Opinion

A rogue remains loose in the Middle East

August 02, 2017
A rogue remains loose in the Middle East

Tariq A. Al-Maeena

A rogue has been loitering about long enough in the region. For decades now. And its presence has not been a very reassuring one; at least not to the hosts on whose land this menacing rogue wanders about, spreading venom in its path. The rogue? None other than the state of Israel in its current form.

Its leaders are continuously bleating about nuclear threats from other regional nations. Remember, they did the same thing about Iraq some years back with alarms of “weapons of mass destruction” through their proxies in the US government, leading George W. Bush and company to embark on an adventure that opened a Pandora’s box of miseries that continue to haunt us today.

Meanwhile, this rogue nation is pursuing its policy of grabbing and annexing what little land the Palestinians can hang on to through aggression, targeted killings, executions, burning of civilians and dwellings and it has explained away all of this as being “in the interests of national security.”

Israel has long learned to play the game craftily. It started by portraying itself as a victim as it began its journey in a strange land and slowly began pushing out the lawful residents, albeit with massive support from Western nations who were continually garlanded with the collective guilt of the first holocaust during World War II, and who were goaded to make amends for past deeds by defying all democratic norms and siding with this monster. It did not matter that their victims - the Palestinians - had nothing to do with events of the past. It was simply an expedient solution.

The Arabs have tried to battle and even reason with this monster to no avail. In a previous attempt, a resolution was initiated by Egypt to declare the region a nuclear-weapons-free zone and called on Israel to sign the Non-Proliferation Treaty. The resolution would have applied less stringent supervisory conditions on Israel in comparison to those recently agreed upon with Iran. Since Iran had already sealed an agreement with the world powers on greater nuclear transparency, this vote became the first attempt to ask Israel to follow suit.

But the monster was not having any of that. It did not want any of its nuclear weapons program under any sort of international monitoring. Instead it began an earnest campaign of lobbying and arm-twisting to ensure that the resolution did not see the light of day. Predictably enough, with the Zionist lobby working overtime, the International Atomic Energy Agency’s General Conference voted down the resolution, which called for international supervision over Israel’s nuclear facilities.

Israel gloated in the aftermath of the results calling it a great victory following the culmination of a massive international campaign against the resolution. Those predictably siding with Israel were the United States, Canada, Australia, and EU members while Russia, China, Turkey and South Africa sided with the regional countries in backing the resolution. Thus, secrecy is ensured for the Israelis who can go about developing their nuclear weapons that will one day be turned against their neighbors.

Not content to bask in victory, this rogue today has stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque, situated in Jerusalem and the third holiest shrine of the Muslim world. It has fired tear gas and stun grenades on the congregation assembled for prayer; it has closed down freedom of access. It has prevented Muslim worshipers from attending to their religious calling. It has usurped their rights as well as their lands. It has embarked on a policy of murder and humiliation, one guaranteed to elicit a response that could be quickly put down by superior Israeli firepower and then explained to a compliant media as “a quelling of rebellion by terrorists”.

This ongoing policy of aggression by a nuclear-powered rogue that has been granted the freedom to remain unchecked does not bode well for a peaceful region.

The author can be reached at talmaeena@aol.com. Follow him on Twitter @talmaeena


August 02, 2017
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