The friend of my enemy is my friend

It was only on 19 June 2008 that the government of Jerusalem announced a cease fire with Hamas. Barely hours after this, it declared its intentions to open direct peace talks with Lebanon. What’s going on in the Middle East? Has the Zionist regime had a change of heart all of a sudden? This puzzling behaviour of Israel is not hard to understand, put in context.

Not a day passes without us hearing of some diplomatic activity in the Middle East. Some European governments are energetically involved with strengthening Israel’s hand on the same front. Not that long ago, Israel and the United States branded Syria a ‘pariah’ nation and even had it on the original list of states forming the so-called ‘axis of evil’. Recently, the French President Nicholas Sarkozy led a sizeable delegation to Damascus and invited the Syrian President Bashar Assad to join French National Holiday celebrations. In the hope that the two enemy countries shake hands in peace, Sarkozy also invited the Israeli Prime Minister.

All of these seemingly rival initiatives are going on while Israel openly advocates military action against Iran. An interview held with Israel’s former minister of defence by the newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth a week ago was published, in part, by the German Der Spiegel, concluding that military action, according to Shaul Mofaz (former defence and current Transport Minister), is “unavoidable”. Says Der Spiegel, “it is not a matter of whether there will be military action, but when”. Is this the reason why Israel recently purchased F-22 stealth bombers from the United States?

Obviously, military action against Iran by the US will be met with a groundswell of opposition, both within and outside America. Israel does not feel itself under such constraints. This is short sighted, in any language. An Israeli attack on Iran will nominally be an American attack and it will be viewed as such. In his recent farewell tour through Europe, George Bush openly called for action against Iran, and this he did from rostrums provided by European leaders. The latter simply lacked the backbone to challenge or contradict America’s lame-duck president. This sort of spinelessness is not merely a sign of their lack of resolve on the matter. Their diplomacy with erstwhile enemies and wooing of those unofficially seen as part of the ‘axis of evil’ is another prong in the isolation campaign against Iran. The logic is to forge links and friendships with Iran’s historically close friends, thereby isolating the regime of Ahmadinejad.

Another war crime is being prepared in the Middle East and European leaders seem to have seen, heard or done no evil. Israel and Washington are up to no good. Again.