Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Arab governments are less worried about the military power of Hamas and Hezbollah than they are about support for them among their publics

Telhami at Brookings, here
"... Arab governments are less worried about the military power of Hamas and Hezbollah than they are about support for them among their publics. They are less worried about a military confrontation with Iran than about Iran's growing influence in the Arab world. In other words, what Arab governments truly fear is militancy and the public support for it that undermines their own popularity and stability. ..
In all this, they see Iran as a detrimental force but not as the primary cause of militant sentiment. Most Arab governments believe instead that the militancy is driven primarily by the absence of Arab-Israeli peace. .."

In Cairo ...

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