Mike Pompeo's laugh

The civil war in Syria is on its last leg. But, Israel is still in the bombing campaign in the surroundings of Damascus.  The attacks they say are aimed at the Iranian military camps. Israel conveniently forgets that Iran’s presence in Syria is on the request of Bashar al Assad.

In fact, Assad could not have withstood the test of war without the help of Russia and Iran.  Finally Turkey also played its role.  Anyway, Israel’s attack targeting Iranian camps cannot be justified. It is just like our guest being attacked by our neighbour. Syria has announced that it would retaliate. This incites fear. If a war begins,  America and Russia may not sit idle. It could be a catastrophic fireball that would engulf the entire Middle East.

Israel wants to dominate the Middle East by luring the Arab countries into their fold. It is favoured by the blessings of the Trump administration.  Standing atop as the only nuclear power in the region and having grabbed more than three fourths of the Palestinian land,  it continues its onward march by multiplying the Jewish settlements in the occupied land.  No Arab country is capable of preventing its transgressions. Under Saddam Hussein's rule,  Iraq was reckoned as a major threat to Israel. That was what led to the invasion of Iraq by America. Now, they fear Iran.  So, the U.S. is adamantly opposed, for the sake of Israel, to permitting Iran to come up as a nuclear power. 

The rise of the politically engaged Evangelical Christians has been a pillar of the Republican Party since the time of Ronald Reagan. The 2016 election of Donald Trump further established their strength. They believe that God gave the land of Israel to the Jews. This is the incitement for the Evangelicals’ uncompromisingly ‘pro-Israeli’ stance. As the fundamental beliefs can't be questioned, it has in turn become the default position of the Republican party.  The upshot is that the Israeli Government's growing hostility towards the Islamic Republic of Iran, which it finds as a major threat to its security, has been mirrored in the American foreign policy. This is Israel’s Trump card.
 

However, now Israel finds it difficult to cope with the alignment of Russia and Iran.  It was Russia’s air power and Iran’s various allied militias, including Hezbollah in Lebanon, bolstered President Assad’s forces on the ground.  Without their support Assad might have been swept off from office. Now, in order to safeguard Israel, America wants to confront Iran. Trump administration seems to envisage a military intervention. Mike Pompeo’s middle East visit was to placate Israel and to persuade the Arab countries to form a ‘NATO’-like front against Iran.  They think that this could be achieved by popping up the Shia -Sunni sectarian conflict.  Pompeo’s speech at the American University in Cairo, significantly contained only one passing reference to ‘democracy’ and zero references to ‘equality’ and ‘human rights’.   But, there were twenty references to ‘malevolent’ and ‘oppressive’ Iran.        Paul Danaher, former BBC Middle East bureau chief, referred to the speech as ‘simplistic’, noting that its “theme was the goodness of Israel and the evil of Iran.”  This reminded me of the meeting between President Franklin Roosevelt and King Abdul Aziz of Saudi Arabia in the dying days of World War Two, on board the USS Quincy in the the Suez canal. The need for democracy in the Gulf was not on Roosevelt’s mind. On behalf of the US, he struck a Faustian bargain: America will provide the Arabs with security and in return the Arabs would provide America with oil.  The bargain still holds even after seven decades. This actually is the core theme of the US foreign policy.

Over the past seventy years, America backed, armed and funded Israel as they bombed, conquered, occupied, colonized and ethnically cleansed the Arab world.  It was under the pretext of weapons of mass destruction in possession of Saddam Hussein, that Iraq was invaded by the U.S.  But, until today, no such weapons have been discovered.  Actually, the invasion was for the sake of Israel. Let the world ask: Why did America destroy Iraq?  The U.S now remains stuck in strategic limbo in Afghanistan.  It is the longest war - for 17years-  in U.S history. They bombed the country and killed the civilians. But, still we find that Taliban plays the major role in Afghanistan.  Recently, Trump administration began direct talks with Taliban in Doha.  Let us ask: why did America devastate Afghanistan? Now, the war in Yemen has killed at least 10,000 Yemenis and left more than 22 million people- three quarters of Yemen’s population- seeking the help from humanitarian organizations. According to the Guardian, 8 million Yemenis are on the brink of famine and 1 million infected with cholera. Let the World ask: why did America intervene In Yemen and supply the weapons? 

Now, Russia plays a pivotal role in the Middle East. It affects its status as a reliable ally worth depending on.  According to Russia’s Kommersant newspaper, the Syrian army and its air defence would be ready to use the advanced Russian S-300 missiles by next March. As the Israeli election is in April, it perturbs Netanyahu and Trump.  Any way, Pompeo’s speech contained a litany of lies and exaggerations to placate Netanyahu. He was laughing while he repeated that America has been trying to free the Arab world from political