From Washington, where the US President’s nuclear summit was discriminatory in the implementation of nuclear disarmament to Tehran’s memories of 30 years of failed Iran-US relations, to Jerusalem, where Israel has turned into a regime worse than that of South Africa before the collapse of apartheid. The Middle East is full of talk, but what is the talk about? Peace or war? Whether it will be peace or war, the horizon in the Middle East is dark and the people living in the region find it hard to imagine a stable future.

US President Barack Obama has declared on many occasions that peace in the Middle East is a strategic priority for the United States, and the US administration is working hard to bring it about. However, all one needs to do is just glance at the instability across the region, from Jerusalem to Lebanon, then on to Damascus, Iraq, Iran and further east to Afghanistan and Pakistan. Never mind making peace, how to achieve it? The US can only achieve peace in the Middle East if it changes its policies towards Iran and Syria, and the only chance for long-

lasting peace in the Middle East is the resumption of ties with both Iran and Syria.

But how about Israel as the source of the greatest tensions between the West and the Arab world and between the West and Iran? How about that ‘wolf’ in the room – the one we all see but can’t point to? What about the only power in the Middle East that is also fanatical and aggressive? Can the US convince Israel to make peace with the rest of the Arab world and Iran? In reality, the Western powers that created Israel 60 years ago cannot and will not pressurise or convince it to make peace with the rest of the Arab world and Iran. The Western powers are now too weak, and the ‘wolf’ has become too strong, to be controlled.

Israel will always be the main obstacle for peace in the Middle East. The name of the Israeli game will always be security and with this game Israel will strive to maintain a total military dominance in the region, whilst keeping the Palestinians weak and divided. Iran and Syria always have to be faced down because Tehran and Damascus threaten Israel’s military dominance.

The nuclear summit in the US was to draft a global security strategy to deal with countries the West believed to be a threat. This summit sent a signal to the world, and especially to the Middle East, that weapons of mass destruction must be banned, especially in this very sensitive part of the world. Why then was Iran singled out over its nuclear issue while a blind eye was turned to Israel’s possession of 250 to 300 atomic warheads? Israel is strongly believed to be the sole possessor of nuclear warheads in the Middle East, and has a vast stockpile of enough weapons to wipe out the whole region! This is why Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu decided not to attend the nuclear summit hosted by the American President, as Israel is one of the few countries that developed nuclear weapons and refused to sign the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Israel has nothing to gain and much to lose!

Shortly after, the Palestinian Authority received Arab League backing to return to indirect talks with Israel, and during the visit by US Vice President Joe Biden, Israel openly defied the US and breached the United Nations Security Council resolution by announcing the plan to build new housing for Jews in Eastern Jerusalem in those parts occupied in 1967. The Israeli Prime Minister insisted that Israel had the right to build whatever and wherever it wanted in Jerusalem, which drew sharp condemnations from the US and the rest of the international community. Israel is doing its utmost to damage any peace agreement based on a two-state solution.

The Israeli military has implemented a new decree to deport from their homes to Gaza, or imprison for up to seven years, thousands of Palestinians in East Jerusalem and the West Bank who do not carry what Israel deems a valid identity card. There are tens of thousands of people at risk and this decree gives Israeli soldiers the green light to arrest Palestinians, turning them into criminals and making it illegal for them to be

present in their own homes.

If only a formula could be found to

convince the ‘wolf’ to make peace with the rest of the Arab world and Iran. This could be a good start to erasing the

memories of 30 years of failed Iran-US relations.

Moustafa Megawer

QAWRA