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Will Arabs, Jews Unite Against Iran?

One blogger theorizes yes

by
Hadara Graubart
October 02, 2009

Blogger Jack Midknight sees a possible silver lining for the ever-troubled Middle East. If the enemy of my enemy is my friend, he points out, there’s good news in the fact that, as he says, “Arabs fear a nuclear armed Iran, far more than the Jews of Israel.”

Midknight (who is, presumably, writing under a pseudonym and is identified on Gather.com with little more than his assertion that “I still wouldn’t join an organization that would have me as a member”) cites at least one compelling piece of evidence: “Writing in the pan-Arab newspaper Al Quds Al Arabi, Abdel-Beri Atwan, the editor, said with recent developments ‘the Arab regimes, and the gulf ones in particular, will find themselves part of a new alliance against Iran alongside Israel.’”

While he maintains a smidgen of skepticism—“I can’t believe the possible scenarios currently unfolding will lead to respect for the Jews in any Arab country”—even his most cautious optimism (“the very fact many Arabs are now considering Israel as their best hope for stopping Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons seems to indicate, at the very least, in the short term, Arabs and Jews could become partners in ways ancient feuds would not have allowed in the past”) stems from a frightening proposition: “let’s hope Israel is ready to assume the role some Arabs now consider vital, and will attack Iran within a matter of weeks.”

Hadara Graubart was formerly a writer and editor for Tablet Magazine.