Israel and The Arab Spring

By: Salim Nazzal 25 August 2011

From the very beginning Israel feared the Arab revolutions. This has been expressed by low key Israeli politicians despite the official policy not to comment. Netanyahu's speech to the American congress about the Arab revolution was empty talk because Israel knows before anybody else that democratic Arabs will be stronger in fighting Israel. In the past, Arab dictators fought the apartheid state of Israel and lost almost all battles. Some of them like Egypt and Jordan surrendered and became garrisons to protect the Zionist state. Israel also knows well that it can dictate (by the help of the USA) its policy on the dictatorship regimes, but it could not do that with democratic regimes.

Many examples provide the evidence between the past and now. Let’s pick the latest: Israel killed by (mistake) three Egyptian soldiers and the killing did not go soft as it used to be. That all Egypt protested and still protesting is a clear message to Israel that Mubarak's
time is over.

Moreover, the democratic change in the Arab region would lose Israel the card of claiming to b the only democracy in the Middle East. That has never been the reality but has been played on for years to conceal an ugly face. The ugly face of the Zionist state could be new to those who were brain washed by the Zionist propaganda. But, it is not for Palestinians, victims of the Zionist brutality over the past 60 years.

The paradox is now that while the Arab region is changing towards the culture of democracy and human rights, the state of Israel is moving towards the ultra right wing and the fundamental religious culture. It is no wonder that ultra right and neo Nazi parties in Europe and the US view the state of Israel as their model state.

As the Arab spring is moving from one country to another, while the Zionist worry increases, the Arab hopes toward construction of democratic countries increases also.

What about the future of the Arab revolutions? This is not an easy question to answer bearing in mind that it might take years before a new democratic Arab region is implemented. But it is not difficult to predict that as soon as Arabs succeed in arranging their domestic homes, the conflict with the apartheid state of Israel will be resumed with new rules.

* A Palestinian-Norwegian historian in the Middle East, who has written extensively on social and political issues in the region. - salim_nazzal@yahoo.com