The Munich Security Conference

The 46th annual Munich Security Conference was held the other week from February 5th through February 7th. The conference meets once a year and invites influential members and high ranking officials from many of the world's leading countries, as well as members of the media, to take part in talks aimed at finding lasting strategies to secure peace and affect policy change.

To read about the conference through domestic news one would get the idea that the talks were solely about the American dream of nonproliferation. This article from the New York Times seems to paint the conference as a platform for the United States to carry out Obama's commitment to nuclear proliferation with the help of Russia and few others. Looking at an article from Egyptian periodical the Al-Ahram weekly understandably told a different story. The story, entitled “Nukes and handshakes” was all about Middle Eastern issues that were touched on throughout the conference.

This article was obviously aimed at a readership far more informed on current affairs than a typical American audience. I constantly find it refreshing to read about these foreign affairs and not feel as if I'm being patronized. The focus of the article's Middle East discussion was entirely on Israel. My U.S. media upbringing always makes reading these numerous articles critical of Israel shocking but I must admit that I am starting to understand the Palestinian plight more and more. These articles often speculate as to cruel and unknowable motives behind certain actions, and I am always cautious of this, but they also often have legitimate points. For example, the article points out Israel has been holding up peace talks as of late, unwilling to discuss a two-state solution, and continuing settlement building in the West Bank despite pressures from the U.S to stop. Also, following up on my last blog entry about a possible Israeli attack against Hamas, there was no interest in the state of security for other Middle Eastern countries from Israel at the conference; “as for Hamas and Hizbullah, Middle East and European MSC sources agreed that there was no assurance against Israeli attacks. The general feel in Munich was 'if it happens, it happens.'” This seems to be an interesting double standard where the bigger accredited power can freely carry out an attack on a smaller organization (who has declined to retaliate outside of Palestine) because that organization has no validation or backing. But I do not feel qualified in the least to start a discussion on the topic.

A significant moment that the article pointed out, and is alluded to in the title of the piece as well, occurred on the second day of the MSC. “In the wake of a verbal attack” Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Daniel Aylon extended his hand and it was shook by former Saudi intelligence chief Prince Torki Al-Faisal. To many uninformed people, myself and most members of the American press included, this action would not hold any significance. But to the keen and enlightened individuals of the Middle East this gesture meant everything, the article goes so far as to speculate it was the “highlight of the event”. Directly following a heated argument on the role of Riyadh in the Arab-Israeli conflict, Aylon offered his hand and, in the words of the article, “the Israeli official managed to secure for his country an unprecedented gesture of recognition from a direct relative of the Saudi monarch”. It's insights such as this one about the slightest glimmers of hope that make studying the press outside of the U.S. rewarding.