Bare reality

James Baker, US secretary of state during the presidency of George H.W. Bush and chief of staff of president Ronald Regan, said not too long ago that the Palestinian conflict is no longer the epicentre of the region’s myriad conflicts, having been dwarfed by the conflicts in Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Libya and Lebanon.

Baker is probably right. The main capitals of the world seem to have lost interest in the Palestinian-Israeli peace talks not only because they are not getting anywhere for obvious reasons but also because the Palestinian crisis is no longer the primary flashpoint in the Middle East

Israel, of course, is behind downgrading the Palestinian case and keeping it under the radar of the major powers. This “conspiracy theory” lends support to the proposition that the bloody armed conflicts in several Arab countries neighbouring Israel may have Israeli hands behind them.

The international community is still trying to find out who is really behind Daesh; some accuse the US, others point to Israel, which is the primary beneficiary from having the Arabs at each other’s throats.

Yet other observers contend that those who accuse Israel of fanning the flames of war in several Arab states are giving Israeli intelligence community much more credit than it deserves and ignore the natural religious, ethnic and political fault lines in Arab countries, which are the real reasons for the upheavals.

Whatever the case, Israel stands to benefit the most from the current situation in the Arab world, but it would be too simplistic to think that the Arab woes are the making of Israel.

It is high time that the Arab countries accepted that their problems are of their own making.