This afternoon on MSNBC, Mark Whitaker said of Hillary's speech that some Arab states care more about Iran than they do about the peace process–that they seek American pressure to stop Iranian nukes more than pressure to resolve the Israel/Palestinian conflict. (Don't have a transcript, sorry.)
I hear this line regularly and asked a smart friend who studies the Arab states. He said that Whitaker was imbibing pro-Israel propaganda. Yes, the Arab states care about nuclear disarmament, but the chief concern is Israel.
The famed Sunni-Israeli alliance against Iran is a lot of wishful thinking. Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, and much of the Gulf are certainly concerned about Iran's hegemonic intentions and they do worry about what they see as Iran's inflated notions of its proper place in the region. And they do not want Iran to have a bomb. But that is not the same thing as wanting a military strike or other precipitous actions when the blowback will undermine regional stability and widen the gaps being rulers and ruled. When one considers how dependent much of the Gulf, in particular the UAE, is on Iranian trade it is crazy to believe they would be interested in aggressively taking on the Islamic Republic of Iran. And, priority number one for these states is a real peace process regardless. They would never give precedence to Iran issues at the expense of issues with Israel. If there is any linkage it is the reverse. The Egyptians and Saudis really do detest the Iranians but they aren't suicidal.
Related posts:
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- Richard Engel says Arab states care more about Iran than Palestinian freedom
- Saudi king said Mr. Peace Process is all talk, no action
- ‘Times’ Piece on Falk Expulsion Ignores Human Rights Abuses, Pipes Israeli Foreign Ministry Line
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Free Iran! Free Ahwaz! Down with the dictator!
"A smart friend" is quite a reliable source.
Good post. I will go further and say that Arab nations are obsessed with Israel. Unfortunately the rhetoric and hate education has made it impossible for moderate Arab leaders to convince their people to compromise. We've seen that Ariel Sharon was capable of uprooting settlements. But how can Abbas convince his people to compromise when they have been taught that Jews have no historic ties to Jerusalem.
Conversely, how can settlers and fellow-travelers be convinced to compromise when they have been Jews hold God's claim and superior istoric ties to Jerusalem, and Israeli children grown up with the Nakba pages left out of their history text books? Especially given eternal US blank checks underwritten by 300 million US citizens and their future children.
That is a false assumption on your part driven by a bigoted ideology. Bad Citizen.
Do you know the price of a barrel of oil today? How much money do YOU PERSONALLY contribute to the Petro-States and their barbaric dictatorships? Gee, forgot about that….
MondoLies notwithstanding. the Arab world is terrified of an Iranian nuke. And they are saying so to the Obama administration. Obama, already having declared war on Israeli towns and villages that he calls "settlements", is confused about how to approach Iran now. His confusion will cost the rest of us blood. Iran is Shi'ite. The current govt of Iran is most definitely revolutionary and dedicated to spreading the revolution. It's been this way since Ahmadinejad was a young student occupying the US embassy in Teheran. Much of the Middle East is Sunni. Shia and Sunni hate each other at least as much as they hate the rest of us infidels. This is why Sunni and Shia violate Sharia law and commit suicide by BLOWING THEMSELVES UP IN EACH OTHERS' MOSQUES during services. This happens many times a week in Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan, and less frequently in other places (e.g. Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Lebanon, etc.) Non-Arab Shi'a Iran wants to spread itself into Arab Sunni states – and they all know this. An Iranian nuke does much, much more than threaten Israel and Jews. It threatens Sunni Arabs, as well.
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