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From Dove to Hawk
I found that current events had echoes in the historical record, and vice versa. The founding charter of Hamas repeatedly refers to the victory of Saladin over the medieval crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem, and compares the crusaders to the Zionists. In researching my new history of the 1948 war, I was struck by the fact that this analogy, usually overlooked or ignored by previous historians, suffused the statements and thinking of Palestinian leaders and the leaders of the surrounding Arab states during the countdown to, and the course of, the war. A few days before Arab armies struck at Jewish forces in Palestine, Abd al-Rahman Azzam, secretary general of the Arab League, told the British minister in Transjordan their aim was to "sweep the Jews into the sea."
If the documents I studied 20 years ago painted Palestinians tragically, as the underdog, this record did the opposite. It has become clear to me that from its start the struggle against the Zionist enterprise wasn't merely a national conflict between two peoples over a piece of territory but also a religious crusade against an infidel usurper. As early as Dec. 2, 1947, four days after the passage of the partition resolution, the scholars of Al Azhar University proclaimed a "worldwide jihad in defense of Arab Palestine" and declared that it was the duty of every Muslim to take part.
This history has deepened and reinforced my pessimism, itself bred by the failure of Oslo. Those currently riding high in the region—figures like Hamas's Ismail Haniyeh and Khaled Meshaal, Hizbullah's Hassan Nasrallah and Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad—are true believers who are convinced it is Allah's command and every Muslim's duty to extirpate the "Zionist entity" from the sacred soil of the Middle East. For all its economic, political, scientific and cultural achievements and military prowess, Israel, at 60, remains profoundly insecure—for there can be no real security for the Jewish state, surrounded by a surging sea of Muslims, in the absence of peace.
Morris's most recent book on Israeli history is the recently published "1948: A History of the First Arab-Israeli War."
© 2008
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Member Comments
Posted By: LIKEITIS @ 05/22/2008 11:39:31 AM
Comment: The jews may not be killing the Arabs as FAST as the nazis were killing jews--but they are killing them non-the-less.
Gaza truck bomber attacks key Israel crossing
Attacker dies in huge blast; helicopter reportedly destroys getaway vehicle
YOU HAVE TO BE OUT OF YOUR MIND!
THE PALESTINIANS ARE PERFECT EXAMPLES OF A PEOPLE THAT HAVE LIVED OUT THEIR COLLECTIVE USEFULLNESS AS ANY PART OF THE CIVILIZED WORLD.
THEY ARE GETTING JUST WHAT THEY ASK FOR. IF THE DOG DEFICATES IN THE HOUSE, HE MUST REMAIN OUTSIDE THE HOUSE......IF HE IS AGRESSIVLY VIOLENT, THERE MUST BE NO QUARTER GIVEN AND THE DOG SHOULD BECOME FERTILIZER. THAT IS FUTURE OF THOSE LOST FOOLS CALLING THEMSELVES PALESTINIANS.
THE JEWS IN HITLERS GERMANY WERE NOT ROUNDED UP ,PUT INTO SLAVE LABOR CAMPS, TORTURED AND KILLED FOR ATTACKING THE NATZI REGIME. THEY HAD THIS DONE TO THEM FOR BEING GENETICALLY UNACCEPTIBLE TO THE BELIEFS OF HITLER.
WHEN A PEOPLE AS BACKWARD AS THE MIDDLE EASTS PEOPLE HAVE BECOME, MOST DUE TO COLLECTIVELY INSISTING ON HOLDING TO "THE OLD WAYS", AWARE THAT THEY HAVE MISSED THE TRAIN TO THE DELIGHTS OF THE TECHNOLOGICAL PRESENT AND ALL OF THOSE GOOD THING THAT GO WITH MAINTAINING SOME SORT OF TOUCH WITH THE PRESENT DAY, THERE ARE FACTIONS WHO NOTICE THAT THEY ARE NOW IRRELIVENT AND RESPOND WITH THE ONLY THING A BACKWARD LOSING GROUP CAN WHICH IS INDIRECT VIOLENCE(NOTHING MUCH DIFFERENT THAN A TANTRUM).
WHEN I SAY INDIRECT VIOLENCE, I MEAN THAT IT MATTERS LITTLE THAT THEY ARE IN MOST CASES KILLING THEIR OWN PEOPLE, OR IF THEY DO MANAGE TO KILL A FEW OF THEIR INTENDED TARGETS
THE RESPONSE IS MORE OF THEIR OWN KILLED BY THE ATTACTED AND OF COURSE MUCH BETTER EQUIPED TO KILL FOES.
THE PALESTINIANS ARE NOTHING LESS THAN BEGGERS, THAT ARE MAKING NO ATTEMPT TO BETTER THEIR OWN SITUATIONS, AND THIS HAS TO BE A DIRECT EXAMPLE OF THEIR LACK OF INTELLIGENCE AND A SIGN OF THEIR INPENDING DOOM .
THE SOONER THE ISRAELIS TAKE THE KID GLOVES OFF AND TAKE A FEW STRAFFING RUNS DOWN THE GAZA STRIP WITH A FEW F16'S ....POSSIBLY ARMED WITH NAPALM, THE BETTER.
Posted By: ??? ????? @ 05/22/2008 5:52:26 AM
Comment: The jews may not be killing the Arabs as FAST as the nazis were killing jews--but they are killing them non-the-less. It's worse because it's a more slower process. A slower torture than gas. Arab women and children starving--slowly. Limited movement by everyone else who try to get food and water and shelter. The jews are merely operating in a more covert manner than the nazis. The rest of the world stands by and do nothing--because of some guilt-complex for having not done anything for thre jews during W.W.II. And the nazis not only exterminated jews, dave, they murdered gypsies, blacks, and everybody else not "white" enough. Israel is on a power-trip--just like the nazis. They believe military-might makes them right--just like the nazis. They ignore the call for peace-talks--just like the nazis. They will kill dozens in attempts to murder one--just like the nazis. They are experts when it comes to propaganda--just like the nazis. They have also committed war-crimes--just like the nazis (during the 1967 war). Quite comparable.
And as far as what happened in Rwanda, many like me spoke out, but I'm sure you were like most whites--you ignored it because they were black--just like the rest of the white world. And if it were not for the white europeans who were there and started this Tutsi/Hutu crap, and caused the genocide to happen, Rwanda would not have had to endured that horror. Speaking against something doesn't mean $hit if those who CAN so something just sit on their pale, flat white A$$E$! Face it--the U.S. and the rest of the white western world couldn't care less about "the fur people in Sudan".
Neither do you--dave. I can read it in your smarta$$ remark. it was only smirking, flappant, rhetorical waste.
Posted By: LogicalDave @ 05/20/2008 8:07:46 PM
Comment: You suggest that Palestinian extremism and intolerance came from Zionism, but it is hard to understand the extremism and intolerance that pre-dated modern Israel...or the butchery of the Fur people or Kurds at the hands of Arab states (with nary a whisper from the Islamic world). If you appeared more rational and less dogmatic you might be taken more seriously...neither Arabs nor Jews are all saints or all sinners...until we can look honestly at the issues on *both* sides, their conflict is doomed to continue. Have you ever wondered what the Israeli perspective is on these issues? Assume for a moment they are people just like you with families and friends and generally just want to live peacefully...do you think you might be able to work out a modus vivendi with such people? To understand each other's perspectives and fears and aspirations? Try it...you never know where it might lead...