Smug Israeli officials disingenuously rebuke Washington for ignoring “Arab radicalization”
By Maidhc Ó Cathail
The Passionate Attachment
September 16, 2012
In today’s Haaretz, Barak Ravid cites anonymous Israeli government officials claiming the U.S. ignored their repeated warnings of anti-Western “radicalizing trends” in the wake of the Arab uprisings. Writes Ravid:
For months before the most recent attacks on U.S. embassies in North African states, Foreign Ministry and U.S. State Department officials had been arguing over developments in these countries. Senior figures in Jerusalem claimed that Washington was burying its head in the sand and ignoring the increasing radicalization in states such as Tunisia and Egypt.
The Obama administration, which since the beginning of the Arab Spring has aided, directly or indirectly, the forces that brought down the dictatorial regimes in Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen and Lybia [sic], now finds itself in a position of helplessness.
Not surprisingly, the Israeli officials conveniently seem to have forgotten Tel Aviv’s role in inducing Washington to provide this aid to the radical forces they are now warning against. For example, during an April 2011 visit to the Israeli-occupied Capitol Hill, President Shimon Peres urged support for “the awakening of the Arab world,” arguing that “the spread of democracy in the region could dramatically improve the staunch US ally’s circumstances.”
Instead, Ravid’s piece gives the impression that a concerned Israel was frustrated with Washington’s stubborn refusal to listen to its friendly advice about the dangers posed by this “awakening.” Exuding a condescending “we told you so” tone, the article concludes:
“Only now, after what happened to their embassies, the Americans are beginning to understand the situation,” the senior official concluded, “to hear the president of the United States declared [sic] that Egypt isn’t an ally, but also isn’t the enemy – that’s a real earthquake,” he said.
Of course, the implicit narrative being advanced by these Israeli officials through their “trusty stenographer” is that now more than ever — thanks to the so-called “Arab Spring” — the Jewish state is America’s sole remaining reliable ally in a dangerously radicalized region.
Update: On NBC’s Meet the Press, Netanyahu made that narrative explicit:
We’re the best of allies. And Israel is the one reliable ally of the United States in the Middle East — and if that wasn’t understood until yesterday…
“anti-Western “radicalizing trends” in the wake of the Arab uprisings”!!!
How strange, in July 2012 – Dr. Gabriel M. Scheinmann, a visiting Fellow at the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA), admitted that the Zionist entity is in fact the winner of the so-called “Arab Spring”.
“The so-called “Arab Spring” has, paradoxically, made Israel stronger as Israel’s enemies have turned on each other. While Arab capitals burn, Jerusalem has calmly and carefully steeled itself against the possible immediate deleterious effects, building fences along its Egyptian and Jordanian borders and accelerating the deployment of its Iron Dome anti-missile system,” wrote Scheinmann. He then added: “Even as it rightly plans for the changes wrought by the “Arab Spring”, Israel should also recognize that as the Middle East convulses, it is more likely to be left alone. As Alawites battle Arab Sunnis and Kurds in Syria, as Kurds target Turks in Turkey, as the Imazighen fight Arabs in Libya, as the Army contends with Islamists in Egypt, and as Sunnis and Christians confront Shiites in Lebanon, people don’t have the time, energy, or resources to fight the Jews in Israel. The more the region tears itself apart, the more Israel floats to the top, unscathed economically, militarily, or diplomatically. While an Islamist ascent is undesirable, the intervening disorder only makes Israel stronger.“
Karen DeYoung, in Gen. Colin Powell’s biography, ‘SOLDIER: The life of Colin Powell‘, has quoted Powell twice saying that “the Iraq war was the product of Donald Rumsfeld’s absorption in the “JINSA crowd“. BTW, Dick Cheney was on JINSA’s Board of Advisors before becoming vice president, where he was joined by Ledeen, Feith, Perle, James Woolsey, and John Bolton.
http://rehmat1.com/2012/07/17/jinsa-israel-is-winner-of-arab-spring/
rehmat1
September 16, 2012 at 12:10 pm