Israel, Arabs both against Iran

If 200 of the 250,000 diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks, the whistleblowing organization, are to be believed, Israel has emerged as a cautious victor in the diplomatic arena. It turns out Arab states are in support of military action against Iran and Israeli policy has, in many ways, been vindicated.

“The material is not damaging in terms of Israel,” said Malcolm Hoenlein, the executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. “It clarifies how seriously the Arabs view the Iranian threat.”

Though Hoenlein was quick to add that “no one should take glee in the embarrassment this is causing our government. It’s a betrayal and it’s unacceptable.”

Thanassis Cambanis, a professor at The Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs who wrote “A Privilege to Die: Inside Hezbollah’s Legions and Their Endless War Against Israel,” thinks the release won’t really hurt Israel, because its already so transparent.

“I think Israel is the leakiest society in the world,” said Cambanis, who covered the Middle East for the Boston Globe and The New York Times. “We’ve had, for such a long time, so much coverage of internal intelligence in Israel that for Israel this is nothing. It’s less than what you’d read in Haaretz in a week.”

For many experts in the Middle East the revealed cables simply corroborate what was a long-standing belief about intra-Arab conflict in the region.

“I don’t want to be one of these people who act blasé and say there’s nothing new, but any diplomat, journalist, or academic who’s worked in the region has had conversations like this with influential people,” Cambanis said. “If you’ve ever had access to an important official or an important political scientist or adviser this is how they talk off the record. An informed realist already knows this, and our policy and analysis took this into account.”

Dr. Daniel Tzadik, a professor of Sephardic and Iranian studies at Yeshiva University, said he did not see anything surprising in the cables. However, he did say that the cables could benefit Israel in the long-term.