Israel remains stagnant in a rocky sea of change

By Rye Druzin /// News Editor

Over the last year, the Middle East has been wrought with political upheaval and anti-dictatorial conflict. The “Arab Spring” or “Awakening,” as pundits have called it, has deposed three entrenched regimes in a year, the most recent being the Yemeni dictatorship of Ali Abdullah Saleh, who was effectively voted out of office on Tuesday and is in the United States for medical treatment. The governments of Bahrain, a U.S. ally, and Syria, an Iranian ally, face daily protests that threaten the regimes in power. Turkey and Iran have jockeyed for position as the balance of power in the Middle East has shifted dramatically, with the two countries attempting to influence events in Syria, which has implemented a brutal repression of its anti-Assad protest movement.  

In the midst of these massive changes sits Israel. Never before has the political situation in the whole of the Middle East been so unpredictable, and never before has Israel been so isolated. Turkey, once a strong ally of Israel, has had strained ties with the country ever since an Israeli raid on a Turkish flagged ship (the Mavi Marmara) killed nine Turkish citizens. Egypt, Israel’s large neighbor to the south, saw the rapid and unprecedented fall of Israeli-friendly Hosni Mubarak’s dictatorship. The rise of the Muslim Brotherhood in the new Egyptian civilian government, which came as no surprise to many, alarmed Israel (and to some extent the U.S.), with both countries worrying about the drastic shift in the political situation in Egypt away from a wholly pro-West and pro-Israel view to a more neutral political stance.

Israel’s isolation does not have to do with hatred for the Jewish state. Rather, the governments surrounding Israel have understood that it is wise to keep relations with Israel at least cordial. Israel, while small, has the most potent military in the region (and ranks high in the world) and also has a sizeable undeclared number of nuclear weapons. The country also has backing from the U.S., making Israel an insurmountable adversary.

The isolation of Israel has to do with its actions, or lack thereof.  While many have argued back and forth about why the citizens on the Mavi Marmara were killed, the reason that Israel lost clout with its allies and the international community was because it scoffed at calls for an apology or compensation for the deaths. This led to the suspension of diplomatic ties between Turkey and Israel, removing Israel’s most vital regional ally and friend from a picture that was rapidly changing. With both countries unwilling to back down, Israel’s isolation from its region has become more complete.

In Egypt, the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood has brought a different set of concerns. The Mubarak regime supported the thirty-year-old peace treaty that has existed between Egypt and Israel, a treaty accepted between the two governments, but not necessarily accepted by the Egyptian people. The youth who led the uprising and the political Muslim Brotherhood that gained the government are not as sympathetic towards Israel as Mubarak was. While I do not say that they are readying for battle, the last thirty years has not garnered much love for the Jewish state. Arab and Muslim opinion towards Israel has been almost wholly negative, shaped by its actions. In Egypt, which has fought multiple wars against Israel and permanently lost the Gaza Strip territory to the Jewish state, opinion on the ground reflects the actions Israel has taken, whether it be blockading Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip, killing Egyptian border guards or claiming more and more land for settlements in the West Bank, Israeli actions have shown the hypocrisy that exists between Israel’s talk and where it walks.

When Hamas, the anti-Israeli Islamic group based out of the Gaza Strip, won what were deemed to be well-run and fair elections in 2007, the West and Israel threatened to withhold funds from the Palestinian Authority. While I have been asked, “How would you expect Israel to work with someone who wants it destroyed?” I have replied, “How do you think it must have felt to be a Palestinian voting in fair elections and having your vote for democracy rejected?” While I do not argue the fact that the election of Hamas to the Palestinian government must have been unsettling, I believe that outright rejection of the electoral victors confirmed pro-Palestinians  preconceptions about Israel, mostly that Israel was unwilling to work with those who would not be its puppets.

My father’s parents lost many relatives in the Holocaust, and I would fight to my last to prevent that from ever occurring again to any group of individuals. But when I read about what Israel does to a powerless people under their own control, I cannot do anything but recoil in disgust knowing that Israelis and Jews are better than their actions, that the image portrayed across the world by what Israel does are not reflective of what ordinary Israelis and Jews are about. And when I hear of hatred towards Israel and Jews coming from the Muslim world it saddens me, because I see so much potential good coming from Jews and Muslims working together in the Middle East. Rather than cooperation and prosperity, I see instead the results of six decades of division and strife: bombs, bullets and death. Israel must make a serious effort to reach out and engage with the people of the Middle East, not just their governments. It must end its war of rhetoric and cease to see all those around it as enemies, because it’s an awfully lonely world out there and you can’t keep asking for friends if you keep pushing them away.