Prejudicial To Peace

"We hope any future government in Egypt will recognize the importance of keeping the peace treaty with Israel in its own right and as a basis for regional security and economic stability." Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

Well, think about it. What value would it have for the Middle East to embark once again on a concerted effort by Arab states to eradicate the sole presence of a non-Islamic nation in their midst? Islamist Iran, whose often-stated intention to destroy Israel aside.

For Iran, the bitterly vicious enmity extended toward Israel reflects their fanatical interpretation of fairly obvious fundamentals in the Koranic texts. Iran's Ayatollahs are invested in carrying out what they construe to be divine orders. It hardly matters to them that should they succeed in perfecting a nuclear warhead to destroy Israel, retaliation would destroy them as well.

For in puritanical, fanatical Islamism this life is but a prelude to the next. And pleasing Allah is critical to entering the next. And since it is written that the Jews, who refused to relinquish Judaism and surrender their devotion to Islam, should perish, then so be it. Martyrdom is, after all, in the service of Islam; a privileged entry-ticket to Paradise.

But for Egypt, for Jordan, Qatar, Syria, Lebanon, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, what would be the point of initiating another round of offensive attacks against Israel? Apart from incurring losses of life and materiel, and possibly geography as has occurred in the past, that kind of uncivil action seems less providential to growth and success than it did 60 years ago.

And world opinion, which is now currently stacked against Israel, would invariably swing back in Israel's favour. Countries of the world with a calculated moral stake in supporting a country formed to give protection to the world's Jews, those perennial international scapegoats, could hardly sit back and watch deleterious events unfold. Though they might.

There are international treaties to uphold, and moral justness to recognize and act upon. There would be consequences most unhelpful to a part of the world that the West is already sufficiently suspicious of. So setting aside the delusional fanaticism and belligerent paranoia of Iran, one should hope that the games that Hamas, Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad play will not be reflected in a new Egypt.

Nor that the inevitably growing strength of the Muslim Brotherhood which has always preached its anti-corruption, irreproachable kind of Islam that still detests Jews and Israel and longs for its eradication, will nonetheless fail to honour Egypt's long-standing peace treaty with Israel, even if it results in a more offhand and grudging recognition demanding a greater separation than formerly.

Israel's presence in the geography has enriched other countries in the region. Through its successful desalinisation research projects, its scientific, medical, agricultural, educational and trade outreach. One can only hope that through the fog of religious zeal and empowerment, a vestige of humanity's basic ability to transcend suspicion and aggression may prevail.