Ramzy Baroud writes: Tel Aviv has come to believe that its atrocities will go unchallenged, but events in Egypt show the tide is turning
This commentary was published in The Gulf News on 13/04/2011
Israel has always defined its role in the Middle East based on a disdainful assumption. It claims to be an oasis of stability and democracy in a tumultuous Arab sea of uncertainty, extremism and political decadence.
This notion alone has been used to justify Israel's role as the guardian of western — in particular, American — interests in the region. Israel has been granted more money and sophisticated war technology than any country in the world. It has long seemed as if no one else in the Middle East mattered, as if the Arab masses were merely an inconvenient filler of space.
All American presidents have agreed. Bill Clinton was particularly poetic in his estimation: "America and Israel share a special bond. Our relationship is unique among all nations … Israel is a strong democracy, a symbol of freedom, and an oasis of liberty, a home to the oppressed and persecuted."
No action of Israel has been able to shift this redundant assessment. No occupation was illegal enough. No massacre, war or assassination was revolting enough. Everything was forgiven, for the victim was always an Arab, and Arabs were always collectively dismissed and dehumanised.
When Tunisia revolted, the matter seemed distant enough for Israel not to take notice. However, when Egypt too rebelled, reality began to hit home. Initially, Israel's official message was to capitalise on what seemed a fleeting moment. Again, it used the same tired metaphor of Israel being an ‘island of stability' in a turbulent sea (as coined by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu).
Soon after, though, the language began to change. The fall of Hosni Mubarak could potentially lead to the folding of Israel's most successful political projects in the region. No one seemed as petrified by that possibility as Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman. The message he tried to convey through Israeli ambassadors was to "try for the stability of the Egyptian regime and rein in open criticism against Mubarak".
New revelations
Egypt was not Israel's only political investment in the Arab world. Much more is now at stake. Recent WikiLeaks documents, published in various Israeli media, including Haaretz, show the willingness of various Arab governments to cooperate with Israel. If they lose, Israel will also lose.
The Jewish Telegraph Agency reported: "In other WikiLeaks revelations, Israeli officials in 2009 accuse Turkey of helping Iran evade sanctions, and describe Mohammad Tantawi, the Egyptian defence minister, as unreliable in the joint Egyptian-Israeli effort to stem arms smuggling into the Gaza Strip".
Israel voiced its concerns regarding real and imagined threats in numerous meetings between US and Israeli officials. Such matters were, of course, looked into, and handled accordingly. Arab and other Middle Eastern countries were destabilised to fit Israeli expectations, with the latter gloating once more about being the one and only democracy in the region.
But a refreshing Tunisian breeze set into motion a whole Arab Spring, centred in Cairo. With Mubarak's resignation, the foundation of Israel's political paradigm cracked and then plummeted. For decades, Palestine had represented the heart of the ailment of the Arab nation. It symbolised defeat. Israel, on the other hand, represented a loud and often lethal reminder of how weak Arabs were in relation to their strong and arrogant enemy.
Therefore, it was a natural progression of a people's revolution when Egyptians went to Tahrir Square on April 8. Palestinian flags began flying confidently and proudly over a crowd of an estimated two million. Expectedly, the list of grievances included Palestine, and the farcical peace with Israel was decried. Scores of people made their way to the Israeli embassy in Cairo.
Israel has had plenty of time to make peace with the Arabs. It chose not to, simply because it had no compelling reason to settle the grievances of divided and weaker foes. But times are now changing, although the Israeli political establishment is yet to fully grasp the nature and magnitude of that change.
A hurried and bashful peace initiative by Israeli intelligence, defence, and business figures may well have been too little, too late.
Incapable of fighting off the Arab revolution, "Israel is struggling to understand its place in a still simmering Arab Spring," according to Joseph Bamat in the France24 website. "Joel Schalit, a journalist and author of the book Israel vs Utopia [said] Israel is caught between the desire to positively engage the wave of democratisation that is simmering in the region and a widespread fear of what those tumultuous political processes will produce".
‘Positive engagement', is an entirely alien practice to Israel in terms of the way it treats its Arab neighbours. When it comes to the Arabs, aggression is the only message that Netanyahu is capable of communicating.
In Egypt, protesters responded by tearing the Israeli flag to shreds, and raising a Palestinian flag near the Israeli embassy. If Israel refuses to change, the Arab Spring will inevitably reach the so-called ‘island of stability'.
Ramzy Baroud is an internationally-syndicated columnist and the editor of PalestineChronicle.com. His latest book is My Father Was a Freedom Fighter: Gaza's Untold Story.
This commentary was published in The Gulf News on 13/04/2011
Israel has always defined its role in the Middle East based on a disdainful assumption. It claims to be an oasis of stability and democracy in a tumultuous Arab sea of uncertainty, extremism and political decadence.
This notion alone has been used to justify Israel's role as the guardian of western — in particular, American — interests in the region. Israel has been granted more money and sophisticated war technology than any country in the world. It has long seemed as if no one else in the Middle East mattered, as if the Arab masses were merely an inconvenient filler of space.
All American presidents have agreed. Bill Clinton was particularly poetic in his estimation: "America and Israel share a special bond. Our relationship is unique among all nations … Israel is a strong democracy, a symbol of freedom, and an oasis of liberty, a home to the oppressed and persecuted."
No action of Israel has been able to shift this redundant assessment. No occupation was illegal enough. No massacre, war or assassination was revolting enough. Everything was forgiven, for the victim was always an Arab, and Arabs were always collectively dismissed and dehumanised.
When Tunisia revolted, the matter seemed distant enough for Israel not to take notice. However, when Egypt too rebelled, reality began to hit home. Initially, Israel's official message was to capitalise on what seemed a fleeting moment. Again, it used the same tired metaphor of Israel being an ‘island of stability' in a turbulent sea (as coined by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu).
Soon after, though, the language began to change. The fall of Hosni Mubarak could potentially lead to the folding of Israel's most successful political projects in the region. No one seemed as petrified by that possibility as Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman. The message he tried to convey through Israeli ambassadors was to "try for the stability of the Egyptian regime and rein in open criticism against Mubarak".
New revelations
Egypt was not Israel's only political investment in the Arab world. Much more is now at stake. Recent WikiLeaks documents, published in various Israeli media, including Haaretz, show the willingness of various Arab governments to cooperate with Israel. If they lose, Israel will also lose.
The Jewish Telegraph Agency reported: "In other WikiLeaks revelations, Israeli officials in 2009 accuse Turkey of helping Iran evade sanctions, and describe Mohammad Tantawi, the Egyptian defence minister, as unreliable in the joint Egyptian-Israeli effort to stem arms smuggling into the Gaza Strip".
Israel voiced its concerns regarding real and imagined threats in numerous meetings between US and Israeli officials. Such matters were, of course, looked into, and handled accordingly. Arab and other Middle Eastern countries were destabilised to fit Israeli expectations, with the latter gloating once more about being the one and only democracy in the region.
But a refreshing Tunisian breeze set into motion a whole Arab Spring, centred in Cairo. With Mubarak's resignation, the foundation of Israel's political paradigm cracked and then plummeted. For decades, Palestine had represented the heart of the ailment of the Arab nation. It symbolised defeat. Israel, on the other hand, represented a loud and often lethal reminder of how weak Arabs were in relation to their strong and arrogant enemy.
Therefore, it was a natural progression of a people's revolution when Egyptians went to Tahrir Square on April 8. Palestinian flags began flying confidently and proudly over a crowd of an estimated two million. Expectedly, the list of grievances included Palestine, and the farcical peace with Israel was decried. Scores of people made their way to the Israeli embassy in Cairo.
Israel has had plenty of time to make peace with the Arabs. It chose not to, simply because it had no compelling reason to settle the grievances of divided and weaker foes. But times are now changing, although the Israeli political establishment is yet to fully grasp the nature and magnitude of that change.
A hurried and bashful peace initiative by Israeli intelligence, defence, and business figures may well have been too little, too late.
Incapable of fighting off the Arab revolution, "Israel is struggling to understand its place in a still simmering Arab Spring," according to Joseph Bamat in the France24 website. "Joel Schalit, a journalist and author of the book Israel vs Utopia [said] Israel is caught between the desire to positively engage the wave of democratisation that is simmering in the region and a widespread fear of what those tumultuous political processes will produce".
‘Positive engagement', is an entirely alien practice to Israel in terms of the way it treats its Arab neighbours. When it comes to the Arabs, aggression is the only message that Netanyahu is capable of communicating.
In Egypt, protesters responded by tearing the Israeli flag to shreds, and raising a Palestinian flag near the Israeli embassy. If Israel refuses to change, the Arab Spring will inevitably reach the so-called ‘island of stability'.
Ramzy Baroud is an internationally-syndicated columnist and the editor of PalestineChronicle.com. His latest book is My Father Was a Freedom Fighter: Gaza's Untold Story.
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