The Ayn Rand Institute hosted a panel discussion at the National Press Club which highlighted the issues facing the Middle East.
For his part, Elan Journo of the Rand Institute, viewed the issue as Israel facing Iran and its satellites as a proxy war. Arab nations have seen Israel as an extension of the United States.
Journo believes that the U.S. has misunderstood the problem. He sees negotiation with Arabs as a form of “extortion, that’s what is really going on.” He noted “there is no common ground” between Palestinians and Israelis and therefore “giving the enemy what it wants” and treating both as “morally equal when they are not” is an American mistake.
“Iran is the heart and soul of the Islamic awakening,” Clare Lopez of the Center for Security Policy (CSP) said. “Sharia Islam” is at the core of the uprisings, Lopez indicated.
The purpose behind it all is “to pave the way to the conditions for the implementation of Islamic law” and unite all Muslims under one banner. Her second point is that Iran has provided material support for the 9/11 atrocities conducted by al Qaeda, and yet, behind the scenes, there is a significant split in Iranian leadership and clergy. Such infighting has revealed a “real rift” and has placed the Iranian president Ahmadinejad “in competition with the Supreme Leader [Khamenei].” Her third point illustrated the concerns of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) about Iran’s growing nuclear capabilities, and that Iran “has the ability to enrich as high as they want to.”
Spencer Irvine is a research assistant at Accuracy in Academia.
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