A bleak neighbourhood

Submitted by Ian Campbell (United Kingdom), May 8, 2008 at 10:30

It would seem from this analysis that the nations of the Middle East are still in the post-Ottoman empire phase of re-establishing their own identities, shattered finally at the Treaty of Versailless. Israel came along in the post WW2 era and added to that identity crisis.

The House of Saud cleverly identified their future was oil in the 1920's and applied the glue of Wahhabism to give their house the control it needed to optimise their share while granting a new identity to the Arabian tribes. It has been the succesful domestic sectarianism of that family that has maintained calm within its own borders through this religiosity at home and by behaving like the school bully to Israel's brainy swat abroad. The slow realisation of this will take place as the wealth that accrues to the few so far exceeds that which is divided amongst the rest will surely bring this to an end - at some stage. In the meantime the now extreme religiosity has spilled abroad and is increasingly likely to be confronted as we are witnessing in Afganistan and Iraq.

When that happens and achieves a moderating outcome, Israel will then be able to be proud of its neighbourhood, because it will have played a huge and vital part in its creation.

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