Zuheir Kseibati
When Israel’s Prime Minister Ariel Sharon threatens Syria and warns it against opening its harbours and airports to Iran, which it claims could wage an attack against Israel, he is really saying that there are high chances he will repeat the attack he had made against the Iraqi nuclear reactor, this time against Iran, hence leading Tehran to retaliate. When U.S. President George Bush repeats his criticism of the UN, and hints at its impotence, as he did on the eve of the war against Iraq, this suggests that another war is on the way.
Bush and Sharon are two tyrants who use the language of religion and morality to launch immoral attacks designed to weaken and harass a religious people.
There is no margin for guessing as it leaves no doubt that Israel will be the one launching the new war, just like Bush did with the “war on terror,” which he started in Afghanistan. However, it is surprising to find that Sharon, who is hiding behind the slogan of his American ally with the ‘self-defence’ motto to justify pre-emptive strikes, has put Egypt on his list of countries that are threatening, claiming that it is arming itself without “justification!”
Iran is caught between Israel and the U.S., especially because of their conviction that it is aspiring to own nuclear weapons, even though Sharon owns such weapons as well; only Sharon is the leader of a ‘responsible’ country, whereas the Islamic republic is a ‘defector’ according to the partnership standards between Washington and Tel Aviv.
Syria is also caught between the U.S. and Israel, especially with the accusations of ‘harbouring terrorism,’ excluding Lebanon from the international political map, and the attempts to develop banned weapons which are not prohibited for the Hebrew country. Syria is caught in the Accountability Act, which has obtained a crushing majority at the American Congress to punish it, and this majority is a dangerous indication, not because it of the sanctions over Syria, but because it reflects the prevailing trend within the American legislative body, which outbids the hawks and their crazy plans.
When this group expresses its conviction of what it views as Damascus’ defiance to the Bush administration’s “war on terror,” in a ‘with’ or ‘against’ version, and when the file of accusations inflates to include Syria allowing “terrorists to infiltrate into Iraq,” the extremists in Israel get ready to take advantage of this historical opportunity: of Syria’s isolation combined with the Arab inefficiency, even as Sharon raises his provocative tone, and every Arab country is embroiled in its domestic problems and trying to clear itself from the accusations of terrorism.
It would be clearly na?ve to believe what the Israeli Prime Minister is warning against regarding Iran using Syria’s airports and harbours to attack Israel, because Damascus is on the demarcation line with Tel Aviv’s plans, and it is set to pay a heavy price for any potential military attack. So it doesn’t seem favourable for such an attack on Israel, compared to Sharon who has been receiving free gifts from the Bush administration: punishing Syria, accusing the Palestinian resistance groups of terrorism, and finally exerting pressure on Iran, through the IAEA and mobilizing the Iranian street. What is important in light of the full American blessing of the Israeli war against the Palestinians, and Sharon’s threats to strike Syria again, is that there is no red line that retains the Sharon’s threats in the region.
Syria and Iran after Palestine? It seems only too obvious when considering the fact that Sharon was given, as a result of the alliance between the Jewish and Christian radicalism in America, circumstances that none of his predecessors had since 1948. Even if he is not forced to engage on different fronts at once, thanks to his partnership with Bush, his inclination to provoke Egypt is taking the policy of humiliating all the region’s countries too far. What can start with lying ends up with facts in the American-Israeli era, including the claim that Egypt now represents a ‘threat’ to the Hebrew country that is no different from the ‘Iranian threat,’ because of its efforts to bolster its army and its arsenal.
Pre-emptive Israeli war scenarios are proliferating, against the background of a blend of visions between the neo-conservatives in the U.S. and the efforts of the Israeli right to revive the Zionist projects. If Sharon were following Bush’s steps in inaugurating the second stage of the ‘war on terror’ by transferring the battle to the outside, he does not need each time an American green light, as long as he justifies all his crazy projects as “self-defence.”
