Death of Gaddafi and its affect on the Middle East

For more than 40 years, Moammar Gaddafi was the unusual, unpredictable and brutal face of Libya, the oil-rich country, that became his international gem. He was killed Thursday in Sirte, his home town, eight months after he vowed to die rather than be defeated in the uprising. He became the first Arab ruler to be executed by his people during the revolt that is known, as the Arab Spring, thousands of citizen demonstrators against the dictator inevitably resulted in his long awaited death. His downfall followed the downfall of the leaders in Tunisia and Egypt, who were taken down by their own people, before protesters took to the streets of eastern Libya in February. According to the Jordan Times, an international newspaper that I subscribe to, Gaddafi was believed to be 69 when he died, at his death, had been one of the world’s longest serving dictators.  His death will ultimately affect the rest of the Arab world, and Middle Eastern ties with America as well. American relations with the Arab world have been strained for decades; Israel’s relations with the Arab world just as strained. The opposers enemies of Israel portions of the Middle East is predominately the West. This shows that Western views dominate most of the media, and the one sided approach that is shown. Most of their victims, indeed, are themselves Syrians and Iranians, followed by Lebanese and Palestinians. Furthermore, Palestinians are fighting for peace themselves. The main media portrayal of Egypt is a chaotic and overly religious county, that was smothered by the now deceased dictator. Egypt, and now more specifically Libya is labeled as predominately Islamic and is constantly being compared with other Arab countries, such as Jordan and Palestine. Although Egypt is more liberal compared with Saudi Arabia, Egypt is still the most conservative Muslim country in the media, and will continue to be shown that way despite the death of the dictator, who enforced not only the religion, but his own set of laws as well. The demonstrations and the efforts by Libyan freedom fighters, led to the downfall of Gadaffi, and will have its effect for Palestinians as well. The support of Egyptian political groups has been based on the image that the protesters were strong, as well as their ability to reach surrounding cities and counties with their efforts. Yemen, Palestine and Syria have been fighting for the same cause, and are sending the same message to Palestinians. That message is essentially that Israel’s forces are just as susceptible to failure and removal by the people just as Gadaffi was removed. The peace process in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict has taken shape over the years, despite the ongoing violence in the Middle East and protesters attitudes about a lasting peace is what is driving the peace process for those countries as well. There has been various efforts made to find peace and political agreements that need to be made in both the Arab–Israeli conflict and in the Palestinian–Israeli conflict. Libya’s new found freedom is just a stepping stone for these countries to keep fighting and achieving the same goals.