AP: Arab States Bowing To Iran Because Of Israeli Settlement Construction

Omri Ceren
Mere Rhetoric
31 March '10

Jews building homes for their families and schools for their kids? Is there anything it can't do?

The head of the Arab League urged the 22-nation bloc on Saturday to engage Iran directly over concerns about its growing influence in the region and its disputed nuclear program... The push to engage Tehran seems to be at least partly fueled by Arab frustration over Washington's failure to get Israel to back down on plans for more Jewish settlements on land the Palestinians want for a future state. It also suggests that Arab nations are increasingly less likely to align with the U.S. strategy on Iran if they feel they are getting nothing in return in Mideast peace efforts.

This comes courtesy of the AP's Khaled al-Deeb. Because that's why they're doing it. It has nothing to do with how Iran is steadily growing more powerful in the region, forcing millennial-old antagonists like Turkey into their orbit and Finlandizing Arab states one by one. It's that Israelis are building supermarkets in the West Bank and condos in East Jerusalem. Obviously.

The real question is whether it was an editor or al-Deeb himself who inserted the weasel phrase "at least partly" into the copy. Smart money's on the editor, who couldn't really cut out the entire analysis section but also couldn't get over how transparent and stupid the stunt was.

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