Sultan Knish

Massaging the Terrorists at Israel's Expense

"British Prime Minister Tony Blair says resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is at the core of bringing peace to the Middle East...Part of the effort, he said, must be what he called a "whole Middle East" strategy, which focuses on relieving "pressure points" throughout the region. First and foremost, the prime minister said, is the Israeli-Palestinian conflict."

This is an old tune Blair and most of the Arab world has been playing for some time and it goes something like this, 'Israeli concessions to a Palestinian state are the key to stability in the Middle East.'

Pakistan's President Musharaf, who had supported the Taliban up until America threatened to bomb his country to rubble after 9/11 chimed in of course saying, "This knot of terrorism will be untied through first resolving the Palestinian dispute."

Between Blair's 'Pressure Points' and Musharaf's 'Knot of terrorism', it seems like massage metaphors have become popular buzzwords. It figures since the entire plan seems to be that massaging terrorists at Israel's expense will somehow resolve all the problems of the Muslim world.

It's not an old idea, after all the Nazis believed that all the world's problems originated with the Jews. Get rid of the Jews and you get rid of the problems. Now it's get rid of Israel and you get rid of the problems. Problem is it doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

Sunnis and Shiites aren't killing each other in Iraq because of Israel. Hating Israel is actually the one thing they all agree on. The civil war in Iraq is fueled by religious and tribal vendettas that aren't going to go away just because Israel gives up yet more territory to the Hamas terrorists.

Blair is offering up Israel as a sacrificial lamb to Iran and Syria in exchange for their 'support' in stabilizing Iraq, but Israel or no Israel, that just isn't gonna happen. Iran is not about to stop backing its fellow Shiites and Shiite clerics in Iraq like Muqata Al Sadr won't suddenly give up their plotting and killing, over a new peace conference between Israel and Abbas.

Syria which is demanding the Golan Heights in exchange for cooperation with America is now in the shadow of Iran. Iran is in the shadow of a genocidal madman looking for nuclear weapons and getting closer and closer to being able to kill millions of people. So naturally Blair is certain he'll abandon his fantasies of wiping Israel off the face of the earth and annexing Iraq to Iran... if only Israel withdraws from the West Bank. Madness.

Mark Katz may be a leftist but his article at UPI nicely sums this up. "it is not the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that Iraqis are divided over. If anything, support for the Palestinian cause is one of the few issues that the contending Iraqi factions are all agreed upon. As is well known, bitter disputes have emerged in Iraq between Arab Sunnis and Arab Shiites, and between Arab Sunnis and the Kurds. There are also conflicts between rival Arab Shiite groups, between rival Arab Sunni groups, and others still. An Israeli-Palestinian peace settlement, if one could be reached, will not magically resolve all these intra-Iraqi disputes.

Nor will an Israeli-Palestinian peace settlement prevent neighboring states from supporting rival groups in an Iraqi civil war. Even if an Israeli-Palestinian settlement could be achieved, Iran would still support the Arab Shiites while most Arab states would support Arab Sunnis. If anything, an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement might free up resources previously provided to the Palestinians for various groups in Iraq.

Closer to Israel, an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will not necessarily lead to the end of the Israeli-Syrian one. But even if the Golan Heights issue dividing Israel and Syria could be resolved, Syria's continuing desire to dominate Lebanon will lead to continued tension. Conflict between Hezbollah on the one hand and other Lebanese groups on the other also seems likely to continue whether or not an Israeli-Palestinian peace is achieved.

Similarly, it is doubtful that an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement would curb Iran's desire to continue pursuing its nuclear program which both America and Israel in particular regard as threatening. Indeed, since Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has called for Israel to be wiped off the face of the map, he may not recognize an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement as legitimate, but as a sell-out on the part of any Palestinian group agreeing to it."

In other words dragging more land out of Israel and expelling Israeli farmers from it to pass along to its enemies will as usual solve absolutely nothing. The problems of the Muslim and Arab world cannot be laid at Israel's doors, no matter how much the American and European foreign policy establishment tries to do just that.