(MENAFN - Jordan Times) Since 1948 when Israel was established as a Jewish state in Palestine, the surrounding Arab states witnessed continual wars and internal disturbances, all related in one way or another to the central struggle between Israel and the Arab world around Palestine.
In 1956, the military campaign against Egypt was an Israeli war to weaken the rising Gamal Abdel Nasser's regime in Egypt. Britain and France served the political and military ambitions of Israel at the time.
The 1967 war was another opportunity to defeat the rising national Arab movement and to destroy the Arab military power surrounding Israel.
What happened in Syria and Iraq, and other countries like Libya and at a later stage Lebanon and Jordan in 1970, was a direct reaction to the 1967 war. The Arab world continued to refuse the defeat and to challenge the status quo imposed upon it by Israel and its Western allies.
The 1973 war was another round of struggle to restore the Arab lands occupied in 1967. The war led to another misleading course, new military agreements, and futile political efforts to solve the Palestine issue and its consequences by peaceful means.
The main objective was to nullify the Egyptian military and political rule, in the struggle for Palestine. The Camp David Accord served this purpose; it weakened the Arab front around Israel.
Since then, the Arab world, especially countries neighbouring Israel, entered a phase of internal disturbances and regional wars. Destroying the Palestine Liberation Organisation was the first target. Lebanon war the main battlefield; Israel waged war on Lebanon and occupation, starting with 1982, following a protracted civil war.
At the same time, Iraq and Iran were engaged in a long war in 1979, which ended up weakening both countries. Israel and its Western allies played an active role in burning both countries in war.
No strong power around Israel is allowed to survive. Israel and its allies bet on the political mistakes of the countries in the region. After defeating Iran in 1990, Iraq committed an unforgiving political mistake, giving the Western countries the opportunity to lay siege to it and to destroy its military power. The occupation of Kuwait was the beginning of a long process that ended after two wars, destroying Iraq and its military power, and serving Iran and its allies in Iraq to dominate Iraq, and to become a main player in Middle Eastern affairs.
Since 1948, the Middle East has witnessed a war every seven years, a civil war, or a major crisis that exhausted the military power of major Arab countries and drained the financial means of the Arab region. The objective was to exhaust and fragment the Arab front around Israel, and to nullify the main military Arab powers. The weaker the Arab world becomes the more Israel receives military, political and financial support.
Israel was a player in all the struggles in the Arab world and in the internal disturbances in the region, either directly, as in Lebanon and Gaza, or through its allies, as in Iraq.
The invasion of Iraq was planned mainly by pro-Israel officials, mainly Jews serving the Bush administration, who justified and influenced the American invasion of Iraq.
The assumed danger of the Saddam Hussein regime, which was exaggerated by Zionist groups, was replaced by a more dangerous Iranian regime that is threatening both Arab countries and Israel.
Syria is the remaining military power in the belt surrounding Israel. It did not threaten Israel in the last 40 years, but it helped Iran threaten Israel through Lebanon. The Syrian regime, political mistakes in internal affairs, ignoring the rights of the majority of Syrians, especially the Sunnis, who constitute 80 per cent of the population, led to the present crisis.
Arab political mistakes always become means to destroy and to disarm the main Arab powers. Syria is left to fall apart until it is completely destroyed.
Due to Arab mistakes and with the help of Western allies who will dominate the scene at later stage, Israel in the end will become the only power in the region.
Everything works for the benefit of Israel. The surrounding Arab belt is dismantled, weakened and nullified. The long confrontation between Israel and the Arab countries seems to end in the former's advantage.
The Arab Spring and the new regimes rising as a result will inherit a weakened Arab front dominated by two big regional powers that aim to control the Arab world: Israel, in the West and Iran, in the East.
The spring will turn into a dark fall if the political powers resulting from this spring indulge in the power struggle that grants political power to a single party, as happened in Lebanon, Iraq and Egypt.
Once again we serve our enemies with our political mistakes, by indulging in the old power struggle that creates enemies inside and serves enemies outside as well.
The writer is former minister of information and media expert. He contributed this article to The Jordan Times.
