Quds Arabi on the new balance of power in the region

I think the central argument here – Israel and the US’s declining Qualitative Military Edge (QME) – is one that needs to be watched and criticized very closely. It seems to me that, perhaps, the Resistance Axis which is employing this “divine” teleology is becoming increasingly guilty of the same kind of hubris, over confidence, that it used to accuse the US and Israel of – and used to signal as one of their opponents central weaknesses (and quite rightly).

I think the implication of Israel’s nuclear program – Codename Samson – is instructive…. Does a declining QME mean that triumph is really around the corner – what about mutually assured destruction which materially stronger body politics like the US and Israel might be able to actually recover from?

And more importantly, how exactly does a declining QME predict the way in which Israel will act in the next conflict? I.e. The Resistance axis believes Israel is “weaker than a spiders web” (Nasrallah) – that when it loses a few hundred soldiers and/or a few buildings are brought down in Tel Aviv, that it will collapse…

But how will these actions lead to a stronger Israeli body politic – i.e. more determination and will to resist?

This discussion, it seems to me, is sorely lacking among Resistance axis media and supporters and leads to an even more dangerous situation.

On June 18, the Palestinian-owned Al-Quds al-Arabi daily carried the following lead editorial: “…the region is currently witnessing the birth of a new tripartite alliance including the strongest states in it: Turkey, Iran and Syria. Moreover, this alliance has a military extension through the arms of resistance represented by the Lebanese Hezbollah and the Palestinian Hamas and Islamic Jihad, thus securing a state of strategic deterrence and practically ending Israeli military superiority which has terrorized Arab surroundings for at least the last thirty years.

“In this context, the unprecedented confidence seen in the Syrian rhetoric embodies the new regional balance of power which is no longer in favor of Israel. True, the latter does have a sophisticated arsenal and an air-force which is still the most dangerous in comparison with its counterparts in Syria, Iran and Turkey. However, we must take into consideration the new military facts, the most important of which is the inability of the air-force to settle the battle in its favor as happened in previous Israeli wars and especially in the June 1967 and October 1973 wars. Syria is no longer isolated the way it was three years ago, and has managed to substitute its Arab depth which conspired against it, directly collaborated with American plans and indirectly collaborated with the Israeli ones, with the Iranian and Turkish depths which are more supportive of the critical Arab causes…”