The media and Western governments continue their myopic inability to discern the important from the peripheral. In addition, their obsolete Eurocentrism is indicated by the amount of attention paid to events in Ukraine versus similar events in Thailand and Venezuela. The latter particularly is potentially much more significant for the national security of the US than anything likely to happen in Ukraine.
The curious obsession with the "negotiations" between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, which are so far non-existent and which even if successful would have little effect on the rest of the Middle East, has led to minimal attention being paid to a potentially catastrophic fracturing of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), the Arab Sunni countries confronting Iran and its allies.
The GCC countries: Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, the UAE, Qatar and Oman, once rock-solid, have broken up into three groups. Oman and Kuwait are cozying up to Iran, obviously having concluded that the Persian Mullocracy is the winning side. Qatar has broken GCC consensus in continuing to support the Muslim Brotherhood. In retaliation, the Saudis, Bahrain and the UAE have withdrawn their ambassadors from Qatar. This action is absolutely without precedent in the GCC.
Note that Kuwait and Oman have NOT withdrawn ambassadors. Note also that since the Bahraini regime is sustained by Saudi military force, the island kingdom has no real autonomous foreign policy, and thus the GCC countries maintaining traditional policy is in fact limited to Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Finally, keep in mind that there is a large Sh'ia population on the Gulf coast of Saudi Arabia, facing Iran, and where the bulk of the Saudi oil production is located.
I have written about the multiple challenges to the Saudis in these columns before. The situation continues to deteriorate seriously and the possible effects on all the various conflicts in the region, could be immense. Israel will not escape the fallout.
At the same time, there is very good news from America. No, not prime minister Netanyahu's meeting with president Obama, which was predictably a non-event, but rather the agreement that Netanyahu signed between Israel and the state of California (doing an end-run around Washington) to integrate the hi-tech sectors of the two great world poles of technological excellence; the huge country/state of California and the tiny country at the eastern end of the Mediterranean.
The enormous contribution of Israeli hi-tech to the country and to the world will now be enhanced by what will become a single pole of technological progress, which as worldwide political leadership goes from mediocre to worse, holds beyond doubt the greatest hope for the future. Congratulations, Mr. Prime Minister.
Norman A. Bailey, Ph.D., is Adjunct Professor of Economic Statecraft at The Institute of World Politics, Washington, DC, and teaches at the Center for National Security Studies and Geostrategy, University of Haifa.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on March 13, 2014
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2013