From Strategy Page, via Atlas Shrugs:
Iran aside, there hasn't been a really noisy response from the Moslem world about Israel's military operations against Lebanon. Notably subdued is the response from the Arab countries; it's mostly been mumbling about the plight of the Palestinians and such. Could this mean that the principal Arab leaders are not all that unhappy to see Hizbollah get it in the neck? After all, most of the Arabs are Sunni, while Hizbollah and Iran are Shia.
The exception that proves the rule is Syria, which has a Shia leadership. But most Arabs fear Iran, not because most Iranians are Shia, but because Iranians are not Arabs.
Iran has been the regional superpower for over three thousand years. Iran is building nuclear weapons. Iran is backing Shia Arab factions in Iraq that would support turning Iraq into an Iranian ally. Also scary is the fact that Iran is currently run by a religious dictatorship. Most Arabs have noted how that worked in Iran, Sudan and Afghanistan and want no part of it.
Worse, the Iranian religious leadership believes that they would do a better job running the Hejaz (the region of Saudi Arabia containing Mecca and Medina and the most holy places in Islam). For centuries, the Turks kept the Iranians out of the Hejaz. But who would keep nuclear armed Iranians out?
Perhaps worst of all, what if Iran tried attacking Israel with nukes, and both nations went at it with nuclear weapons. Iran has loudly proclaimed its aim of destroying Israel, but Israel has nuclear weapons, and no desire to be destroyed. The Arabs would be caught in the middle of all this.
Read the rest at Atlas Shrugs.
Here's a question I want to put to everybody: It seems to me, the Arab world backs away from everyone the Western nations attack. They backed away when we attacked Iraq. They backed away when we told Syria to get their military the hell out of Lebanon. And, now they are backing away from Iran.
So, the question is, would they back away no matter who we attacked, or are we attacking only those countries that the Arab world does not like?
If we attacked Saudi Arabis, for instance, would it be a whole different story?
2 comments:
In general Muslims don’t like losers. Mohammad was victorious in battle and Islam conquered most of the known world in its first 100 years. Military victory is God’s validation in their eyes. Muslims note that Moses never reached the Promised Land and Jesus never ruled (though they deny he died on the cross.) A losing Muslim is a disgrace to Islam.
Of course, they sometimes just declare they win. They are taught that they won the Yom Kippur War (called the Ramadan War.) Saddam said he was able to stand up to Bush and remain in power while the later was removed from power in disgrace in the next election. However, they know they are lying to themselves. It’s acceptable in Arab culture.
Saudi Arabia, however, is tricky. According to Bernard Lewis, Muslims weren’t concerned about losing the Levant during the crusades. It was when the crusaders started going towards the Hejaz that Muslims became galvanized. One could invade Saudi Arabia’s east cost. And if one secretly arranges for Jordan or Egypt to sweep down the west cost, the Hejaz, and posture as Islam’s savior one could pull it off. The Jordanian royal family considers themselves to be the rightful protect of Mecca.
However, it isn’t worth the trouble. One only has to stop protecting the Saudi royal family and someone else will take them out … perhaps Jordan or Egypt.
A few years ago I visited the mideast-- Israel and Egypt. I was surprised to see that in Egypt, there is actually a holiday to celebrate the Egyptian "victory" over the Israelis in the Ramadan War!
Self-delusion is common in the Arab world. I read that during one of their wars with Israel, their news stations continually broadcast stories of Arab sucesses-- the truth was that they were ls that they were losing badly. At one point their media mentioned that Egyptian troops were approaching Tel Aviv. (The reality was the Israelis had actually driven the Egyptian army back as far as the Suez Canal...)
Btw, I also think that's one reason the Arabs have had so many wars with Israel-- they are deluded into believing Israel is a "paper tiger" and can be defeated easily.
In Egypt, at least, despite their holiday, some now do realize the cost of war with Israel, and really don't want to face that again.(In addition, many actually are not too fond of the "Palestinians"-- they feel they are violent trouble-makers, and feel like: "why should I fight and die for the Palis"?)
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