Condy Is Absolutely Right !
It Is A 'New Middle East' ?By Subhash Gatade
1 August, 2006
Countercurrents.org
Condoleeza Rice, the foreign Secy of the Bush Administration would not have imagined in her wildest dreams that developments in mid-east would so truly vindicate her prophesies albeit with a minor change.One still remembers the curt reply delivered by her to one of those intrepid journalists when the flare-up had just started. It was the time when Israel had just began pounding Lebanon with impunity using the much abused rationale of 'defending itself'. Lumping together Al Qaeda with Hezbollah, a political party which has members in the state cabinet and which has never sought to turn Lebanon into any Isalmic state, George Bush had even welcomed the aggression calling it an extension of 'war against terror'. Flatly refusing the possibility of any immediate ceasefire when the huge human tragedy had just started to unfold itself, Condy had the audacity to rub salt into the wound by calling that the world was witnessing today the birth of a 'new middle east.'
It was the period when the Israeli forces seemed to be having have a upper hand in the battle, thanks to tremendous air power at their disposal courtesy USA and were expecting a catwalk inside the Hezbollah territory. It was the time when Bint Jebeil - today fondly called Nasrallahgrad - had not happened where fierce resistance put by the Hezbollah guerillas had forced the Israeli military bosses to change their plans.
Today when the Israeli invasion of Lebanon is over and it had to beat a hasty retreat using the fig leaf of UN resolution, it is clear to the outside world that who is the real winner. It is clear to the war mongering rulers of Israel that they had badly miscalculated strength of the resistance. Far from vanquishing Hezbollah and nabbing its charismatic leader Hasan Nasrallah, Israel has invited the wrath of the peace and justice loving people of the world over its ‘war crimes’
Not only the myth of the invincibilty of this fifth biggest army in the world stands broken but the world at large is unified in its opinion that Israel, had acted as a regional bully and showed scant regard for human rights. It is now history how the massacre at Qana and many such places where civilians had been targeted with impunity by the Israeli forces created such a worldwide revulsion that barring US, it has no supporters left in the international arena. All those Arab states ranging from Saudi Arabia to Jordan and Egypt, who had rather endorsed the Israeli aggression calling Hezbollah the instigator, had been forced to revise their positions.Condy has got it absolutely right. It is definitely a new 'middle-east' albeit not evolving itself as per neo-con prescriptions.
Gone are the days of the Yome Kippur war in 1967, when the combined might of the Arab states had been humbled by the Israeli army within one week. Today it is for everyone to see that while rulers of most of the states ranging from the superwealthy Saudi Arabia to Egypt and Jordan had bought peace with Israel, a guerilla army of a non-state has rather created a history of sorts. As of now Hasan Nasrallah, the indomitable leader of the Hizbollah, coming from a Shia background is a new hero in the whole of the middle east. The growing hiatus between the wo/man on the Arab/Muslim majority mid-east street, and their rulers has come out in open.A report filed by the 'Guardian' (Militants merge with Mainstream, August 5, 2006) had rightly captured the changed mood of the masses. Starting with Egypt it described the mood of the masses when the illegal invasion was still on :
The anger in Egypt ranges across the spectrum from the Muslim Brotherhood - which has offered to “send immediately 10,000 mujahideen to fight the Zionists alongside Hizbullah” - to business associations. Chambers of commerce and trade unions have organised gala dinners to raise money for war victims and the two mobile operators, MobiNil and Vodafone, have set up a premium-rate hotline whose profits are sent to Lebanon. ...Whatever qualms Arabs once had about Hizbullah they have since been dissipated by Israel’s attacks, the hundreds of deaths, the sight of up to a quarter of the Lebanese population fleeing their homes, and especially the bombing of UN observers and the massacre at Qana.
It is worth noting that the aggression by Israel, has unfolded growing bonhomie between not only the Shias-Sunnis but also the Christians across the region. Not only religious leaders of the Shias-Sunnis and Maronite Christians in Lebanon came together calling on people to support Hezbollah and drive out the enemy but in a special mass held in Damascus in a Catholic Church on 4 th August the Father urged his congregation to pray for Resistance and Pray for Nasrallah because he is defending justice.
The Lebanon fiasco where Israeli army found itself in a quagmire of its own making has also impacted on the fledgling anti-war movement within Israel. There have always been strong voice within Israeli society which have denounced the Israeli regime for becoming a regional bully, but it is after a long time that they are getting mass support.If the start of the war had seen participation of around 200 people in Tel Aviv, with Ehud Olmert's own daughter in row, protesting the war, the demonstration at the fag end of the invasion saw surging crowd of 5,000 people marching on Tel Aviv streets demanding immediate ceasefire and permanent peace with its neighbours.
Ofcourse one cannot help conclude this writeup with an inherent irony of the whole 'new middle east' which cannot be wished away. It is a fact that (to quote Robert Fisk, a correspondent of 'Independent' London) “...that Arabs are not afraid any more. Their leaders are afraid, the Mubaraks of this world, the president of Egypt, King Abdullah II of Jordan. ..But the people are no longer afraid. ”
Interestingly the 'loss of fear' of the Arabs and the entire middle east has been led not by nationalist and secular forces which stand discredited today but by Islamic forces. Underlining his discomfirt over these developments Ayaz Amir, a wellknown Pakistani journalist rightly underlined (Dawn, August 4, 2006): "Islamists are battling Israel in Gaza, Islamists engaging Israel in Lebanon, Islamists fighting the US occupation in Iraq, Islamists battling the American-propped Karzai puppet government in Afghanistan, Islamist guerrillas fighting the Pakistan army to a standstill in North and South Waziristan and an Islamist regime in Iran standing up to the US and providing support to Hamas and Hezbollah. .."
It was only five years ago that post 9/11 the US has unleashed the 'war on terror' supposedly to fight and contain radical Islam. Looking back it is clear that because of its arrogance and blind support to Israel, it has given a tremendous impetus to this militant Islam which is could not have achieved on its own.
While one needs to celebrate the growing militancy of the Arab masses and the fact that it appears to be turning a new leaf, one cannot close one's eyes that it is rather coloured green.
