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ForsythOpinion
Wednesday, February 1,2012
Israel: Risk
or relief?
ByUriDromi
McClatchy Newspapers
As Israelis l<x>k at devel¬
opments around them, they
have reason to be con¬
cerned. Hezbollah in the
north is arming itself, while
Hamas in the south is a
constant threat. Bashar al
Assad is butchering his
Syrian countrymen, and
one wonders whether it's
worse for such a bloody
dictator to remain in power
amid a fragile stability, or
for him to go, opening up a
Pandora's box as in Iraq.
The sir-called peace pro¬
cess with the Palestinians
seems to be at a dead end,
and no one really know s
who to blame. President
Obama is busy trying to
win re-election, so he can't
twist arms or knock heads.
And above all, there hovers
the gmw ing threat of the
Iranian nukes.
If this is not enough, then
Egypt is an enigma. A year
after the revolution, the
people who tixrk to Tahrir
Square are left frustrated
outside the political arena,
while the well-organized
Muslim Brotherhood
moves in to collect the
spoils. Their representative,
Saad al-Qatatam, has just
been elected the speaker of
the parliament, and togeth¬
er w ith the Salafists, the
more radical Islamic move¬
ment, they have the majori¬
ty in the House.
Meanwhile, the army,
which still calls the shots.
tries to maintain
“Mubarakism without
Mubarak.”
The question that bothers
Israelis is whether the
peace treaty with Egypt
will hold. Without a strong
leader like Anwar Sadat or
Hosni Mubarak, who were
committed to the treaty,
there is a danger that the
army will have to compro¬
mise with the new Islamic
political forces by paying
them with Israeli currency.
Already the Egyptian
lsraeli border in Sinai is a
source of trouble, and the
pipeline carrying Egyptian
gas to Israel is routinely
sabotaged
However, one can l<x>k at
these developments
through a different prism. It
depends, of course, on
whether one is a pessimist
or an optimist.
Being a sworn optimist, 1
see different things in the
same Middle Eastern imag¬
es. While to others they
spell risks and threats, to
me they mean opportunities
and hopes.
Lct's look again through
a different perspective.
• Hezbollah is still lick
ing its wtxinds from the
2006 Second Lebanon War;
its Syrian support is wan¬
ing; and it is heavily
bogged down in the com-
CARTOONISTS' VIEWS ON THE NEWS
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Kirk Walters The Toledo Blade
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plex Lebanese political
quagmire
• Hamas, w hich had
refused Iran's demand to
support Assad, w as pun¬
ished by the closure of the
generous money line from
Tehran to Gaza. Once its
headquarters in Damascus
w as closed because of the
Syrian turmoil, Hamas was
appalled to find out that no
Arab “brother" state was
willing to host them. A
weakened Syria with or
without Assad - w ill stop
being the crucial link, in the
chain of aggression leading
from Iran to Lebanon.
• The Palestinians may
be dragging their feet
around the negotiating
table, but they are not los¬
ing time in nation-building.
An American official
involved in helping them
establish their law-enforce¬
ment agencies told me that
never before was there such
a feeling of personal securi¬
ty; so much so, that parents
let their kids go alone to the
cinema at night, something
unusual in Palestinian
towns, as well as in gixxl
many American ones.
When leaders on both sides
are ready to talk seriously
again. Israelis will find the
Palestinians to be much
more serious partners than
ever, especially w hen it
comes to the most impor¬
tant issue for the Israelis:
Security.
• Iran remains a threat,
but just look what happens
w hen the world starts being
serious about sanctions.
With Iran's economy in
danger, soon the suppressed
Iranian people will make a
move.
• Finally, Egypt, which is
only starting to get its act
together, is too busy with
its own problems to rock
the boat with Israel. At a
conference in 7,urich last
week field by the think tank
Horasis, which brings
together the global business
community, Tarek Tawfik,
managing director of Cairo
Poultry' Group, told me that
the Islamists are pragma¬
tists, w ho will have to feed
80 million people. They
will have to compromise
their radical Islamic beliefs
with reality. Israel, he says,
is the least of their con
cents.
I believe him, but to be
on the safe side. I decided
I’ll set my own little litmus
test, not as scientific as the
experiment in Nebraska,
hut still: If the Islamists rule
that hotels in Egypt should
stop selling alcohol to their
foreign guests, thus jeopar
dizing Egypt's tourism
economy. then I’ll know
that my optimism failed.
Uri Dromi writes about
Israeli affairs for The Miami
Herald.
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"He says the weather is fine, but he's
not coming out until the primaries are over!
Jim Powell for the Forsyth County News
As Newt shakes it
Georgia voters of the Republican
persuasion will be choosing their
favorites in the presidential prefer¬
ence primary coming up on March
6, and it looks like those could be
important ballots.
As one of several primaries set
for “Super Tuesday," Georgia
could actually have a big impact on
which candidate gets the
Republican nomination.
That did not seem likely a few
weeks ago when the primary sea¬
son was thought to be nearing its
close. Former Massachusetts gov¬
ernor Mitt Romney, according to
the experts, was on the verge of
closing the sale with the
Republican base, which would
make the March 6 primaries irrele¬
vant.
Former House speaker Newt
Gingrich, it seemed, was sinking
fast, an impression that was rein¬
forced by his weak finishes in the
Iowa caucuses and the New
Hampshire primary.
As he has done so often over the
past year, however, Gingrich came
roaring back. He found his voice in
South Carolina, performed well in
two debates, and whipped Romney
among Palmetto State voters by 12
percentage points.
Gingrich is back in the battle and
looking better in national polls of
likely Republican voters. The man
who got his political start as a
Georgia congressman still has a
shot at becoming the GOP nomi¬
nee for president. The prospect of
that has set off alarm bells among
the power brokers that make up the
Republican Party establishment.
Fred Thompson, the former
Tennessee senator who has made a
second career as an actor in movies
and TV productions, alluded to
those misgivings on a recent trip
through Atlanta. Thompson mount¬
ed a brief campaign for the
Republican nomination four years
ago and has endorsed Gingrich this
time around.
“The establishment has pan¬
icked,” Thompson said. “He
(Romney) was the anointed front¬
runner for a long, long time, and
quite a bit of panic has set in.”
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This is a page of opinion — ours, yours and
others. Signed columns and cartoons are the
opinions of the writers and artists, and they
may not reflect our views.
X.
TOM CRAWFORD
Columnist
Gingrich certainly caught
Romney’s attention. After he was
trounced in South Carolina,
Romney began raising pointed
questions about Gingrich's mental
stability during the week leading
up to the Florida primary.
“He’s gone from pillar to post
almost like a pinball machine, from
item to item in a way which is
highly erratic,” Romney remarked
at a news conference in Tampa. “It
does not suggest a stable, thought¬
ful course, which is normally asso¬
ciated with leadership."
I asked Thompson if this
description of Gingrich as “errac
tic” and “unstable” was a fair char¬
acterization.
“Newt is just Newt," Thompson
replied.
He is correct about that.
Gingrich's personality in this cam¬
paign isn’t any different from the
political face he has shown the
world over the past 35 years. He’s
as feisty, outrageous and sarcastic
as ever.
Those qualities appeal to many
voters looking for someone w ho
will take the fight to President
Barack Obama in the fall cam¬
paign, but they can also turn off
some people, including Gingrich’s
own Republican colleagues.
We saw some of that division
during Thompson’s visit to Atlanta,
where he met briefly with Capitol
reporters to make a few comments
on behalf of Gingrich.
Several legislators who support
Gingrich stood with Thompson at
the news conference, including
state representatives Joe Wilkinson,
Sharon Cooper, Harry Geisinger
and Charlice Byrd, along with sen¬
ators Barry Loudermilk, Steve
Gooch, Judson Hill and John
Albers.
Another Republican lawmaker.
'Gingrich's personality
in this campaign isn't
any different from the
political face he has
shown the world over
the past 35 years. He's
as feisty, outrageous
and sarcastic as ever.'
Lynne Riley, wasn't nearly as sup¬
portive of Gingrich. She sent out
an e-mail in response to Thompson
slating, “Newt Gingrich has spent
the last decade running from his
Georgia roots and into the antis of
the Washington insider establish¬
ment. We need a steady, reliable,
conservative leader who can beat
Barack Obama and turn around our
broken economy — not a lobbyist
and former legislator w ho left
Congress in disgrace.”
Gingrich has always provoked
those kinds of feelings, whether
you are talking to people who like
him or people who detest him. T hat
could be one of the reason why
his campaign has bounced up and
down so dramatically over the past
nine months.
I'm writing this column before
the Florida primary, another elec¬
tion in which the pundits and
experts are predicting a victory for
Romney that once again could
wrap up the GOP nomination.
Maybe they’re right this time.
I’m still hesitant to make any final
predictions. Gingrich has a way of
coming back to life every time you
think he’s dead and buried.
Tom Crawford is editor of The Georgia
Report, an internet news service at
gareport.com that reports on govern¬
ment and politics in Georgia. He can
be reached attcrawford@gareport.
com.