Thursday January 17, 2008

I've Been Thinking:

President Bush's trip to the Middle East is now over.
This is how Egypt's President Mubarak summed up the Bush Middle East trip.

"[T]he Palestinian question, of course, is the core of problems and conflict in the Middle East, and it is the entry to contain the crisis and tension in the region, and the best means to face what's going on in the world, and our region - I mean by that, the escalation of violence, extremism and terrorism."

This canard has been spreading far too long.
It is a blatant mistake.

Any real assessment of the Middle East reveals that the biggest problem in the Middle East is Islamic extremism not the Palestinian issue.

If the Palestinian/Israeli conflict were resolved tomorrow
Would that improve the situation vis a vis Iran?

Would the Sunni Shiite tensions of the past thousands years be resolved?

Would autocratic dictators and monarchs suddenly be beneficent?
Of course not.

The Palestinian/Israeli conflict should be resolved because it will make the lives of Israelis and Palestinians safer and better.

The Palestinian/Israeli conflict has little to do with the rest of the Middle East except that it is used as a rhetorical tool to stir up anti-Western sentiment.

Period. The end.

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