Winning Through Surrendering
Tom Friedman with his distinctly Bernard Lewis sounding theory on Muslim rage. Lewis has also pointed to the possibility that there is distinct inferiority/confusion at the root of the Muslim rage directed at the west. Friedman sums his theory up well, "[h]ow could a tiny Jewish state amass so much military and economic power if the Islamic way of life � not Christianity or Judaism � is God's most ideal religious path?"

Friedman then continues that the west and Israel do need to assist the Muslim world. "But to think that Israel's exiting the occupied territories � and abandoning its insane settlement land grab there � wouldn't reduce this problem is absurd." The problem Friedman cites is one of his own deduction, the beaming of Israel's war with the Palestinians all over the world. Exiting the occupied territories, Friedman feels, would stop this. He notes, "[s]ome of this hatred will remain no matter what Israel does." Right. So Israel pulls out of the occupied territories and the terrorists continue to group themselves inside the West Bank but now without threat of capture by the authorities (because it is clear Arafat promotes their terror network). Now what happens to all the hatred that will never go away? Do they all go to anger management school? Or do they, having succeeded in driving Israel out of the West Bank with terror, then take their terror war to the next level to destroy Israel completely (as Arafat has said, "push them into the sea")?

One final note. There is a lot of talk about the "occupied territories." This line has been allowed to stand since the UN is little more than a microphone for corrupt Arab regimes (see the Saudi representative's comments on the "peace proposal" last week) and they have used that microphone to declare the territories occupied. As Rob pointed out yesterday, Egypt, Jordan and Syria (combined) fought a war against Israel (which they completely surround) and lost those territories in the war. Not only had those three countries amassed troops along Israel's borders, but (and here's the reason the Arabs want them out) those territories were the most strategically advantageous from which to attack the heart of Israel. To take up Friedman again, the rage-filled Arab youth, having forced Israel (using terrorist tactics) to relinquish the strategically powerful land it conquered in a war against the combined Arab powers that physically surround it, will sit on said land do nothing?
- posted by levinson @ 3/06/2002 07:26:00 AM