Berel Wein writes this thought-provoking article in the Jerusalem Post (thanks to Olivia). I don't go along with all of what he says, but I believe he is absolutely right that this struggle has been misjudged by almost everyone. It isn't about territory in Israel, or "occupation," and it isn't about whatever grievance is being retailed about the jihad outside of Israel. It is about the totalitarian instransigence and supremacism of the jihad/Sharia imperative.
We are accustomed to think of the secular-religious divide that exists in Israel today as relating to denominational pluralism, conversions, civil marriage, Sabbath observance and other matters of ritual and budget allocations. All of this may be true, but it ignores the basic divide, which is one of values, world view and perception of ourselves and others.The recent success of Hamas in the elections for the Palestinian parliament should serve to focus the attention of our leaders and public on a hard fact that Israel has always chosen to ignore until now: that the Arab-Israeli struggle is at its core a religious dispute. Only by appreciating and understanding this unpleasant but very real truth does the struggle take on a somewhat rational and understandable, and perhaps even predictable, pattern.
Since the leadership, political and academic, of the Zionist movement from its founding in 1897 and later of the State of Israel itself has always been devoutly secular and disdainful, if not downright hostile, to traditional Jewish beliefs, values and religious practices, it placed itself in a mind-frame that did not appreciate the Arab position on the emergence of the Jewish national home in the Land of Israel.
If we care nothing about our religion, the Jewish leadership seemed to say, then it should be true that they - the Arabs - must also not allow religion to play a decisive role in reconciling our differences.
I think the State Department suffers from the same false assumption.
In effect, we always maintained that since we had freed ourselves of the constraints of our religion and thus saw our way forward to territorial solutions that would end the conflict, it was obvious that eventually the Arabs would also become completely secularized - the wave of the future, as Marx predicted - and the rose garden of the Middle East would then begin to bloom....The mere existence of such a Jewish state, no matter what its borders, would still remain an affront to Islam even if it was completely disarmed and headed by Yossi Beilin. Thus, the president of Iran, among other Muslim leaders, would still be duty-bound to call for its destruction, God forbid. And he and they mean exactly what they threaten....
The Arabs view us as the latter-day reincarnation of the Crusaders of the Middle Ages. The struggle and triumph over the Crusaders was a victory of Islam over Christianity, pure and simple. It reinforced in the Muslim mind the exclusivity and superiority of Islam over all other faiths. It strengthened the concept of dhimmi in the Muslim world, whereby non-Muslims could exist in their society solely in a subservient, second-class state of being, and even then only at the sufferance of the Muslim rulers themselves.Religion was the motivating force in that struggle. It remains so in our current struggle....
A religious struggle conducted from a purely secular point of view cannot really ever be concluded successfully, for the true core problem remains unrecognized. And this is the true religious-secular fault line that divides Israel today.
The long view of history teaches the same lesson. The struggle is only about Arab expansion and Islamic triumphalism. The sooner those in corridors of power realize and take action to counter the undue influence of lobbyists and others that have insinuated themselves into our culture, the sooner we will begin to rid ourselves of this scourge.
I guess the Israelis don't see the "nuances" either.
Don't say 'I told you so...!'
Ever since Munich, with every terror attack by the "Palestinians" I knew this was a religious war. A war goes back 1400 years, no less.
It doesn't end with Israel destroyed: They want Spain, Thailand, the Indonesian Islands, Chechnya, Tajikistan, Mindanao,(no: The Phillipines) Norway, Sweden , England (make that Europe)
They want Islam for the world, got it?
Why don't we listen to them?
...and stop them dead in their tracks....!
"The Arabs view us as the latter-day reincarnation of the Crusaders of the Middle Ages. The struggle and triumph over the Crusaders was a victory of Islam over Christianity, pure and simple. It reinforced in the Muslim mind the exclusivity and superiority of Islam over all other faiths."
-- from the article above
The Crusades were not necessary for Muslims to believe deeply in the "superiority of Islam over all other faiths." The split between Believer and Infidel, and the rightness and inevitability of the Triumph of Islam, which is "to dominate and not to be dominated," had llittle to do with the Crusades. It is an article of fatih. It did not derive from the victory over the Crusaders. It did not disappear when the Western world became much stronger than Islam. The wherewithal was lacking, for a while, but the desire to conduct Jihad, and the certainty of its rightness and of Islam's final triumph, was not questioned by the Muslim masses. Ever.
If the West wins the culture war, the military war will fizzle out.
In the traditional Christian dogma the Earth belongs to Satan. In the Islamic dogma the Earth belongs to Allah. So at least we agree on some things...
I disagree with Rabbi Wein on his assertion that the Arabs view us as reincarnations of the Crusaders. Maybe some do. But from my reading of translated Arab writings shows that they more likely identify today's Jews with the Jews of Muhammud's time who are depicted very unfavorably in traditional Muslim writings. For instance, Prof. Ismail Farouqi, the mentor of John Esposito, did that. At a lecture he gave in 1969, after a dozen Jews were hung in Bagdad as alleged spies, Farouqi was lecturing at Temple univ in Philadelphia. Someone referred to the hangings in Bagdad. His response was: "We could have destroyed you in Muhammad's time if we had wanted to." This answer was in its way trying to show how tolerant the Arabs/Muslims were: We could have wiped you out then but we didn't. How kind and tolerant.
In any case, it shows that he was identifying the 20th century Jews with those of Muhammad's time.
I have some mail i recieved from followers
of the Religion of Pieces Islam..
Its really interesting ...
And an eye opener...
This struggle is against
Islamic Terrorism
Islamic Fundamentalism
Islamic Tyranny
Islamic Genoicde
Islamic Racism
Even when presented with VIDEO and Picture evidence followers of the religion of Pieces islam and its Demonic Leader
Mohammed (Pork be on him)..
Proves that Islam is incapable of reform..
Islam is incapable of living in peace .
Islam is incapapble of intigration
Islam is incapable of non interference..
As anything that is NON muslim must be
Destroyed by muslims...
Else they arent good muslims...
A sick theology but that is the gist of it...
This is a spiritual war ...
The leftist just havent figured it out yet...
Maybe after another hit they will
If we survive it..