The Middle East Sampler 3/5/2012: Palestinian TV

From DG:

1) The TV stations

Last week Israeli Troops Raid Two Palestinian TV Stations in the West Bank:

Officials at the two stations, Al Watan and Al-Quds Educational Television, said that officials from Israel’s Communications Ministry, accompanied by soldiers, spent several hours removing the equipment and documents.

Barry Rubin: The New Middle East: Arab versus non-Arab Muslims; Sunni versus Shia

The following by Barry Rubin is reposted here with permission

The New Middle East: Arab versus non-Arab Muslims;
Sunni versus Shia

By Barry Rubin

The new Middle East strategic battle is heating up and this is only the start. It has nothing to do with Israel and everything to do with two more serious lines of battle: Arabs versus Persians and Sunni versus Shia Muslims.

The Arab-Israeli or Israel-Palestinian is increasingly unimportant, despite the hatred of increasingly powerful Islamist forces for Israel. The real struggle is over who will control each Muslim majority country and who is going to lead the Middle East. Both issues have almost nothing to do with Israel. At the same time, Israel has virtually no role to play in these struggles, except to ensure that Hamas doesn’t take over the West Bank and the Palestinian Authority.

The Sunni Arab position was stated very clearly by Amr Moussa, a veteran Arab nationalist and candidate for Egypt’s presidency: "[The] Arab Middle East will not be run by Iran or Turkey." Note that he didn’t even mention Israel, in sharp contrast to how the issue would have been defined in previous decades: as a Zionist threat to rule the entire region.

The Middle East Sampler 2/3/2012: Iranian Isolation As It Threatens US

From DG:

1) Increasing Iranian Isolation

The New York Times reports Effort to Rebrand Arab Spring Backfires in Iran. The article is about a conference held in Tehran about the "Arab Awakening.":

The Tehran conference coincided with fresh signs of division between Iran and other Muslim countries. On Sunday, Turkey hosted a conference of the Syrian opposition, whose members denounced Iran’s assistance in the Syrian government’s crackdown on protesters. And on Tuesday, a Saudi delegation walked out of a pan-Islamic conference in Indonesia, after a former speaker of Iran’s Parliament, Nateq Nouri, said the Saudi monarchy was corrupt and oppressive. (Needless to say, there were no Saudis at the Tehran conference.)

Barry Rubin: Sunni Versus Shia: The Middle East's New Strategic Conflict

Sunni Versus Shia: The Middle East's New Strategic Conflict

By Barry Rubin

Of course, conflicts between Sunni and Shia Muslims are not at all new, but it is indeed new as a feature on the regional level in modern times. After all, as long as there were secular-style regimes preaching an all-inclusive Arab nationalist identity, differences between religious communities are subordinated. Once there are Islamist regimes, theology becomes central again, as it was centuries ago.

However, no one should misunderstand the situation. This is fundamentally a struggle for political power and wealth. When Sunni and Shia states or movements battle they are acting as political entities with suck strategies, tactics, and goals.