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Europe Obsessing over Israel-Arab Conflict to Avoid Tackling Real Mideast Problems

(Ynet News) Guy Bechor - For more than 70 years the Israeli-Arab (or Jewish-Arab) conflict has been viewed as the focal point of the Mideast crisis, so much so that the term "peace process" is mentioned only in relation to Israel. Western governments have invested a lot of attention in this conflict, out of the naive assumption that when it ends and a Palestinian state is established, a cosmic calm will settle over the entire region. Syria is being torn apart by an awful civil war and the death toll is quickly approaching 50,000; the ethnic war has already taken control over north Lebanon, and the Shiite Hizbullah is on high alert for fear of a Sunni move; Egypt may also be dragged into a civil war; Tunisia, the hope of the "Arab Spring," has become an Islamist country that is descending into an abyss of darkness and violence; Libya is no longer a country, but a collection of militias and tribes that battle each other; Iraq is disintegrating, Kurds from four different countries are getting organized, and Turkey is on the brink of a possible war with Syria and Iran. But wait, the Palestinian state has been recognized by the UN! Where is that calm that we were promised? The writer heads the Middle East Division at the Lauder School of Government at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya.
2012-12-12 00:00:00
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