Russian version
A world without Israel
- Информация о материале
- Автор: Joseph Farah
Рейтинг: 5 / 5
http://www.worldnetdaily.com:
July 28, 2006
The world is full of Israel-haters.
I don't know why. It probably has something to do with anti-Semitism
– and even more to do with lack of knowledge and understanding about the
Middle East.
So, I thought it might be a good exercise to consider what the world
would be like if Israel had never been reborn in 1948.
Let's suppose that United Nations vote to partition the Palestinian
region into two – one Arab and one Jewish – went differently. Let's imagine
the Soviet Union or some other nation that supported the Jewish state voted
the other way. What would the Middle East be like today? What would the
world be like?
Well, for starters, the blame-Israel-first crowd needs to remember
that the bloodiest conflicts in the Middle East in the last 60 years would
still have taken place – because they had nothing to do with the state
of Israel.
For instance, does anyone doubt that the Iran-Iraq war, which killed
more than 1 million people and featured the widespread use of chemical
weapons, would still have taken place – even without an Israel on the map?
Not even Saddam Hussein or the Ayatollah Khomeini could suggest that
Jews had anything to do with that little dust-up. It was simply the latest
round in fighting between ancient enemies, a turf war between a Sunni Muslim
dictator and a Shiite Muslim dictator.
But what might have happened to nearly 1 million Jews in Arab lands
who found a home in Israel after 1948? Those million refugees often left
hostile Arab lands with little more than the clothes on their back. They
often risked their lives to flee. Today, those Jews, if they were lucky,
would still be living under the yoke of Muslim tyranny, living in "dhimmi"
status. Surely many would have been murdered in the kinds of pogroms that
regularly occurred in Arab and Muslim countries while they still maintained
Jewish communities.
We hear so much about the "Arab refugee crisis" that was created by
the 1948 war between Israel and its Arab neighbors. The highest estimates
of Arabs who fled Israel during that war are put at 500,000. They fled,
most often, because they were instructed to do so by the Arab leaders who
declared war on Israel at its very birth. Yet, nearly 60 years later, this
refugee population hasn't decreased, it has increased exponentially!
Why?
Not because Israel has created any new Arab refugees. It is because
the Arab nations have refused to settle the original refugees they encouraged
into refugee status. They see them as critical pawns in their asymmetrical
conflict with Israel.
One thing is certain. Without Israel, there would have been no Palestinian
national movement. There would be no Palestinian Authority. There would
be no future Palestinian state.
Why?
Because prior to the 1967 Six-Day War, when Israel conquered what we
call the West Bank and East Jerusalem, there was no such movement. Even
though there was no Palestinian Arab state and never had been, no one had
ever promoted one. When Jordan controlled the West Bank, the so-called
"Palestinians" were not agitating for a homeland. They'd never had a country
of their own and apparently never wanted one. Suddenly, when Israel captured
the ancient Jewish lands of Judea and Samaria, the Arabs discovered their
sense of Palestinian nationalism for the first time ever.
I can also promise you that if Israel had not unified Jerusalem and
declared it the eternal capital of the Jewish state, it would not be considered
the third-holiest site in Islam.
How do I know this?
Because during the time that East Jerusalem was under the administration
of King Hussein of Jordan, prior to June 1967, not a single Arab leader
ever visited – including the king himself. It would seem that if Jerusalem
had always been so important to the Muslims, their leaders would have expressed
some interest in it before Israel captured the city in war.
The modern Islamic jihad movement is thought to have been launched
in earnest in 1979, when the Ayatollah Khomeini assumed power from the
overthrown shah. At the time, Khomeini made clear that the real enemy –
"the Great Satan," as he called it – was the United States of America,
not Israel.
No one, of course, knows what might have happened or not happened if
Israel had never been reborn. But it does seem clear that most of the bad
things that happened in the Middle East in the last 60 years would have
happened anyway. Could it be that, if the Jewish state had never been,
many more horrible things might have happened?
Personally, I suspect so.
Russian version
Russian version
An introduction to MAOF
Haim Goldman
Haim Goldman
Dear Friends,
Would you believe that the undersigned has anything in common with
-- Professor Victor Davis Hanson (Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University),
-- Dr Charles Krauthammer, (Washington Post, Time, The Weekly Standard),
-- Caroline Glick (Deputy Managing Editor of the Jerusalem Post),
-- Jonathan Tobin (Executive Editor of the Philadelphia Jewish Exponent).
Amazingly, the editors of the MAOF website decided that the missives of the undersigned are worthy of translation and posting along the articles written by these distinguished authors.
The first letter was published without the consent of the undersigned.
However, after thorough examination of the laudable attitude of MAOF and of the excellent contents of the website, the undersigned had most graciously granted his permission for publication of his missives in both English and Russian.
“Analytical Group MAOF” [1] is an organisation founded about ten years ago by Russian-speaking Jewish intellectuals. The attitude of MAOF is definitely pro-Zionist -- unambiguously and unapologetically.
One of MAOF’s primary purposes is providing information and analysis about Middle-Eastern and world affairs as well as about Israel’s history, values and dilemmas. In addition to extensive publication activity in various media, MAOF also organises excursions and seminars. While the vast majority of the contents of the MAOF website is in Russian, texts originally written in English are provided in the original [2] as well as in Russian.
There are arguably about 250 millions of Russian-speakers worldwide and many of them do not read English. The indisputable motivation for the author’s permission was to grant those millions of disadvantaged people the grand benefit of reading the author’s ruminations. If the author is ever maliciously accused that his tacit motivation for authorising the publication was his craving to be listed along with the above-mentioned distinguished writers, his plea will definitely be “nolo contendere”.
The editors of MAOF expressed their gratitude by granting the undersigned a privilege that no other author got – the opportunity to review and correct the Russian translation before publication. The original letters of the undersigned are at [3] and their Russian version is at [4]. At of today, only two letters are posted but several other letters are pending translation.
You are kindly ENCOURAGED TO RECOMMEND the MAOF website to your friends and colleagues worldwide, particularly those who speak Russian. Those who do not enjoy the benefit of proficiency in the exquisite Russian language can find many thought-provoking and inspiring articles about Middle-Eastern and world affairs in the English section [2].
Sincerely,
Haim Goldman
28.10.2006
REFERENCES:
[1] http://maof.rjews.net
[2] section.php3? sid=37&num=25
[3] authorg.php3? id=2107&type=a
[4] authorg.php3? id=2166&type=a