Dreams of peace fading fast in ME?

IRANIANS are fighting the monsters of their own creation. Ruling elite have lost their moral compass because they have been blinded in their quest for power. Perhaps nobody will ever know how Iranians voted on June 12, but millions of them believe that the election was rigged to ensure the re-election of President Ahmadinejad.
The divisions in Iranian society and within the leadership have been apparent and the legitimacy of the regime is very likely to be questioned within the country and across the world.
World leaders have voiced mounting alarm over the unrest which has severely jolted the Islamic regime and raised concerns over its future. However it is still too early to predict with any certainty how events in Iran will unfold.
Iran has had a quasi theocracy since the ouster of the Shah in the Islamic revolution of 1979. Millions of people surged to accompany Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini when he returned from Paris to usher in Islamic rule. To everyone's natural surprise Iranian intelligentsia were found as keen supporters of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and politically more leaning to the fanatics. Even the present charismatic opposition leader Mr. Mousavi is not a pro-western liberal. He is also committed to Islamic government, but believes that it must adapt with the times to survive and move ahead.
It's a shame that a country which produced Omar Khayyam, Ibn Sina, Firdousi in 9th and 10th century is now fighting to escape the yoke of suppression and repression. The Persians were great poets and also remarkable as mystics. Their civilization remained both intellectually and artistically admirable. But ironically, rigid orthodoxy put almost an end to all such development. The sight of unarmed protestors being shot by government forces is a cause of widespread concern.
Mr. Ahmadinejad has often denounced Israel. Most Arabs reckon that Ahmadinejad's interest in nuclear weapons is not entirely unreasonable, because nobody wants to ask the awkward question about Israel's nuclear stockpile. His aggressive foreign policy, which included support for radical groups like Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in the Palestinian territories, really made him a champion of the oppressed people of the Arab world.
Surely, the US President Obama enjoys huge popularity around the world, especially in the Arab world and perhaps he is well placed to make Israelis once again take the peace process seriously. But there is a difficulty. Mr. Obama recognizes that there can be no peace in the region until the Israelis feel themselves secure and the Palestinians believe their rights restored. Neither of these things can happen absolutely,
The past seems to dominate the present in this region. An exaggerated sense of history often clouds human judgment, especially when religion and history are entwined. When it comes to long memories, perhaps none can match Israel's toughest Prime Minister Mr. Binyamin Netanyahu. He is hostile to the concept of a land-for-peace deal on which the entire accord rests. He perhaps believes that the boundaries of modern Israel should be those biblical land, encompassing Judea and Samaria.
America is the only country that can influence Israel. It is morally and politically imperative that Mr. Barak Obama builds the structures of peace and convinces the Muslim world that the US doesn't exclusively support Israel. Americans of all political persuasions have to acknowledge the fact that unless the Palestinian issue is solved, the future looks pretty bleak for the Middle East. To avoid nuclear adventurism and suicide bombings, just and peaceful settlement of the dispute is a must.
Martin Luther King once said "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice." Without justice, peace is impossible in the Middle East.
The writer is a former investment banker.