A tip of our collective hat to JINSA: the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs for their timely analysis of both the inauguration and the situation in the Middle East. Always one step ahead, JINSA is one of our favorite Jewish organizations. Sign up for the JINSA Report delivered via email.
January 21, 2009
Change Here and Change There It was hard to tear ourselves away from the inauguration and impossible to think we are the same country today as we were yesterday at 11:59. We have always believed that ours is an exceptional country, particularly in the peaceful passing of power between presidents and between parties. Ours is an extraordinary country, as the election of a minority president by the majority makes evident. But the ways in which America is different today are ways that have to do with us as a people and adjustments to our view of ourselves. If our adversaries think we have changed in ways that matter to them, they will be disappointed.
That doesn’t mean there isn’t great change afoot, and as we go back to work today, change abroad is real and it matters.
There was a double change in the Middle East over the weekend. It was Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari who told Kuwait television that the Arab foreign ministers had been unable to reach consensus on a statement regarding Gaza. When was the last time Iraq spoke for the Arab world, and the last time Arab rulers couldn’t agree that Israel was the problem? The foreign ministers divided loosely into the pro-Iranians and the anti-Iranians, with Saudi Arabia and Egypt leading the latter.
The old paradigm – Israel vs. the Arab states and the “Palestinian problem” has to be solved before the Arab countries can work with us – is over.