[The Australian] Editorial - While most governments in the Middle East are reconciled, albeit uncomfortably, to Israel's existence, popular opinion in the region is adamantly opposed to the Jewish state. And Iran is keen to keep the Palestinian problem center stage, in part out of a hatred of Israel, but also to divert Arab attention away from its nuclear ambitions. The way the Palestinian people are used as pawns in a bigger game by the Iranians is rarely acknowledged in the West, where what is commonly seen as Israeli intransigence is wrongly portrayed as the sole stumbling block to peace. A region-wide commitment to peace will be hard to secure while Palestinian politics remain dominated by single-issue extremists whose response to every issue is to demand the destruction of Israel.
2009-07-31 06:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive