Israel is not at heart of Mideast unrest

The Iraq Study Group perpetuates the myth that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the cause of the unrest in the Middle East. But they do not address the role that Islamist extremists played in the region in the past, and continue doing so now.

Consider these facts: A thousand Iraqi Muslims are killed each week by their brothers in Islam. Is Israel to blame? Millions of Iraqis and Iranians, both countries being Muslim, were "martyred" in the war between those two countries. Was it a result of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict? And did Saddam Hussein invade Kuwait as part of an Israeli conspiracy?

The Egyptians dispatched an army to fight in Yemen's civil war in the 1960s, and used poison gas on fellow Muslims. Israel again? Hafez Assad, the previous ruler of Syria, slaughtered tens of thousands of his fellow countrymen in Hama in 1982, and so did Saddam Hussein in Iraq. Is it the fault of Israel?

When bands of Mexican bandits raided the southern United States, we invaded Mexico in order to ensure a safe border. So what is Israel to do when a terrorist militia, armed and trained by Iran and Syria and represented in the Lebanese government, starts hostilities and aims rockets at population centers?

The Islamic teachings promulgated by the Saudi-Wahabi-sponsored preachers teaches intolerance and hatred to those not strictly Muslim. It encourages murder by promising homicide bombers a place in paradise (and rewards to the families through so-called Muslim charities). I am not a scholar of Islam, but where are the voices of their moderate believers?


December 20, 2006

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