The Hidden Balancing Act in the Middle East

To many Arab leaders, Israel is: a way to distract their people from the problems of their own failed or failing leadership, a source of humiliation by reason of Israel’s technical and military proficiency, a necessary demon based on decades of habitual negativity among Muslim states and, most recently, a whole hell of a lesser threat to their existence than Islamist, stop-at-nothing, extremists who seek to topple these old world Arab states. Yes, even Egypt’s spanking “new” military president in a “new” government, is simply following a decades-old tradition of Egyptian leaders coming only from the military.

What you are hearing is criticism of Israeli “excess” in Gaza from other fundamentalist groups, non-Arab nations, the United Nations, humanitarian groups, etc. What you are not hearing is massive regional incumbent Arab support for Hamas or concomitant Arab criticism of Israel. Hamas is violent. They don’t mind wasting their own citizens as publicity-driven sacrificial lambs, and they look, feel and smell a lot like those other extremist groups, from ISIS (now, just the “Islamic State,” but dedicated to a pan-Sunni fundamentalist republic) to the Taliban (still trying to unseat the powers in both Afghanistan and Pakistan), al Qaeda (ready to topple Western-friendly governments from Yemen to… well anywhere), Boko Haram (their sights are set on taking over northern Nigeria or more), etc., etc. Wow!

“After the military ouster of the Islamist government in Cairo last year, Egypt has led a new coalition of Arab states — including Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates — that has effectively lined up with Israel in its fight against Hamas, the Islamist movement that controls the Gaza Strip. That, in turn, may have contributed to the failure of the antagonists to reach a negotiated cease-fire even after more than three weeks of bloodshed.

“‘The Arab states’ loathing and fear of political Islam is so strong that it outweighs their allergy to Benjamin Netanyahu,’ the prime minister of Israel, said Aaron David Miller, a scholar at the Wilson Center in Washington and a former Middle East negotiator under several presidents… ‘I have never seen a situation like it, where you have so many Arab states acquiescing in the death and destruction in Gaza and the pummeling of Hamas,’ he said. ‘The silence is deafening.’” New York Times, July 30^th. But Hamas is drawing so much support from sympathetic regional private “deep pockets” paying guilt money and other extremists who are goading them on, that they see no reason to stop.

You don’t have to look too far to see what the big Arab powers feel about Hamas, and Egypt – literally bordering Gaza – has much to fear from extremists with so much violent local power at their fingertips. Indeed, if Egypt’s hidden agenda (not so hidden) doesn’t destroy their mediating credibility, it is probably Egypt that will have the most “settlement” power to stop this horrific war. “Although Egypt is traditionally the key go-between in any talks with Hamas — deemed a terrorist group by the United States and Israel — the government in Cairo this time surprised Hamas by publicly proposing a cease-fire agreement that met most of Israel’s demands and none from the Palestinian group. Hamas was tarred as intransigent when it immediately rejected it, and Cairo has continued to insist that its proposal remains the starting point for any further discussions.

“But as commentators sympathetic to the Palestinians slammed the proposal as a ruse to embarrass Hamas, Egypt’s Arab allies praised it. King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia called President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt the next day to commend it, Mr. Sisi’s office said, in a statement that cast no blame on Israel but referred only to ‘the bloodshed of innocent civilians who are paying the price for a military confrontation for which they are not responsible.’” NY Times. Nevertheless, under mounting global pressure on both sides to the conflict, a 72-hour “humanitarian” cease fire started on August 1^st.

From the time that Palestinians fled the land that would become Israel in 1948, flooding into neighboring nations as homeless, angry and needy refugees, until the present day, they have generally been unwelcome “guests” in any Arab nation where they fled. Second class citizens even among Arabs, they were also kept from assimilating into their new host nations simply to keep the focus on Israel and away from the disastrous economic policies and massive corruption of local leaders. Nobody wants them. Few Arab states like them. They stir up trouble, vent their anger everywhere and further destabilize a region where stability is more precious than oil.

And so the complexities of the Middle East lumber on, and generic American anger at Muslims hardly seems the best path to solve this mess. Islam is not the villain… most Muslims just want to be left alone to live. Extremists of all shapes and sizes have brought us to this horrible state.

I’m Peter Dekom, and while there are no short-term simple solutions to this debacle, there are new seeds being planted that may bear the fruit of longer-term hope for a more peaceful world.