bq. A joke that circulated in various forms during the Second World War imagined a confrontation between a Nazi and a Jew. "The Jews are the cause of all of the problems of the world " says the Nazi. The Jew nods sagely and replies: "Yes, the Jews and the bicycle riders." "Why the bicycle riders?" asks the incredulous Nazi. "Why the Jews?" his interlocutor replies.
Why, indeed. Shirley Anne Haber points me to this sobering article in Toronto's Globe and Mail newspaper about the popularity of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion in the Arab and Islamic world:
bq. "The theories of The Protocols now represent a mainstream view in the Middle East. There, The Protocols are regularly cited as authority for the proposition that the Jews are a criminal people that must be stopped. Last Ramadan, Egyptian television broadcast a 30-part dramatization of the book. This Ramadan, a Hezbollah television station in Lebanon broadcast a similar series. It presented the creation of Israel as part of a 2,000-year-old Jewish conspiracy to conquer the world through torture and ritual murder. The official newspaper of the Palestinian Authority, Al-Hayat Al-Jadidah, has regularly written about Jewish world conspiracies and the alleged truth of The Protocols."
So long as this sort of thing continues, peace is not difficult - it is impossible. I've written before about the serious problem the Islamic world has with hate. This is just one more example. As Marvin Kurz notes:
bq. "The slavery of Africans could not been possible without centuries of their depiction as subhuman. The Rwandan genocide of Tutsis and moderate Hutus in the last decade was clearly spurred by their representation in Hutu media as "cockroaches" to be squashed."
Indeed. So long as the Arab and Islamic world continue their steady campaign of genocidal hate toward the Jews, peace will remain an illusion that no "roadmap" or other window-dressing can redeem.
Hatred of this depth and virulence also makes an instant lie of the Left's newest proposal, that of a "bi-national state" in Israel in which Jews would be left at the mercy of people who not only share these views, but actively propagate them. That this proposal equates to putting the future welfare of black people in the hands of Ku Klux Klansmen matters not at all to those who do not consider Jewish life of real value... and who occasionally show the poor judgment to be open about it rather than keeping their feelings for safe company.
"Peace" proposals that do not take these realities into account are not expressions of hope, or decency, or anything else. They are lies, pure and simple - and those lies lead to murder.
The Islamic World does not have a problem with hatre as much as they have a problem with ignorance. The elites in the region could not care less about having an educated public. This makes it easier for the elites to distract from their own corruption and inadequacies. Educated publics are SO annoying to your average despot and more so to the below average despots that populate the Islamic World. They can't even come up with an original scape goat (Come on now blaming the Jews is SO 1938).
This must be propaganda. It can't be true, because it doesn't agree with the leftist dogma that believes Israel is the greatest threat to peace and that all the Arabs would be friendly neighbors if it weren't for the evil Jewish oppressors.
MEMRI had clips of the Egyptian dramatization of the Protocols shortly after it aired. The "Jews" in the show sat around plotting world domination while the Arabs desperately tried to get their hands on the Protocols so they could save themselves. It was the most racist program I've ever seen, and apparently it was wildly popular Ramadan entertainment.
Liberrocky - sorry, you're wrong. The problem is hate. How to tackle it is another question.
You may argue that ignorance feeds that hate, but that doesn't change the fact that the hate is real. Ignorance doesn't cause people to deliberately murder others - hatred does, and is, and will continue to do so until it stops or it is stopped.
Consider, too, that many of the most crazed haters in the Islamic world (and indeed, many of its terrorists) come from middle class backgrounds or better. We've seen pattern time and again, from the salons of Karachi to the German-educated terrorists of 9/11. These are not uneducated people - but many are bigots, and many both exhibit and foment hate on a scale that ranks among the worst in modern times (and that's saying something).
The Jews are the first target - but as we've pointed out before, they are surely not the last.
Soft-pedalling that reality by calling it "ignorance" instead of by its true name is an evasion. It's hate. Tell the truth, use the word.
Joe, have you read "Right to Exist" by Yaakov Lozowick?
I think you would find very good material in that book in support of what you are saying.
Excellent post, as usual.
It is an incredible hatred that bodes ill for any conceivable peace plan. With that kind of hatred so widespread, continuing violence and war are inevitable.
At least in Nazi Germany the virulent nazis were in the minority, and the majority of Germans merely acted as enablers. It seems that in the arab world the virulent quasi-nazis are trying to alchieve a majority. If the majority of arabs become not merely enablers, but actual instigators of violence, we are looking at a war lasting at least a hundred years.
In rereading my post I can see I was not quite clear and I was making a little light.
1. The hatred does existed. It is evil and bad.
2. If anyone acts on their hatred by wearing Semtex BVD's to a Bar Mitzvah they can't burn in hell long enough. (Also anyone who thinks that Mr. Fruit of the Booms is going to paradise...they should get ready to roast).
3. My point is the hatred is a symptom and focusing on it distracts from the disease and thus slows progress towards a cure.
Points taken, Liberrocky. Thanks.
The one item I'd argue with is #3. Focusing on the existence of the hatred is a necessary first step to realism. We won't get viable solutions until we have realism, and right now all this B.S. about a so-called "peace process" seeks to evade that necessary honesty rather than deal with it.
This isn't something we can paper over with "peace processes," and it isn't something we can buy off either. We have to deal with it, yes... but first, we need to have people acknowledge that (a) it exists; (b) it's widespread and scary; and © it's a serious problem - indeed, it's THE serious problem.
Hi.
I don't agree that there is a hate problem for Islam. There is a balance of power problem for Islam. Dr. Mahathir explained it clearly, and articulated the moderate, sensible solution.
Islam is not a diseased culture. It is a healthy culture with a very high level of chronic aggression, at the moment lacking the means to do what it's built to do. Hostility to infidel states is functional if you have the might to conquer them. Prejudice and discrimination against dhimmis is highly functional. It's just that people are inevitably frustrated with their present circumstances, so they become emotional.
Consequently, I think a psychotherapeutic approach to the global conflict is a waste of time.
Liberrocky said: "The Islamic World does not have a problem with hatre as much as they have a problem with ignorance."
Dr. Mahathir would entirely agree, for different reasons.
if a rabid anti-semite who gives widely embraced speeches about how "jews control the world" is what you consider a "moderate", i shudder to think of what you consider an extremist. oh wait, i already know... you consider those of us willing to call hate by its name extremist. would you have considered negotiating with nazism? is there room for those who seek the slaughter of you and yours in your relativist "balance of power"?
i should clarify that i do notice sarcasm (i hope) in the above post, but the reality is that considering mahatir and all those like him to be "moderates" is such a widely held belief that my general response still stands. so if you were making light of the global psychotheraputic approach that calls those who hate us, but who arent quite as active in it as those who kill us, "moderates" ...just consider my response pre-emptive action against those commentors who would gladly say such a thing and mean it.
I have been reading science fiction going on 40 years so I am accustomed to following a trend to a possible conclusion. Given that Western culture seems to be antithetical to the Islamic religion, what do you all foresee as the inevitable result of this clash 50 to 100 years from now? I think either the West will make concessions to Islam for the purposes of peace or the West will go to war with Islam.
DaWurmTurns
i think islam will go through a long overdue empircal reformation and the people of the islamic world will become increasingly independent from having their thoughts and lives dominated by predetermined religious orthodoxy. but this happy scenario wont happen on its own. the war of ideas both inside islam and throughout the world is just starting to heat up.
Islam cannot have a reformation unless the Muslims decide to change the ideology/doctrine that the Koran is the exact words of god, that Mohammad was not the perfect man and nullify the parts of the Koran and Hadiths that show how to interact and treat the "Others", a term used by the European Islamic scholar Tariq Ramadan. A Muslim once told me that there is something for everyone in Islam and it seems to be true. The duality of the religion allows for good and evil, kindness and murder. I described it as a buffet table where you could go and get good nutrious food and poisonous, bad food and Prof. Moosa from Duke Univ. agreed with me.
Jews and Bicycles...
Three elderly Jewish Gentlemen met as they always did at the corner diner for coffee and Danish.
One pulled out an English-language copy of a Saudi newspaper and began reading it. His friends, appalled, assailed him for reading material that spread blood libels.
The reader replied: "Look, you, I read Ha'aretz but all I learn about is deficits-THIS and suicide bomber-THAT and another coaltion government collapses. At least with my Arab paper, I can comfort myself that the Jews rule the world!"
Science Fiction and Islamic Culture...
Q: Why are there no Arab or Muslim characters on Star Trek?
A: Because Star Trek is set in the future.
(sorry, Dr. Bashir on DS9 was Punjabi.)
That Star Trek joke is a classic! Keep 'em coming furious.