The Never-ending Middle East Conflict

I'd love to see an end to the Middle East conflict before I die. But I probably won't. No matter what Israel concedes, there will be new demands from jihadist groups, and the governments with which Israel negotiates won't accept any peace treaty. Even if they do, there is always the loophole of Taqiyya, which sanctions lying by Muslims, making such a treaty suspect.

We can hope the conflict will end in one or two generations, but I suspect that such a wish is unjustifiably optimistic. It's likely that those who have already been infected will hang on for a long time, and that they'll retain their hatred and teach it to their own children. So I can only hope that before the Messiah comes, peace will come. But I am not sanguine.

For the reason that the dispute will persist is that it is religious. And since religion is, by definition, not rational, neither is the hatred. For many centuries anti-Semitism has been largely the domain of Christians. And they created a mythology around it, charging, among other things, that the Jews killed Christian children, caused diseases like the black plague to obliterate the Christians, and opposed Christianity itself, primarily by killing Jesus. They were children of Satan. The Muslims took over the hatred of Jews, claiming the Jews (now Israelis) killed Muslim children, caused diseases like AIDS that were aimed at Muslims, and opposed Islam by stealing their land. They are children of pigs and monkeys. There is a long history of anti-Semitism, and subsequently “anti-Zionism,” which still exists and is becoming stronger. As Santayana said (in,“The Life of Reason,” 1905-1906)

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

For a good part of his life Muhammad had a favorable opinion of the Jews (“[T]he earliest verses of the Qur[']an were largely sympathetic to Jews. Mohammed [sic] admired them as monotheists and saw them as natural adherents to the new faith” (Wikipedia, citing Bernard Lewis). Muhammad “admired them as monotheists and saw them as natural adherents to the new faith,” viewing them as the favored of G-d (Allah), but he later cursed them. It was on this later enmity that Muslim commentators built, and their hatred persists. For this reason they will continue irrationally to seek the destruction of the Jews irrespective of what they are offered. That's the goal. And they will continue to do so unless they are taught that it is their religious obligation to abandon this hostility.

But that result will be long in coming. Needed is a change in mentality of the Islamic politicians and clergy, and in the content of the schoolbooks used by Arab and Islamic children. And in the indoctrination on TV and elsewhere. It will take pressure from around the world to effectuate this but, sadly, the world has heard the indoctrination so often itself that it has learned to accept and parrot the Islamic public relations lines. Dripping water, even though the amounts seem small, eventually erodes rock. The big lie. Repeat it often enough … Even “moderate” Israeli Muslims view Israel as a belonging to them. (How would they do without the advantages of Israeli society? They receive more benefits from Israel than do their brothers under Islamic rule, and most would prefer not to give up those advantages.)

So the nations will continue to favor the Muslims and their demands. It will aid them in getting what they want by political means since they have failed militarily.

But they have not learned from history. What starts out affecting the Jews will ultimately affect others. It's happened before. Christians have already suffered (as have many Muslims). In addition, random attacks will affect whoever is around. “Islam is overtly hostile towards other religions! More importantly, Islam is overtly hostile to non-Islamic governments; we can witness it in the subterranean wars that Muslims are currently waging against the world’s Liberal Democracies.” (From “Islam Watch – Islam Under Scrutiny by Ex-Muslims” – 17 May, 2009.) Total destruction of an enemy is difficult, but they will do their best to kill all the Jews, and then the others.

What are the possible outcomes? Total victory for Islam is certainly one of them. There are over 2.118 billion Muslims in the world. That's 29 percent of the world's population and the percentage is slowly increasing. Their greatest enemies at the moment are other Muslims, since sectarian differences are responsible for more deaths among them than are caused by any non-Muslim group. Indeed, infighting among Muslim's could eventually cause more problems for them than anything else.

Another possibility is a preemptive war, originating in Israel or the United States. The problem, however, is that the world of Islam is wide, and the choice of a target will be difficult. They will all, for example, protest any attack on Iran. And, as I noted earlier, the total destruction of an enemy is difficult – especially when it involves such a large part of the world's population. Although the large majority of Muslims are not obsessed about war against the West, their clerics will continue to indoctrinate them concerning its virtue.

Perhaps there will be an end to the teaching of hatred. It would be a miracle, but miracles certainly cannot be discounted. However as long as it remains accepted Muslim doctrine that any land where Muslims live now, or have lived in the past, is theirs and must be ruled by Sharia, Muslim law, there is a risk that Islam will destroy all its enemies – or, at least, try.

To paraphrase Reverend Martin Niemöller, a German pastor during the Holocaust,

 First they came for IDF members, and I did not speak out—
 Because I was not a member of the IDF.

         Then they came for all Israelis, and I did not speak out—
         Because I was not an Israeli.

         Then they came for the other Jews, and I did not speak out—
         Because I was not a Jew.

[Fill in everyone else.]

         Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

Edmund Burke said “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” The world supports them, but sooner or later the haters will come for everyone and, unless the intolerance is abandoned, there will be no one to speak for us.

Unless there's a miracle.

Next episode: “Pot Luck" — Marijuana used to be bad, but now it's good.