I do not think any responsible analyst now believes that a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian issue has much bearing on stability in the Middle East. Which Israeli was it who began the Sunni-Shi'ite conflict? Iran's delusions of grandeur and messianic expectations stem, I have long argued, from the simple fact that the country is entering a combined economic and demographic crisis from which it has poor hopes of recovering.
The present conflict in the Middle East is not between Arab and Jew, but between Arabs and Jews who seek their way in the modern world on the one hand, and Arabs and Persians who reject the modern world on the other. The latter have nothing to lose and are prepared to fight to the death; how else do we explain the unlimited supply of Muslims who are prepared to die to murder Muslim civilians?
If individuals or indeed entire peoples are determined to destroy themselves, it is extremely difficult to prevent them from doing so at length. The tragedy, I expect, will continue in Iraq, as it did in Spain 1936-39, or the United States 1861-65, until there no longer are sufficient young men to put into the line. The world will little notice or care.
The Palestinians are destroying themselves with their Fatah-Hamas firefights. Destroying their libraries, their universities, their science labs -- destroying the possibility of civilized life. "We don't deserve a state," says one anguished Palestinian civil servant. True. Not now, anyway. But the usual suspects will continue to say that the solution to the Mideast crisis depends on solving the Palestinian question. They don't know what else to say, and reality -- that the only people who can solve the Palestinian problem are the Palestinians, who are utterly dysfunctional -- is too hopeless to consider. That a Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up in Eilat the other day to remind his countrymen that they really ought to be killing Jews instead of each other is about the blackest joke ever.
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The people of Palestine lived in peace until after the Zionists came and forcibly took their land. They have every reason to be pissed off. As for why the Muslims continue to kill each other instead of uniting against the Israelis, well, we certainly do help to stir that pot, don't we? Bottom line, we are in this whole mess because of Israel. I think we should let Israel handle its own problems from here on out.
I agree with most of what Spengler has written. One way for the USA to remain strong and powerful is to go into foreign countries who aren't on our side, overthrow the government, and sit back and watch the "savages" engage in the civil war that always follows a power vacuum. I know you're trying to make a joke here, but it should be said that the civil war started among the Palestinians after the Americans pushed for democratic elections. That brought to power Hamas, and we were off to the races.
I wasn't talking about Israel, Rod. I was talking about Iraq. That's what we did in Iraq. I don't like Hamas. I think that it's rare for a group to acheive a goal with the kind of tactics used by Hamas. I think that we'd still be fighting in this country today if the African Americans had chosen the tactics of Hamas to gain civil rights. It doesn't endear people to your cause. However, I can understand why frustration would push the Palestinians to vote for Hamas. They were looking towards Hamas for effective change. I don't think that they factored in the reaction from the rest of the world when they cast their vote. The more chaos created in the Arab-Persian countries between each other, the safer Israel will be. When they all start to get along, the focus is going to change and the hatred will be directed towards Israel. Creating chaos might be effective in keeping us safe and rich, but I don't think that it should be promoted.
So much could be written to dispute this blame-the-culture (or religion)substitute for foreign policy. In fact, it has been written, but Spengler prefers the easier path of sifting the daily news through his own prejudices and calling it vision. This is no improvement over the hubris that got us into Iraq.
"I think that it's rare for a group to achieve a goal with the kind of tactics used by Hamas." I think they've given up on goals; now they just enjoy the killing. If they can't kill Jews, they'll kill each other. "I think that we'd still be fighting in this country today if the African Americans had chosen the tactics of Hamas to gain civil rights." Ironically, it was the whites who adopted Hamas' tactics over civil rights. And it hasn't done anyone any good here, either.
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