Tuesday, May 23, 2017

The Omniscient Authority

"There is a growing realization among your Arab neighbours that they have common cause with you in the threat posed by Iran."
"What's happened with Iran has brought many other parts of the Middle East towards [sic] Israel."
"I had a meeting this morning with President Abbas and can tell you that the Palestinians are ready to reach for peace. I know you've heard it before, I am telling you, that's what I do, that they are ready to reach for peace. And by meeting with my very good friend, Benjamin, [I can say that] that he is reaching for peace, he loves peace, he loves people, he especially loves the Israeli people. Benjamin Netanyahu wants peace. Making peace will not be easy. But with determination, compromise, and the belief that peace is possible, Israelis and Palestinians can make a deal."
U.S. President Donald Trump, Jerusalem, Israel
Jerusalem Post -- Trump and entourage; Netanyahu and entourage, before the Wailing Wall

President Trump was pleased to inform Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel that his august presence in the Middle East has paved the way for a final and lasting peace not only in the Middle East, but finally, between Israel and the Palestinians because at long last a master negotiator was present, and his very presence cast a great luminous light of peace and reconciliation over all belligerent parties to make of them a benevolent cast more than willing to set aside the petty differences that made them adversaries over the years.

The message to Israel in particular was that the Trump administration guarantees that the Islamic Republic of Iran will never attain a nuclear weapon, guaranteed. That being the case, as Iran remains the main irritant causing instability in the region Israel would do well to partner with its Arab neighbours in confronting the Islamic Republic. As though for the past 70 years and long before, Arab and Muslim nations hadn't one thing in common; hatred for the presence of Jews. As though the Arab League membership wasn't constantly at one another's throats. As though when expedience demands they will bow but when the situation changes, so do the attitudes.

Saudi Arabia's relaxation of its traditional hostility to Israel owes entirely to the fact that after a stream of conflicts from the combined armies of the Arab League led to humiliating failure where Israeli military skills outmatched those of the invading Muslim nations had them 'respecting' the Jewish state's conflict skills and fearing the consequences of continued violent hostilities. But if those formidable fighting skills could be turned against Aryan (non-Arab) Iran, it would be all to the good. The enemy of Sunni Islam threatens not only Arab primacy, but Jewish existence.

This is the juncture where the enemy of my enemy transforms the enemy capable of withstanding the onslaught of the enemy harbouring grandiose schemes of elevating its prominence, dominance and threat level to conquest heights, makes a friend whose resources of survival can be acceptable as long as it makes gains for the entire Arab world. And Prime Minister Netanyahu recognizes his nation's opportunity to influence its former adversaries in the mutual battle against a common enemy.

Yet that is a separate issue from the divisive one of mutual cooperation between Israel and the Palestinians simply for the reason that the Palestinians have gained the impression that much is owed them, and it is Israel that must make all the concessions, none required by the Palestinians. And there is this about the culture of the Arab Middle East; concessions are ultimately viewed as symptoms of weakness.

The greater the concessions the weaker those making them and the more demands can be made of them, until there is nothing left to demand and the command goes to the partner in the conversation who made demands that were agreed to by a reasonable wish to achieve peace. Peace to one negotiator is characterized by a cessation of violent acts against its people by perpetrators incited by its 'partner for peace'. While peace to the partner for peace is deciphered as having succeeded in obtaining all demands, leaving nothing whatever for the whimpering loser to collect and slink off with.


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