1/03/2010

Middle East News Roundup

Posted by Andrew | Labels: , , , , , , , ,

1. Good piece by Mark LeVine at Al-Jazeera English discussing the ramifications of the failed Christmas Day terrorist attack, and the effect this will have on the US' poorly labeled "War on Terror". Excerpt:

Will the US ramp up its efforts in a new country each time there is an attempted attack, putting US "boots on the ground" against an enemy that is impossible to defeat?

Such a policy would fulfill al-Qaeda's wildest dreams, as the US suffers death by a thousand cuts, bleeding out in an ever wider web of interconnected and unsustainable global conflicts.

2. The shameless Egyptian government opens up the Rafah border crossing into Gaza for a whopping three days.

3. Israeli police arrest a teenage settler, believing him to be the arsonist who torched a West Bank mosque three weeks ago.

4. Higher rates of cancer have been found among Jews who immigrated to Israel after the Holocaust.

5. Decline in Palestinian/Jewish deaths in the West Bank, marked by a sharp increase in deaths in Gaza following the Gaza War.

1 comments:

Bruce Kratky said...

Personally I like the term "War On Terror" as it focuses the attention on the act and philosophy and not a people group in particular. I know full well that the perception in the Arabic world is that we, Americans, are at war with Islam. We are not. I can not control their mentality. But terrorist acts and those that commit them, most acts of which are not ambiguous, are our targets. The confusion is on the Islamic side as it is here that we find Muslims conflicted as to whether blowing an airliner out of the sky is a righteous act or not. This ambivalence with in the Muslim community is their battle for modernity. I believe that if there were Englishmen blowing up airplanes, pizza parlors, bus and train stations on a regular basis and the British government was doing little or nothing to stop them, our Predator aircraft would be bombing suspected row houses in London or worse. The war is on terror, not Islam.

Certainly one can point to a myriad of causes for despair; the injustices of life. I can not excuse the Islamic world. Every dollar on this planet has flowed through their hands thousands of times. They have no excuse. If they need to have civil wars then so be it. Crashing aircraft into U.S. buildings is not an acceptable game plan. You do that, you are at war and it's your own damn fault. Muslims need to surgically weed out their bad apples. They can do this. By doing so they will reduce collateral damage. If they do not cooperate in this matter then it is left for those who believe in freedom from terrorist attack. Their only tool is, by comparison, a sledge hammer.

Are we playing "Whack a Mole?" Yes. The question will be whether for every terrorist born or bread there will be an equal or superior number of "men and women who cherish freedom" born and bread who are willing to push back and push back hard. My belief is that freedom must be fought for, that it is perishable, that it is of extreme value, that it is worth it, and that I am not alone in my beliefs. We will fight to keep our freedom and do so reluctantly. "We" is not just Americans. It is all those who feel no ambivalence to the clear evil of blowing an aircraft out of the sky. Clearly terrorist acts and terrorists need to be stopped. It has been shown that police officers, local jails, civil court rooms are not equipped to do the job alone. It takes some "heavy metal." I am so grieved by this reality.

As for the settler who set fire to the mosque being arrested... perhaps a sign of hope. Apparently the Israeli Prime Minister has no ambivalent feelings towards this type of behavior. Perhaps it is symbolic only. Perhaps one can argue that Israel uses terror in the form of its military. That is an argument that can be made. Still, it is a democratically elected national policy and not the act of some lone terrorist with a grudge. Israel has open and heated debates within its own electorate on this matter with Jewish protestors on the streets. The Israeli government does not shoot or imprison its won protestors. There are differences.

Take the three days and be glad. Work for more. When you get them don't dig tunnels to transport weapons. When you get humanitarian relief use it to relieve suffering not build rockets and vest bombs.

Israel does need to let up on Gaza. We talked about that before.

6:26 PM  

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