Libya and Bahrain are Accelerating the Decline of the Middle East as a US Satrapy
The most self evident fact about the Middle East Revolutions—fanning outward from Tunisia and Egypt to Bahrain, Libya, Yemen, and goodness knows, what other country—is that things will never be the same. For one, Israel is experiencing an existential crisis that is altering its perception of easy hegemony in the region. As Daniel Levy notes in a Haaretz op-ed,
Indeed, whether by design or not, the peace treaty with Egypt ushered in the era of the Israeli “free hand” in the region. Even though it has not delivered real security and has encouraged an Israeli hubris that can be both dangerous and self-destructive, that era of hegemony is something that Israelis are instinctively uncomfortable about losing.
Meanwhile, the US has lost critical face in the region, torn between its rhetoric and its cold, hard need to preserve hegemony in a region on which its economy depends. Losing power is rather a cyclical process—when you lose power, you are perceived as weak; and when you are perceived as weak, you depreciate more power. US reactions mark a fundamental break between Egypt and the subsequent revolutions—the tense 18-day drama enabled the US to paper over its intense anxiety with moth-worn liberal rhetoric. But even as the US attempted to ricochet the events by importing popular unrest in Iran via the State Department’s new Farsi Twitter account etc., the plot thickened. If Egypt’s Suez Canal remains the heartline for world energy and military transportation, connecting the Red Sea with the Mediterranean, then Bahrain’s strategic location at the mouth of the Persian Gulf itself was a far shocking development. And the cherry topping this Molotov Sundae is Libya, Africa’s largest oil exporter, going up in flames as Qaddafi proves himself to be the psychotic, delusional kook that he is.
Meanwhile, Iran has maneuvered itself as a regional player in the region, breaking through its geographical isolation. Israeli newspapers worriedly reported that Iranian warships have indeed traveled through the Suez and entered the Mediterranean after 39 years. Clearly, the intention was to announce the end of the Middle East as a US satrapy bowing before the legionnaires deployed in suits and fatigues.
And as the Libyan people plead with the international community to intervene against Qaddafi and avert the bloodbath he is wrecking, the UN and US remain paralyzed. And if the Arab world’s dignity deficit has significantly fueled the revolutions, the US’ public squirming on the hot seat as it is being forced to take a moral stand against its own interests, is rapidly generating a prestige deficit. Let’s give The Jersusalem Post the last word here:
Perhaps if more pressure had been brought to bear against Gaddafi when he just might have been ready to listen, Libya’s citizens would not now be getting shot down in the streets by a “mad dog” regime. At the very least, the UN would have retained a modicum of moral legitimacy.
