Dickson Igwe

Evangelical Christians around the world have recently joined with their Jewish Brethren in celebrating the ‘Feast of Tabernacles’’ the last celebration before the return of ‘’Messiah’’ and a time of joy and much giving and generosity.

However, in the City of Jerusalem, the ‘’tectonic plate’’ where the three great religions: Judaism, Islam and Christianity historically and frequently meet, overlap, clash and conflict, this City remains entrenched in a place of upheaval and war called the Middle East, and this even after decades of efforts by the leaders of the Free World to bring about some semblance of peace to that ancient geography. 

The Middle East remains the most volatile region in the world.  And for all of their excellent intentions at the start of the Barack Obama Presidency, the key diplomats in dealing with that tragic region, Senators John Mitchell, Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden have hit the normative ‘’brick wall’’ in their resolve to bring about a land for peace settlement in the Palestine. This is not surprising as many a veteran of Mid East diplomacy will readily acknowledge. The Middle East is a ‘’graveyard’’ of failed diplomacy.

This 2009, the limits to American power can be clearly seen in the development of a new Jewish neighbourhood in Eastern Jerusalem: the Jabel Mukabar region where 105 housing units are to be built in Nof Tizon. This new development will eventually extend to Armon HaNatziv in Eastern Talpiot where a master plan calls for nearly 500 apartments, two synagogues, community and educational facilities and a mall. 

Tzi Ben Gedalyahu, Correspondent from Israeli Daily News Report writes that ‘’ Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has rejected President Obama’s demand for a total freeze on building in East Jerusalem, saying the entire City is under the sovereignty of Israel.  The United States and most Western nations regard all of Judea and Samaria, including many parts of Jerusalem, as Arab land that Israel occupied since the Six Day War.’’

Add to this ‘’explosive cocktail’’ the fact that the regions second military power, Iran is determined to acquire nuclear weapons through subterfuge if necessary. Iran continues to play a game of ‘’nuclear poker’’ with the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations and a Western Alliance that appears to lack the requisite military determination to ‘’take out’’ Iran’s military infrastructure. With a ‘’devout leader’’ who calls for the ‘’extermination of Israel’’ and who is expecting the return of the ‘’Mahdi’’ a deity who will finally bring justice to the planet. The prospects for peace in that region remain as remote as in 1967 war era.

Throw into this mix a hard core in the United States and Israel that support a military strike on Iran.  And this group in Israel is unsurprisingly led by Prime Minister Netanyahu and his Likud Coalition. In the United States, numerous ‘’hawks’’ in the Pentagon and various groups such as conservative think tanks, evangelical groups and pro Israeli organizations, US Citizens who are mainly of a right wing and evangelical persuasion also favour a strike on Iran to take out her nuclear infrastructure. 

However, the majority views internationally, and these views are mainly held by moderate elements in Europe and Iran’s allies: Russia and China are that the only option in stopping a nuclear Iran is economic sanctions. Furthermore, a majority of the world’s developing economies such as Brazil and India favour a ‘’softly softly’’ approach toward Iran.  

Fareed Zakaria, Newsweek International’s erstwhile and scholarly international columnist , and Fareed is not a supporter of military action against Iran, admits that a military strike is the one probable outcome of the current ‘’standoff.’’  He writes: ‘’ one way to get instant gratification would be military force.  The United States or Israel could attack Iran from the air.  To be effective, such an attack would have to be large-scale and sustained, probably involving dozens and dozens of sorties over several days.  The campaign would need to strike at all known Iranian facilities as well as suspected ones.  Such an attack would probably not get at everything. Iran sites are buried in mountains, and there are surely some facilities that we do not know about. But it would deal a massive blow to the Iranian nuclear programme. 

Then there will almost certainly be a backlash through increased terrorist activity against the United States and her allies and a strengthening of support for Iran on the ‘’Arab Street.’’ An attack on Iran will set the cause for stability in a volatile Middle Eastern region back many years.  Then there is the unpredictable consequence on the price of oil if the petroleum infrastructure in the region comes under attack. And that could make the current world recession look like a ‘’tea party’’ especially if the price of hydrocarbons ‘’goes through the roof.’’

Zakaria believes that the most likely outcome is one in which the world attempts to contain a nuclear Iran with a system of deterrence such as was the case during the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. Zakaria does not believe Iran will ever use a nuclear weapon and thereby assure her own inevitable and imminent destruction by a nuclear armed Israel and her United States ally.
 
There remains one wild card, however. The Israel of Binyamin Netanyahu has vowed that she will not allow a nuclear Iran in her neighbourhood. It is easy to talk about diplomacy and containment in a United States or Western Europe when the source of trouble lays thousands of miles away across vast oceans and land masses. However when one lives in a volatile region where fighting with neighbours is a Modus Vivendi, ‘’ all bets are off.’’  

And the Israelis have never felt any type of restraint or lack of compunction to fight when they have believed that their security is under threat. Furthermore, a weary ear close to the statements and retorts emanating from the mouth of the Israeli Prime Minister and his militaristic cabal can only hear the ‘’drum beat’’ of imminent and upcoming conflict in an eternally tortured region. In war: ‘’abyssus abyssum invocat:’’ one misstep leads to another.’’  Or as the ‘’experts’’ love to state: ‘’with Iran there are no good options.’’
 
Dickson Igwe is a Christian minister and writer.

DISCLAIMER: The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of the management and staff of BVI News and its parent company.

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