Notice the virtual absence of anti-Israel signs in Cairo? The revolt there is not about Israel, not about the Palestinians. Same in Tunisia. Same in Yemen.
The myth that the Israel-Palestinian conflict is at the heart of the Middle East conflict has been exposed. No Israel-Palestinian peace would have changed the Egyptian dictatorship or improved the lot of the Egyptian people.
The problems in the big countries of the Arab world are endemic to it, not to Israel and not to the West Bank or Gaza. In Egypt, Syria, Tunisia, Yemen, Saudi Arabia and others: No democracy. No freedom of speech. No civil rights. And in most of these countries, no good jobs for even the well educated. If Israel did not even exist, those conditions would not be any different.
How are Denverites reacting? Read Andrea Jacobs’ coverage
The obsession with the Israel-Palestinian conflict is, for the dictators in the Arab world, a convenient diversion. For the US, this obsession is a way to avoid critical Middle East issues: Islamic terrorism, anti-Israel hatred, economic inequality, suppression of civil rights and the environmental dangers of petroleum-based transportation.
Odd, isnt it? No anti-Israel signs in Cairo. If we were to believe the incessant declamations from the White House, the State Department and the European Union, we would have expected populist outrage against Israel. It turns out that the populist revolts in Tunisia and Egypt wrap the American and European obsession with the Palestinians in horse-blinders.
Included in the willful blindness is Turkey.
Copyright © 2011 by the Intermountain Jewish News
