JERUSALEM — With its Cairo embassy ransacked, its ambassador to Turkey expelled and the Palestinians seeking statehood recognition at the United Nations, Israel found itself on Saturday increasingly isolated and grappling with a radically transformed Middle East where it believes its options are limited and poor.More at that link, and see also, Barry Rubin, "Ten Years After September 11: Who’s Really Winning the War On Terrorism." Rubin looks at the range of extremist terrorist groupings outside of al Qaeda --- Hamas, Hezbollah, Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt --- and suggests that terrorism is on the march. Israel is right smack-dab in the middle of it all. As a challenge for U.S. foreign policy, the war on terrorism is hardly won.
The diplomatic crisis, in which winds unleashed by the Arab Spring are now casting a chill over the region, was crystallized by the scene of Israeli military jets sweeping into Cairo at dawn on Saturday to evacuate diplomats after the Israeli Embassy had been besieged by thousands of protesters.
It was an image that reminded some Israelis of Iran in 1979, when Israel evacuated its embassy in Tehran after the revolution there replaced an ally with an implacable foe.
“Seven months after the downfall of Hosni Mubarak’s regime, Egyptian protesters tore to shreds the Israeli flag, a symbol of peace between Egypt and its eastern neighbor, after 31 years,” Aluf Benn, the editor in chief of the left-leaning Israeli newspaper Haaretz, wrote Saturday. “It seems that the flag will not return to the flagstaff anytime soon.”
Saturday, September 10, 2011
Beyond Cairo Embassy Attack, Israel Senses Wider Siege
See New York Times, "Beyond Cairo, Israel Sensing a Wider Siege":
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3 comments:
It was fairly easy to predict where this 'Arab Spring" would lead. Taking less time than I thought. Frankly, "freedom" of the Muslims of the Middle East, North Africa, and Central Asia is of less importance than maintaining the peace. If that means that millions live under repressive regimes but the repressers keep a lid on extremism then so be it.
The safety of Western Civilization should be the only consideration. Concern about the "freedom" of those likely to become an enemy is naive.
That's my thoughts on the subject. Perhaps I would be considered a "hatemonger" or something but there the reality of the world and the world as we wish it to be.
Those who confuse the two put our country at risk.
I'm a former State Dept. Arabist who was a Political/Military Officer in Saudi Arabia's embassy for three years. I was also Political Officer for internal political affairs for a year and the Ambassador sent me and another non-Arabist to all 13 provinces in the countries [we actually only made it to twelve] to see how the average Saudi felt.
You wouldn't know it, but well-educated Saudis who specialized in a real discipline, like agriculture and other practical applications such as engineering, were full of admiration for the Israelis' efforts to adapt their life to living in an arid, non-fertile environment.
This was before the so-called "Arab Spring," & the unfree media were constantly ranting about Israel, which my Pentagon contacts told me had the Hydrogen Bomb, so at least the Israelis will be able to reduce the region to smithereens, which is where the undereducated masses who are now attacking Israeli embassies should probably be blown to...!
The UNDP has made three exhaustive studies, starting in the '80s, on why the Arab world remained economically and politically underdeveloped despite ample "rents" from selling their oil & gas and having tremendous amounts of money.
Duh... The UN will never understand that the problem is big governments, not lack of money, and the Saudis simply are like most other Arabs in being oppressed by their unelected "leaders." That's why I'm so eager to see Qaddafi leave and Bashar Al-Assad also be forced off the stage...
Obama has offered a hand to Iran. What Obama got back was laughter, derision, and the undaunted intention of Iran to have nuclear power. How much oil do we depend on these sanctimonious psychopaths for? How much of the worlds trade travels through their regions? How much are we going to have to pay in our own ransom before there is another knife at our global throat?
My suggestion is to stand strong and respond to a bloody nose with a bloody nose and breaking of the knee.
http://msmignoresit.blogspot.com/2011/09/iran-obama-un-and-litany-of-failed.html
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