Josh Levs, CNN
"This is unprecedented in
the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict," says CNN's Ali Younes, an
analyst who has covered the region for decades. "Most Arab states are
actively supporting Israel against the Palestinians -- and not even shy
about it or doing it discreetly."
It's a "joint
Arab-Israeli war consisting of Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia against other
Arabs -- the Palestinians as represented by Hamas."
As the New York Times
put it, "Arab leaders, viewing Hamas as worse than Israel, stay silent."
One of the outcomes of
the fighting will likely be "the end of the old Arab alliance system
that has, even nominally, supported the Palestinians and their goal of
establishing a Palestinian state," Younes says.
"The Israel-Hamas
conflict has laid bare the new divides of the Middle East," says
Danielle Pletka, vice president of foreign and defense policy studies at
the American Enterprise Institute. "It's no longer the Muslims against
the Jews. Now it's the extremists -- the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas,
Hezbollah, and their backers Iran, Qatar and Turkey -- against Israel
and the more moderate Muslims including Jordan, Egypt, and Saudi
Arabia."
"It's a proxy war for control or dominance in the Middle East," says CNN's Fareed Zakaria.
To understand why and what all this means, we need to begin with understanding of Hamas.
Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood
Hamas, which has
controlled the Palestinian government in Gaza for years, is an extension
of the Muslim Brotherhood. To many Americans, the brotherhood is
familiar for its central role in the power struggle for Egypt. But it's
much larger than that.
"The Muslim Brotherhood
is international, with affiliated groups in more than 70 countries,
including Saudi Arabia and the UAE," says Eric Trager of the Washington
Institute for Near East Policy.
The Arab Spring showed
the region that uprisings can lead to the Brotherhood gaining power. So
it's a threat to the governments it opposes.
"Israel's ongoing battle
against Hamas is part of a wider regional war on the Muslim
Brotherhood," says the Soufan Group, which tracks global security. "Most
Arab states share Israel's determination to finish the movement off
once and for all, but they are unlikely to be successful."
"From the perspective of
Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, the UAE and some other Arab states, what
the Israeli Prime Minister is doing is fighting this war against Hamas
on their behalf so they can finish the last stronghold of the Muslim
Brotherhood," Younes says.
"Arab governments and
official Arab media have all but adopted the Israeli view of who is a
terrorist and who is not. Egyptian and Saudi-owned media are liberal in
labeling the Muslim Brotherhood as 'terrorists' and describing Hamas as a
'terrorist organization.' It's a complete turnabout from the past, when
Arab states fought Israel and the U.S. in the international
organizations on the definition of terrorism, and who is a terrorist or a
'freedom fighter.'"
Egypt
Egypt's new President vowed during his campaign that he would
finish off
the Muslim Brotherhood. Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, the former military
chief, deposed Egypt's first freely elected leader, President Mohamed
Morsy of the Muslim Brotherhood, last year following mass protests
against Morsy's rule.
El-Sisi was elected officially in June.
"In Egypt you have a
regime that came to power by toppling a Muslim Brotherhood government,"
says Trager. "It's therefore in an existential conflict with the
Brotherhood. So it doesn't want to see Hamas, the Palestinian Muslim
Brotherhood, emerge stronger in a neighboring territory."
Egypt also has another
reason to stand against Hamas: rising violence and instability in Sinai,
the northern part of Egypt that borders Israel and Gaza. Hamas' network
of tunnels includes some in and out of Egypt used to smuggle goods
include weapons for attackson Israeli civilians.
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