Is Israel any safer now?
Assessments
The Belgravia Dispatch points us to this quote by Prince Faisal on the “New Middle East”
“We would like to return to the old Middle East as we did not see anything in the new Middle East apart from more problems,” he said. “The Middle East is not an uninhabited area, it has people, governments and our destiny is determined after God’s will by its people.”
.. to which, let us add this remarkable statement by King Abdullah of Jordan, all the more remarkable because he is often considered to be one of “our” Arabs, a calming influence, etc., etc. Thanks to Jordan Watch for the quote
Wearing his military uniform, the king stated the following series of strong remarks that represent his views on the current issues: 1- "The USA must realize that war will bring nothing but more attrocities, violence and extremism. There is no military solution for the conflict". 2- "I said to the Jordanian military go to Lebanon even with the possibility of the planes being hit with missiles". 3- "The root cause is the Israeli occupation of Arab lands. As long as there is occupation, there will be resistance". 4- "I understand that the voice of moderates has been lowered with the feelings of anger, especially that moderate positions were not fruitful, due to factors outside of our control". 5- "The priority now is for ceasefire and then everything can be negotiated". 6- "In the begenning of my contacts with Prisidents Bush and Chirac the reactions were not encouraging in putting pressure on Israel, but now the picture is different". 7- "The marginalization of the Arabic decision and leaving it at the hands of regional and international forces will never be in the best interest of Arabs". 8- "The absence of a unified Arab position is a betrayel to our people and we will regret the state of chaos"." 9- "Israeli policies have resulted in the increase of extremism stream in the Arab World at the expense of moderates". 10- "Moderation must provide results, otherwise people will have no option but to refuse moderation and seek other ways to defend their rights". 11- "If you destroy Hizbullah now and no solution is provided for Palestine, Lebanon and Syria a new Hizbullah will emerge".
Jimmy Carter makes the obvious point, courtesy of Beirut Live:
A major impediment to progress is Washington's strange policy that dialogue on controversial issues will be extended only as a reward for subservient behavior and will be withheld from those who reject U.S. assertions.
And Am Johal puts it all in one compelling question, as quoted on Electronic Lebanon
Is Israel any safer?