...by Princeton's Bernard Lewis, who The Wall Street Journal called "the world's foremost Islamic scholar." In one passage that enlightened me, Lewis gives some historical backdrop to the ongoing alliance of sorts between the United States and Israel. Apparently, this alliance first gelled in the mid-1950s, after the Soviet Union and Egypt announced an agreement to supply Cairo with Russian arms:
The spread of Soviet influence in the Middle East and the enthusiastic response to it encouraged the United States to look more favorably on Israel, now seen as a reliable and potentially useful ally in a largely hostile region. Today, it is often forgotten that the strategic relationship between the United States and Israel was a consequence, not a cause, of Soviet penetration.
In another excerpt, Lewis summarizes our current leadership's overall approach to the Middle East, in a manner that - at least judging by the WSJ accolade - appears to be acceptable to that leadership:
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, a new American policy has emerged in the Middle East, concerned with different objectives. Its main aim is to prevent the emergence of a regional hegemony – of a single regional power that could dominate the area and thus establish monopolistic control of Middle Eastern oil. This has been the basic concern underlying successive American policies toward Iran, Iraq, or to any other perceived future threat within the region.
Importantly, Lewis is careful to note that both suicide bombers and any perpetrators of attacks on civilians are in blatant defiance of Islam principles:
Two features mark the attacks of September 11 and other similar actions: the willingness of the perpetrators to commit suicide and the ruthlessness of those who send them, concerning both their own emissaries and their numerous victims. Can these in any sense be justified in terms of Islam? The answer must be a clear no. [Both suicide and the killing of non-combatants are strictly prohibited in Islamic teachings like the Qur'an.]
Here's a link to Amazon's page on The Crisis of Islam, a superb - and easy to read - briefing on the history of Islam and on Islam's role in today's world.
