While the Israeli election campaigns rages on, centered on such vital issues as the quantity and quality of the ice cream and wine consumed in the prime minister's residence, the world has not stood still. These developments have been coming to the fore:
Firstly, the prime minister's appearance before the Congress of the United States continues to increase in importance, among other reasons because of the virulent petulance of the Obama Administration in opposing it. This is of such magnitude that it is creating a backlash even among democrat members of Congress who might otherwise have stayed away. But more significantly, Netanyahu has a chance, which hopefully he will make full use of, to consolidate the understanding of the members of Congress and through them the American people, of the extreme danger represented by Iran's approach to the "nuclear threshold", which will be facilitated and legitimized by the agreement apparently being cooked up by Kerry and Zarif to be presented to the other participants in the six-power group as a fait accompli.
Meanwhile, Professor Gilo of the Anti-Trust Authority continues on his mad quest to severely damage Israel's economic and energy future, as well as frustrating an historical opportunity to strengthen economic ties with Jordan and Egypt. Recent developments have included the signing of a Memorandum of Intent by Egypt with Cyprus to purchase gas from the Aphrodite field and the announcement by Jordan that they might do the same. The Edison company of Italy withdrew from its intention to bid on the development of the two smaller fields and a smorgasbord of Israeli government ministries and agencies demonstrated yet again that Israel has no idea how to deal with natural resources, by presenting to Delek and Noble a proposal of Byzantine complexity and manifest impossibility of execution. A short few days later the very same government admitted that the proposal was unworkable. You can't make these things up unless you are writing a script for The Three Stooges.
To end on a positive note, subsequent to the astonishingly brave speech given a few weeks ago by Egyptian President al-Sisi at Al Azhar University, the preeminent institution of higher learning of the Sunni world, calling for a "revolution" in Islam, the head of the university, in a speech in Mecca, no less, declared that Islamic education must be fundamentally reformed to reverse centuries of stagnation and obscurantism. The current Egyptian administration should be warmly embraced and encouraged by the forces of the West. Instead, Israel ruins its chances to promote economic ties, Europe is lost in its economic and social torpor, and the US administration continues to demonstrate that in fact it supports the Muslim Brotherhood, the mortal enemies of al-Sisi and the origin of every one of the Sunni terrorist organizations active today throughout the world. As a wise goblin was quoted as saying, by an equally wise English playwright, "What fools these mortals be". Indeed.
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 February 24, 2015
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