A dragon dance in the Negev
By M K Bhadrakumar
There is no record of dragons in the nomadic life of the Negev desert, which dates back at least 4, 000 years (some say 7,000). That may be about to change in the Year of the Dragon.
The Bedouins of the Negev will soon witness the sight of a Chinese-built railway line snaking its way through the melange of brown, rocky, dusty mountains and the wadis and deep craters, leading north from the resort city of Eilat in the Gulf of Aqaba toward the eastern Mediterranean.
Having developed strong interests on the two sides of the Persian Gulf divide - Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states and Iran - China is taking an awesome leap as a big-time player in the geopolitics of the Middle East by elevating its ties with Israel to a strategic partnership.
Paradoxically, just as the United States is hoping to nettle the dragon in the South China Sea and "contain" it in the Asia Pacific, it makes a dramatic, outflanking appearance in the citadel of American geo-strategies in the Middle East. The geopolitical implications are profound.
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country and China make a "successful combination" and he could visualize a "dramatic expansion" of the ties. "I think we've barely scratched the surface of Israeli-Chinese relations", he said at a celebration in Tel Aviv last Tuesday.
In his message of greetings for the anniversary, President Hu Jintao said China "attaches great importance to advancing Sino-Israeli ties and is ready to make joint efforts with Israel". In turn, Premier Wen Jiabao noted that China and Israel have "huge potential and broad prospects for cooperation" and Beijing is "ready to continue to expand and deepen" the ties and raise them to "a new high".
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Clearly, Israel and China are poised to enter a profound and highly strategic engagement. Netanyahu told a cabinet meeting in Tel Aviv on Sunday that he intended to develop the proposed rail and road networks joining Eilat to northern Israel as a "junction between continents". He went on to flag China's interest in the project.
Beijing would have already sized up the immense strategic potential of an audacious transportation route across the Negev bypassing Egypt's congested Suez Canal, which would connect Asia with Europe. It almost seems Washington has lost the plot.
A very interesting read:
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/NB02Ad01.html
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