The term "Middle East Peace" is somewhat of an oxymoron. There has been no peace in
the Middle East for 3,000-plus years, and there is none now.
Most recently, the air strikes by the United States and Great Britain have been aimed at
both destroying the fiber optics communication links set up for Saddam Hussein's war
machine, and warning Hussein that the west will not tolerate his plans to attack Israel.
The Arab world has never accepted the United Nations' resolution that created Israel as a
state in 1948. They did not want Israel in the land then, and they don't want it now.
There is something about the Middle East that escapes reason, the kind of reason we use
in the western world. Islam is a brotherhood, a strong religious umbrella for the Arabic
nations, and an umbrella for their hatred of Israel and the Jews. Those of us who live in the
western nations, particularly western Europe and the western hemisphere, do not
understand the bond this religion has among its peoples, whether they are Arabic nations
or not. Iran, for instance, is Islamic, anti-Israel, but not Arabic.
That a difference in religion could provide the platform for so great a hatred seems
incredible to the western mind. Yet we have only to look back a few centuries at the
Crusades, which we've forgotten but the Arab world has not!
Anti-Semitism has always been a puzzle to me, and I know it exists here in America to some
extent, but not nearly to the degree it exists in the Middle East. Were it left to Saddam
Hussein, he would long ago have blown Israel off the map and given the parched earth to
the Arabs to settle as they saw fit. That kind of hatred is beyond reason, but it exists.
Secretary of State Colin Powell received a courteous but largely unproductive reception
from the president of Egypt when it came to Middle East peace. Why? Because Egypt is
part of the League of Arab Nations, and while they have to respect our military might, they
don't have to like us and they don't have to cooperate with us. Their underlying hatred of
Israel is too strong for that.
The western nations may be able to stabilize the Middle East by threats of force against
aggression, but they will not be able to change the mindset of an Islamic culture that is bent
on the destruction of Israel.
Why can't they co-exist? Simply because the hatred of Israel, as irrational as it may seem
to American minds, is there and it is there to stay.
However, the more military might the United States and Britain build up, the more we will be
able to enforce a non-aggression policy towards Israel. After all, there's no Middle East war
between the individual Arab states. The focus is Israel!
And, if we want to cut off some dollars to the Middle East, all we have to do is dig for oil in
Alaska or the Gulf of Mexico. OPEC can't do a thing to stop us, only our environmental
freaks can protest against oil drilling.
With all the hot spots in the world that are tinder boxes for the beginning of World War III, it
seems that the best course of action is to enforce the peace wherever we have to in order
to protect our national interests and those of the civilized world.
It is high time we stopped having little dinners at Camp David for centuries-old antagonists
and laid out the terms for Middle East "peace" realistically. Attack Israel, and you will be
bombed off the face of the earth. Harsh? Yes, but is there another way? If the two cultures
haven't been able to establish peaceful co-existence over millenia, there is little doubt they
have any intention of doing so now, only they have more dangerous weapons to play with.
We can honestly say that any "Middle East Peace" will be neither a process nor an
agreement, but an enforced peaceful co-existence.
There should be a better way, but there can't be as long as Arabs are going to hate
Israelis |
