Ghitis: Israel, a convenient distraction

A well-known maxim from the Dictators' Handbook advises finding an external enemy to distract the public and thus protect the ruler from his people.

The prescription has seen its most successful and enduring application in the Middle East, where two dozen unelected, authoritarian rulers have spent more than half a century telling their populations to ignore their governments' misdeeds and instead look elsewhere.

Despots did all they could to cast the anger of their citizens toward a minuscule nearby state, Israel, the only place in that vast region with a functioning democracy.

One of the few positive developments in today's deeply troubled quest for peace in the Middle East is that pro-democracy movements have taken away from Arab despots, at least for now, that most pernicious of weapons. No longer can they focus their people's attention on Israel, a strategy that protected them, but created hostility and dehumanization that made peace more difficult.

Like a magician making the audience look at one hand while maneuvering with the other, despots kept their dungeons filled with pro-democracy activists and other opponents of the regime, cementing their rule through their security apparatus, while convincing their people that their problems could be traced to the hated Israelis and their American friends.

But we now see clearly that the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians is the last issue on the minds of the millions of Arabs and Iranians risking their lives to bring down oppressive regimes. Protesters in Egypt, Libya and Tunisia have said nothing about the Palestinian issue. The protests have, instead, revealed a yearning to improve life for 300 million Arabs, rather than focus on the 3 percent of them who are Palestinian.

For decades, officials from Washington and London and Paris would travel to Arab capitals, sit down with dictators and hear the canard. The greatest threat, the most important matter, the rulers explained, is the Israeli occupation. Western officials believed it, even though much more important problems pressed. Political repression, economic stagnation, subjugation of women -- those were just a few of the issues the dictators preferred to ignore. Better to discuss Israel's measures to stop weapons from entering Gaza.

For rulers seeking to stay in power, this is a significant loss. They won't give up the weapon without a fight. Similarly, militants still bent on Israel's destruction have also suffered a blow with their loss of priority in the Arab world. Stoking the conflict might just bring it back.

That may be why earlier this month, terrorists butchered five members of an Israeli family on the West Bank, stabbing an 11-year-old boy and then his 4-year-old brother before murdering their parents and their baby sister. In the growing global effort to isolate Israel, some people, incredibly, sought to justify a sickening act that nothing could excuse.

Iran, too, which portrays itself as a champion of the oppressed, would like nothing more than to see a sudden surge in anti-Israel sentiment. An outbreak of violence would help divert attention from the brutal way in which Tehran is suppressing its reform movement. Authorities have arrested opposition leaders, imprisoned, executed and tortured large numbers of people they view as a threat to the Islamic Republic.

Iran is taking advantage of regional turmoil to rearm its allies and strengthen their position in the changing Arab world. Israeli forces just seized a ship carrying 50 tons of Iranian weapons from Syria, destined for Gaza's Hamas militants.

Amid calls for democratic reform, Middle Eastern dictators seeking to remain in power, and extremist groups trying to revive support for their flagging cause, may try to trigger a new conflict with Israel. After all, the Dictators' Handbook and the history of the region tell us that an increase in violence between Israelis and Palestinians could give a boost to the threatened fortunes of extremists and dictators.