John Podhoretz posted an article on the New York Post website yesterday with an interesting perspective on the unrest in the Middle East.  Mr. Podhoretz points out that the Obama Administration has said that the key to peace in the Middle East is a resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian dispute over territory and the creation of a Palestinian state. 

Mr. Podhoretz reminds us that during the first twenty years of Israel’s existence, all of its Arab neighbors were at war with her.  During the past forty years, that situation has changed. 

The article states:

“Jordan effectively quit the fight after Israel’s triumph in the 1967 war cut Jordan in half.  So too did the Arab states that did not share a border with Israel.  The bloody toll of the ’73 war then led Egypt and Syria to surrender their ambitious military efforts to drive Israel into the sea.”

Recently, the problems in Israel have been with terrorists claiming to represent Palestinian interests based either in the West Bank, Gaza, or southern Lebanon.  None of this is related to what is going on in Egypt. Jordan, or any other Arab state experiencing protests.

The rulers in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Jordan have all been in place for a minimum of thirty years (Mubarak has been in power for thirty years, the others longer).  These are not democracies and all have severe economic inequities.  Israel (and America) have been used as scapegoats to take the blame off of the totalitarian regimes.  Why then are we surprised when the protesters are yelling, “Death to Israel and Death to America?”  It is highly unlikely that thirty plus years of blaming Israel and America will give us a pro-western government. Unfortunately, a democracy in Egypt may bring us another Iran.