Redrawing the map: Israel seeks to remake the Middle East to its own design

from al Jazeera

Israel has killed at least 48,833 people over the past 14 months.

It has been striking Iran, its ally Hezbollah in Lebanon, then invading Lebanon, and now it is attacking Syria.

All the while assaulting the besieged enclave of Gaza, an assault found to be genocidal by several nations and international organisations and bodies.

Unconcerned with casualties, Netanyahu’s talk of “changing the face of the Middle East” has found ready echoes across much of the Israeli media.

On Wednesday, an opinion in The Jerusalem Post boldly stated: “In the last year, Israel has done more for stability in the Middle East than decades of ineffective UN agencies and Western diplomats.”

 

Various states have criticised Israel’s attacks on the newly liberated Syria, including Egypt, France, Iran, Iraq, Qatar, Russia and Saudi Arabia. On Saturday the 22-member Arab League issued a statement accusing Israel of seeking to “exploit Syria’s internal challenges”.

The United Nations, whose mandate to police the buffer zone between Syria and Israel runs till the end of this year, decried this breach of international law.

“The UN’s protests mean absolutely nothing,” Golberg said, suggesting that Israel’s repeated clashes with various international organisations were part of an overarching mood within the country.

“We want to stick it to the Man,” he said. “We want to show the ICJ and the ICC that we don’t give a damn. That we’re going to do exactly what we want.”

On Wednesday, The Times of Israel columnist Jeffrey Levine characterized the past 13 months as a move towards “a New Middle East of Peace and Prosperity”.

In Levine’s vision, following the tectonic shifts of the last year or so, Syria would be free from the geopolitical manoeuvring of the al-Assads, Iran would be free of its “theocratic regime”, the Kurds would be free to form their own state, and Palestinians would be free to establish a new ”homeland” in Jordan.

“I don’t think most Israeli people imagine they’re going to be popular in the region after this,” Israeli political analyst Nimrod Flashenberg said, though some sort of rapprochement may be possible with Syria’s Kurdish and Druze minorities.

“But I think they are hopeful of a Middle East where there will be less regimes hostile to Israel,” he said.

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