Current Events

I. Analyze This: In a cold war with Iran, can Syria become Israel’s ‘china card’ Jerusalem Post;
By Calev Ben-David
March 13, 2008
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1204546441777&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull


II. Israel has been in a “cold war” with Syria and Iran. This past Sunday the cabinet of Israel was presented with a security report stating that there is little chance of an assault on Israel territory in ’08. Iran and Syria decided they cannot attack Israel with conventional warfare. So the Israelis are just being constantly aggravated by Hizbullah, Hamas, and The Islamic Jihad. All three of these are major threats to Israel. While Israel is being “harassed” Iran is, “expanding their missile arsenals and perhaps adding the threat of nuclear capability.” So eventually because of the growing nuclear abilities on both sides it is becoming a “Cold War” like the U.S faced against the USSR. The Israeli government believes that current day Syria is like china during the U.S-USSR conflict and Israeli officials believes this is a very plausible strategy in weakening Iran’s power. Also this is also made possible do to the weakened leadership of Syria’s president Basher Assad who does not have the power and ability to lead like his father.


III. A. I believe this article relates to the AP History Theme of state-building, expansion and conflict. This is because Israel is under constant threat from Ian and Syria. This is a conflict due to many years of power struggles, disagreements in ideal logy of government, and the different religious sects of Islam.
b. Israel and some of the other Middle Eastern nations, specifically Iran and Syria, have been in what some would call a cold war. This started shortly after conflicts in the 70’s. But the roots of this battle go back to the death of Muhammad, now it seems to be just another Sunni-Shiite conflict
c. The point of view of this article is quite obvious. This article is written by Israeli, male and an Insider to the conflicts but an outsider into government and those proceedings.
d. This article should be approached with caution because it is reported very unfairly towards Iran and Syria. This author talked quite negatively about Iran and Syria. In the statement in the article, “they choose to harass us instead.” The information he used in the upcoming lines in the third paragraph after that statement is pure speculation and had no facts to prove those statements. He sounds very biased against Iran and Syria.
e. A major point of view in this article that would be greatly appreciated would be that of the enemy of this issue, Iran. This would be useful because this is almost all biased information and the reader receives no argument. All we get is a one sided story. That never is the ‘Whole’ story.
f. I believe that this conflict is so stupid. The two nations are so close and have so many similarities. I believe if they see past the smaller differences they can work out some agreement. There is no reason why these people in these countries have to worry about surviving the day it isn’t right or necessary. I believe with a little reason this conflict could be ended.