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Dr. Walid Phares
The Gaza Flotilla Decoy for Iranian Missiles to
Hezbollah
June 1, 2010
At first glance, the takeover by the Israeli Navy of
the "humanitarian flotilla” heading towards Gaza is
just one more of the disputed crises between Israel
and its foes. As in all previous incidents, the
spiral of accusations will eventually reach bottom.
While media attention will highlight the tactical
events -- seizure of the ships, rules of engagement,
who fired first, the legal location of the incident
and the other dramatic details -- the rapidly
expanding debate will soon reach the strategic
intent of the "flotilla.”
After all the governments involved issue their
condemnations and warnings in all directions, after the UN conferences and
issues a statement and international forums mobilize to indict their predictably
targeted foe -- in this case Israel -- the question unavoidably will be: why is
there a flotilla heading towards a military zone, and what is the ultimate goal
of the operation?
According to the organizers of the "Free Gaza” network, which enjoys the support
of Hamas and its backers in Damascus and Tehran but also of governments
considered in the West as "mainstream” such as the AKP of Turkey and the oil
rich Qatar, this vast coalition of regimes and organizations assert that the aim
of the 700 militants and activists was to pierce the encirclement of Gaza and
lift the naval blockade of the enclave. Hence the actual goal of the
humanitarian effort is to relieve Hamas, not to ensure aid to the civilians
trapped in the strip. For if aid and comfort was the sole objective of the
operation, the material would have been calmly handed to the United Nations’
agencies which would have forwarded it to the network of humanitarian
associations and NGOs inside the afflicted zone. Either Egypt or Israel would
have checked it and would have, under international obligation, sent it across
the cease fire lines.
But the organizers of the flotilla, a vast coalition supporting the Jihadist
organization based in Gaza, aimed clearly at a geopolitical gain, open a
maritime path for Hamas to receive strategic support from the outside and
solidify its grip over the enclave. Spokespersons for the "flotilla” would
obviously deny the long term goal and focus on the humanitarian stated agenda.
But had the architects of the initiative added a global plan to solve the crisis
in Gaza, one would have given credit to the humanitarian version of the story.
From Ankara to Doha, from Damascus to Tehran, policy planners are aiming at
reaching "their piece” of Palestine, ironically at the expense of the
Palestinian national authority.
Indeed, beyond the evaluation on tactical or legal grounds and who should be
blamed, the picture on the strategic level is much more ominous. The launching
of the "flotilla” timed up with two major developments: one by the moderates in
the region backed by the United States and the international community and the
other by the radicals in the region led by Iran and Syria. After repeated
attempts to bring Israelis and Palestinians back to the table of negotiations
over the past few months, Washington was close to achieving that goal with the
help of moderate Arab governments and the European Union. The Palestinian
Authority and the Israeli government were on their way to a sit down -- direct
or indirect -- to proceed at an advanced stage in the process. Saudi Arabia,
Egypt, Jordan and other players were blessing the move cautiously. But this
process was moving outside the control of Iran and Syria and their protégés in
Gaza.
Hence, sending activists via high seas to break the encirclement of Hamas was
part of collapsing US and international efforts to resume the peace talks.
Indeed as we all know, once the radicals trigger (and organize) a wave of
"Jihadism” in the media and streets, no moderate will show up for discussions.
And that’s what is happening as of today: a spiraling crumbling of the latest
chance for peace talks.
This is not new. It is a modified repeat of previous manipulated incidents: The
Hezbollah War in 2006, the Hamas coup of 2007, the Gaza war in 2008 and many
similar successful maneuvers in the 1990s; obstructing the peace process by
using militants wearing peace jackets. But the more ominous development this
flotilla is camouflaging is a real land fleet bringing missiles and advanced
weapons to Hezbollah from Syria to the Bekaa Valley.
Over the past weeks reports have abounded about Iranian long-range missiles
shipped via Syria to Hezbollah and satellite images have shown terror bases in
the vicinity of Damascus growing under Baathist protection. As soon as the
attention of the international community began to focus on the flow of strategic
weapons to Hezbollah, the "brotherhood of regimes” unleashed the Gaza flotilla
across the Mediterranean. Seasoned geopolitical experts would rationally link
the move to create an incident off the coasts of Gaza with the move to equipping
Hezbollah with lethal missiles.
In the end we’re looking at two flotillas, the maritime one in the south being
only a decoy for the land fleet to achieve its goal of war preparations, in the
north.
About Dr. Walid Phares
Dr. Walid Phares is the Director of Future Terrorism
Project at the Foundation for the
Defense of
Democracies in Washington, a visiting scholar at the European Foundation
for Democracy and the author of the War of Ideas. Dr. Phares was one of the
architects of UNSCR 1559. He is also a Professor of Middle East
Studies at Florida Atlantic University and a contributing expert to FOX News.
Dr. Phares teaches Global Strategies at the National Defense
University. He serves as the secretary general of the
Transatlantic Parliamentary Group on Counter Terrorism. Professor Phares’
is the author of two critical books on the Islamofascist threat to Western
Civilization, "Future Jihad: Terrorist Strategies against the West ”
and "The War of Ideas: Jihadism
Against Democracy." Dr. Phares
is a co-secretary general of the Trans Atlantic
Legislative Group on Counter Terrorism. |
