Shaping the Middle East
Right in front of our eyes a new Middle East is being shaped. New power brokers are arising from the ashes of the crisis in Iraq and Palestine. Otherwise silent governments are now speaking out. The Middle Eastern countries are rising to shape their own destiny. I for one am hopeful that something good will arise from the mess that the Middle East has become in the last few years.
What I find highly interesting is that the United Nations and NATO are literally not playing a part in the new vision and the United States is playing a very small part if any at all. New players are emerging to shape the destiny of the Middle East as they rightfully should.
These are some of the new players that I see changing the face of the Middle East right now: Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Syrian President Bashar al-Asad, and Lebanese President Emile Lahoud.
Missing from this list is the Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, and unfortunately that bodes poorly for the success that will come out of these new power brokers. More of the us against them mentality will eventually doom all the new Middle Eastern efforts.
Until the new leaders who are shaping the Middle East accept Israel's presence and importance, the biggest problem in the Middle East will simply be the elephant in the room that they are all trying to ignore.
