A Political Ménage à Trois or Tacit Collusion. Does Obama Scare Muslim, Jewish, and American Salafis?
A political menage a trois?“Ministers split over Obama's Cairo speech: Prime Minister Netanyahu calls for special consultation immediately after American president's historic address. Labor's Braverman: We're committed to two-state solution. Habayit Hayehudi's Hershkowitz: Israeli government is not some overlapping excess of US administration…” Ynet (Israel)
Clearly, the right wing Likud and its extremist religious allies, the Israeli Hamas-ites, are nervous about this whole Obama thing. They would have much preferred old man McCain and the Alaska Thrilla to Obama. But now they have the schwartze to deal with.
It also clearly true what the Western media are saying about al-Qaeda being nervous about Obama. Bin Laden cannot predict Arab and Muslim reaction to him. It was easy to predict the reaction to Bush and Cheney, you could summarize it in four letters (Latin letters not Arabic or Farsi). Come to think of it, most Americans ended up having the same opinionof Bush and Cheney, and in the end gave them the electoral four-letter word.
So both the Salafi groups, in Israel and in the Muslim world are unhappy about Obama for now. But the Jewish Salafis seem more flexible: after all neither Netanyahu nor Lieberamn (Avigdor, not Joe) look like wild-eyed Jihadists, or Zealots. And they cannot go around antagonizing the United States.
Add to this mix the rabid wing of the Republican Party, which seems set to get comfortable in its own diaspora, somewhere down south and out in the prairie west. Then you have a starnge coalition that does not necassarily talk to each other. It is what we economists would call tacit collusion.
Oddly, the Shi'a fundamentalists do not seem worried about the whole thing. Neither Hezbullah nor Iran have had strong reactions so far. Maybe the Iranians are just good poker players, as their ancestors were good at the game of chess that they invented.
Cheers
mhg
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