I found it pretty hilarious when Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu's stood before congress in May 2011 espousing the Arab Spring movement as a 'Berlin wall moment' in the Middle East. Okay I have to say he did warn of the possibility of such movement being hijacked by groups not aligned with western ideals of democracy. Nevertheless I found it extremely naive that Western politicians and media believed that the Arab Spring was a call for change to Western style democracy.
Personally I have always been puzzled by Western Leaders who want to view the upheaval in the Arab World as some sort of 'freedom movement', seeking to remove the shackles of repressive Islam and replace it with Western style democracy. Either Cameron, Obama and Sarkozy are all extremely naive and mislead, or they are playing us all for fools (I'll explain my reasoning later).
Here is an extract from Netanyahu's speech to congress in May 2011:
"...For an epic battle is now unfolding in the Middle East, between tyranny and freedom. A great convulsion is shaking the earth from the Khyber Pass to the Straits of Gibraltar. The tremors have shattered states and toppled governments. And we can all see that the ground is still shifting. Now this historic moment holds the promise of a new dawn of freedom and opportunity. Millions of young people are determined to change their future. We all look at them. They muster courage. They risk their lives. They demand dignity. They desire liberty.
These extraordinary scenes in Tunis and Cairo, evoke those of Berlin and Prague in 1989. Yet as we share their hopes, but we also must also remember that those hopes could be snuffed out as they were in Tehran in 1979. You remember what happened then. The brief democratic spring in Iran was cut short by a ferocious and unforgiving tyranny. This same tyranny smothered Lebanon’s democratic Cedar Revolution, and inflicted on that long-suffering country, the medieval rule of Hezbollah.
So today, the Middle East stands at a fateful crossroads. Like all of you, I pray
that the peoples of the region choose the path less travelled, the path of liberty. No one knows what this path consists of better than you. This path is not paved by elections alone. It is paved when governments permit protests in town squares, when limits are placed on the powers of rulers, when judges are beholden to laws and not men, and when human rights cannot be crushed by tribal loyalties or mob rule."
Now for me, when Netanyahu made this speech before congress I was aghast, I could not believe that he for one second would predict that any movement in the region too topple regimes (that are in fact very secular already, look at Mubarak, Ghadafi, Zine Al-Abedeen Ben Ali) would result in anything but success for the Islamist parties that have been oppressed for 30-40 years by Western backed Arab despots. Netanyahu mentions a fight between tyranny and freedom. Who represents the tyranny? His ally and Washington's friend Hosni Mubarak, or the Islamists? Or the idea of nations that can truly dictate their own direction without Western permission?
For me there are two common ideologies that sweep through the Arab world, aside from economic prosperity which I believe to be values I think are universal to mankind. The first shared ideology is that of Islam, regardless of how much Coca Cola and episodes of Friends you want to pump into the Arab world, all Arab nations are predominantly Muslim. Whether that be practicing Muslims or simply by name its a cultural identity deeply entrenched in the people. The second shared ideology is that of the Palestinian cause. Lets ignore the polices of corrupt Arab despots who have entered peace agreements with the Israelis. The Arab street on a whole supports the Palestinian cause.
So I have two conclusions; One of deceit and continued western interventionism in the Middle East, the other of empowerment for nations and their people free of Western governance.
I mentioned before it is possible that the West leaders are extremely naive and have no understanding of the Arab world, or alternatively they are seeking to create chaos and play by a divide and rule policy in the Middle East. That is, in fact they (leaders of the West) are seeking to allow an Islamist run Arab world in order to create more fear in their own domestic populations (that of Terrorism and Militant Islam), and in turn allowing them (leaders of the West) to continue in their interventionist foreign policy in the Middle East. I hope this is not the case.
It was to some very clear to see that such a movement was not an Arab Awakening as the West had wished for (for one reason or another), and as we now see it is the Islamist parties that have been sweeping into power. For this reason the upheaval in the Arab world represented an Islamic awakening. However as much as I welcome true democracy and the will of the people I do wonder if the coming into power of Islamist parties is part of a greater plan by devised in Washington. That is by creating another enemy in the form of true Islamic nation states similar to Iran's theocracy?
Governments that serve the nation and the will of the people will always remain a threat to Western dominance in the region. That is truly independent nation states that can reject foreign interventionism and dictate their own domestic and foreign policies will in time become powerful and exert their influence on there surroundings. This is something that Washington does not want to see.
