Arabian Nightmares

January 18, 2009:" The December 27th Israeli attack on Hamas in Gaza, in an attempt to stop the rockets (including a growing number of longer range Iranian ones) has triggered a major confrontation between Iran and the Arab world. While Arab media supported Hamas, they also blamed Iran for supporting continued Hamas rocket attacks, even after a ceasefire was arranged (with the help of Arab diplomats) last year. In effect, the Israeli invasion has led to another round of angry rhetoric between Arab and Iranian media. Iran ended up calling the Arab nations complicit in the Israeli invasion. But neither Iran, nor any Arab nations, stepped up and actually sent military forces to aid Hamas. Some media in the Arab world pointed out the obvious, that the Moslem states in the region were weak, but making a lot of media noise to try and hide their shame. What the Arab media did not hide was their fear and loathing for Iran, depicting the Shia religious dictatorship as a threat to "true Islam." Overall, the battle between Hamas and Israel suits Iran, as it distracts Israel, who Iran sees as their major foe in the region. But there is concern about the growing public anger at Iran in the Arab world. Iran long depended on the Arabs being disunited. Now the Arabs are uniting in their fear of Iran, and buying a lot more weapons. The Arabs are even behaving with much less hostility to Israel. Iran tries to use that to make as much they can in their propaganda. But Arab fear of Iran is growing, while their fear of Israel has all but disappeared. Hamas, which Iran began supporting in 1990, and the Palestinian group is now seen, in the Arab world, as a wholly owned subsidiary of Iran."

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