The Arab Spring from a Counter-Terrorism Perspective

By Boaz Ganor, JCPA

World War III is occurring right now. It is not only a war of ideas, it is a religious war – not between Islam and the rest of the world, but first and foremost a war within the religion of Islam. It is a war of the culture of Islamic radicalism against the rest of the world, which includes the majority of Muslims worldwide.

A few months ago, White House Counter-Terrorism Advisor John Brennan said, “Islamists and Jihadists are not our enemy.” In response, I wrote an op-ed in the Jerusalem Post which explains that moderate Arab leaders know that Jihadists and Islamists are the enemy. By saying that Islamists and Jihadists are not the enemy, the United States – the spearhead of Western society and the protector of liberal values in the world – is sending a confusing message to its allies worldwide.

In the competition between the Iranian axis and the pragmatic axis, the Iranian axis is winning. Hizbullah is growing stronger in Lebanon and Hamas is gaining power and scoring points in Gaza for the Iranian axis. Also, the decision of Turkey to choose the Iranian axis is becoming quite clear.

Dr. Condoleezza Rice has said that her next book is going to refer to a pillar of American foreign policy: the introduction of democracy in the Muslim world. My upcoming book will address exactly the opposite. It will be about how terrorists and fundamentalists are misusing the democratic apparatus of the state in order to promote their goals. When fundamentalists win in democratic elections, it is one man, one vote, one time.

Is there anything we can do in order to change this negative outcome? I would call to immediately establish a second Marshall Plan, similarly to what happened after World War II, for those new regimes being established in the Muslim world and to support other pragmatic regimes that have not yet faced internal revolutions. Since imposing democracy on these societies might be counterproductive and dangerous, it should be an incremental process. At the end of the day, only Muslims can and should educate Muslims.

May 27, 2011 | 4 Comments »

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  1. A Marshal plan for “those new countries now being established in the Middle East”? To whom to to which entities in these nations would you give the money or aid? The Muslim Brotherhood if it takes over in Egypt? Hezbolah in Lebanon? The King in Jordan? There has to be some kind of underlying democracy in these countries before you shower them with money the U.S. has to first borrow from China. I am surprised at you Ted for suggesting such a solution. In truth doing absolutely nothing would be better than doing something that would only encourage further dependancy. We must face it. Until Islam enters the twentieth, let alone the twenty-first century, there is little that the West (in which I include Israel) can do except protect itself and draw lines beyond which the West will respond with force. Nearly every psychologist will tell you that enabling bad behaviour only make the matter worse.

  2. “Dr. Condoleezza Rice has said that her next book is going to refer to a pillar of American foreign policy: the introduction of democracy in the Muslim world.”

    More cover and more DELIBERATE deception for totalitarian, global Islam. Violent attacks and murderous hate in Egypt and the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood is their version of ‘democracy’.

  3. White House Counter-Terrorism Advisor John Brennan said, “Islamists and Jihadists are not our enemy.”

    People don’t realize that Brennan was deadly serious when he made that statement. The U.S. and the G8 are eagerly gifting billions of dollars to Egypt (and other countries). The US and the G8 are DELIGHTED that their top favorites, the Muslim Brotherhood, is now the most powerful group in Egypt. U.S. betrayed ally, moderate Mubarak, is now in detention in a military hospital. His sons are in jail. And the burnings of churches and attacks on Christians have increased enormously.

    Homeland Security specified last year who they regard as the enemy: Tea party attendees; pro lifers, returning veterans from the wars. (An innocent veteran was recently ruthlessly killed by a SWAT team who fired 70 bullets at Mr. Guerena whilst Mr. Guerena’s wife and child hid in terror. Although an ambulance arrived within a few minutes, the SWAT team refused to allow medical personnel into the home for one hour and 14 minutes whilst Mr. Guerena lay in agony surrounded by his cold-blooded killers, with no one to help or comfort him).

    People don’t realize how serious Homeland Security was when they specified who the enemy is.

  4. Marshall Plan, baloney! Let them kill each other. Why throw gasoline onto the fire? We are not in an influence struggle with the Soviet Union; we don’t HAVE TO do anything; and the more the US gets involved, the worse it will be for her.

    Brer Obama, de Middl Eas is de tar baby!

    — Brer Rabbit