A Perfect Geopolitical Storm Taking Shape by Leon Hadar

To put all this in context: In the Persian Gulf and in Israel/Palestine, radical forces opposed to the American-Israeli axis are on the march. Indeed, from the perspectives of both Washington and Jerusalem, Iran is poised to achieve nuclear capability and head a "Shi'ite Crescent," and a resurgent anti-Israeli Hamas is serving as a model to Muslim Brotherhood groups in Egypt and other Arab-Sunni countries. A radical "Sunni Crescent" would be regarded as a strategic threat to common U.S. and Israeli interests in having a dominant U.S. in the region.

It is this complex regional reality that explains why both the Americans and the Israelis have concluded that they need to "do something" ASAP to prevent the war in Iraq and the unilateral Israeli withdrawal from Gaza from turning out to be the first stages in a losing strategic game for them.