publish time

18/07/2018

publish time

18/07/2018

IT IS not surprising that Israel was on top of the agenda at the Trump-Putin summit in Helsinki, making other thorny issues less important.Coming out of the summit, US President Donald Trump said the United States and Russia will work jointly to ensure Israel’s security. He disclosed that he and Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed this with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He added, “Creating safety for Israel is something that both President Putin and I would like to see very much.”It is clear now that after all the differences between Washington and Moscow and the exchange of accusations which reached the point of beating the drums of war, they absolutely agreed on one file only — maintaining Israel’s security. Israel played its game wisely all this time. It knew exactly how to use available tools to achieve security, particularly utilizing Iran as a Trojan horse to execute its project without paying a high price.The late Egyptian president Anwar Sadat made Israel face the reality through his peace initiatives. Israel was then forced to make peace with the mighty, particularly since it would mean recognition of the legitimate rights of Palestinians.Thanks to the Iranian Mullah policy built on investment in the ‘Liberate Jerusalem’ slogan to control the Arab world, Israel has rediscovered its long-sought goal. Israel worked throughout these past years on making Iran the ‘Trojan Horse’ to carry out the task of weakening Arab countries through sectarian terrorist militias.The Israeli efforts in this regard led to the Iranian arrogance which appeared in recent years: as manifested in Iran’s domination over four Arab capitals — Beirut, Sana’a, Baghdad and Damascus. All of them are suffering from civil wars with a sectarian flavor. This is exactly what was planned in Tel Aviv.It might be useful to go back to recent history for a while in order to see how Israel has been dodging peace initiatives since the 1950s. Israel used to throw the ball into the Arabian court, taking advantage of the irresponsible slogans including, ‘We shall throw the Jewish into the sea,’ in a bid to gain European and Western sympathy. Israel has realized that objective, so each of the peace initiatives represented a new concession. Arabs provided the concession, followed by others, to dispose the terrorism and anti-Semitic accusations.Today, Israel has reached its target. It seems Iran has changed from a scary toy to a real monster which threatens the strategic favors of Israel. Therefore, Israel changed its plan in a way that seeks making peace with the Arabs who have not had enmity towards the Jewish as worshippers of a recognized religion with historical presence in the region. The Jews have lived among Arabs and they are treated equally with worshippers of other religions. Thus, about eight million Jews will not be regarded as a heavy burden for 400 million Arab Muslims as long as the good neighborly relationship is maintained. On the other hand, the Jews will live in fear in case the hatred towards them continues through the domination of extremist Arab politicians.Based on this new fact, we can understand the American-Russian commitment to maintain the security of Israel. It will be easy to understand Moscow’s approval of the Washington plan to end Iranian domination over a number of Arab countries. This is also because the peace process is based on establishing two states, one for Palestinians and the other for Israel. This means sharing international power in the region through the economy, not through war — especially since both Washington and Moscow have tasted the bitter Iranian terrorism masked by the so-called ‘DAESH’.By Ahmed Al-JarallahEditor–in-Chief, the Arab Times