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.