The establishment of the Western coalition against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) began in hypocrisy. Since the Americans and their allies brought down Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in April 2003, the region has been swept by waves of violence that could have been taken from a horror movie. Hundreds of car bombs have exploded, dozens of people have been beheaded and hundreds of thousands of innocents have been murdered. No Western leader thought to intervene to help the millions of innocent citizens in Syria, Iraq or Libya when it collapsed. Even when ISIL began to spread its wings, making men disappear, and abducting and raping their women, nothing was done.
Only after Jihadi John came on the scene did they suddenly wake up. Only after the British man of Egyptian origin executed two captive US journalists by cutting their throats, and ISIL seized control of oil fields in Syria and Iraq, did US President Barack Obama understand the threat to American interests. Even more so when he realized that hundreds and perhaps thousands of Western citizens were fighting for ISIL, and tomorrow they might return home and begin trying to do exactly what they have done to Syrian President Bashir Assad.
He suddenly realized that these terrorists had taken control of Iraq's oil refineries. All the hypocritical condemnations from the Emirates about these murderers were trotted out, and suddenly the welfare of the Arabs became close to the hearts of Western leaders. The slogans and fighter aircraft were dusted down and reports soon said that the coalition air bombings were significantly slowing down the progress of ISIL and hurting its hold in the regions that it controls.
Jordan was one of four Arab countries whose forces joined the coalition to fight ISIL, along with Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the UAE. The US leads the coalition against ISIL along with allies such as the UK, Australia, France and Germany. The Western world, and that includes Israel, cheers this initiative from the stands, and embraces with support and great excitement the armies rescuing us and saving mankind from absolute evil.
But this embrace is selective. The Syrian regime, for example, has been drawing the blood of the same terrorists for the past almost four years: Sunni, jihad-oriented and ruthless. No-one has been cheering it on; everyone has been deaf to its pleas for help; and the enlightened West has even worked over the years for its overthrow. Today many understand, but not enough people, that the collapse of the Assad regime would hasten the establishment of ISIL throughout Syria.
Why does King Abdullah II of Jordan enjoy a loving embrace and backing from the West, which is not extended to his neighbor Assad? In contrast to Damascus, Abdullah has kept his distance from Tehran, as if it were the plague. In this world, you are not always free to choose your friends. Sometimes you are pushed in a particular direction. Assad inherited the Iranians from his father and the Cold War era when Damascus was a Soviet colony.
The cynical politics of the Middle East are too complicated to be looked at in black and white. Sometimes, the friend of your enemy is not your enemy in every place and at every time. The Ba'ath regime in Damascus, although it is difficult forus Israelis to get used to this idea, served for decades as a buffer against the outbreak of the sadistic urges that we saw in the killing of the Jordanian pilot. Those wanting to topple Assad, in effect wanted Syria to become a second Iraq or Libya. And from Israel's point of view, everybody wanting to hasten the downfall of Assad was in effect encouraging a jihadist threat on Israel's northern settlements.
Much has been said in recent days about the evil of ISIL's armed terrorists. How can they dare burn a man alive that is begging for his life. There were even those who found the fundamental motive for the crime in the Islamic genome. Many forgot that just seven months ago, a group of Jews murdered 16 year-old Palestinian Mohammed Abu-Khdeir from Jerusalem, by burning him alive. While the Jewish terrorists acted under their own private initiative, and ISIL is an organized group with a hierarchy, the cruelty is the same cruelty. Woe to the camel that finds it difficult to see its own hump.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on February 8, 2015
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