Mideast Peace the Crucial Importance

Mideast Peace

The crucial importance of peace in the Middle East

It would not be an exaggeration or alarmist to say that the world today is balanced on a knife-edge. The mainstream media is a daily litany of depressing and ominous news about various danger areas in the world. What is possibly the most worrying aspect is the sense of global involvement that these news broadcasts intimate and the feeling that what is happening in the larger world is directly related to our everyday lives.

There have always been reports of bad and dire news from abroad. What is new however is that the news from abroad now affects us more directly.

It is almost as if there has been a globalization of fear and concern about the future. News reportage and media coverage seems to generate a feeling that these portents of disaster and calamity are not "out there" but affect us intimately and challenge the security and future.

Paramount among all these international issues that impose themselves on us and affect our lives is the situation in the Middle East. There is no one single concern that is so important in the world today as the impact that an escalation of conflict in this region could have on everyone's lives. Peace and a de-escalation of violence and aggression in the Middle East are not only desirable but also essential. This is a view that is echoed by many Middle Eastern experts and commentators and it is one that everyone should be concerned about.

The significance pf peace in the region extends far beyond the factional wars and unrest in the areas itself. The conflict between the Palestinians and Israel and the situation in Iraq, are all issues that are both regional and which have vast political and other implications for world peace. This is a fact that should be obvious to all thinking people, but it is often obscured by details and the focus on specific areas of concern at a given time. It is the overall picture and that way that the various conflicts are interrelated and building towards a crisis that is the important aspect to be emphasized.

Simply stated, if peace does not return to the Middle East and if the situation is exacerbated any further by the myriad points of friction, there is every possibility of, as President Bush has suggested, the horrific possibility of a third world war.

The reasons for this crisis are clear if we take into account the events of the past few years. These events bear repeating and need to be placed in context to provide a comprehensive overview of the situation.

Firstly, the Middle East is not only of strategic importance but it is also rich in oil. This fact alone makes it a sensitive area in times of the decline in the sources of fossil fuel in the world. This also makes the region vulnerable in terms of the political and other aspirations. Coupled with this is the ongoing tension between Israel and the Palestinians. This is a conflict that has deep and bitter historical roots and is the touchstone to other conflicts in the region - and with the West.

Then of course we have the war in Iraq. This war has escalated out of control in terms of security and has in fact created a new training ground for terrorists. This is an alarming fact. As these conflicts increase and the more that that Western countries are seen to be implicated or perceived to be taking sides, so the threat of terrorism and terrorist attacks in foreign lands becomes a greater potential reality. The terrible events of 9/11 are a continual reminder or this fact.

Numerous commentators warn that unless a peaceful solution to the central conflicts in this region is found, the threat of terrorist attack in and outside the region will increase. It should be remembered that terrorist attacks in the West are usually motivated by perceptions of Western involvement in the Middle East. Whether these perceptions are correct or not is not the immediate issue. What is important is that unless a more stable Middle East is achieved this threat will become imminent.

Part of the solution to the problem is an awareness of the reason for the problems in the fist place. It is important that we realize that there is this perception among many people in the Middle East that Western Countries like the United States have been complicit in the violence and aggression in the region. Whatever ones one's view on this subject, there is a certain amount of historical validity to this claim in view of the often-questionable involvement of Western and colonial powers in the region in the past century.

Last but certainly not least is the threat that Iran poses in its seemingly irrevocable advance towards the realization of nuclear power. The main players in this region and the world realize with alarm that a nuclear Iran will make it the dominant country in the region and will place it in potential conflict with Israel.