"Israel Hayom, August 9, 2013, http://bit.ly/1bhU2iL
While
the Middle East combusts, threatening vital US interests, the US
attempts to clip the wings of Israel - the only reliable, predictable,
stable, effective, democratic and unabashedly pro-US firefighter in the
region.
Western
policy-makers and public opinion molders welcomed the 2011 riots on the
Arab Street as an Arab Spring, a people's revolution and a transition
toward democracy. However, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Yemen and Syria have
demonstrated that the Arab Street is experiencing an Arab Tsunami and a
transition towards intensified chaos, totally unrelated to the
Palestinian issue, which has been a regional sideshow. In fact, Alexei Pushkov,
Chairman of the International Committee in Russia's Duma, stated on
July 4, 2013: "the ongoing events in Egypt confirm that the so-called
Arab Spring has led not to democratic renewal but to chaos. We can see
this in Egypt, in Libya, in Syria, and in Iraq. The events in Egypt show
that there can't be a quick and gentle transition from an authoritarian
regime to political democracy. There can't be such a transition in the
Arab Middle East countries
According to the May 13, 2013 issue of the Singapore-based Today,
"The beauty of the Arab Spring seems to have given way to an almost
unbearable Arab Winter. The so-called Arab Spring generated a wave of
hope among those fighting for - or advocating - democratization of Arab
authoritarian regimes. Now, following regime changes in Tunisia, Egypt,
Libya and Yemen, and with a brutal civil war raging in Syria and
increasingly fraught conditions in Bahrain, Sudan, Jordan and Iraq, the
region has already witnessed [disintegration which] will reverberate
beyond the Arab map. Everywhere in the Arab world and beyond [the Arab Winter] has called into question the viability of the nation-state.
Amir
Taheri, a columnist of the Saudi-controlled daily, Asharq Al Awsat,
wrote on July 5, 2013: "Even before it was fully under way, the Arab
Spring was seen by some Western analysts as the prelude to an Islamic
Winter. The coup against President Mursi in Egypt hints at a military
summer of chaos. In most cases, change of [Arab] governments has
occurred in three ways. One way has been through the assassination of
the ruler that dates back to the dawn of Islam. The second way is
through military coup. With the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire and
the emergence of several new Arab states centered on newly created
armies, changing governments through military coups became an
established method. Since the 1920s, Arab nations have experienced around 40 coups from Oman and Yemen to Algeria, Syria, and Egypt. The
fall of Ben Ali in Tunisia and Mubarak in Egypt was due to the Tunisian
and Egyptian armies pulling the rug from under the feet of their
despots. The third method is through foreign invasion, such as the
removal of Saddam Hussein in Iraq in 2003. The Arab Spring created the
hope that another method might be developed: change of government
through reasonably clean elections. [However], crowds are fickle beasts
on whose back could ride all manner of unsavory characters. Mursi was
kicked out because of the armed forces. Egypt would be back to 1952 when
Nasser was beginning to build his military dictatorship.
A major axis of the Arab/Muslim Tsunami and the most critical obstacle to intra-Arab and Israel-Arab peace - has been Islam, the only common denominator in the violently fragmented Arab Middle East. Since
its inception in the 7th century, Islam has been authoritative,
coercive, repressive, demanding total submission, violently intolerant
of criticism by Muslims, let alone by "infidels.
Thus,
Islamic regimes have always regarded freedom of expression, religion,
association and free market the pillars of democracy - as lethal
threats. Moreover, Islam
has always considered itself to be divinely-ordained to dominate the
Christian and Jewish "infidels, condemning them to "Dhimmitude
(accepting inferiority through peaceful surrender) or annihilation. Therefore,
Islam has never tolerated "infidel sovereignty in the Abode of Islam,
as evidenced by Mahmoud Abbas' hate education system, which refers to
the Jewish State as an inhumane entity to be uprooted from the Middle
East. Islam's strategic goal has been to spread Islam throughout the
Abode of the Infidel, peacefully or via the sword/war/terrorism.
Accordingly, Islam and democracy, as well as Islam and peaceful
co-existence with the "infidel, constitute oxymorons.
The
2013 Middle East which is increasingly dominated by the 14-century old
intra-Muslim chaos, uncertainty, shifty policies and horrific
intolerance is incompatible with a 9-15 mile narrow Israel, as espoused
by the well-intentioned US Administration.
The
2013 Middle East highlights the 14-century old tenuous nature of Arab
regimes, policies and agreements and the absence of intra-Arab
comprehensive peace. However, Israel is pressured to ignore the nature
of its Middle East neighborhood and retreat from the tangible mountain
ridges of Judea & Samaria - which constitute its cradle of history
and over-tower Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and 80% of Israel's infrastructures -
in return for an intangible and tenuous Arab agreement.
Acquaintance
with the Middle East environment - and its implications for vital US
economic and national security interests - while the US withdraws and
cuts its defense budget, warrants a stronger Israel, which is
incompatible with the proposed Palestinian state and an Israeli retreat
from the Judea & Samaria high ground.
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