Ahmadinejad has uttered it many times--"Israel should be wiped off the map". Most take it literally, but giving him the most liberal UN-friendly benefit of the doubt, he might be saying that Israel's creation was a mistake therefore the Jews should be 'wiped off the map' via repatriation back to Europe or elsewhere.
New York Magazine's Kurt Andersen thinks the mistake argument might have some merit (ht LGF):
Yet as Richard Cohen wrote in his Washington Post column last week, “Israel itself is a mistake . . . an honest mistake, a well-intentioned mistake, a mistake for which no one is culpable [but which] has produced a century of warfare and terrorism of the sort we are seeing now.”Andersen (and Cohen) are similar to many others now torn between the complexities of Middle East factionalism and tired of seeing it result in innocent bloodshed. In short, they have empathy. But should emotion overpower logic?
Think tank logic says the problems in the Middle East and other hot spots can be traced to money, ie, the 'haves versus the have-nots'. The hungry man living in a hellhole country run by a maniac and trying to feed his family might resent the wealthy west and be tempted to back the underdogs. Throw in radical religion and place two-thirds of the world's oil in the same area and the boiling cauldron boils over.
What do we do? Some would suggest figuratively giving in--give up money, territory, or ideals and maybe it'll stop. Problem is, that's already been tried. America provides monetary support to many Arab countries and Israel recently gave back Gaza and evacuated Lebanon. President Clinton's anti-terrorism plan was to keep it on the down-low and go after them with the Federal BI. None of those things worked.
Bush's plan seems to be kicking arse with one hand while promoting democracy on the other in an effort to produce countries that would better distribute the wealth causing less inclination towards violence, but as we see it's not going too well at the moment, either.
In his piece Andersen's history lesson stopped at 1947 using the conventional wisdom that Israel was mapped on stolen Arab land. He ignored the Treaty of Versailles, Churchill's divisions, and most Biblical history. He ignored the history of the ME immediately preceeding World War II, but it's a detour worth taking.
In 1942 Hilter's Afrika Korps was making a beeline for Cairo when they were stopped by Monty at el-Alamein. Another Panzer division was curling towards the region through the Caucuses from the north, but were stopped by the Red Army near Baku.
The Nazis weren't heading to the Middle East for R&R. Had they taken the Suez Canal and Iraq's oil fields the war might have dragged on for a long time, or we might be speaking German now.
Hitler had sympathizers in Iraq. Other Arabs were also Nazi friendly during the war. Additionally, Saddam Hussein's father was a fan of Hitler and some of it rubbed off on the son. If you think about it, the constant drive to attain regional caliphates, recapture stolen territories and rub out worldwide Jewry sounds awfully Hitler-ish.
Why is the above germane? Because it sets the stage for the UN actions in 1947. The Arabs were as divisive a force then as now, and their animous has always been about the Jews--after all, it's in 'the book'. World War II proved that some felt a murdering fascist like Hitler was a better alternative than to side with the western world, including the Jews. The picture at the top is of Hizballah fighters and the salute is probably an in-your-face gesture to the Israelis, who were in view.
Israel was not a mistake. Admitting such would be the first step towards giving in, akin to lobbing the enemy a fat pitch right down the middle. It makes us look like a weak child ready to hand our lunch money to the bully. There's an old country song that says, "you've got to stand for something or you'll fall for anything". Simplistic yes, but if we refuse to stand for our own civilization, it will fall.
MORE 8/10/06
Always on Watch has an excellent piece, in this same vein.
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