The attempt by Hezbollah and Hamas to drag the whole Arab world into their war with Israel in the past two weeks has drawn flak in the form of Arab public opinion that neither militant jihadist organizations anticipated.
Speaking in an unusually blunt tone, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan and Bahrain openly rejected what they described as unilateral "adventurism," telling both groups that they are on their own vis-à-vis Israel. More important, indications are surfacing that a long-silent Arab majority has had enough of being hijacked by extremists in its midst.
If this is true, we have a split in the camp. If this is true, I applaud these countries for at very least, verbally distancing themselves from these groups.
But rest assured, the cynic in me tells me, I will not be holding my breath for any real change in attitudes, just yet. In fact, their statements are not particularly comforting and may be coming because they know that they do not want Israel turning their weapons on them. Not only that, if these wealthy states had been helping the Palestinians, instead of leaving it almost entirely up to Hezbollah, this would likely not be happening right now.
But for now, we take them at face value. It remains to be seen whether or not, this is just a ruse.
1 comment:
I noticed this starting back around October when some started distancing themselves from the Palestinians.
The withdrawl gave the Palis a chance to come clean but Hamas just kept fanning the fire in a manner even the rest of the Arab world found hard to ignore.
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