"...My remarks contrasted sharply with the vision outlined by General Michael Herzog (Ehud Barak's chief of staff at the Israeli Ministry of Defense) in the plenary session. Herzog offered this graphic, if familiar, imagery: Iran is the head, Syria the body, and Hamas and Hezbollah the two arms reaching out to strangle Israel. I countered that this conflation of different challenges was misleading, dangerous, and unhelpful. Hamas and Hezbollah are two of the most popular forces in the Arab world -- why "give" them to Iran? Treat Hezbollah as a Lebanese issue, Hamas as a Palestinian issue, and resolve them on their own terms. Address Syria's national interests in a direct dialogue. And engage with Iran seriously, not just as a show before getting on to sanctions or military confrontation..."
Friday, May 8, 2009
"...Hamas and Hezbollah are two of the most popular forces in the Arab world..."
Marc Lynch, spoke at the plenary session of the Soref Symposium, the annual spring conference of the WINEP on the future of public diplomacy and the "war of ideas" in the Obama administration... Some of what he said, posted on FP, here
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Free speech at WINEP? That's news. Or times have changed since the fiasco of the Bush administration and the arrival of Obama with more down to earth ideas and willingness to settle problems in the area away from idiotic (see SMI) ideological battles to which Arabs are no party.
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