Iran warns Israel of Islamic 'explosion'

Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has warned that Israel’s offensive in the Gaza Strip could cause an “explosion” in the Islamic world. So far, however, Arabs have staged only small and sporadic demonstrations and their governments have made few complaints.

In a speech to thousands of people at a pro-Palestinian rally in Tehran yesterday, the president warned Israel’s Western allies that Israel’s incursion could provoke an angry response from the world’s 50-odd Muslim nations.

“They should not let things reach a point where an explosion occurs in the Islamic world,” he said.

“If an explosion occurs, then it won’t be limited to geographical boundaries. It will also burn all those who created (Israel) over the past 60 years,” he added, referring to the US and Israel’s other Western allies.

Ahmadinejad’s talk of an explosion seemed out of place in an Arab world where protests against Israel have been surprisingly muted since it invaded Gaza last week in a bid to force the release of the Israeli soldier held by Palestinian militants.

Egypt, the biggest Arab nation, has not formally criticised Israel’s incursion. Instead it has tried to broker a deal between the militants and Israel.

Lebanon, Jordan, Syria and the Gulf states have condemned Israel’s military offensive, particularly when Israeli aircraft buzzed the Syrian president summer residence last week. But most of the criticisms sounded routine.

There were a few protests last weekend – the first weekend since Israeli troops invaded Gaza – but only a few attracted more than a thousand participants.

Jordanian political analyst Labib Kamhawi said Arabs were not demonstrating because “they do not want to confront the security apparatuses of the Arab regimes”.

People have found “that protesting in the streets does not have an effect anymore,” he added.

Joost Hiltermann of the International Crisis Group said the dearth of protests was not only because governments do not tolerate them, but also because “people have become somewhat inured to these outrages” of Israel against the Palestinians.

Hiltermann, who is based in Amman, said Arab governments were particularly averse to protests in sympathy with Islamists. The Palestinian government is now headed by the Islamist party Hamas, and the militants holding the Israeli soldier are also linked to Hamas.

Arab governments are “very afraid of Islamists, especially the Muslim Brotherhood, gaining power in countries like Egypt and Jordan”, said Hiltermann.