For many decades Israel has been the fundamental “enemy” of the Muslim Arab world, viewed as an abberation imposed on them by Western imperialist forces. Nowadays things are a bit different. Pan-Arabism is dead only to be revived on special occassions, like Friday or when Mubarak’s poll numbers are dropping. No one fights really hard for the Palestinian cause or even sticks to the anti-Israel line anymore. The issue is warming down and Arab dictatorships just don’t care like they used to. Perhaps something is in the air.

Whatever it is, it smells like a wet mullah’s beard on a humid spring day. When Saudi Arabia and Egypt ostensibly condemned Hezbollah for attacking and kidnapping Israeli soldiers two weeks ago, some may have seen it as a sign of changing times. And they would be right, but perhaps not how they thought. The Arabs still loathe the Jews more than uncovered women (well, maybe not that); however, there is a new imperialist power in the region, having only emerged in recent years, which threatenes to overrun their hold on power.

Iran: The common enemy of Arabs, Israelis, and Westerners alike!

The rapid growth in funding and support for radical Islamist groups, whether they be Sunni or Shiite, is at least in part due to the expansionist desires of both, the two competing to be the dominant forms of Islam. Arab governments see the Persians as having effectively played its game, having culminated in the latest Israel-Hezbollah war, and like a jolt of electricity are rethinking who their true enemy is. (I know, pick any day of the week and it will be different, but work with me here). The split is showing between from the grassroots level up, reflecting on how this series of events has changed the political atmosphere, and where it may go from here.

The International Herald Tribune runs a story about the debate on internet message boards between the jihadists’ different views on Hezbollah’s actions.

BAGHDAD The question has popped up all over Internet sites frequented by Islamic militants: Should your average God-fearing jihadist support Hezbollah in its battle against the Zionist aggressors and their American lapdogs?
The answer seems a foregone conclusion, given the hatred of Israel across much of the Muslim world.

But consider this posting about Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, that appeared on a Web site with ties to Al Qaeda: “Let us explain that the party of Hassan Nasrallah, for us, is a party which has a Shia ideology. Thus, he is considered our enemy like our enemies the Jews, the Christians.”

“So what should we do now? What side shall we take? Who shall we support?” asked the seemingly puzzled author, a Sunni known as Saif al-Din al- Kanani.

Rather than uniting the region’s holy warriors, the conflict in Lebanon has ignited a robust debate among militants over backing for Hezbollah, the Shiite group that set off the crisis when it captured two Israeli soldiers on July 12.

The discussions reflect the widening divide between Shiite and Sunni Arabs in parts of the Middle East, and Sunni fears of the ascendance of Shiite-dominated Iran. The Internet volleys, some of them full of fury and venom, also offer a window into the startling diversity of opinion among jihadist groups.

Accusing Palestinians of being anti- Shiite, one Iraqi bitterly writes: “It is better to concentrate one’s efforts on helping the Shiite kinfolk rather than the Sunnis.”

The world of Islamic militants on the Internet is nebulous, and it is often hard to pinpoint the influence of the myriad figures and groups. But U.S. experts say prominent supporters of jihad, including religious leaders in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, have joined in the debate.

Well-recognized guerrilla groups and militant clerics in Iraq, like the 20th Revolution Brigades and the Muslim Scholars Association, have posted their views on conflict in the Middle East.

About 80 percent of the postings this week on jihadist sites concern support for Hezbollah, according to the SITE Institute, a group in Washington that provides translations of the messages.

The internet has given fighters and supporters on the lowest rung of the ladder the ability to exchange ideas with each other, allowing them to forge their thoughts without necessarily taking the cue of a radical tribal or religious leader. But this has not happened. Instead, it has served as a means to simply reinforce their own ideas and block out others. Many Sunni Arab jihadists are now siding against Hezbollah because it is an Iranian proxy, while many Shia Arab jihadists are siding with Iran.

One must out of necessity take the words of religious and tribal leaders as gold, as these are the commandments by which many people in the Middle East live. Knowing this reveals the split. The main barrier for many of us in the West is that of language. For years Arafat said one thing to us in English and another to his supporters in Arabic, but now we have shifted a microscope to the words of influential radical Islamists so that we know exactly what they are thinking.

The SITE Institute mentioned in the above article provides translations of materials from jihadist websites and media; the following is a summary of a speech made by radical Kuwaiti Sheik Hamed bin Abdullah Ali, passed around internet forums on July 13, regarding the “sharia interpretation” of recent events in Lebanon:

He writes of Iran as possessing an expansionist, imperialist spirit, hoping to spread its power and influence into the Gulf countries and Iraq, and using the ???????Crusader/Zionist??????? alliance as a conduit for part of its goals. However, the sheikh prays: ???????But at best and in the end – Allah willing – they will be burned with the same fire which they ignited to burn the Muslims.???????

Iran????????s ???????card??????? have presented the Shi????????a Republic an opportunity to achieve its plans, which according to the message, include the coalition with Syria and Iran????????s arm in Lebanon, Hezbollah, supporting parties in the countries of the Arab Peninsula and Iraq, capitalizing on the ???????Palestinian problem??????? and its steps towards achieving nuclear capability and becoming a threat atop that of North Korea and Venezuela. Sheikh Hamed al-Ali predicts that a confrontation is approaching, as the entire region of the Middle East in is between ???????Great War????????s hands and mass chaos???????. But in the end, it will be in Islam????????s favor, ???????even if Islam and its people will have a great disaster???????.

The ???????Shari????????a position??????? then, as the sheikh writes, maintains that Palestine is Islam????????s problem, as Muslims should not be deceived by Iran taking it as its own. Iran, he believes, is more dangerous than the ???????Crusader/Zionist??????? enemy. Therefore Sheikh Hamed al-Ali calls upon the Mujahideen in Palestine to be steady and show determination in jihad and Islam. He states: ???????We ask to help them by any means and support them with everything possible and make all efforts to release their blockade, this is a Shari????????a obligation; nobody can leave it anyway.???????

It also posts a summary of messages and videos by prominent Shia insurgency groups in Iraq which express support for Hezbollah against their Zionist enemy.

As the conflict intensifies between Israel, Palestinian territories and Lebanon, Shi????????a scholars and militant brigades in Iraq have issued statements and attack videos, respectively, in support of Lebanon and Palestine, and condemning Israeli and American actions. A jihadist Shi????????a forum, today, July 19, 2006, featured a statement from Ayatollah Ahmad al-Hussaini al-Baghdadi, writing from Najaf, concerning the ???????criminal aggression??????? on Palestine and Lebanon by the ???????Zionists??????? and the sectarian schism in Iraq. He believes that the ???????international arrogant forces,??????? specifically citing the United States, have created strife between the Sunnis and Shi????????ites in Iraq, and have provoked Israel to commit its attacks. As a result, Ayatollah al-Baghdadi states: ???????The only decisive solution to these challenges is to fight the imperialists, the Zionists, and the agents of the rulers and kick them out of our Islamic, sacred lands.???????

Similarly, Grand Ayatollah Kazem al-Hussien al-Haeri, an Iraq-born cleric residing in Iraq, posted to his official website, www.alhaeri.org, yesterday, July 18, a statement which was distributed to jihadist Shi????????a forums, that discusses the Israel-Lebanon conflict. In it he posits that the conflict is not between Israel and Hezbollah, but rather, the ???????non-believers??????? versus Islam. The Islamic Nation is called upon to support the Mujahideen in Lebanon, ???????sacrifice the most precious thing,??????? and attack those non-Muslims who initiated the attack on Islam.

Shi????????ite insurgency groups in Iraq, Imam al-Baqer Brigades and Imam Ali Brigades of the Leagues of the Righteous People ÄAsa????????ab Ahel al-HaqÅ, also commented on the Israel-Lebanon crisis in their attack videos issued Monday, July 17, 2006, and today, Imam Ali Brigades, in a three-minute video depicting bombings of American Humvees in Karbala and al-Hilla, killing two soldiers in one operation and unknown number in the other, states that the attacks are in ???????retaliation for the attacks by the Zionist forces on our brothers in Lebanon???????.

Imam al-Baqer Brigades???????? 1:21 minute video of attacking American forces in Baghdad bears the same message of striking enemy forces in Iraq to grant ???????victory??????? to the Lebanese resistance.

Right now the result of such a split is hard to determine. The Gulf states have been worried about Iran for a long time, and with Saudi Arabia and Egypt on board, it could be a realignment of Arab government policy explicitly against Iran with a more toned down approach toward Israel for the time being. This would mean that Syria, whose regime has been able to stabilize itself in part due to support from Iran, may have to cut off its aid to Hezbollah and let it live on its own.

For all its ambitions, Iran is the enemy that has crept up from the shadows, thrusting itself onto the scene in recent years as a ticking timebomb. Arab dictatorships are losing support and are working that Iran’s machinations will eventually lead to their overthrow. Israel will have to wait. For now, the war that they are worrying about is not just the one that they believe is against Islam, but the one within Islam.