Israel Matzav

What fierce moral urgency?

The Obama administration is spending its time on the 'Palestinian question' because they believe there's a 'fierce moral urgency' to settling it. There's just one catch. The Arabs themselves don't believe that. In fact, writes Michael Totten, other than Syria and Iran and Libya, which wish to stir up trouble for their own reasons, most of the Arba countries would just as soon see the Israeli - 'Palestinian' conflict put on ice.

So what we have here, for the most part, is an Arab Middle East that wants to put the Israeli conflict on ice and resist the resistance instead — which is more or less what the Israelis want to see happen. It’s an unusual alignment of interests, but it is authentic. Iran’s Khomeinist regime has been gunning for Arabs in the Middle East since it came to power — and not just in Lebanon and Iraq but also in the Gulf and North Africa.

Egypt and Saudi Arabia are unreliable allies (and that’s being generous), but their interests really do overlap with our own and even with Israel’s once in a while. Assad, at the same time, can’t always be bothered even to pretend he shares interests with the U.S. and Israel. His government has been sanctioned and stigmatized for a reason, and it’s not because he’s misguided or misunderstood.

President Barack Obama clearly wants to tilt U.S. foreign policy more toward the Arabs, but he doesn’t have to do it at the expense of our alliance with Israel. Just start with what Washington, Jerusalem, and most of the Arab states have in common and build outward from there. The present alignment may only come round once in a century, so we best not blow it.

Read the whole thing.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 4:06 PM