Middle East: a bleak year ahead?
I had the pleasure of enjoying some Javanese folk songs, pop music and beer – Bir Bintang to be precise - with a Jogja-based artist on New Year’s Eve. The atmospheric mood, however, became rather sombre when the topic was shifted to the on-going attacks by the Israeli army against Hamas in the Gaza Strip that had killed more than 350 people, including women and children.
The artist friend had been playing some American songs too, but that did not stop him from uttering in the most despondent tone his detestation for the atrocious crime against the Palestinian civilians.
I had the pleasure of enjoying some Javanese folk songs, pop music and beer – Bir Bintang to be precise - with a Jogja-based artist on New Year’s Eve. The atmospheric mood, however, became rather sombre when the topic was shifted to the on-going attacks by the Israeli army against Hamas in the Gaza Strip that had killed more than 350 people, including women and children.
The artist friend had been playing some American songs too, but that did not stop him from uttering in the most despondent tone his detestation for the atrocious crime against the Palestinian civilians.
"Without the backing of the US, the Israelis could not have come thus far". And he went on to play Bob Dylan’s ‘Blowin’ in the wind’. He may be a ‘secular’ Muslim, but it would still be inhumane for a secularist – and anyone else - to tolerate indiscriminate killings on this scale.
A litmus test for Barack Obama’s presidency will be the daunting task of resolving the various conflicts in the Middle East. Many Muslims around the world – from Europe to Malaysia – have high hopes for a US president with some Islamic connection to rectify all the wrongs that the Bush administration had done in the Muslim heartland, but the recent offensive by Tel Aviv has clearly complicated the issue.
In fact, what has happened over the last few months only indicates the powerful influence of the hawkish forces within the US and Israel on the so-called peace process in the Middle East.
Without justifying the militant strategies adopted by Hamas itself, I would argue both sides are equally capable of committing the most heinous acts against humanity, and their crimes are crimson red indeed.
Influence oil prices
Radicalising the situation in the Middle East has always been a draw-card for the diehard forces in Washington to demand for more military assistance to Israel. For instance, missile attacks by the US last October against the Syrian settlement of Abu-Kamal, situated 8 km from the border with Iraq, were intended to destabilise the internal political situation in Syria, with a view to undermining the ruling regime and securing further international isolation of Damascus.
The missile offensives were in some way aimed at provoking Syria into retaliation, thereby escalating the situation into a local war, damaging Damascus’ military potential, and jeopardising the already tumultuous ties between Syria, Europe, Lebanon and, most important of all, Israel.
On the other hand, American lobbyists who have close ties with US-based weapons manufacturers and oil companies are least interested in seeing a more stable Middle East, and they have been citing the tension among Syria, Iraq, Iran, Hamas, Hezbollah and Israel to force through bills in Congress that seek to increase military help and assistance to Israel.
In the long run, it would enable some form of permanent American military infrastructure to be established in the region and artificially influence oil prices in the global market. One cannot rule out the greater global economic risk that might ensue should this scenario come to pass.
What is seldom mentioned in the press is that the US army does not always have the most reliable intelligence information required to attack the so-called ‘terror cells’. In the attack on Syria, its target was merely a deserted military base which had not been used for the last eight years!
It was for this reason that Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in his visit to the United Arab Emirates, demanded an official explanation on the issue from Washington.
No auspicious start
And the only casualties of these reckless military endeavors were innocent civilians, a notorious pattern that has been repeating itself in American ‘operations’ in Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan, which ‘inspired’ Tel Aviv’s latest attacks against Hamas to some extent.
The failure of the Islamic countries to put a halt to the crisis is culpable, and the Muslim masses worldwide are now consumed in more anger and rage.
"I do not condone the corrupt and autocratic leaders in the Muslim world. Never. But this is no excuse for the US and Israel to press on with their war on terrorism that only kills innocent lives," said the Jogja artist.
These words, despondent they may sound, pretty much sum up the sentiments of the Muslim communities. And there was no auspicious start to the new year indeed.
