Bruce Feiler - Where God Was Born, Abraham, Walking The Bible

A Hole in the Center of the World
Monday, December 25, 2006

I have believed for some time that many of the problems in the Middle East come from the weakness of many of the political leaders, and in times of weakness, leaders inflate the size of their enemies to buoy their strength at home. This applies to President Bush, to Prime Minister Olmert, to President Ahmadinejad, and to Hamas. News this week only reinforces my view. As predicted on this blog, elections in Iran last week highlighted the weakness of the president and how his outlandish rhetoric has strengthened the moribund reform movement of a few years ago. Despite this, the prime minister of Israel, weakened over his mishandling of the war in Lebanon last summer, has stepped up his rhetoric. This op-ed in Haaretz gets the situation about right. Among the four reasons Olmert is escalating his rhetoric about Iran:

3. To solve political problems. There is nothing like an external threat to calm the internal arena, and there is nobody like Olmert, an experienced politician, to use it. Expanding the coalition? Appoint hawk Avigdor Lieberman as minister of strategic threats. Paralyzing the opposition? Allow Benjamin Netanyahu to curse Ahmadinejad and call for his trial in The Hague - then he won't attack the government. Commissions of inquiry? Who has time to discuss the failures of Lebanon when the Iranian mushroom cloud threatens?

Labels: Middle East

Posted by B Feiler at 6:07 PM
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