Jewish World Review
August 23, 2006 / 28 Menachem-Av, 5766
It is hard to think of a time when a nation — and a whole civilization
— has drifted more futilely toward a bigger catastrophe than that looming
over the United States and western civilization today.
Nuclear weapons in the hands of Iran and North Korea mean that it is
only a matter of time before there are nuclear weapons in the hands of
international terrorist organizations. North Korea needs money and Iran
has brazenly stated its aim as the destruction of Israel — and both its
actions and its rhetoric suggest aims that extend even beyond a second
Holocaust.
Send not to know for whom the bell tolls. It tolls for thee.
This is not just another in the long history of military threats. The
Soviet Union, despite its massive nuclear arsenal, could be deterred by
our own nuclear arsenal. But suicide bombers cannot be deterred.
Fanatics filled with hate cannot be either deterred or bought off, whether
Hezbollah, Hamas or the government of Iran.
The endlessly futile efforts to bring peace to the Middle East with
concessions fundamentally misconceive what forces are at work.
Hate and humiliation are key forces that cannot be bought off by "trading
land for peace," by a "Palestinian homeland" or by other such concessions
that might have worked in other times and places.
Humiliation and hate go together. Why humiliation? Because a once-proud,
dynamic culture in the forefront of world civilizations, and still carrying
a message of their own superiority to "infidels" today, is painfully visible
to the whole world as a poverty-stricken and backward region, lagging far
behind in virtually every field of human endeavor.
There is no way that they can catch up in a hundred years, even if the
rest of the world stands still. And they are not going to wait a hundred
years to vent their resentments and frustrations at the humiliating position
in which they find themselves.
Israel's very existence as a modern, prosperous western nation in their
midst is a daily slap across the face. Nothing is easier for demagogues
than to blame Israel, the United States, or western civilization in general
for their own lagging position.
Hitler was able to rouse similar resentments and fanaticism in Germany
under conditions not nearly as dire as those in most Middle East countries
today. The proof of similar demagogic success in the Middle East is all
around.
What kind of people provide a market for videotaped beheadings of innocent
hostages? What kind of people would throw an old man in a wheelchair off
a cruise liner into the sea, simply because he was Jewish? What kind of
people would fly planes into buildings to vent their hate at the cost of
their own lives?
These are the kinds of people we are talking about getting nuclear weapons.
And what of ourselves?
Do we understand that the world will never be the same after hate-filled
fanatics gain the ability to wipe whole American cities off the face of
the earth? Do we still imagine that they can be bought off, as Israel was
urged to buy them off with "land for peace" — a peace that has proved to
be wholly illusory?
Even ruthless conquerors of the past, from Genghis Khan to Adolf Hitler,
wanted some tangible gains for themselves or their nations — land, wealth,
dominion. What Middle East fanatics want is the destruction and humiliation
of the west.
Their treatment of hostages, some of whom have been humanitarians serving
the people of the Middle East, shows that what the terrorists want is to
inflict the maximum pain and psychic anguish on their victims before killing
them.
Once these fanatics have nuclear weapons, those victims can include
you, your children and your children's children.
The terrorists need not start out by wiping our cities off the map.
Chances are they would first want to force us to humiliate ourselves in
whatever ways their sadistic imaginations could conceive, out of fear of
their nuclear weapons.
After we, or our children and grandchildren, find ourselves living at
the mercy of people with no mercy, what will future generations think of
us, that we let this happen because we wanted to placate "world opinion"
by not acting "unilaterally"? We are fast approaching the point of no return.
© 2006, Creators Syndicate
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