Israel untouched by Arab Spring

It's surprising, an Arabic-language commentator says, that the whole Arab Spring has had so little effect on Israel. Other topics in today's digest: a ban on takfir, and that Syrian referendum.

Surprisingly, Israel still seems to be almost unaffected by the changes of the Arab Spring

When the winds of the Arab Spring began to blow, more than a year ago, most of us thought they would push forward the Palestinian cause and jumble Israel's expansionist plans, Abdelilah Bellaqziz wrote in the UAE-based newspaper Al Khaleej. But that appears now to have been a mere spell of wishful thinking, he went on.

It all made sense at the time. Promisingly, Arab uprisings overthrew the overbearing "Camp David regime" in Egypt, the author said.

Egypt had not only been Israel's first ally in the region, and its partner in enforcing a siege on the Palestinian people and clamping down on the resistance, but was also "the engineer" of humiliating Arab compromises, according to the author.

When the uprisings began to take effect, many Arabs and others were convinced that America's spending since the Nixon administration, "to buy Israel a quiet life in the heart of the Arab world" had become a wasted investment, he said.

"It seemed that after so much politicking, the US came away with nothing - its whole Middle East Project was falling apart."

But these projections are not happening in the real world, the author stressed. Come to think of it, Israel has not been touched by any of "that Arab volcano's lava," he went on.

"It is as if the Zionist entity is located outside the very land it has occupied."

In fact, Israel has attacked Gaza on many occasions since the Arab Spring started, in retaliation against rockets fired by Islamic Jihad fighters. Israel was completely undeterred; its forces killed civilians "in cold blood" and unleashed "frenzied" settlement operations in Jerusalem and the West Bank.

Moreover, Israel has had no qualms about condemning efforts at reconciliation between the two main Palestinian factions, Hamas and Fatah. Never mind that thousands of Palestinians organised marches in support of that reconciliation, which many, if not all, Arabs await as a boost for the Palestinian cause.

"Yet here we are today … no one is really sticking up for the Palestinian cause," the author said. "Across the Arab world, everyone has time to devote to anything, except the occupying enemy. That enemy is the one allowed to relax."

"Obviously, there is nothing in all of this that would scare Israel, or even cause it to worry," the author said.

"Even those Arab armies that once built their whole raisons d'être on the idea of fighting the Israeli enemy are now busy wearing themselves out in guerrilla wars," he said, in a clear reference to the Syrian army.

Not only is Israel being given a long and easy break, it is also using the time it has been given to get on with its settlement business as usual, or even more easily than usual.

Syrian referendum could open bargaining

In principle, the Syrian referendum on a new constitution represents a retraction by the regime, columnist Satei Noureddine said in the Lebanese daily Assafir.

The vote implies that the regime has acknowledged the popular pressure for reforms and in response, has taken this modest and belated step.

"It is evident that there would have been no referendum or new constitution, but for the popular uprising. It doesn't matter if this was President Bashar Al Assad's initiative or a decision by his Russian, Iranian and Chinese allies seeking a way out of the crisis."

The new constitution provides for Mr Al Assad to remain in power for two consecutive terms until 2026, based on presidential elections scheduled to take place in a few months.

In exchange for this, the Syrian authorities expect that the opposition will propose a counter offer, but one excluding the idea of the president stepping down at once. This demand is in practice voiced only in the Syrian protests, and doesn't reverberate in Washington, Paris or London.

The function of the referendum is to give credibility for the presidential proposal, which would call for a parallel proposal with the same level of credibility from the opposition.

But, in light of the fragmentation of the Syrian opposition and the weakness of the Free Syrian Army, a viable counterproposal seems unlikely at the moment.

Ban on takfir would help Islamic societies

Tunisian president Moncef Marzouki's recent call to criminalise the practice of takfir (accusation of blasphemy) should be implemented in all the Arab countries where Islamists have already acceded to power or are on their way to it, columnist Mazen Hammad proposed in the Qatari daily Al Watan.

President Marzouki described takfir as a threat to peace in his country. Banning takfir deserves support, especially in Egypt and Libya where Islamists are at the highest levels now.

When an Islamic group seeks to accuse any other group in a society of blasphemy, regardless of the differences between the groups, this unleashes political and religious chaos and gives certain parties or categories of the people illegitimate powers.

"Takfir in its broadest sense falls under the jurisdiction of God and not any human authority," said the writer.

"Arab democratic parliaments must make room for all types of political, social and religious concepts. This should be realised through legislation that bans or criminalises the practice of takfir. At the same time, however, this doesn't mean that Arab parliaments should condone blasphemy or attacks on any religion," explained the writer.

* Digest compiled by The Translation Desk