Israel Surrounded: Gaza Conflict Shows How The Power Of The Arab Spring Was Underestimated By Western Capitals

Zechariah 12:2, “Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of drunkenness to all the surrounding peoples, when they lay siege against Judah and Jerusalem.”

Joel 3:12, “Let the nations be wakened, and come up to the Valley of Jehoshaphat; For there I will sit to judge all the surrounding nations.”

By Richard Spencer, The Telegraph – “The central quandary of the Arab Spring was never lost on Israel. For years it held itself up as the only democracy in the Middle East, surrounded by vicious and anti-semitic dictatorships.

Now other countries are following suit, but in the turmoil of change life is becoming more dangerous, not less.

Israel’s Western allies were also quick to grasp this, tempering their enthusiasm for the political reforms which they had long promoted with caution as to the consequences; above all, now, in Syria where they are being dragged kicking and screaming into intervening on the rebels’ side.

But the surprise in western capitals at the imminent Gaza war is a sign that the real risk may have been overlooked. Last week saw not just the old battle between Israel’s defensiveness and militarism and the Arab world’s hostility and paranoia, but this time with a dash of popular feeling thrown in.

There is not, in fact, some overwhelming demand on the Egyptian street for the newly elected President Mohammed Morsi to take on Israel, despite what you might have read, even if it watches televised images of Gaza hospitals with as much horror as before.

Rather, what the Arab Spring has done is to change the strategic calculations of all the main players: Israel, Hamas, neighbours like Egypt and the Gulf’s small but rich new play-maker, Qatar. They all have different points to make from before.

Hamas is an off-shoot of the Muslim Brotherhood. However different they are, the bonds that unite its branches are strong and Hamas feels its time has come. Gaza is now part of a swathe of the Middle East where Islamists are leading politics, from Morocco to Iran.” Read more.

Flashback: NBC’s Engel ‘Worried’ About ‘Ferociously Anti-Israel’ Arab Street and Concludes ‘This Thing Ends in Jerusalem’