Realignment in Middle East

Realignment is a controversial political term used by Arab critics to denounce what they see as a coordinated geostrategy of the United States and Israel against states in the Middle East considered to be "supporters of terrorism." The concept was promoted by Israel in early 2006, and while no overt "agreement" was noted, it is widely understood that the U.S. and Israel had agreed to some specific general concepts regarding the use of military force in the region —particularly with regard to Iran —viewed by some as an increasing threat.

Arab critics have denounced "realignment" as aggression in support of gaining total control over the region. "Supporting terrorism" is itself attacked as a euphemism to refer to states with a large Islamic population and some degree of freedom of speech.

Background

:"War on TerrorismBy 2005, U.S. President George W. Bush justified the Iraq War by stating that "we fight them over there so we don't have to fight them over here." With Iraq moving toward democracy, attention moved toward Iran, and fears of its nuclear weapons program.

The 2004 election of radical Islamist Mahmoud Ahmadinejad brought fears that Iran was moving away from the liberalsing reforms that liberals had hoped for. Ahmadinejad's inflammatory rhetoric towards Israel, combined with his pursuit of a nuclear energy program, led Western strategists to fear that Iran had intentions to pursue a nuclear weapons program.

Agreement

When Israeli President Ehud Olmert met with George W. Bush, hostile critics said that they would seek to coordinate on a plan of attack against states in the Arab world which they found to be disagreeable. While some differences were stated, both made it clear that there was broad agreement on a number of issues.

Israel-Gaza and Israel-Lebanon conflicts

:"Main article 2006 Arab-Israeli conflictOn June 24, Israeli forces arrested two Arabs wanted for terrorist activities in Gaza. In retaliation, Palestinian militants apparently from Hamas abducted and held hostage and "incommunicado" a young Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. Israel responded swiftly with targeted rocket attacks and an ultimatum for the release of Shalit. Refused, Israeli forces entered the Gaza strip in a series of attacks on Palestinian militants.

A week later, the militant nationalist group Hezbollah fired rockets over the Lebanon-Israel border and kidnapped two Israeli soldiers. Some claimed the attack was related to the events in Gaza, either as an opportunistic attack based on Israel's occupation with Gaza, or else as a way to draw Israeli attention from attacking Gaza. Israel responded to the Hezbollah operation with a large-scale attack on Lebanon, claiming Lebanon itself bore responsibility for "harboring Hezbollah." Israel attacked not just Hezbollah forces, but Lebanon's major infrastructure such as airports and roads, killing approximate 600 people in two weeks. Hezbollah responded, killing roughly 40 Israelis in the same period with katyusha rockets. Lebanon claimed that most of its casualties were civilians, and Israel claimed they were not civilians, but participants in the war, and that even those who were not participating lost their lives in the conflict due to Hezbollah's use of civilians as cover. Israel went to great lengths, many say excessively and unreasonably so, to avoid attacking civilians in Lebanon. The Hezbollah, in contrast, made no secret of its intention to slay as many Israeli civilians as possible, and conitnues to proclaim its desire to do so when the next opportunity arises, despite the official ceasefire between it and Israel.

Iran

In the context of the war with Lebanon, George W. Bush expressed a virtually unilateral support for Israel, condemned Hezbollah, and repeated a claim that Hezbollah was associated with Iran.