The New Middle East takes on an Iranian flavor
This is the video I was looking for - and it will be followed by a serious post.Some of you go back with me to the days of my Matzav mailing list (2000-04). In those days, I used to keep the radio on in the background while I posted. I got out of the habit during 2005-06, when I was in mourning for my mother and could not listen to music the entire year. (There's no such thing as a truly "all news" station here - they all take music breaks - so I didn't turn the radio on for the entire year). Today, I find it much harder to concentrate with background noise.
This song by Yehuda Policker was frequently on the radio during the Oslo war. It has a haunting chorus: "Erev tov Yerush' v'layla tov tikva, Mi haba bator u'mi ba'tor haba." (Good evening Jerusalem and good night hope, who is next in line and who is in the next line). As the suicide bombs went off throughout the country, this song was played on the radio night after night after night.
Let's go to the videotape.
Caroline Glick reports that another 'new Middle East' (the phrase was originally used in this country to ridicule Shimon Peres' idyllic vision of the Arabs lying down beside us without trying to murder us) is being shaped around us. Thanks to the Obama administration's ineptitude it's being dominated by Iran.
Iran’s mullahs win no matter how the revolts pan out. If weakened regimes maintain power by appeasing Iran’s allies in the opposition – as they are trying to do in Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco, Algeria, Bahrain, Oman and Yemen – then Iranian influence over the weakened regimes will grow substantially. And if Iran’s allies topple the regimes, then Iran’s influence will increase even more steeply.Erev tov Yerush' v'layla tov tikava. Mi haba ba'tor u'mi ba'tor haba. Are we heading for a 'new Middle East' in which Israel is surrounded by enemies and unable to defend itself?
Moreover, Iran’s preference for proxy wars and asymmetric battles is served well by the current instability. Iran’s proxies – from Hezbollah to al- Qaida to Hamas – operate best in weak states.
From Hezbollah’s operations in South Lebanon in the 1980s and 1990s, to the Iranian-sponsored Iraqi insurgents in recent years and beyond, Iran has exploited weak central authorities to undermine pro-Western governments, weaken Israel and diminish US regional influence.
In the midst of Egypt’s revolutionary violence, Iran quickly deployed its Hamas proxies to Sinai.
Since Mubarak’s fall, Iran has worked intensively to expand its proxy forces’ capacity to operate freely in Sinai.
Recognition of Iran’s expanded power is fast altering the international community’s perception of the regional balance of forces. Russia’s announcement last Saturday that it will sell Syria the Yakhont supersonic anti-ship cruise missile was a testament to Iran’s rising regional power and the US’s loss of power.
Russia signed a deal to provide the missiles to Syria in 2007. But Moscow abstained from supplying them until now – just after Iran sailed its naval ships unmolested to Syria through the Suez Canal and signed a naval treaty with Syria effectively fusing the Iranian and Syrian navies.
So, too, Russia’s announcement that it sides with Iran’s ally Turkey in its support for reducing UN Security Council sanctions against Iran indicates that the US no longer has the regional posture necessary to contain Iran on the international stage.
Iran’s increased regional power and its concomitant expanded leverage in international oil markets will make it impossible for the US to win UN Security Council support for more stringent sanctions against Tehran. Obviously, UN Security Council-sanctioned military action against Iran’s nuclear installations is out of the question.
Unfortunately, the Obama administration has failed completely to understand what is happening.
Clinton told the House of Representatives and the Senate that Iran’s increased power means that the US should continue to arm and fund Iran’s allies and support the so-called democratic forces that are allied with Iran.
So it was that Clinton told the Senate that the Obama administration thinks it is essential to continue to supply the Hezbollah-controlled Lebanese military with US arms. Clinton claimed that she couldn’t say what Hezbollah control over the Lebanese government meant regarding the future of US ties to Lebanon.
So, too, while Palestinian Authority leaders burn President Barack Obama in effigy and seek to form a unity government with Iran’s Hamas proxy, Clinton gave an impassioned defense of US funding for the PA to the House Foreign Relations Committee this week.
Clinton’s behavior bespeaks a stunning failure to understand the basic realities she and the State Department she leads are supposed to shape. Her lack of comprehension is matched only by her colleague Defense Secretary Robert Gates’ lack of shame and nerve. In a press conference this week, Gates claimed that Iran is weakened by the populist waves in the Arab world because Iran’s leaders are violently oppressing their political opponents.
In light of the Obama administration’s refusal to use US military force for even the most minor missions – like evacuating US citizens from Libya – without UN approval, it is apparent that the US will not use armed force against Iran for as long as Obama is in power.
And given the administration’s refusal to expend any effort to protect US interests and allies in the region lest the US be accused of acting like a superpower, it is clear that US allies like the Saudis will not be able to depend on America to defend the regime. This is the case despite the fact that its overthrow would threaten the US’s core regional interests.
Read the whole thing.
Labels: Barack Obama, Erev tov Yerush' v'layla tov tikva, Hillary Clinton, Iran, New Middle East, Oslo War, Robert Gates, Yehuda Policker
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 8:55 PM
3 Comments:
I can't figure out how people as smart as Caroline Glick think that Obama doesn't understand what is happening. All you have to do is investigate Obama's participation in the drama of Odinga in Kenya, complete with Obama campaigning for Odinga, Odinga losing the election and sending out his machete monsters to bully his way back in to a top spot in the new govt, Obama re-engaging (after the machetes) to help Odinga institute a constitution that imposes Sharia on a majority non-muslim Kenya... and the more recent proclomation by Odinga that gays will be arrested... seriously, anyone thinks Obama doesn't understand the scope of what he is unleashing in that region? Even the general public in the U.S. has a queasy feeling about all of this bashing of Israel, given that Israel only got rockets from areas you left at the behest of the U.S. marcuse marxists. Caroline, people know. Obama knows. Americans are trying to get them voted out, but that takes more time. All the America bashing from around the world has brought about this administration... if people want the U.S. to re-engage, then your part might be to accurately describe the benefits of U.S. involvement outside our borders. Kind of like the Libyans clamoring for Bush, Sr. to help them. Those kinds of things. People (voters) notices those words.
First, Caroline thinks it's his ineptitude ... She's wrong. I think it is his craftiness, like the S.M. that is directing "O" and his policies. He's accomplishing what he and his co-conspirators are planning. But, they are pawns in the Hands of Hashem.
Second, I have always liked Yehuda Poliker's evocative songs, even though I didn't understand the Hebrew. His voice and phrasing spoke volumes. I enjoy his earlier works more. Thanks for featuring him.
Back in the 1950’s, many of us found ourselves gawking at a new invention called television. There was one show that came on everyday at 4:00 P.M. Buffalo Bob was the master of ceremonies and his sidekick was a mute clown named Clarabelle who communicated with a honker horn. There was also the “peanut gallery” which was a set of bleachers occupied by a group of preschoolers cheering every time Clarabelle honked his horn. The star of the show, however, was a marionette named Howdy Doody. The way it worked was that Howdy Doody spoke to the television audience while Buffalo Bob lead the cheering section in the peanut gallery. Every time H.D. finished making a point, Buffalo Bob would say “Isn’t that right boys and girls of the peanut gallery?” Clarabelle would then honk his horn twice and the studio kids would shout “Yay!” Of course, we never found out who was pulling the strings. Let’s see; a speech making puppet with a cowboy and a clown leading a programmed cheering section; sounds a lot like modern-day politics.
Accordingly, as I have watched the events unfold vis-à-vis the “war on terror”, and the “road map to peace”, I feel like I’m still watching the Howdy Doody Show. In Gaza, Hamas had taken control of the Palestinian Authority by popular vote. Then the U.S. government continued to push Israel to travel down “peace road” with the leaders of Hamas because they had become the elected officials of the “Palestinians”. The PLO has been gone for about five years and Hamas is still in power; American style democracy in action with Jimmy Carter still heralding his approval and Obama still promising to work harder toward bringing peace between the Jews and the Arabs in the Middle East.
Wait a minute! Aren’t the Hamas terrorists the ones who perpetrated all of the suicide bombings in Israel and murdered thousands of Jews? Yes. Didn’t the Israeli military take out several successive leaders of Hamas with Helicopter attacks without protest from the puppeteers? Yes. Didn’t the prior Bush administration and the current Obama administration condemn Hamas for its acts of terror? Yes. And now the world community is still congratulating Hamas for its participation in the peaceful political process and condemning Israel for defending herself.
I feel like I’m still going insane. But it must be alright, because Howdy Doody says that everything is as it should be, the buffalo man is prompting us for agreement and the dumb clown just gave us two blasts on his honker horn.
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