Evolve or Perish

Israel, Palestinian and the Ongoing Conflict Between the Muslims and the Jews

TEXT: Evolve or Perish: We will reach transcendence either in an orgy of blood or through self-reflection

To those who claim to be on the side of those who wish to not die. To those bleeding hearts and armchair warriors, who claim to be for peace but instead are perpetually condemning us to war.

“I stand with Palestine!” Actually, no you don’t.

If you were such a noble defender of those needlessly suffering, who wish for a better world, you would be calling for the immediate return of the hostages and the unconditional surrender of Hamas, for Palestinians to reject outright Jihadi ideology and Jew hatred (the kind that gets them cheering in the streets for the murder and rape and beheading of Jews), and for the earnest pursuit of negotiations with Israel without any preconditions.

You would condemn Iran and other Arab states who use Palestinian lives as a pawn in a game against Israel. You would reproach the many Arab states who for years have shown no interest in taking in refugees. (Let’s remember that Israel has taken in around 600,000 Jews kicked off their homelands in Arab countries over the years, and currently has around 50,000 non-Jew refugees living there, and let’s also mention that 20% of the Israeli population is Arab (we might call former Palestinians), and a Muslim-Arab sits on its Supreme Court, something that would be quite unthinkable the other way around.

Only after you exhausted yourself with the above, would you be in any moral position to be calling Israel out. (You might also want to remind us where your outrage was when the Saudi airstrikes in Yemen were killing 15,000 civilians, or when over 100,000 civilians were being killed by Syrian government forces.)

We hold Israel to a different standard than the Arab states, and Israeli forces to a much higher standard that Islamic terrorists. But do not confuse us holding Israel to a higher standard with some kind of moral obfuscation. There is no moral equivalency between a terror regime that carries out and celebrates the intentional and brutal murder and rape and torture of families and children, that imbeds itself among its own civilian population and under its hospitals, that tells its citizen to stay when they have been warned to leave, with that of an army that notifies civilians through fliers and text messages to evacuate before carrying out airstrikes, even though it still results in many civilian casualties.

While the actions of Hamas does not represent all Palestinians, many of those in Gaza voted for Hamas, and Hamas is able to continue only with their support. It is not only Hamas who cheer while a German-Israeli woman, twisted, nearly nude, and possibly dead, having undergone who knows what, is paraded in the streets. A son calls his parents to brag that he has killed 10 Jews, telling them to open their WhatsApp to see proof; the cutting off of heads, the burning of babies. These are people who do not share our values. It is our job to help them wake up, not to encourage their depravity.

By morally equivocating, you threaten to betray your own humanity. While it might feel trendy at the moment reduce this conflict to a Palestinian victim and Jew oppressor, and probably even comes from a place of being compassionate, what you are doing in reality is further compounding the problem and ensuring continued conflict by emboldening the forces of barbarity with your ideological support. We can criticize Israel precisely because Israelis share our values. But that should never be confused with acquiescing even a millimeter to the insane, anti-civilization death cult.

History, Religion and Security Politics: How did Israel become a State?

“But the Israelis are the occupiers!”

Before the dawn of Islam, there were the Jews, living in what was the Kingdom of Judea. Babylon exiled the Jews, the Persians allowed them back as a province in the Persian Empire. Again the Jews were exiled by the Romans, and Rome renamed Judea as Syria Palaestina.

There have been Jews living in the area going back 4,000 years. Many Jews began returning in the 18th and 19th centuries, and by 1905, under Ottoman rule, two thirds of the population in Jerusalem were Jews. In the mid 20th century, around 800,000 Jews were forced out of Arab countries, the majority emigrating to Israel. After the fall of the Ottoman Empire, the British government was charged by the League of Nations with administering Palestine (what was previously an Ottoman territory) and implementing the Balfour Declaration which would create a Jewish homeland.

In 1936, due to unrest between the Jews and Arabs, the British government proposed a 2-state solution, which was rejected by the Arabs. In 1947, the United Nations adopted a resolution favoring the partition of Palestine into two states. The Jews accepted; the Arabs did not. The Arabs responded to the Israeli declaration of statehood by launching a war (with 5 different Arab States joining in). Israel was able to repel them.

In the following years, much land added to Israel was purchased. Then, in the 6-day war of 1967, three Arab armies attacked Israel and were defeated, giving Israel a territory four times its original size (later Egypt and Jordan negotiated for some of it back). Many Palestinians left the neighboring areas before the war thinking they could return after Israel was defeated, which did not transpire. Many Arabs who stayed were incorporated by Israel and got Israeli citizenship or permanent resident status.

Immediately after the failed attacked, the Khartoum Conference of 1967 was presided over by 8 Arab heads of state and reached the conclusion of ‘the three NOs’: no recognition, no negotiation, and no peace with Israel.

Security Politics

There are those who try to paint this situation overly complex, but it does not take a genius to insightfully comprehend the geopolitical landscape.

The solution may be a little tricky but the problem is very simple. What we have here, is a security dilemma. Israel (the only democracy) is surrounded by autocratic Arab states, many of whom would be pleased — if not outright ecstatic — to see it obliterated. Israel is unwilling to permit a fully autonomous Palestinian State for fear it would fall under the control of such a regime. This becomes a catch-22 for Israel who must maintain blockades and sometimes violent control over territories to ensure its safety, while at the same time certainly not helping smooth over relations.

Then we have the security politics of the Arab states and particularly, the infighting among the Sunnis and Shiites, with Iran terrified of a Saudi-Israeli alliance. Trump’s Abraham Accords — which should’ve garnered him the Peace Prize that was quite mistakenly given to Obama, and one of a number of reasons (including Russia/Ukraine) as to why, from the view of international politics, he was a far better option for President — did not appeal to those who were happy to use Gaza as a pawn in their game and the Evil Jew as a boogeyman to help maintain order in their autocratic states, to say nothing of the Islamic terrorist groups.

But cross-border politics aside, at the human level, it is not just about security. –There is an emotional, historical, and religious dimension that also motivates individuals and groups.

Religion

These motivations are generational, millennial, rooted in history and in religion. “The Hour will not start, until after the Muslims fight the Jews and the Muslims kill them. The Jew will hide behind a stone or tree, and the tree will say, `O Muslim! O servant of Allah! This is a Jew behind me, come and kill him.’ Except Al-Gharqad, for it is a tree of the Jews.” (The Holy Qur’an)

The Torah also contains verses about stoning and genocide and all sorts of unpleasantries, but as a religion, Judaism has transcended this. The Christians have Christ, the Jews have Rabbis and their commentaries. Islam does not have any such recognized countervailing force. There has been the Sufi Mystics and the Baha’i Faith, but that has not been enough. Islam must become more than a cult of death.

And we are all part of this. The drums of war are beating for us also. What they say openly, we secretly long for. And this is there, most assuredly, in all of us. I say that because I can feel it. I don’t simply mean that if I were born in Germany in the beginning of the last century that I would’ve been a Nazi, like everyone else, but I mean that even here and now, I still have that same bloodthirst and darkness and desire for corruption. Why, because I was once innocent, and I have been corrupted. I have been stained with the stench of humanity and I want others to suffer like I suffer. But there is something else to this:

𝑇ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑔𝑙𝑒𝑒𝑓𝑢𝑙 𝑑𝑒𝑠𝑖𝑟𝑒 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑏𝑙𝑜𝑜𝑑 𝑚𝑎𝑠𝑘𝑠 𝑠𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑑𝑒𝑒𝑝𝑒𝑟 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑖𝑠 𝑎𝑡 𝑝𝑙𝑎𝑦. 𝑀𝑎𝑛, 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑑𝑒𝑝𝑡ℎ𝑠 𝑜𝑓 ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑢𝑛𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑠𝑐𝑖𝑜𝑢𝑠, 𝑠𝑒𝑒𝑘𝑠 𝑎𝑛 𝑜𝑛𝑡𝑜𝑙𝑜𝑔𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑙 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑛𝑡𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛, 𝑡𝑜 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑛𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑙. 𝐶𝑜𝑛𝑓𝑙𝑖𝑐𝑡 — 𝑡𝑦𝑝𝑖𝑓𝑖𝑒𝑑 𝑏𝑦 𝑤𝑎𝑟 — 𝑖𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒 ℎ𝑎𝑟𝑏𝑖𝑛𝑔𝑒𝑟 𝑜𝑓 𝑒𝑛𝑙𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡, 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑚𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑜𝑓 ℎ𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑙 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒𝑙𝑒𝑠𝑠𝑛𝑒𝑠𝑠, 𝑚𝑎𝑛 𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑠𝑐𝑒𝑛𝑑𝑠 ℎ𝑖𝑚𝑠𝑒𝑙𝑓. 𝐼𝑓 𝑚𝑎𝑛 𝑠𝑒𝑒𝑘𝑠 𝑤𝑎𝑟, 𝑖𝑡 𝑖𝑠 𝑜𝑛𝑙𝑦 𝑏𝑒𝑐𝑎𝑢𝑠𝑒 ℎ𝑒 𝑠𝑒𝑒𝑘𝑠 𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑠𝑐𝑒𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒. 𝐻𝑖𝑠 𝑑𝑒𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑢𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑒 𝑒𝑓𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑡𝑠 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑏𝑢𝑡 ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑢𝑛𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑠𝑐𝑖𝑜𝑢𝑠 𝑎𝑡𝑡𝑒𝑚𝑝𝑡 𝑎𝑡 𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑐𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑙𝑖𝑓𝑒 𝑡𝑜 𝑟𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑎𝑙 ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑠𝑒𝑐𝑟𝑒𝑡.

We will reach transcendence either in an orgy of blood or through self-reflection. We can choose self-reflection. There is still time to turn it all around.