Radical Islam is taking over the Middle East with no major rival, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Monday in a meeting attended by European diplomats who support Israel.| Both of them? |
| Optimist. |
"Today we see that the Arab world is weakening," Lieberman added, pointing out that the three major Mideastern players at this time -- Iran, Turkey and Israel -- are not Arab. He added that internal problems within Arab states are causing many clashes within Islamic society.
The great gulf between Islamic states and the West has to do with different values, Lieberman said. "Our demand for the Muslim world and our neighbors is first of all to accept different values. Today it's clear that Israel is the only strategic ally in the Middle East for the European Union and the United States, and it stems from shared values."
Lieberman said: "I'm monitoring events in Tunisia and Algeria and asking myself what's their connection to the conflict, or what's the connection between our problems with the Palestinians and the tension in Lebanon or current situation in Egypt. The conflict with the Palestinians is less than 1% of the problems in the Middle East."
Considering that the Iran-Iraq war alone killed more than a million people, not to mention civil wars in Lebanon, Yemen and Algeria, Lieberman said those who put the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at the heart of the problem are avoiding reality.
Lieberman also said that the world is divided into moderates and radicals. "At the end of the day, both Abbas and Salam Fayyad know that the great threat is not Israel and Zionism, but rather Hamas and Jihad," he said.