli settlers. Add the complexities of East Jerusalem, the refugee issue and linking Gaza and the West Bank in some rationale way to form a unified Palestinian State, and the challenges become herculean.
The Palestinian Authority does not have the strength to negotiate a peace deal. The real power lies with Hamas and Hezbollah. Hamas and Hezbollah have taken advantage of the poverty, lack of education and anger of the population and have further radicalized the Palestinian territories. And Iran has used their discontent to further its own political agenda. In other words there is virtually no chance that the Palestinians can put together a consensus that would make a peace plan feasible.
The worst case scenario is a young charismatic American President Obama jumps into the fray binging renewed hope of a definitive peace accord only to have all hope dashed on the rocks of Middle East reality. Failure, once America’s prestige is put on the line would be far worse than taking a more benign view until circumstances are more favorable. We should remember President Clinton came close to a solution in 2000 but once that fell apart the situation deteriorated dramatically. In the Middle East it is better to under-promise and over-perform.
The existential threat to the entire region is nuclear Iran. It is unacceptable to both the Arab States and Israel and therefore should be the focus of our policy. If Iran were to go nuclear virtually all of the Arab States will try to follow thereby, ratcheting up the mayhem.
Unfortunately, the reality appears to be that after a lot of high-sounding speeches and proposals little concrete action will be taken to stop the inevitable nuclearization of Iran. The likely outcome is that Israel will grow weary of the endless talk and will try to find a way of neutralizing the Iranian nuclear program. If successful the Arab States will secretly applaud.
The bigger question is does Israel have the resources to pull off such an attack and will the Obama administration support it?
I have always said that Arab fundamentalist are happiest when:
1. An Israeli is killed by a bomb.
2. A Palestinian child is killed by an Israeli.
June 2nd, 2009 at 10:49 am
It seems that Obama agrees with Iran that they can go Nuclear? This kind of Panda Attitude or do nothing but smile and climb a tree is what started WW2!
June 3rd, 2009 at 12:12 am
Before we freak out, let’s see what Obama actually says to the Arab world.
June 3rd, 2009 at 11:12 pm
Question:
Is Obama the Messiah, the Antichrist, or a secret Muslim? I voted for him and I like him, but I wonder who will pay the final price? Mostl likely little Israel, that will be forced back to the “holocaust borders” of 1949 while another Arab enemy state is created within slingshot distance of Ben Gurion airport. I would be just a little bit more impressed by Obama’s speech if he also had mentioned the aspirations of the Kurds and the Baluchis and many other groups longing for an independent homeland, not excluding the Lakota Sioux “indians.” It’s pretty easy to ask a tiny country like Israel to make difficult, possibly fatal sacrifices that we ourselves would never even dream of, such as giving up land to an independent “Indian” state in North America. Anyhow, I suppose only time will tell if Obama is the Messiah, the Antichrist, a secret Muslim or just somewhat deluded.
June 4th, 2009 at 6:16 am
I believe pres. obama is an extrermly intelligent human being with an awareness of the world that alot of people are VOID OF!!!!!Let him alone since they dont understand iife!!!!!!!Its not just their ideas that count. Their are others that live in our earth and they have to be accounted with in what ever way it is possible but with peace.
June 4th, 2009 at 3:40 pm
Giving land to Lakotas?
Canada has already given land the size of Europe to
the Innuits, the Nunavut, Quebec half it’’s territory to
Indians and Esquimos…with reasonable people,
it’s always possible to deal.
But with nations of psychopaths, there is never any
deal, just total war.
See, just try to deal with the Taliban…ask the Pakistanis!!!
June 4th, 2009 at 5:34 pm
Yes, but you’re missing the point, Obama pushing Israel to make concessions (which they have no intention of doing) puts pressure on Palestinian leaders to make concessions (hey guys, we’re trying why aren’t you)
AND
It places other Arab states in a put up or shut up position.. For so long, Arab states have made the US the bad guy because we’re seen as in the back pocket of Israel (which is not all together incorrect) and a president that looks more even handed takes away the anti-US card from Arab leaders..
June 9th, 2009 at 4:27 pm
© Arutz Sheva, May 9, 2009
US Vows $900 Million for PA, Gaza; Hamas Pockets Recent Funds
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
(IsraelNN.com) United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Monday pledged $900 million in aid to the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority, including $300 million for rebuilding Hamas-controlled Gaza.
Prime Minister-designate Binyamin Netanyahu has warned foreign leaders not to invest in Gaza while Hamas still attacks Israeli targets with rockets and places bombs along the separation barrier, however. Secretary Clinton maintained that the aid will flow on the condition that none of it would reach Hamas despite a long history of Hamas putting its hands on foreign money, weapons and United Nations humanitarian aid.
“We have worked with the Palestinian Authority to install safeguards that will ensure our funding is only used where and for whom it is intended and does not end up in the wrong hands,” Clinton said Monday at the international donors’ conference in Sharm el-Sheikh.
However, facts in the field indicate that it is virtually impossible to separate aid in Gaza from Hamas, which wrested control of the region from the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority nearly two years ago.
An Israeli newspaper reported Monday that it obtained a Palestinian document proving that PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad spent 90 million shekels ($21.5 million) for rebuilding Gaza with tax revenues that Israel had transferred with the understanding they would be earmarked for salaries of PA employees.
Hamas directly received the funds, none of which were deposited in workers’ accounts in Gaza banks, according to the Hebrew-language newspaper Yediot Acharonot. Fayyad had claimed that he needed the funds urgently to cover salaries, but a large portion of the money was used instead to rebuild Gaza homes and mosques, some of which have been used by Hamas as weapons storage depots.
Earlier this year, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) admitted that Hamas had commandeered convoys of aid destined for its warehouses. Weapons that the United States and other countries have supplied the past several years to Fatah leader and PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas also have found their way into Hamas hands and have been used in terrorist attacks against Israelis.
Channel One TV News journalist Ayala Hasson told viewers on the Mabat news program last week, “If that funding does not wind up in Hamas terror coffers, then I am a circus ballerina.”
In addition, journalist David Bedein noted that according to a study conducted by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs (JCPA), the PA is bound by the “Mecca Agreement” of 2007 to fund the Hamas regime, including the growing army of the terrorist group, which is outlawed by the United States.
He suggested that the Obama administration could be accused of having violated American law if any of the aid winds up in Hamas’s hands. Last year, American citizen Richard David Hupper was sentenced to prison for providing $20,000 for humanitarian aid to Hamas.
PA: A Welfare State
Secretary Clinton’s aid package follows billions of dollars donated in the past by the U.S. and European Union (EU) countries to the extent that the World Bank has warned that the PA is becoming a welfare state.
In a report filed last summer, the World Bank concluded that billions of dollars in foreign aid has enabled the PA to inflate its public payroll while its education system continues to incite violence against Israel.
Approximately 160,000 public servants are on the PA payroll, requiring almost $2 billion a year to cover salaries, and part of Secretary Clinton’s pledge of assistance is earmarked for them.
The domestic output of the PA economy has actually dropped by 30 percent on a per capita basis since 1999, one year before the Oslo War, also known as the Second Intifada, broke out.
A Middle East Quarterly essay written by Steven Stotsky, a senior research analyst for the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA), stated that donor conferences for increased aid to the PA ignore the issue of terror. “Perhaps aid itself does not cause violence, but there is strong evidence that it contributes to a culture of corruption, government malfeasance, and terrorism that has had lethal consequences for both Israelis and Palestinians over the past decade,” he wrote.
He noted that almost all of the foreign aid before the Oslo War was directed to economic and infrastructure development programs. The escalated terror campaign since 2000 cut employees’ wages and PA tax revenues, leaving the PA more and more dependent on foreign aid.
“In a classic example of the creation of perverse incentives, the decision to fund the government budget made the Palestinian Authority less dependent on revenue derived from commerce, detaching the PA’s solvency from the health of the economy,” wrote Stotsky. “Thus, while the intifada sent the Palestinian economy into free fall, the PA’s coffers swelled. The conditions were thus established that ensured the separation of Palestinian governance from responsibility for the economic health of the Palestinian people.
“Not only did the security forces fail to prevent terrorist attacks, in many cases they colluded with terrorist groups and sometimes perpetrated attacks themselves.”
The economy in the region was growing until 2000 when lethal suicide bombings and rocket and mortar attacks on Jewish communities in the Gaza region forced Jewish farmers to stop the employment of Arab workers.
June 14th, 2009 at 3:46 pm
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February 7th, 2010 at 10:27 am