Want to Improve U.S Relations in the Middle East? Get Tough on Iran

By: Sarah Stern and Kyle Shideler

One of the many promises made by President Obama was the desire to “repair” America’s relations with the Middle East and Muslim world. Hence speeches aimed at the Muslim world in Turkey, and Cairo, a reversal of long-time, American policy on Israeli settlements , numerous attempts to reconcile with Syria and holding back on supporting Iranian dissidents . Yet none of those have succeeded in winning respect for the United States from Arab and Muslim states of the Middle East.

Perhaps then, the Obama Administration should take note of recent remarks by Deputy Minister Ayoub Kara, a member of the Knesset with responsibilities for the Negev and Galilee area. Kara told an Israeli crowd at an event in Beersheba last Saturday that the Israeli government has received assurances from several Islamic nations, that they would be willing to “quietly” support a strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities if necessary.  Kara’s remarks are not the first public indication that the various Arab regimes fear Iran far more than they fear the Jewish State. Speaking with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Saudi Prince Turki Al-Faisal said Saudi Arabia considered sanctions against Iran “too slow”and wanted a “more immediate resolution.” In July of last year, Israeli intelligence suggested that Saudi Arabia would ignore Israeli use of their airspace in a strike against Iran.

The Saudis, naturally, denied the claim publicly, but the evidence is clear that the Arab states fear Iran far more than they fear and hate Israel. After all, Saudi Arabia has engaged in a bloody border conflict, not with Israel, but with Iranian proxies, when it intervened in Yemen against Shia Houthi rebels suffering several hundred casualties. Jordan and Morocco also dispatched troops against the rebels.  Egypt last year traded sharp barbs, not with Benjamin Netanyahu, but with Hezbollah’s Hassan Nasrallah, after arresting 49 members of the Iranian-backed terrorist group in an alleged plot to destabilize their country.

Unlike the faux realists in the Obama Administration, to whom every problem big and small in the Middle East seems to revolve around some Israeli settler building a porch, the wily kings and slick dictators of the Middle East are hardened realists. For all their pro forma complaints against Israel, it is Iran, and not Israel, whose revolutionary hegemonic designs threaten the security of their states, and they know it.
Middle East Scholar Barry Rubin calls it “Middle East 2.0″, where the interests of Arab nationalists and Israel are now aligned in opposing Revolutionary Islamists, represented primarily by Iran and Syria.  We find ourselves in the curious situation where Israel’s ally, the United States, continues to pander to those committed to its destruction. Even the steps which are being pursued against Iran, are being done so half-heartedly. A recent article by the New York Times revealed that under Presidents Bush and Obama, the United States had provided over $107 billion dollars in contracts, grants and benefits to U.S and foreign companies which were active in Iran, including $15 Billion dollars to companies actually engaged in deals in violation of the Iran Sanctions Act. Little wonder then, that the Saudis are less than impressed with the idea of additional sanctions.

It is well past time for the U.S to start getting serious about the threat posed by Iran. The Middle East is unmoved by American apologies for the last eight years anymore, what they are hoping for now is American leadership. It seems that the Iranian threat has done what all the cajoling of the Obama administration could not, get the Arabs and Israelis to agree. At least about Iran.

Now is not the time for appeasement, not only because of Israel, but because of our Sunni Arab allies, and the entire civilized, Western world, as we know it.  Now is the time to show some vertebrae.

Tags: Egypt, Hezbollah, Iran, Israel, Nuclear Weapons, Sarah Stern, Saudi Arabia, U.S Policy

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 10th, 2010 at 4:49 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.