It is worth paying attention to the activities Israel has displayed of late on this international chessboard. First, Israel went through crisis after crisis -- with Turkey, New Zealand, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and United Nations (UN) General Assembly. It is necessary not to evaluate the Turkish crisis just from the political perspective. The projects of Israeli companies in the scope of the Southeastern Anatolian Project (GAP) were frozen. The rights of the Israeli state airlines, El-Al, to interrogate people and carry weapons at Istanbul airport were taken away, its flights were canceled, Israel's deputy prime minister was not welcome, its prime minister's invitation was turned down and a series of other crisis. I had already told you about the crisis with New Zealand in one of my articles entitled, "Whose passport is in whose pocket." The crisis with the ICJ and UN are related to the "famous" wall.
How can a country deal with such a huge crisis?
By making unexpected attacks on the chessboard. The first one was related to Iran. Since the news about Iran's potential to make nuclear weapons will become manifest, International Atomic Energy Agency [President Mohammed] ElBaradei chose to make his statements in Israel as if there was no other place for him to speak. On one hand, while the new Iraqi government said normalization of relations with Israel would not occur until other Arab countries did likewise, on the other hand, it declared Iran as the biggest enemy. The bread has been toasted; however, butter is still being spread onto it...
Later bombs exploded in Uzbekistan. In the attacks, which were later understood to target the Uzbek government, suicide bombers blew themselves up in front of the U.S. and Israeli embassies. Israel sent considerably large Mossad, Sabak (internal security) and forensic teams to the region. It is certain that this incident will make Israel act with more ease in this Central Asia's largest and richest country. (Terrorism is something to be cursed; however, it gets even disgusting when it merges with stupidity.) Now, Israel is trying to sabotage the AMRAAM missiles purchase deal between the United States and Jordan, which is about to be concluded. That the air-to-air missiles are mounted on Jordanian planes does not perturb Israel much. In fact, Israel is disturbed by the possibility of these missiles being acquired by Egypt. If the United States sells these missiles to Jordan, then there would be no reason for it not to sell them to Egypt in the end.
In addition, the U.S. presidential election is on the horizon. With what do you think [George W.] Bush and [John F.] Kerry are trying to persuade American voters? "During my presidency, Israel will be better protected." It is rumored that Kerry plans to bring Jimmy Carter, who managed to persuade Israel to sit around the agreement table in 1979, to the Mideast advisory committee. Out of fear that Carter's assignment might disturb Israel, Kerry is doing his best to show that he loves Israel. On the other side, Bush's tactic is to heap favors on Sharon rather than Israel. Every logical person would deduce that a U.S. president who can even love Sharon, can do many other things for Israel.
Now, we turn around and look at the great chessboard. A series of crisis a medium-size country cannot easily cope with, is not even capable of opening a hole in Israel's wall. Later, Israel again settles in the center of events, with a series of counterattacks coming along with the events. Countering this dynamism, the aim of those who are inclined towards terrorism is being served. Those dealing with conspiracies, are deceiving themselves. I, on the other side, try to learn by observation: How can this knight make so many attempts at the same time?
August 2, 2004
