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Veteran Israeli Diplomat: Beware the Arab Spring

(Washington Times) Arnaud de Borchgrave - To those who hail the Arab Spring and the first free elections in Egypt in 60 years, a prominent Israeli responded, "Remember Mussolini, remember Hitler." Two years after seizing power in 1922 with a march on Rome, one-time socialist Benito Mussolini's fascist party won 64% of the popular vote and 374 seats of 535 in parliament. His coup inspired Adolf Hitler's Beer Hall Putsch, which failed. But in 1933, Hitler legally came to power in a free election. For Zalman Shoval, 81, Israel's ambassador to the U.S. twice, a member of the Knesset for 40 years, and close adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the "Arab Awakening" is an "anti-democratic, anti-human-rights movement camouflaged as a victory for human rights." Most Arab elections, warned Shoval while in Washington last week, will produce anti-U.S., anti-Israel parliaments. Twenty years after the Cold War, he said, "Israel is facing the longest erosion of its strategic environment" while "America's strategic environment is also eroding." "Once you believe you're becoming weak and impotent, you will become so," he warned. Arab-Israeli negotiations are at a dead end, he argued, "because the Palestinians do not wish to negotiate. They ask for a freeze on settlements in the West Bank, but the settlements are only 1.1% of that territory." Shoval made clear Israel will also demand a physical security presence for the Israel Defense Forces along the Jordan River. The Palestinians believe time is on their side, Shoval said. But "security cooperation between Israel and the U.S. is at the highest level in memory." The $3 billion Israel receives yearly from the U.S. for defense is a tiny fraction of America's $3 trillion budget, "which enhances stability and makes it less likely the Arab world would start a new war. And the $3 billion goes back to U.S. [defense] jobs." The writer is editor-at-large of The Washington Times and United Press International.
2011-12-14 00:00:00
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