posted by Bruce Porter on כ"ז כסלו תשע"א כ"ג טבת תש"ל
The Core Cause of the Middle East Conflict
By: Dr. Bruce R. Porter
Secular solutions to the Arab/Israel conflict are doomed to failure. This is because the conflict is not merely a political struggle or a dispute over real estate. The core problem is Islamic intolerance and hostility toward all other religions including secular states not under Islamic control. This intolerance is particularly focused on Christians and Jews, and especially upon the Jewish State of Israel. There are clear reasons for this within Islamic theology and teaching. For the purposes of this article, I will focus primarily on the Arab/Israeli conflict, and probe the underlying reasons for it.
There are several standard arguments offered by Israel’s enemies to justify her destruction. The list usually includes the following oft-repeated charges;
- Israel’s “illegal occupation” of “Palestinian” land
- Israel’s “human rights” abuses against Arabs
Beyond these broad charges, specific to the existence of the Jewish State, the Jewish people have endured accusations of more sinister conspiratorial plots against humanity in general. Some of these defamatory accusations include;
-
Jewish “control” over the world’s banking systems
-
Jewish “control” over the media of the world
-
Jewish dishonesty in business and commerce
-
Jewish religious practices that include child sacrifices
-
Jewish plots to control the world
All the above anti-Jewish libels (each easily refuted by well-established facts) comprise an intricate web of deceitful smoke screens and straw man arguments designed to divert attention away from the REAL reason that opposition to the Jewish people and the State of Israel is so vituperative and insidious. For purposes of this presentation, I shall narrow my focus on this singularly fundamental factor in anti-Zionist rancor, and leave the other issues to those infinitely more qualified to argue them.
Religious Considerations
While the nations of the world (and even liberal/secular Israelis) seek to grapple with the Arab/Israeli conflict from a purely secular/political approach, the religious foundations of the present conflict are almost entirely ignored. Even if one is non-religious or even atheist in world-view, it must be recognized that religious considerations loom large in the minds of Israel’s most intransigent enemy, the fundamentalist followers of Islam. In the main, Arab opposition to the existence of Israel in the Middle East is based upon literal interpretations of Islamic teachings in the Qu’ran and the Hadith. For example, consider the following quotations attributed to Mohammed;
The Messenger said during his final illness,
‘Two religions cannot coexist in the Arabian Peninsula.’
Umar investigated the matter, then sent to the Jews, saying:
‘Allah has given permission for you to be expelled;
for I have received word that the Prophet said that two religions cannot coexist in Arabia.
Tabari VIII:130
Allah’s Apostle said,
‘The Hour will not be established until you fight with the Jews,
and the stone behind which a Jew will be hiding will say,
“O Muslim! There is a Jew hiding behind me, so kill him.”’
Bukhari:V4B52N177
Just issue orders to kill every Jew in the country.
Bukhari:V1B1N6
Anti-Semitism in History
It must be acknowledged that anti-Semitism has not, either historically or in present times, arisen exclusively within the Islamic community. Nazi philosophy derives much of its anti-Semitic fervor in the quasi-religious belief in the myth of the supremacy of the 
Aryan race. This belief was fostered in great part by the Theosophical movement founded by Helena Blavatsky. She thought that the Aryans originally came from Atlantis and described the Aryan races with the following words:
“The Aryan races, for instance, now varying from dark brown,
almost black, red-brown-yellow, down to the whitest creamy colour,
are yet all of one and the same stock
– the Fifth Root-Race –
and spring from one single progenitor, (…)
who is said to have lived over 18,000,000 years ago,
and also 850,000 years ago –
at the time of the sinking of the last remnants
of the great continent of Atlantis.”
(Secret Doctrine, Volume II, p.249)
“Lucifer represents..
Life.. Thought.. Progress..
Civilization.. Liberty.. Independence..
Lucifer is the Logos..
the Serpent, the Savior.”
(Secret Doctrine, Volume II, pages 171, 225, 255)
Blavatsky’s occult ideas fed into the development of Nazi ideology. Hitler’s obsession to “cleanse” the Aryan Europeans (the “master race”) of Semitic pollutions drove him to systematically slaughter the Jews in the holocaust. The foundational (and religious) philosophy of the Atlantis myth fueled this unspeakable evil, and yet influences white supremacist neo-Nazi groups to this present day.
Interestingly, Nazi and Islamic anti-Semitism joined forces during World War II when the
Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin el-Husseini, personally recruited for Hitler Bosnian-Muslim troops—a unit of the “Hanjar (Saber) Division” of the Waffen SS—to give Muslim assistance to the Nazi “Final Solution to the Jewish Question.” Was this unholy alliance destroyed in World War II? Decidedly not! Hitler’s Mein Kampf, and the slanderous Protocols of the Elders of Zion, are presently best sellers in Pakistan, Turkey, Iran, and many other Islamic nations. Nazism did not die with Hitler on April 30, 1945in his Berlin Führerbunker. Like the mythical vampire, the foul corpse has resurrected again in the form of Islamofascism.
Christian anti-Semitism is also a well-established historical fact, and any attempt to deny this charge is ludicrous. In recent times, however, overt expressions of Christian anti-Semitism have become relatively rare, being confined to a few aberrant “replacement theology” sects, white “Christian Identity” supremacists, and leftist/liberal denominations. Although they are relatively few in number, these groups command disproportionate media attention because their sensational and outrageous claims make them newsworthy.
The largest majorities of Christians, particularly among Evangelical churches in the United States, are highly supportive of Israel, and feel a strong bond of fraternity with the Jewish people. In addition, many Catholic Christians possess a deep sense of remorse regarding historical offenses committed against the Jewish people in the name of Christ, and are zealous to make amends for past abuses. In March of 2000, Pope John Paul II publicly asked God’s forgiveness for the sins of Roman Church through the ages, including wrongs inflicted on Jews, women and minorities. While the apology fell short in the eyes of many Jewish leaders, specifically because the Pope did not mention the sins of the church with regard to the Holocaust, or the controversial role of Pope Pius XII, who many Jews believe turned a blind eye to the Nazi death camps, it remains that an apology was offered. Vatican Cardinal Edward Cassidy later expressed an apology, with a response from the Pope, specifically referencing the treatment of Jews, and said: “Christians will acknowledge the sins committed by a not a few of their number against the people of the Covenant.”
Islam, however, has no such remorse, and those who take the Qu’ran and Hadith seriously are entirely committed to the eradication of the Jewish State and the Jewish people. In addition, their genocidal obsessions do not confine themselves to the Jews alone. It is clear, not only from Islamic writings, but also from Jihadist terrorism in recent decades, that Islam’s goal is total domination over every other religious belief in the world.
Secular Solutions Alone Cannot Bring Peace
No amount of appeasement, territorial compromises, political agreements, or diplomatic efforts will bring peace to the Middle East so long as Islam and the Jewish State of Israel exist. Historically, and up to the present day, the Arab/Israeli conflict has stemmed primarily from fundamentalist Islam. The clear teachings of Mohammad make it impossible for Islam to coexist peacefully with people of any other religion, and especially Judaism. This is the dirty little secret that secularist politicians are loath to acknowledge, primarily because it is beyond their ability to control. This is the reason America’s war against fundamentalist Islamic Jihadist warriors is publicly cloaked under the more politically correct rubric of “The War against Terror.” This is, of course, patently absurd, for how could any nation possibly ever win a war against a tactic of warfare? Would this not be akin to President Roosevelt making a nonsensical declaration of war against “sneak attacks” in the wake of the December 7, 1941 Pearl Harbor attack, while making no mention of the Imperial Japanese?
Islamic Intolerance IS the Problem
On May 3, 1999, the official Palestine Authority (PA) radio station (Voice of Palestine) broadcast the following religious sermon (at Jerusalem’s Al Aqsa mosque) instructing all Muslims that Israel is part of Palestine and that Israel’s survival is “forbidden by religious law:”
“The land of Muslim Palestine is a single unit which cannot be divided.
There is no difference between Haifa and Nablus, between Lod and Ramallah, between Jerusalem and Nazareth.
The division of the land of Palestine into cantons and the recognition of the occupation is forbidden by religious law,
since the land of Palestine is sacred Wakf land for the benefit of all Muslims, east and west.
No one has the right to divide it or give up any of it.
The liberation of Palestine is obligatory for all the Islamic nations and not only for our Palestinian nation…
All Israeli politicians across their entire political spectrum, regardless of their labels,
they all have a single Zionist view embodied in the occupation of the land
and the establishment of the Zionist entity at the expense of the Muslim Palestinian land…
Allah shall free the captives and the prisoners,
Allah shall grant victory to our jihad warriors.”
(Emphasis Added)
Consider the following quotes by Islamic leaders.
“In the end Israel will disappear as the Koran states.
From the standpoint of the Koran,
there is no place for Israel and its existence is not justifiable.”
(Islamic Jihad leader Ramadan Abdalla Shalah, Mid-East Mirror, November 10, 1996)
“Islam does not permit giving up one inch of Palestine
and states that Palestine belongs to the Muslims, belongs to the Palestinian people,
not to the Jews.
Bartering land is not liberation and is not permissible in Islam.”
(Hamas leader Abdel-Aziz Rantisi, Jerusalem Post, May 25, 1997)
“Islamic law does not rule out peace with Israel …
on condition that it is a temporary peace,
until the Moslems build up the [military] strength needed to expel the Jews.”
(Sheikh Abdel Aziz Bin-Baz, Mufti of Saudi Arabia, January, 1995)
In January of 2006, Hamas won the majority 74 of 132 seats in the Palestinian Legislative Council. This organization was founded in 1987 and is funded primarily by Iran. The Hamas Charter states:
“We [all Palestinians] know the Palestinian problem is a religious one,
to be dealt with on this premise…
‘I swear by that [sic] who holds in his hands the Soul of Muhammad!
I indeed wish to go to war for the sake of Allah!
I will assault and kill, assault and kill, assault and kill.”
(Emphasis added)
Palestinian Police give Nazi Salute
Itamar Marcus, the Director of Palestinian Media Watch, recently gave an oral presentation at
Tel Aviv University’s Jaffe Center for Strategic Studies. In his paper entitled; Islam’s Mandatory War against Jews and Israel, Marcus documented that the Palestinians have completely redefined the Arab/Israeli conflict as “a religious war for Allah in which compromise is heretical.” If it were merely a border dispute, such a conflict might be settled with diplomacy and compromise. As a religious dispute, all such diplomacy is doomed to failure.
Islamic leaders in the Palestinian Authority continuously emphasize the following eight points during Friday services in mosques:
Jews are the enemy of Allah
The killing of a Jew is a religious obligation
All agreements with Israel are temporary in nature
Islam is fighting a religious war against the Jews
Palestinians are the vanguard in this war against the Jews,
but all of Islam is obligated to assist them
All the of the land between the Jordan River
and the Mediterranean Sea is Islamic trust
and any Muslim who relinquishes his land
is damned to hell
Allah will replace Muslims who shirk their duty to fight Israel
The ultimate destruction of Israel is a certainty
More ominously, it is a well-documented fact that the PA Authority wields absolute control over PA schools, and regularly indoctrinates children from preschool onward with venomous hatred of Jews and Christians, brainwashing them on the above eight points. Is it any wonder that there is no shortage of new Jihadist fighters in Islam’s war against Israel?
Islam’s Mandate
“Blessed is he who fights Jihad in the name of Allah,
blessed is he who [goes on] raids in the name of Allah,
blessed is he who dons a vest of explosives on himself or on his children
and goes in to the depth of the Jews and says:
‘Allahu Akbar, Blessed be Allah’
Like the collapse of the building
upon the heads of the Jews in their sinful dance-hall,
I ask of Allah that we see the Knesset collapsing
on the heads of the Jews.”
(Emphasis added)
- – Dr. Muhammad Ibrahim Madi, Friday Sermon, Palestinian TV, June 8, 2001
No amount of political maneuvering, treaties, agreements, “peace processes,” or “roadmaps” will substantively change the commitment of Islamists to not only destroy the State of Israel and murder the Jews resident there, but then subjugate the entire world under Sharia (Islamic) control.
Israel’s Struggle is the World’s Struggle
All other faiths, especially Christians, are also marked for subjugation or slaughter in the Islamic world envisioned by Jihadists. Palestinian children are taught a song that sums up this reality. One of the verses states; “First we will go after the Saturday people, then the Sunday people.” With this shared fate, it is entirely logical that Christians and Jews, as well as other faiths, form a united front against this evil.
Denial In the Face of Evidence
Passionate resistance is aroused each time the axe of truth is laid upon the root of Mohammad’s Islamic poison ivy. While evil marches under the banner of the Crescent of Islam, modern society finds it nearly impossible to comprehend such malevolence. Playing upon this near-pandemic incredulity, pro-Islamist propagandists spare no expense and effort to assuage public alarm by seeking to portray Islam as a “religion of peace.” Unfortunately, many gullible and uninformed political leaders reinforce this propaganda in a misguided effort to show tolerance.
Additionally, pro-Islamist groups have formed legal advocacy, public relations, and political advocacy groups in the West. These well-financed and highly skilled Islamic apologists have shown themselves more than willing to exploit our legal system and media, and utilize litigation and character defamation against anyone who dares to expose Islam’s true agenda. An ignorant and naïve populace only makes the Islamic apologists’ task easier.
In spite of well-documented vicious Islamic suicide attacks against innocent civilians around the world, as well as on U.S. soil on 9/11, there is no shortage of hopeful humanists who continue to try and “understand” this cult of terror and evil. Examples of the Islamic atrocities would fill volumes, and yet appeasers remain resolute in their denial.
Solutions? Few Exist. None Are Pleasant
Military solutions, whether in Iraq, Israel, or any other place where Islamic Jihadists operate, are doomed to failure if applied with anything less than decisive and overwhelming force. Such application of military force against the advance of Islamic violence is highly unlikely in the present climate of political correctness. Such violence is repugnant to civilized nations—as it should be—especially in consideration of the Jihadist tactic of ensconcing their military operations in the midst of civilian populations so that military attacks against them yield grisly news-video footage of eviscerated women and children. The populations of the West are not conditioned to the harsh realities of war, and grow impatient if a conflict lasts more than a year or two. Also, Western societies love their children more than they love principled causes. By contrast, Islamic extremists love the cause of Islam more than they love their own children, upon whom they strap suicide bombs and make into guided missiles to kill infidels. They are also content to carry on the struggle for centuries if need be.
The more likely long-term solution would be a massive public information effort that would reach into Elementary and Secondary school curricula with accurate information, and an expose’ of Islamic teachings that reveal their agenda of world hegemony. This would also require a concerted public awareness program aimed at the news media, entertainment, and culture. Such public awareness would stave off efforts to neutralize Westerners’ resistance to the Islamic agenda. This solution is also highly unlikely because of the presently entrenched cult of “multiculturalism” in the U.S., and the increasing adoption of pro-Islamic textbooks in American elementary schools by the “Council on Islamic Education,” who influence textbook committees to adopt their pro-Islam spin under the flag of “tolerance.” (See www.cie.org)
Finally, military force might be useful in the takeover of Islamic learning centers and madras’s, particularly in the “PA occupied” areas of Israel where small children are being brainwashed into malicious hatred and violence against Christians and Jews. Of course, such efforts would be met with violence and mass demonstrations by raging mobs of Muslims around the world. Leftists and civil libertarians could be relied upon to protest such a move as something analogous to “cultural genocide.” However, if enough reasonable people should come to the conclusion that indoctrinating children to believe that murder and hatred is an indefensible activity under any measure of civilized behavior, the collective will would exist to put a stop to this horrendous form of child abuse.
The West Lacks the Will to Win… Unless.
Sadly, it is the opinion of this writer that none of the above solutions will be implemented unless… and I am loath to even write the words… unless there is an act of terrorism by Islamic extremists so devastating, so overwhelming, and so outrageous that the whining voices of the appeasers, the “politically correct,” and the leftists are drowned out by a chorus of outrage. It required a Pearl Harbor attack by the Japanese to arouse the American people to the peril of Japanese Imperialism. One would have thought that the Jihadist attack in America on 9/11 would have been sufficient. After all, more people were slaughtered (and civilians at that) on that black day than all the military service people at Pearl Harbor. However, the response has since been watered down by a liberal-left media.
Will it take a nuclear detonation in one or more of our cities? Will it require a chemical/biological attack that slaughters and maims millions of innocent men, women, and children, and devastates our economy to awaken us? Ironically, the impatience of a relatively small number of Jihadists who launch such an outrageous attack may, in the end, prove their own undoing. A well-known quote, attributed to Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, commander of the Imperial Japanese task force, is apropos. Shortly after the attack at Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941, Admiral Yamamoto was quoted as saying;
“I fear that we have awakened a sleeping giant
and filled him with a terrible resolve.”
Perhaps the “sleeping giant” may yet awaken again, but will need to be shaken hard.
As a Christian, (and the same can be said for Jews) I am convinced in an ultimate sense that the Creator is not the slightest bit surprised by any of these problems, and has a plan for each contingency that will end in the establishment of righteousness on the Earth with peace. Until then, we are each “responsible” to the extent of our individual “ability to respond.” As the drama of history plays out on the world stage, I cling to the Biblical promises that Israelis an eternal part of a larger divine plan, and therefore will never cease to exist. Until that Messianic age flourishes, let us each stand for what is right and true, resist evil, and defend the defenseless. God will sort it all out in the end.
I end with a salient quote from President Ronald Reagan, who, against unparalleled opposition, was instrumental in bringing down the former Soviet Union and freeing millions of people from Marxist tyranny. His words ring as true today as they did in 1981 when he said;
“Evil is powerless if the good are unafraid.”
Perhaps it was the number of victims, (13 dead, 26 wounded) or the continuous revelations related to the hateful mindset and vicious motivations of the killers on their websites and video tapes they left behind for posterity. Without doubt, it was a major wakeup call to us all that something was very wrong in our schools. It is clear now that we’ve collectively hit the “snooze” button. 
obsession over the firearms used in the attack—was the fact that the vile cretins who did this planted bombs in the school that would have killed over 600 students and teachers had they detonated! Only their gross ineptitude at bomb-making prevented an attack that would have been unimaginable in magnitude. 
The event triggered an international debate over everything from gun control to prescription psycho-med use in schools. Side-issues like bullying, psychological profiling of “troubled students” and school “zero-tolerance” policies were the subject of endless talk shows and print media. 
students and a brave teacher, yet the memory of that horrible day remains for those of us who live here and experienced it. Those who were wounded and survived, and now live with the scars and disabilities inflicted upon their bodies and souls, have mostly moved on with their lives. Some are married and starting families, and others are pursuing their careers. However, all live with the memories of that dark spring day, and were forever changed by it. 
in all years previous, we will again visit their graves, place flowers and memorabilia upon them, and pray for the ongoing healing of the surviving families and victims. Once again we will have to endure the media talking heads pontificate about the evils of firearms while virtually ignoring the abysmal lack of character education in public schools. We will ponder yet again the deep mysteries of good and evil, life and death, and our own mortality. Once again, those of us who believe will ask, “Why God? Why?” 
Until that bright day of understanding, we labor to preserve and cultivate what remains of goodness in the world. Jesus said we are the “salt of the world.” I understand this to mean that one of our functions in this present world is to preserve what remains of goodness, mercy, love, and truth from the corrupting influence of mankind’s fallen state. While salt does not bring dead things to life, it does season and preserve them.
not because she was more precious than any other person who died there, but because she was a Christian who tried to sprinkle “salt” into her school and the people around her. Other victims did also, but I am more familiar with Rachel since I was honored to be a minister to part of her immediate family. She was known as one who tried to push back against the prevailing tide of license and immorality in her generation. 
Rachel’s “thermostatic” influence—her ‘set point’—touched and moved the world around her.
Columbine Massacre. It was part of my eulogy I delivered at her funeral:
In 2007, 
to which King Hussein replied: 
However, should the circumstances be reversed, and it is 
