Middle East

[randolph]

Originally Posted by smc

You cannot speak of U.S. policy with respect to any particular Arab regime without putting it in the context of Israel. Egypt and Mubarak are "allies" of the United States only in exchange for being a bulwark against Arab League opposition to Israel. Meanwhile, each and every authoritarian Arab regime stokes the fires of passion for the Palestinian cause on the streets of their own countries (and in Iran, too) precisely because so long as people in the Arab world have this issue before them, they can be easily manipulated to avoid confronting the roots of their own oppression -- namely, their own dictators (and, in many cases, the U.S. government that backs, to greater or lesser degrees, those regimes).

Solve the Palestinian "problem" and these Arab regimes will collapse like houses of cards.

And lest anyone get the wrong impression of my view of Israel, this Jew (yes, I am Jewish) believes it has no legitimate claim to exist as a country, and that Zionism (the political ideology) is, in fact, the main progenitor of anti-Semitism in the world today.

The Palestinian question is no doubt a major issue in the Middle East. However, the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt seem to have little to do with Palestine. They are grassroots frustrations with the youths in these countries with the lack of opportunities for a decent life in an open society.
Also, it appears that some of these regimes are falling without dealing with the Palestinian problem.
Let's hope that responsible leaders come forward to lead the uprisings. Otherwise, We could have more Taliban style fundamentalist, anti West governments to deal with. For years we have been pouring billions of dollars into Egypt to try to keep the lid on things. So much for that policy.

[smc]

Originally Posted by randolph

The Palestinian question is no doubt a major issue in the Middle East. However, the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt seem to have little to do with Palestine. They are grassroots frustrations with the youths in these countries with the lack of opportunities for a decent life in an open society.
Also, it appears that some of these regimes are falling without dealing with the Palestinian problem.
Let's hope that responsible leaders come forward to lead the uprisings. Otherwise, We could have more Taliban style fundamentalist, anti West governments to deal with. For years we have been pouring billions of dollars into Egypt to try to keep the lid on things. So much for that policy.

I said "U.S. policy" -- which is what you wrote of in your initial post. Further, I stated that the Palestinian question has been used to keep Arabs focused on something other than their own regimes; this does not mean that they are incapable of so focusing, as the uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen demonstrate.

In Egypt specifically, while the demonstrators clamor for human rights, economic justice, and so on, the position of their government -- i.e., its power, the arms it posses thanks to billions in U.S. military aid each year, etc. -- are directly linked to the Palestinian question.

So, they cannot be teased apart so simply.

[randolph]

Originally Posted by smc

I said "U.S. policy" -- which is what you wrote of in your initial post. Further, I stated that the Palestinian question has been used to keep Arabs focused on something other than their own regimes; this does not mean that they are incapable of so focusing, as the uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen demonstrate.

In Egypt specifically, while the demonstrators clamor for human rights, economic justice, and so on, the position of their government -- i.e., its power, the arms it posses thanks to billions in U.S. military aid each year, etc. -- are directly linked to the Palestinian question.

So, they cannot be teased apart so simply.

No question the Middle east is a sea of complex issues. I suspect we desperately want Mubarak to hang in there. If he bails it will provide a powerful motivation for the youth in other Middle East countries to rise up.
Did we ever realize that the cellphone, facebook and the internet would replace our foreign policy?
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