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Enemy of my enemy is my friendReader comment on item: Tectonic Shifts in Attitudes toward Israel Submitted by Anon (United States), Jan 12, 2019 at 15:25 The so called warming is an illusion. Arabs have learned over the years that Israel is impregnable and will not bend to their antics. But Arabs also feel a genocidal hatred towards non Sunni entities like Iran thanks to their centuries old religious fundamentalism. Iran meanwhile has a deep distrust of America thanks to its history starting from the overthrow of Mossadegh in the 50s right up to the axis of evil comments bestowed on it by Bush post 9/11 (which Iran ironically had nothing to do with). Iran can't directly impact the US but it thinks of Israel as a US proxy and encourages and abets other actors in the middle east against Israel. The Arabs see this as an opportunity to align with Israel against Iran - but its not out of new found love for Israel. Many US conservatives especially those that came of age during the 70s when a much more fundamentalist Iran had an ugly standoff with the US have an instinctive distrust of Iran. This distrust has never been defused but the US had an opportunity after 9/11 to align with Iran against the country that actually produces most of the 9/11 hijackers (ie Saudi Arabia). However probably in part because Bush too probably has vivid memories of the Iranian hostage crisis from the 70s he escalated the conflict with Iran with his axis of evil comments. Iran had in the past borne the brunt of US support for Saddam in his vicious tribal war against Iran in the 80s so they probably see no reason to believe that the US invading Iraq would have any consequences for them. So in this love triangle between the Iran, the Arabs and the West the Arabs are hoping that with their realignment with Israel they can cause lasting damage to Iran. Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments". Reader comments (81) on this item |
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