Tacit Approval
Regarding Israel’s major military response in Lebanon, what’s very clear is that most of the moderate Arab governments (Egypt, Jordan even Saudi Arabia) are secretly smiling about Israel’s attacks on Hizbollah. They have even publicly stated that while the loss of innocent life is regretable, they support Israel’s actions against Hizbollah.
While I think what Israel is doing is foolhardy and inhumane, some Israel bashers have stated that Israel is doing the United States ‘dirty work’ once again. Nothing could be farther from the truth. These actions against the Shiite aligned Hizbollah, will make things even more difficult in Iraq for the U.S. No, Israel in this case is doing the ‘dirty work’ for the moderate secular and majority Sunni based countries in the Middle East. They don’t like Hizbollah and Nisrallah any more than Israel does and don’t like the influence of Iran and Syria that the movement represents.
That said, the clock is definitely ticking. As the destruction grows and the innocent bodies pile up, these same goverments will be forced to start making louder throat clearing sounds simply because their nations citizens will begin voicing louder outrage.
What’s clear to me, crazy as it sounds, is that it seems about time for these same moderate Arab states to create a regional treaty organization along the lines of NATO, with Israel included. The true battle in the Middle East isn’t Arab vs. Jew, it’s moderate vs. radical. Almost anyone who is from the region or has lived there will tell you this.
Michael Webster
http://tierradelciego.com