Benny Morris, "Losing the Middle East" in the National Interest:
Prediction is always risky or plain silly, but my guess is that when the dust settles, which it will, in a month or two or three's time, one will see that Western—and Israeli—interests in the Middle East will have been substantially undermined and anti-Western—and anti-Israeli—interests substantially bolstered.
This is but one example in Morris's article but it sets the tone for what is to come. Here is an Israeli historian and avid Zionist, writing in a US publication, entitled, ironically, The National Interest, informing us that our interests and those of Israel's are the same and therefore, since the outcome of the ongoing uprising throughout North Africa and the Middle East threatens Israel's position we should not be welcoming it with open arms.
That magazine sure loves to post photos of weapons.
Iran will come out of it all much stronger.
Nothing Israel can do about it because Israel has nothing to offer other than white phosphorous.
None of it threatens Israel’s position except, of course, for the illegally obtained (the post-1967) “position” in the OPTs (which is like a 2nd-story-man’s “position” in stolen jewels). Arabs threaten Israel’s “position” contrary to international law, Israel’s “position” contrary to the human rights of Palestinians.
If Israel “gets with it” quickly, that may be that. Just return quietly (and apologetically) to the 1967 lines and WATER usage. But if Israel holds out too long, which I bet it does, and the international community and Arab states get over their 43 year paralysis, they may demand more than mere return to 1967 lines. For example, “real” right of return.
No one knows what “power” the international community may prove to have and prove to be ready to use. We won’t know until it happens. Make that “happen”. But if and when it does, why stop at the 1967 line?
After all, if you are going to attack a king, make sure to kill him.
It depends too on how quickly the US decline is. A default on its debt would be a real game changer. If the US had to start pulling back its global military reach I wouldn’t fancy being an Israeli Zionist.
Israel never won anything by negotiation or acceptance . It was always war. So the game is on.
>> … one will see that the regimes which are, by nature and tradition very brutal … will weather the storm whereas those which are softer, more inclined to measures of liberalisation … will either have fallen or will have given ground …
Well, there you have it. Israel’s only choice is to expand and intensify the brutality of its ON-GOING aggression, oppression, theft, colonization, destruction and murder.
>> Obama’s enlightened liberalism … will in the end result in growing American alienation in the Middle East.
Unlike Bush’s policy, which endeared American to citizens of Middle Eastern countries…
what a lazy, superficial analysis. did he write this on in-flight stationery while sitting on the crapper? i’m not in the business of making predictions, (they are an inherently risky, silly business) but i predict that in the near future no one will take benny morris seriously.
Benny Morris is getting more and more like Benny Hill.
that shoulda been the headline
Hey! Benny Hill was entertaining, clever and engaging. Do any of those qualities apply to Morris?