Saturday, September 22, 2012

Turn Around in Ben Ghazi

I was happy to read this morning that many people in Ben Ghazi demonstrated against the terrorist militias and apprently drove some of them out of town. They realized that the terrorists were using them and have been trying to replace the dictatorship against which they fought with another one at least as bad as the original. This is a ray of hope for the Middle East. Maybe it is a pollyanna idea, but eventually (maybe after generations) history will be with reason and not with the zealots. Maybe even the rational people in Iran will throw out the mullahs one day.
To Israel, I say reason. democracy, openess, and pluralism are your strengths. Narrowness, exclusion, and fundamentalism are your weaknesses. Your mistrust of your neighbors is understandable. Military superiority for now is absolutely necessary. The Middle East is a scary and unpredictable place, but it is the place where you live. History has brought you there, and there is nowhere else to go. Turning yourself into another inward fundamentalist theocracy (even a Jewish one) will not serve you well.
To the Arabs, I say look upon Israel as an opportunity, not an anomaly. History has put Jews and Arabs on two different roads, but racially (if that makes any difference), by language, and by origin, we are as close as any people can be. Israel has the technical know how to bring your culture forward and to make the Middle East again become an economic and cultural center in the world.
Both sides need to promote their common interests, put aside minor religious details, and lighten up.

Friday, September 21, 2012

People Who Use Religion For Their Selfish Agendas

Belief in God is to believe that life has a purpose and existence is not just senseless chaotic crap. That is why so many diverse separated people have believed in some sort of deity since prehistoric times. The problem is with people who think that their particular way of approaching God is the only true way and especially with people who use religion as a means of promoting their selfish agendas. Those people include the creep and his backers who recently made an anti Moslem movie with the express purpose of stirring up a reaction among Moslems (like pouring gasoline on a fire), the idiots in the Moslem world who reacted like his puppets with violent demonstrations, and the terrorists who used the cover of those demonstrations to kill innocent people in the American Consulate in Ben Ghazi. Those people do not represent God, no matter what they scream.

Sunday, September 16, 2012

Riots in the Moslem World

The riots in the Moslem world illustrate why Israelis are skeptical about trusting the neighboring countries. A small amateur movie which most Americans (myself included) have never seen, made by an obscure small time crook (who has spent time in an American jail), financially backed by a small lunatic fringe group has stirred up a reaction by equally lunatic groups in the Middle East. The difference is that while the American lunatics are a small fringe group here, the lunatics over there seem to be larger in proportion to the general population, and powerful enough to intimidate their governments. Mr. Bacile (or whatever he chooses to call himself today) and his cronies (Thank God they are not Jewish) have succeeded in putting American soldiers and American interests at risk. They have also put the innocent Coptic Christians of Egypt at risk. Meanwhile the rioters in Moslem countries have performed like puppets exactly what Bacile and his friends wanted them to do and exposed themselves to the world as unreliable idiots.