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Jewish World Review
July 25, 2006
/ 29 Tamuz, 5766
Iran pulls the war strings; the Shiite Crescent
By
Richard Z. Chesnoff
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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
Make no mistake. Israel's raging war with Hezbollah is more than a battle between the Jewish state and a fanatic Islamist enemy. It is a bloody, ruthless struggle whose outcome could determine the future shape of the entire Middle East — both Arab and Israeli.
The Shiite terrorists of Hezbollah may be Lebanese, but they are the servile puppets of Iran. The enthusiastic decision to provoke war with Israel was made by Tehran — not Hezbollah and certainly not the emasculated Beirut government.
Hezbollah's Iranian masters have two intertwined goals — one short-term, one long-term. The first is to stir up enough trouble to divert global attention from Iran's determination to build a nuclear weapon. The second is connected to the bitter, centuries-old rivalry between the two primary branches of Islam — the Shiites and the Sunnis.
Shiite Iran wants nothing more than to stab itself into the heart of the largely Sunni Muslim-Arab world and take control of it. Vali Nasr, a professor at the Naval Postgraduate School and an expert on the Shiite revival, warns that the whole Middle East is at risk of a "sectarian conflict between Shiites and Sunnis."
I agree with those Mideast experts who warn that Tehran's real goal is to create what Jordan's King Abdullah calls a "Shiite crescent," an Iranian-led band of nations stretching from Pakistan through Iran to Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and ultimately Palestine. This Shiite empire would try to dominate and rule the entire Middle East. Israel, which Iran's extremist President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has frequently sworn he wants to "wipe off the map," would be the immediate target. But the true full aim would be an Iranian hegemony that would eventually eclipse and take over such moderate, pro-Western Sunni Arab states as Jordan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
That, in Iranian thinking, would severely hobble America — second only to Israel in Tehran's list of hates. Let's not forget that Iranian-backed Hezbollah's first major attack was the 1983 bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut, which killed 241 people.
There are mystical elements to Teh.ran's evil goals as well. As former Israeli Chief of Staff Moshe Yaalon pointed out in a New Republic article last week, the mullahs hope "ultimately, to provoke the return of the Hidden Imam, the central figure of Shia eschatology, and thereby usher in a Muslim messianic age. To achieve these goals, Iran is willing to support just about any terrorist organization that will confront the West."
Right now Tehran's chief Arab ally is Damascus. While Syria is largely Sunni Muslim, its minority Alawi sect — a Shia offshoot — has run the country for 30 years. The Syrians have allied themselves closely with Iran and supply Hezbollah in hopes of slithering back into Lebanon on their tails. Palestinian Hamas is also Sunni, but its major supplies come these days from Tehran and as part of its determined war on Israel, Hamas has sold its Sunni hearts to the Shiites.
The ultimate irony is that in the current war the Jewish state is defending the Arab world as well as itself and Western interests.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
CHESNOFF'S LATEST
The Arrogance of the French
Sean Hannity
This book will open your eyes!
Bill O'Reilly
Why do the French hate America? Richard Chesnoff has figured it out and informs us with entertaining clarity.
Dennis Miller
France sucks, but this book doesn't.
Michael Barone, Co-author, The Almanac of American Politics
Americans-and the French-will learn a lot from this book.
Clifford D. May, President, Foundation for the Defense of Democracies
Richard Z. Chesnoff insightfully-and entertainingly-explores America's most dysfunctional relationship with America's least reliable ally.
Sales help fund JWR.
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JWR contributor and veteran journalist Richard Z. Chesnoff is a contributing correspondent at US News & World Report, a columnist at the NY Daily News and a senior fellow at the Washington-based Foundation for the Defense of Demoracies. A two-time winner of the Overseas Press Club Award and a recipient of the National Press Club Award, he was formerly executive editor of Newsweek International. His latest book, is "The Arrogance of the French: Why They Can't Stand Us & Why The Feeling Is Mutual". (Click on cover above to purchase. Sales help fund JWR. ) To comment, please click here.
ARCHIVES
© 2005, Richard Z. Chesnoff
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