All right, I'm going to take a different approach than I have in the past (for the sake of intellectual discussion). What if what we've always thought about the Middle East is wrong? What if we thought that the problem's centered around either America occupying some Arab country or that the fact that Israel exists the reason there's turmoil in the region.
It's funny, you can talk to some people and they'll tell you that the key to peace in the Middle East is for two things to happen.
1. America stops getting involved in the region
2. Israel gives the PA Arabs Yehuda & the Shomron.
If only those two things would happen then there would be peace in the Middle East.
But is that true?
Lets start with answer number 2, Israel giving up land. Let's say we forgot about all of the historical and religious significance that the Jews have to the land. Let's forget the security nightmare an act like that would cause. Let's just say that in the perfect world, Israel gave that land with the Arabs and the Arabs started to create a thriving functional society that didn't preach hate about non-Muslims, was productive in the world market and started some kind of export business or high-tech, and helped contribute to the world economy.
Let's imagine that.
OK, you can stop laughing. I'm going to show you why the solution to peace in the Middle East is actually the exact opposite what Westerners would think. Westerners think that the "conflict" is about land. Secular Israeli's think the conflict is about land. But even if the conflict was about land the solution is not to hand the land to them on a silver platter, in fact now that the Arabs have no sovereign control over the land it is going to be pretty much impossible to create a state for them there and for them to respect Israel.
One thing that most Westerners don't understand is that the Middle East is different from the countries that they live in. Namely being the different mentalities of the two ares.
I'll give you and example, an America tourist walks into an Arab shop anywhere in the Middle East, and picks up and item and asks the Arab shop keeper how much the item costs. The Arab says $50 even though the it really only costs $10. The Arab is not trying to swindle him, he's expecting the American to barter with him.
The tourist then say "OK" and pulls out the money and hands it to the Arab.
Imagine this happening in America, the shopkeeper would be thrilled!
The Arab however feels cheated.
This American turned him into a thief, and made him feel like he cheated the American. He doesn't want to have something handed to him, he wants to work for it.
And that is the underlining difference between America and the Middle East. America is all about equality and fairness (or at least claims to be) the Middle East is about respect. Even if acquiring that respect, causes him a monetary loss.
Success in America is usually defined by how much money a person has.
But someone who's bringing millions of dollars home every year, but also has a terrible marriage and troubled kids, would you define that as success.
It's kind of refreshing to not have to judged solely by how much money you make (one of the reasons I'm moving to Israel) and just by your actual worth as a person.
But I'm getting off topic, the point I want to make is that the solution to the Arab-Israel problem is not giving the Arabs land, it's doing what we did in 1967 and kicking there butts (but with love) and forcing them to grow up and stop whining like a two year and having everything handed to them on a silver platter. If they fire a rocket at us we firs 50 back at them, if they send a suicide bomber into a Jewish city, they will know that they will cause their families homes to be destroyed and their families imprisoned. They won't be going in with the knowledge that their families are going to receive $25,000 after they become a Shahid.
This then leads to another aspect of the conflict that would rock the world if it was revealed in the world media. The Muslims (not the extremists, but your normal everyday Muslim) believes that the Torah says that the Land of Israel belongs to the Jews. They just don't consider Israeli's the Jews of the Torah.
If there was a spiritual revolution in Israel (like there is now and what has the current government so terrified) this conflict would end and we would have the potential to uniting with the Arabs and making a very strong Middle East.
And we're going to need a very strong Middle East to protect us from the next war.
What's the next war? Well I'm no prophet, and this is all hypothetical but let's look at the first issue that I presented above. America.
America has some serious problems.
Part of it has to do with the media, but a lot of it has to do with the government.
But if you think about media for a minute, why would it make headline news out of Michael Jackson molesting 12 year old boys when Russia and China were signing major arms agreements? Wouldn't it be a little bit more pressing to give out the information from two possibly lethal enemies, who, most likely are going to use this new agreement against the interests of the US.
But let's imagine, just imagine, that the conflict in the Middle East was solved. Let's say all of the religious Jews of America moved to Israel and there was a spiritual revolution that took place in the state, a revolution that changed the very nature of the state to be a religious, Torah government. Add that to every single Arab in the Middle East knowing that if one rocket attack was taken against Israel, the location that the attack came from would be flattened. Add on top of that the US getting out of the Middle East and letting the area stabilize by itself.
Then imagine that what resulted from this was a real peace. Not a peace that involved "good will gestures" but a peace that fit into the mold of the Middle East, but would be different from any peace that had ever taken place in the region before. A region that has forever been at the control of a foreign entity whose main goal was to conquer as much land as possible, now under the influence, not from an land depleting occupier, but by the inhabitants the land was originally made for. Not by an entity with a goal ton conquer, but a nation that has the goal of being a light unto the nations, and being able to bring the true light of G-d into the world and really unite the people of this world.
Imagine that.
Now imagine that except the only people who will be effected are the people of the Middle East.
Not the people in the Far East.
The people of the far East are more powerful than the people of the West. They are more focused and determined and hate people of faith.
They want to dominate the world.
America is too weak. The European countries are too weak.
They will fall fast.
Now the question is the Middle East.
Imagine if the War of Gog and Magog has nothing to do with battle between people of faith. What if it's a battle of faith, the people of G-d vs the atheists.
What if instead of having a divided Middle East, the Jews and the Arabs could unite as cousins and fight a real threat and fight in the name of G-d.
All of this is highly hypothetical of course, but what if that's what it takes to bring the Jews of the world together, and end Arab hate?
Just a thought
It's funny, you can talk to some people and they'll tell you that the key to peace in the Middle East is for two things to happen.
1. America stops getting involved in the region
2. Israel gives the PA Arabs Yehuda & the Shomron.
If only those two things would happen then there would be peace in the Middle East.
But is that true?
Lets start with answer number 2, Israel giving up land. Let's say we forgot about all of the historical and religious significance that the Jews have to the land. Let's forget the security nightmare an act like that would cause. Let's just say that in the perfect world, Israel gave that land with the Arabs and the Arabs started to create a thriving functional society that didn't preach hate about non-Muslims, was productive in the world market and started some kind of export business or high-tech, and helped contribute to the world economy.
Let's imagine that.
OK, you can stop laughing. I'm going to show you why the solution to peace in the Middle East is actually the exact opposite what Westerners would think. Westerners think that the "conflict" is about land. Secular Israeli's think the conflict is about land. But even if the conflict was about land the solution is not to hand the land to them on a silver platter, in fact now that the Arabs have no sovereign control over the land it is going to be pretty much impossible to create a state for them there and for them to respect Israel.
One thing that most Westerners don't understand is that the Middle East is different from the countries that they live in. Namely being the different mentalities of the two ares.
I'll give you and example, an America tourist walks into an Arab shop anywhere in the Middle East, and picks up and item and asks the Arab shop keeper how much the item costs. The Arab says $50 even though the it really only costs $10. The Arab is not trying to swindle him, he's expecting the American to barter with him.
The tourist then say "OK" and pulls out the money and hands it to the Arab.
Imagine this happening in America, the shopkeeper would be thrilled!
The Arab however feels cheated.
This American turned him into a thief, and made him feel like he cheated the American. He doesn't want to have something handed to him, he wants to work for it.
And that is the underlining difference between America and the Middle East. America is all about equality and fairness (or at least claims to be) the Middle East is about respect. Even if acquiring that respect, causes him a monetary loss.
Success in America is usually defined by how much money a person has.
But someone who's bringing millions of dollars home every year, but also has a terrible marriage and troubled kids, would you define that as success.
It's kind of refreshing to not have to judged solely by how much money you make (one of the reasons I'm moving to Israel) and just by your actual worth as a person.
But I'm getting off topic, the point I want to make is that the solution to the Arab-Israel problem is not giving the Arabs land, it's doing what we did in 1967 and kicking there butts (but with love) and forcing them to grow up and stop whining like a two year and having everything handed to them on a silver platter. If they fire a rocket at us we firs 50 back at them, if they send a suicide bomber into a Jewish city, they will know that they will cause their families homes to be destroyed and their families imprisoned. They won't be going in with the knowledge that their families are going to receive $25,000 after they become a Shahid.
This then leads to another aspect of the conflict that would rock the world if it was revealed in the world media. The Muslims (not the extremists, but your normal everyday Muslim) believes that the Torah says that the Land of Israel belongs to the Jews. They just don't consider Israeli's the Jews of the Torah.
If there was a spiritual revolution in Israel (like there is now and what has the current government so terrified) this conflict would end and we would have the potential to uniting with the Arabs and making a very strong Middle East.
And we're going to need a very strong Middle East to protect us from the next war.
What's the next war? Well I'm no prophet, and this is all hypothetical but let's look at the first issue that I presented above. America.
America has some serious problems.
Part of it has to do with the media, but a lot of it has to do with the government.
But if you think about media for a minute, why would it make headline news out of Michael Jackson molesting 12 year old boys when Russia and China were signing major arms agreements? Wouldn't it be a little bit more pressing to give out the information from two possibly lethal enemies, who, most likely are going to use this new agreement against the interests of the US.
But let's imagine, just imagine, that the conflict in the Middle East was solved. Let's say all of the religious Jews of America moved to Israel and there was a spiritual revolution that took place in the state, a revolution that changed the very nature of the state to be a religious, Torah government. Add that to every single Arab in the Middle East knowing that if one rocket attack was taken against Israel, the location that the attack came from would be flattened. Add on top of that the US getting out of the Middle East and letting the area stabilize by itself.
Then imagine that what resulted from this was a real peace. Not a peace that involved "good will gestures" but a peace that fit into the mold of the Middle East, but would be different from any peace that had ever taken place in the region before. A region that has forever been at the control of a foreign entity whose main goal was to conquer as much land as possible, now under the influence, not from an land depleting occupier, but by the inhabitants the land was originally made for. Not by an entity with a goal ton conquer, but a nation that has the goal of being a light unto the nations, and being able to bring the true light of G-d into the world and really unite the people of this world.
Imagine that.
Now imagine that except the only people who will be effected are the people of the Middle East.
Not the people in the Far East.
The people of the far East are more powerful than the people of the West. They are more focused and determined and hate people of faith.
They want to dominate the world.
America is too weak. The European countries are too weak.
They will fall fast.
Now the question is the Middle East.
Imagine if the War of Gog and Magog has nothing to do with battle between people of faith. What if it's a battle of faith, the people of G-d vs the atheists.
What if instead of having a divided Middle East, the Jews and the Arabs could unite as cousins and fight a real threat and fight in the name of G-d.
All of this is highly hypothetical of course, but what if that's what it takes to bring the Jews of the world together, and end Arab hate?
Just a thought
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