|
Trending Topics
|
Source: http://www.canada.com/components/print.aspx?id=bdb57dd1-70ad-4133-9079-750c7fdce274
It's Best to Ignore the Middle East
[Prospect Magazine] Edward N. Luttwak - Middle East experts, like the rest of us, should at least learn from their past mistakes. Instead, they just keep repeating them. The first mistake is "five minutes to midnight" catastrophism. The late King Hussein of Jordan was the undisputed master of this genre and would warn us that with patience finally exhausted the Arab-Israeli conflict was about to explode. And then came the remedy - usually getting an American envoy to the scene to make the usual promises to the Palestinians and apply the usual pressures on Israel. What actually happens at each of these "moments of truth" is nothing much; only the same old cyclical conflict which always restarts when peace is about to break out, and always dampens down when the violence becomes intense enough. The ease of filming and reporting out of safe and comfortable Israeli hotels inflates the media coverage of every minor affray.