ALAI
If
we analyze the geopolitics of the Middle East, what should be the
principal focus? There is little agreement on an answer, and yet it is
the key question. The Israeli government has been sedulously and
constantly trying to make the focus be Iran. This has been considered by
most observers as an effort to divert attention from Israel's
unwillingness to pursue serious negotiations with the Palestinians.
In
any case, this Israeli effort has failed, spectacularly. Netanyahu has
been unable to get the U.S. government to commit to supporting an
Israeli raid on Iran. And Iran's ability to gather most of the
non-Western world -- including Pakistan, India, China, Palestine, and
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon -- to the meeting of the Non-Aligned
Movement (NAM) in Tehran underlines the political impossibility of the
Israeli wish to concentrate attention on Iran.
For
the past year, the center of attention has become Syria, not Iran, even
if there is a link between the two. It has been primarily Saudi Arabia
and Qatar that have struggled, with considerable success, to make Syria
the focus of attention. Some observers feel this has been an effort to
divert attention from Saudi Arabia's internal problems and anti-Shi'a
oppression in the Gulf states, especially Bahrain.
