Monday, June 25, 2007

Happy Ending?

Dry Bones cartoon: telecommunications.

I'm getting email from readers who are upset by what seems to be my tilt to the naive. My belief that we are at a turning point in Mideast history is what has set off their "tilt" alarms. So let me take this space to respond.

There have been three clear periods in Israel's fight for survival. The first period was the Arab/Israeli conflict. We won that regional war. Then came the whirlwind rise of the Islamists and we were forced into a Muslim/Israeli religious war. That religious war has just, I believe, been hijacked by an Iranian move to grab the Middle East (on its way to becoming a true world power).The Persian operations in Lebanon and Gaza have opened a third conflict. And in this one, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, and the West Bank Palestinians now face a common enemy. Can Mubarak, Olmert, Abbas, and King Abdullah of Jordan seize the moment and forge an alliance? What will happen if they do? And if they don't?

Could we be seeing a "happy ending" of some kind? I don't know, but I am alert to the possibility. So tell me. Am I being naive?

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