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Eyeing the Arab Spring

(Economist-UK) Some Israelis fear the Arab spring is set to produce an Islamist winter. Religiously inspired parties, mostly linked to the Muslim Brotherhood, have emerged as the strongest political force in half a dozen Arab states. The Brotherhood now dominates Egypt, the largest Arab nation. Its rise there in effect ends the isolation of the Brothers' offshoot in Gaza, the Palestinian group Hamas, which has warred with Israel for decades. Jordan's wobbly king faces a rejuvenated Islamist opposition. When the smoke clears in Syria, Islamist forces could emerge triumphant there too, seemingly completing Israel's encirclement by like-minded, hostile governments. Yet Aviv Kochavi, the director of Israeli military intelligence, predicts that internal instability will enfeeble neighboring Arab states for several years to come. Many Sunni Arab countries are in fact more worried by the threat coming from the Persian Shias of Iran than by Israel, reckons Dore Gold, a former official who posits an opportunity for pacts of mutual interest. "What pulled Europe together was not coal and steel but fear of the Soviet Union," he says.
2012-02-10 00:00:00
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