The Middle East isn't on the brink of war. It's on the brink of catastrophe - by Tim Hames
MOSHE DAYAN, one of Israel’s earliest soldier-politicians, instantly recognisable because of his bald head and vast black eyepatch, was once pulled over by the traffic police for driving at close to 100mph. Indignantly, he demanded: “I only have one eye. Do you want me to look at the speedometer or the road?”
That sentiment could be applied to the violence that has occurred in the Middle East since Wednesday. The outside world is largely looking at it through one eye, assuming that Israel, although provoked, has needlessly escalated the situation to the point where it is said to be “out of control”, the region is “on the brink of war” and as a result, in the words of the Arab League on Saturday, “the Middle East peace process is dead”.
The Middle East has ceased to be an argument of its own; it has become enmeshed in and sometimes a theatre for other conflicts and controversies. A whole series of rivalries — Arab-Israeli, Shia militia and Sunni fanatics in Iraq, Iran and its nuclear ambitions, the activities of al-Qaeda and a revitalised Taleban in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the contest over Kashmir — have become entangled with one another.
The notion of a Middle East peace process still rests on the premise that states can negotiate with one another. But recent events indicate that the authority of several states surrounding Israel has slipped to the point of incredibility."
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