No wiggle room in Islamic opinions [Jonn]
We saw yesterday in the FReeper vs. the pro-terrorist confrontation how the pro-Iran side doesn’t tolerate dissenting opinions no matter how small the group, no matter how peacefully the message is conveyed. Imagine, then how pro-terrorist governments in the Middle East feel about Egypt.
Ynet News reports that Iranian President Ahmadinjad has challenged Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to admit that he’s on the side of Israel in the current conflict in Gaza;
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called on Egypt on Saturday to clarify whether it is a “partner” with Israel in efforts to break Hamas resistance in the Gaza Strip, a news agency reported.
Iran has condemned Israel for its attacks in Gaza and expressed support for Hamas, criticizing what Tehran says is the silence of some Arab states. Ahmadinejad said they should cut ties with Israel.
Egypt, the only Arab state to border Gaza, has been a focus for protests by hardline Iranians who say Cairo has not done enough to help the Palestinians. Egypt has partly blamed Hamas for the violence because it failed to renew a truce with Israel.
The Wall Street Journal reports this morning that Mubarak spoke up and blamed Hamas for the conflict;
The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported this week that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak had told a visiting delegation of European foreign ministers that Hamas “must not be allowed to emerge from the fighting with the upper hand.” The comment was later relayed by the Europeans to Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni.
We called the Egyptian embassy in Washington to confirm Mr. Mubarak’s comments and never heard back. But the remark squares with the way Egypt has acted toward Hamas since the war began. It has sealed its border with the Strip to prevent an exodus of Gazans and barred all but a trickle of humanitarian aid to enter. Little wonder that Hezbollah’s Hassan Nasrallah has called on Egyptian army officers to topple Mr. Mubarak’s regime.
The Miami Herald reports that because the Egyptian government hasn’t marched in lockstep with the Iranian government and Hamas, they are accused of being collaborators with israel;
Egypt has been a key mediator in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but analysts say that its response to the fighting in Gaza has badly strained relations with Hamas, which accuses Mubarak of collaborating with Israel and of failing to invite the Syrian-based Hamas leader, Khaled Mashaal, to Cairo for talks.
Of course, the reason there’s no wiggle room as far as the pro-Iran supporters are concerned is because they don’t have a leg to stand on. Even a cursory examination of the facts related to Hamas and Israel beyond the mindless platitudes, would convince a rational person that Israel is right. But, that doesn’t help the communists and islamofacists whip the people up into a frenzy. Any deviation, regardless of it’s size, can’t be tolerated.
This kind of divisiveness is exactly what began the problems in 1990 when Saddam Husein invaded Kuwait. The Gulf States had encouraged Iraq to fight a war against Iran to contain the rise of fanatic Islam and then defaulted on debts to Iraq. Now fanatic Islam has escaped the Iranian borders in the forms of Hezbollah and Hamas, and the more moderate Arab states (Jordan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia) are hoping Israel will do their business for them and preserve their governments.
Those same Arab States must have been disappointed this morning to read that President Bush rejected an Israeli appeal to help them bomb Iranian nuclear facilities last year.
President George W. Bush rejected a plea from Israel last year to help it raid Iran’s main nuclear complex, opting instead to authorize a new U.S. covert action aimed at sabotaging Iran’s suspected nuclear weapons program, The New York Times reported.
Israel’s request was for specialized bunker-busting bombs that it wanted for an attack that tentatively involved flying over Iraq to reach Iran’s major nuclear complex at Natanz, where the country’s only known uranium enrichment plant is located, the Times reported Saturday in its online edition. The White House deflected requests for the bombs and flyover but said it would improve intelligence-sharing with Israel on covert U.S. efforts to sabotage Iran’s nuclear program.
I can’t wait to read the reaction from Iran.
Category: Politics
Jonn,
One thing that is certain is that, regardless of the news stories, the Arabs have no love for the Iranians. In fact, the most common term is not Iran, but Persia. The Arabs remember what life was like under the Ottomans, and before them the Persians, and have no desire, no matter the politics, to return to that sort of a situation.
Persia might well have bitten off a bit more than it can chew, let alone swallow, this time. The Egyptians have made it clear that they are sick of the Palestinian situation, and even more sick of Persia’s meddling all over the place.
We certainly are living in interesting times. What with a more or less democratic Iraq, plum smack in the middle of everything, and Israel being a nuclear player, it’s most likely that the remaining players can see which way the political winds are blowing and are starting to tack to an appropriate course.
Persia has been a bullying, meddlesome, world-class irritant for 30 centuries. Perhaps it’s time to finally deal with them as they have dealt with everyone else. “Persia, Delenda Est”.
respects,