Mideast crisis--Blog from Jerusalem
HAIFA-The war is over (for now) and the Arab and Israeli streets have determined the winner: Hezbollah. Now, not only does Israel have to develop new strategies toward unfriendly Arabs but so do Arab world leaders who have long called for conducting diplomacy with Israel.
The leaders of Arab nations such as Egypt, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia despise and fear Hezbollah's fundamentalist Islamic doctrines, which support an agenda of violent "resistance" to the Jewish state, and see the "Party of God" as a tool of Shiite-Muslim Iran.
But what can they do when across the Arab and Muslim world people are now hailing Hezbollah's leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, as their hero, claiming that his use of violent "resistance"- not diplomacy - has proved to be the way to get results from Israel? The new United Nations brokered cease-fire calls for a prisoner exchange and the eventual transfer of the disputed, occupied Shebaa Farms from Israel to Lebanon-both of which have been Nasrallah's long-stated goals. (Following the 1967 Six Day War, the 10-square-mile Shebaa Farms area was recognized by the United Nations Security Council as part of the Israeli-occupied Syrian Golan Height, not part of Lebanon. Syria, though, has backed Hezbollah's claim that it remains Israeli-occupied Lebanese territory).
This outcome has ramifications across the region. "The approach of Egypt, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia vis-à-vis Israel is that it is impossible to achieve goals through military means," explained an Arab diplomat, who asked not to be named. "So when their people think that it is easy to put pressure on Israel and embarrass Israel, it is not a good situation for those countries to be in."
To make things worse, the moderate Arab leaders-who previously criticized Nasrallah for sparking the war-have faced angry street demonstrations by citizens who spent the last five weeks sitting in front of TV sets watching dead and wounded Lebanese civilians being pulled from the rubble of Israeli-bombed buildings. In the Arab street, there are signs of public discontent with the failure of their leaders to back Nasrallah. "Arab majesties, excellencies, and highnesses, we spit on you," read one banner carried in a demonstration in Egypt.
The solution: Pay lip service to Hezbollah.
In a surprising statement, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit on Monday praised Hezbollah's perseverance. "They conducted themselves in a manner that showed their ability to resist and they fought with honor," said Aboul-Gheit in an interview with Reuters, adding,"but the result after all is a disaster for Lebanon."
About the Israeli military campaign he said: "It led to the difficulties that everybody is facing."
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, who has faced daily demonstrations for not supporting Hezbollah, "will have to spend more time to convince people how weak [Egypt is], and remind them of what happened in 1967,"said the Arab diplomat referring to the devastating defeat Egypt incurred in the '67 war.
Indeed the government-backed Egyptian media has been doing just that for the past few weeks, showing clips of the '67 war on TV and discussing it in newspaper articles. "The goal," said the diplomat "is to tell the people that it's not in their interest to be brought into a war that they are not prepared for and not part of."
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