Dr. Reuven Berko
The Americans have
learned many lessons on Islamism since the U.S. first provided funding
and arms to Islamic extremists fighting the Soviets in Afghanistan in
the 1980s. After the defeated Russian army retreated, the Islamic
terrorists turned their weapons on the Americans, and under the name
al-Qaida reached the Twin Towers in New York.
Israel had a similar
experience when in the 1980s it permitted the Mujama al-Islamiya
organization to establish itself in the Gaza Strip as a group providing
care to the needy, and violently opposed Israel's enemies at the time,
the communists and the Palestine Liberation Organization. Mujama
al-Islamiya later turned into Hamas, a deadly enemy of Israel.
The Middle East is
filled with such examples, also in the political realm. Western
officials who pressed Israel and the Palestinian Authority for
democratization got Hamas in the Palestinian election in 2006.
Western pressure on
Turkey for democratization brought Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's
Islamic government into power and led to the arrest of pro-democracy
military officers. Similar pressure on Hosni Mubarak's regime in Egypt
for democratization led to Mubarak's downfall and the rise of the Muslim
Brotherhood.
We can expect similar
damage to be caused by deficient Western understanding of the processes
and norms in our region. The European Union finds it difficult to
declare Hezbollah a terrorist organization despite Hezbollah's
involvement in attacks against Israel on European soil, and the
assassination of a former Lebanese prime minister, among many other
incidents.
Despite this, it does
appear the West is quietly sobering up about Islamic radicalism. It is
hard to ignore the damage caused by Islamic radicalism in the Arab
Spring and even in Gaza after Israel's withdrawal.
Inflammatory promises
from bearded preachers at mosques stating that "Islam is the solution"
don't pay off anymore. Every sheikh who built a career on incitement and
terror is now jeopardizing God's status to believers who view God as
the exclusive source of solutions to distress.
Under these
circumstances, it is no longer sufficient to spout popular incitement
against Jews as the source of all evil. The search for funding to revive
moribund economies has led Islamists reluctantly to the "hated"
Christian West. But Western leaders and investors are deterred by the
deterioration in the Arab world.
For Islamic extremists,
there is one possibility, which is to prey on the resources of rich
Islamic Arab nations. Islamists are now starting to attach themselves to
Arab monarchies that are abundant with wealth and stagnated by
corruption. This is in preparation for toppling these monarchies under
the Islamic dictate of removing "oppressive rule."
The rulers of the
monarchies, particularly in the Persian Gulf, are reluctant to move even
a part of their resources to extremist and hostile Islamic nations.
These monarchies send a miserly flow of financial aid in order to keep
the discontents under wraps.
Within this framework, Saudi Arabia aids Egypt and Qatar aids Hamas.
The funding covers aid
and weapons to rebels in Syria, including members of the radical Nusrat
al-Islam, an alternative name for al-Qaida volunteers who came to Syria.
These people operate alongside the Free Syrian Army and are involved in
war crimes, bloodshed and terror.
The sobering West now
needs to decide whether the rule of Nusrat al-Islam is a desirable
alternative to the rule of Bashar Assad.
It is not easy to be an
Islamist today. In the past, it was possible to blame every ill on the
"imperialist West" and its emissaries "the Zionist Jews occupying
Palestine." Now, the situation is much more complicated. No shopkeepers
in dusty alleys in Cairo will sell bread in exchange for the slogan
"Islam is the solution."
The collapsing Egyptian
economy needs Western aid in the form of "crusader" dollars and
"Christian" flour. On top of this disaster, the Shiite Iranian threat is
casting its eyes on the Arab wealth reserves in the Persian Gulf.
Time is bringing Shiite
Iran closer to a nuclear bomb, which is keeping Arabian Peninsula
monarchs awake at night. The nightmare is based on Iran's bridgehead in
Bahrain, which is majority Shiite. The dependence of the Arab oil states
on the protection of the U.S. Navy is growing. The failure of sanctions
against Iran and Iran's willingness to renew talks only if the issue of
Bahraini Shiites is included represent a blow to those who believe in
the feasibility of dialogue with Iran.
It is likely that U.S.
President Barack Obama already understands that an Iranian nuclear
weapon would primarily endanger American interests in the Middle East.
Even Muslims with the most extreme hatred of Israel now understand that
an Iranian nuclear weapon wouldn't be meant for the "liberation of
Palestine and Jerusalem," but rather for the Iranian Shiite revolution
to take control of the Sunni Arab world and its resources.
Syria is now a
battlefield between regional and global superpowers. It is clear to
Arabs that they are trapped in the grasp of rival powers. On one side,
there is anti-American China and Russia, supporting the Shiite axis of
Iran, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon. On the other side, there is the U.S. and
its allies, including Turkey, Europe and Israel.
The conflicting
interests of these two sides neutralize any effort to stop the slaughter
in Syria. As of now, the voices calling for compromise are growing. But
as more time passes, the powers will try to equip their respective side
with advanced weapons to achieve victory.
But the lessons learned
by the Americans in the past have aroused questions in Washington over
whether to provide rebels with decisive advanced weaponry. Experience
shows that American weapons given to Islamists will bring to power an
Islamic authority that will later use those weapons against America.
The fact that war
crimes have been committed in Syria without any country raising a finger
should be of concern to Israeli citizens.
There is no doubt that
if the Syrian hordes could, they would massacre us with even more
brutality than they are currently massacring themselves. Israel must be
very cautious when making dangerous concessions in exchange for
international guarantees.
It is chilling to think
there are still those in Israel who take seriously the idea of a
binational state or the return of Palestinian refugees to inside Israel.
In the Middle East, sectarian massacres are routine. Look at Syria,
Lebanon, Iraq and even Egypt.
The silence of Raed
Salah, a proliferator of stories about the "Al-Asqa mosque being in
danger," over the destruction of mosques in Syria is telling. The
destruction of mosques in Syria teaches us what is waiting for Jews
around the corner.
Hezbollah, whose fate
depends on the survival of the Assad regime, may act in desperation
against Israel, if only to aid Assad by creating a common enemy.
Hezbollah is now threatening to plunge Israel into darkness.
It was a mistake to let wounded Syrians into Israel. This trickle may become a steady flow of armed refugees.
Israel must prepare for the arrival to its border of well-armed Islamic terrorists from the streets of Damascus.
The Palestinians are
now escalating tension over prisoners held by Israel, claiming that
Israel is rearresting individuals who were released in the Schalit deal.
The Palestinian media is replete with claims of starvation and other
lies.
The failure of reconciliation talks in Egypt
between Hamas and the Palestinian Liberation Organization and the threat
of Hamas taking over Judea and Samaria are not encouraging signs. Obama
knows this.
No comments:
Post a Comment