The decision of the Arab League to impose a no-fly zone over Libya has given the Security Council and NATO a rare opportunity – an opportunity that both have used as political and moral cover for bombing Tripoli and the areas under Gaddafi's control. No one, except for supporters of the “leader”, can any longer say that the West is attacking Arabs or taking revenge on Muslims, or that it has returned to its colonial racism and ambitions. Yet such a decision, apart from its military perspectives and the extent to which the views of the “international community” and of Arab League countries (each on its own) coincide, represents a strong indication that a new Arab order is taking shape, after the old one had failed to take decisions of such caliber. It is an order that would be formed by the vibrations of the “Arab Spring”, and one which the new Egypt would participate in establishing, on the basis of its role in the events in Libya and supported by the results of Tahrir Square, where demands were voiced for the return of Cairo to its Arab role. Another feature of this new order is the change in the stance taken by Gulf countries. For the first time, these countries have activated their treaty within the framework of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), and decided to intervene to protect the regime in Bahrain. Doubtless such a precedent will have a major role to play in shaping a different Arab direction, especially if one takes into consideration the Gulf coalition's decision to confront Iran's influence by all means available, in addition to its doubts over the role played by Turkey under the Justice and Development Party (AKP) and over Ankara's efforts to establish a regional order with Tehran and Damascus as its main pillars. Each of the two non-Arab regional states has its own national strategic plans established on religious (read: sectarian) bases in the region. Turkey is returning to its religious heritage, enhanced with Atatürk's nationalism and secularism, which was imposed and protected by the military, and seeks to be the model of a modern Muslim state, benefiting from the support of the US and NATO. And Iran seeks to be the model of an Islamic state, with all that the term entails, considering what Khomeini established to be a revolution within Islam impeded only by the West and the governments that orbit around it. Both sides, Turkey and Iran, have taken the Palestinian Cause as a basis for their influence in the Arab World, and they have succeeded to a great extent at gaining the approval of a public opinion for which this issue represents a large part of its collective and national consciousness. Tehran has gone further than Ankara in its enmity towards Israel, backing the resistance in Lebanon and in Gaza and sparing no opportunity to make use of its influential position to call into question American and Western policies biased in favor of the Hebrew state. In other words, it has opposed and continues to oppose the Arab order, which seeks after peace with the Jewish state without achieving any progress. The old Arab order results from the effects of the Palestinian issue, a topic which has always been present on the agenda of the Arab League and of Arab Summits, from the time when the Shah's Iran and the military's Turkey formed with Israel a single front opposing any national direction taken by the Arabs. Today, amidst the tremendous changes the region has witnessed and continues to witness, and because of opposition to Iran and of doubts over the direction taken by Turkey, and before all of that abandoning any “dream” of confronting Israel, it is imperative for an Arab order to arise on the basis of these factors – an order that comes with Egypt starting from Libya, and with the GCC from the move made in Bahrain. And it would not be surprising if it were weaker than its predecessor, especially as Syria still insists on its old stance and the popular movement there is still in its early stages, as Iraq's identity is “diverse”, and as the Palestinian issue is being fought over by the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah and Hamas in Gaza. The signs of a new Arab order are only beginning to appear. But what is certain is that the Palestinian issue is no longer the main factor giving it shape.
