generalspeaking

On Alert

When one most needs the support of a powerful friend Fortune and Chance intervene and suddenly that powerful friend has slipped away. And so it is with Israel, the country that could always depend on its good relations with the United States to offer support and counselling. Unfortunately for Israel a turn of events that was seen in the most positive light elsewhere in the world - with the election to the U.S. presidency of a a bi-racial American - that man who is now president is not personally enamoured of Israel, and is personally involved with the Muslim world.

It was an imperative for American President Barack Obama on taking office to convince the Arab and the Muslim world that the United States is not their enemy. Rather that the U.S. aspired to be an ally to the Muslim world. And that past misunderstandings could be rectified if both sides in the imagined dispute could reach out to one another to make amends, to finally understand where each stood. Radical Islam responded slapping back the hand of friendship, while moderate Islam stood back, cagily watching and waiting. Ready to be convinced.

It is difficult to convince someone that you mean well when your military is involved in an occupation-status in Arab and Muslim countries, combating rabid political Islamism determined to wreak carnage in the West. The United States of America has taken on the unwelcome mantle of chief policeman of this globe as a moral obligation, despite making many errors on the way to becoming the most respected and feared, called-upon and criticized nation on Earth.

The orientation currently being observed is likely a temporary one, but it is for the present time - until and unless in future years another stalwart American comes forward to take the place of Barack Obama - the current reality. The Democrats continue to enjoy the upper hand in Congress, while the Republicans frustratedly wait out the two years before another election. And Barack Obama's waning popularity may yet rebound, to bring him another term. During which time the stand-offish attitude toward Israel will continue. And blandishments toward Islam also continue.

So when Islamic Jihad, for example, successfully manages to have one of its operatives deposit a disguised bomb in a busy Jerusalem intersection at a time when city buses are conveying hordes of people to various destinations, killing a British tourist and seriously injuring 50 Israelis in the process, comment by the U.S. president is instructive of his very particular view.

Violence is deplored, and in a spirit of equivalence and compassionate outreach, sympathy is extended to the Jewish civilians who have been viciously attacked by a terrorist group, and sympathy equally extended to the families of civilian Palestinians who were inadvertently hit by IDF strikes responding to a series of rocket attacks coming out of Gaza.

The crowded bus stop near the city's central bus station was selected carefully to ensure that maximum damage would ensue from the blast. Far more people would have been killed and injured had not an alert onlooker noted that a young man had deposited a bag, hastily leaving the area, causing the witness to immediately contact security personnel who then undertook to keep additional people away from the area.

In despair and anger that their safety had been breached once again after a years'-long hiatus in armed conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, ultra-Orthodox Jews who assembled after the blast at the side of the road, shouted "Death to Arabs!" This sentiment is an abhorrent one, common enough in the Arab world, repeatedly shouted as a testament of faith, but it is anathema - or should be - to Jews.

The volatile and perplexing situation where PA head Mahmoud Abbas declares that he and his administration would continue to seek a solution to attain their goal of peace and nationhood outside a peace agreement and without resorting again to violence, has led to a stalemate. Where Israel's Prime Minister Netanyahu has continually expressed his willing eagerness to meet any time, anywhere, to continue peace talks.

Mahmoud Abbas's dedication to peacefully resolving the stalemate without resorting to direct talks is puzzling in and of itself. The issue of building new residences within the precincts of existing West Bank settlements should not be seen as a constraint to talks. Successful negotiations could reach agreements about how to dispose of this ongoing irritant to the satisfaction of both parties. Without talks nothing can be resolved.

Precisely how dedicated to a peaceful resolution Mahmoud Abbas might be is questionable in the face of continuing to give public honour as martyrs for the Palestinian cause to terrorists who have ripped the life out of Jewish civilians, the elderly, women and children. Demanding everything and proffering nothing cannot be seen as equal opportunities allotted to each side to make sacrifices for the greater good of a peaceful compromise.

Hamas claims that it too has no wish to continue violent conflagrations with Israel, that it would prefer a return to the relatively quiet period, discounting the occasional rocket lobbed across the border, post IDF invasion of Gaza. If so, it has conversely been permitting provocations to ensure that the IDF will continue to respond to the continued increased rocket attacks because Hamas has not been adequately policing other militias' activities.

On the other hand Hamas could be counting on the continued onslaughts against Israel to consolidate public opinion among Gaza's Palestinian population who might just succumb to the same kind of restiveness and begin opposing Hamas's Islamist rule as seen elsewhere in the geography, which an active low-grade war with their common enemy might forestall.

And with the Arab and Muslim world's autocrats seeing their traditional rule begin to implode around them even as they attempt to counteract the popular rebellions in their various countries, the entire region remains on alert. There is a lot of nervous tension among the various rulers, tyrants and theocracies in that volatile region of the world.

With Israel seated within that very particular ring of fire.

Labels: Chaos, Conflict, Israel, Middle East

posted by Pieface @ Thursday, March 24, 2011