Posted on 01/05/2009 2:27:26 AM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
The war in Gaza is the first chapter of a new era in the Middle East. The Arab-Israeli conflict is far from the region's dominant dispute. The Arab-Islamist conflict now overwhelms it - by a large margin.
Increasingly, Arab regimes know Hamas isn't their friend and, though they won't say so publicly, don't see Israel as an enemy. No wonder: Israel is politically stable and economically prosperous. It doesn't threaten to take over their countries, overthrow their regimes and stand them in front of a firing squad.
Radical Islamism, Iran-style, does.
That's right. Arab nations' prime 21st century enemy is Iran and its allies: Syria, Hezbollah, Hamas and Iraqi terrorists. After destroying their own countries, they want to do the same to everyone else.
Up on the Lebanese border, where I just visited, things are quiet. Hezbollah talks big about its 2006 "victory" but knows how hard Israel hit it then. It's not looking for trouble with the Jewish state now.
At the same time, Egypt condemns Hamas and urges Israel to smash the radical Islamist group. Lebanese friends tell me they fear that unless Israel and the West stop the Islamists, their country will be taken over in this new year.
The editor of the important Arabic newspaper Al-Sharq al-Awsat, himself a Saudi, warns that Iran and Hamas - effectively at war with Egypt and Saudi Arabia - are the real threat to Arab security.
And the meeting of Arab states last week, instead of producing a condemnation of Israel or America, did nothing.
What was the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war's big lesson? That unless Israel wins a clear victory, Islamists will be more aggressive. It's the same thing the U.S. surge in Iraq demonstrates: pulling punches on terrorists doesn't make them love you or be peaceable.
(Excerpt) Read more at nydailynews.com ...
Radical Islam is a redundant term.
Wishful thinking.
Oh, no, I take that back; Clinton too rather made friends w/those who've infested Iran.
B-U-M-P everyone’s accusing me
It’s all George Bush’s fault. One thing he did very right.
“Arab-Islamist conflict”... “Radical Islamism, Iran-style”... meh! These terms of discourse set up a phantom milieu of reasonable (predominantly) sunni Arabs vs. nasty shiite Iranian (Persians, not Arabs) Islamists. Don’t let anyone pull the wool over your eyes, brother. The Iranians are nasty Islamists, but the Saudis (Arabs to the hilt) outdo them even on their worst day, as do the worst of the Egyptian Sunni Arab maniacs with Sayyid Qutb as their Fuehrer. And do I need mention that all the 9-11 hijackers were Arabs and sunnis, not one of them an Iranian or a shiite? The difference between an Arab Muslim and an Iranian Muslim is about the same as that between excrement and feces.
I’ll believe this when I see “moderate Arabs” fighting in the Gaza against Hamas. Until such time, the only ones fighting radical Islam are Israel and the US (and a few allies like the UK).
B. Hussein understands this, the question is.......where do his loyalties lie? Who owns him?
I'm damn sure its not a love of the United States Constitution, that drives him.
Moderate Muslims want to have their cake and eat it, too. The Greater Islamic Caliphate idea is very attractive, considering the beating Muslim egos have taken for the past 2000 years, but perhaps they don’t like the idea of crucifixions and the rest of the long list of horrors that come with being a devout Muslim. However, human nature being what it is, we can’t count on so called moderate Muslims doing anything useful. Greed and cowardice go hand in hand.
I have noticed a distinct lack of support for Hamas. I think many other Muslims may sympathize with its goals, but at the same time, they don’t want Hamas running the show for them, and while they’d like to see their fantasy caliphate arise, they don’t feel like engaging in years of open warfare to achieve it. I think they realize that the latter is pointless and their attempts to get what they want by confronting the non-Muslim world have backfired.
So they’ll just sit back and wait for Barry to show up at some “major Muslim city,” as he has promised, with his speech proclaiming the acceptance of sharia in the US or whatever other garbage he plans to spew, and hand it to them without all that nasty fighting. Seriously, I think they realize they have the best shot now that they have ever had of simply walking in and taking over their one enemy without even firing a shot, and they don’t want Hamas to mess it up. They can live with Israel if it is just a limited, isolated state in the Muslim sea, and that’s what it will be after January 20.
Excellent, excellent article.
The next war is Egypt and Saudi Arabia and allies vs. Iran and Syria.
My thoughts exactly.
LLS
Deer season has ended in South Carolina, many of the good old boys (Rednecks if you prefer) are out of a job due to the bad economy but gas prices are low. Send out a call to the whole nation, round up the frustrated, unemployed deer hunters who can not hunt until next fall and ship them to the middle east. The radical islamists will be wiped out in six weeks at minimal cost.
Sure that’s crazy but I’ll bet good money Obama will come up with something that makes even less sense.
A college friend who works for the State Dept once told me: when it comes to the Middle East, you can’t take whats in the MSM at face value—you’ve got to look behind the scenes. I imagine that that’s true for a lot of things, but especially the Mideast. I have no doubt that Egypt is fed up with Hamas and that the PA hates them more than they hate the Israelis. The fact that Israel launched its ground offensive means they had had assurances from someone they’d be able to finish what they started. If they do the job halfway [again], they’re going to be in for a world of hurt.
Barry Rubin is coming to the party about 7 years late. He is merely stating what has been obvious for quite a while.
His problem is that when he is hunkered down in his historic rut he couldn’t see that W changed the game, the rules and the Middle East status quo years ago.
islam is a cancer upon the Earth. It needs to be excised, permanently and completely.
L
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