UNDERSTANDING THE CONFLICT BETWEEN ISLAM AND JUDAISM

Two children meet. One is a Palestinian and the other, an Israeli. “Hi,” the Palestinian child says. “My name is Jihad. My name means, ‘Holy War.’” The Israeli child says, “Hi. My name is Shalom. My name means, ‘Peace.’” What is the larger meaning of this?

Two soldiers meet in combat. One is from Hezbollah – the “Army of God.” He carries a Kalashnikov and is wearing a black cloth around his head and a belt made of explosives so that if he is struck in the head, he has no protection, and if he is struck in the explosive belt, he will be blown to pieces along with anyone near him, fellow soldier or opponent or any non-combatant, preferably a Jew. When he dies in combat, he will become a martyr who will ascend to heaven and be greeted by seventy virgins who will treat him kindly and he will be carried to his grave by a mob chanting Allah’s greatness and “Death to the Jews.” The other is a soldier in the so-called Defense Army of Israel. He wears a full suit of modern Kevlar armor and a Kevlar encased helmet to protect him as much as possible from the impacts of bullets, grenades, and assorted shrapnel. He carries a variety of sophisticated weaponry. If he dies in combat, he will be carried to his grave in a plain wooden coffin, surrounded by sobbing family and friends, and fellow soldiers – if that is militarily possible. What do these differences show about the ethos of two armies?

To reach a minimal understanding of the conflict between Islam and the West demands some knowledge of history, politics, religion, economics, and geography. These subjects are standard requirements for analyzing historical events. In addition, the culture, the language and the mores of the populations contribute importantly to this kind of study. These factors create a spider-web of interconnected forces that determine how individuals and groups function in any society. The differences between those forces in the Arab world and the Western world explain why terrorism and “martyrdom,” two-class societies of sheikdoms and kingdoms, acceptance of low standards of living by masses of Muslims, and the easy inducement to violence, are the norms in today’s Arab world.

“We are all Hezbolla,” is today’s cry of the masses in most of the countries of the Moslem world. “We are all Palestinians,” was yesterday’s mob mantra. “Allahu Achbar,” (Allah is Great), is an always present chant that bodes ill for the non-Islamic world. Gamal Abdul Nasser’s Egypt sent its whipped up population through the streets of all its cities in June of 1967 screaming, “Death to the Jews,” only to suffer ignominious defeat and a major death toll themselves. The level of literacy and the education level in the Moslem world is low and narrow, confined in a major portion of the population to the Koran which by itself serves as the source of all knowledge and provides Mullahs and Imams with the enormous powers of teachers, judges, and highly respected leaders of the laity. And as the interpretations offered in the mosques is individualistic, so too are the denotative and connotative meanings of words and language. “If I say I shall do a thing, you must agree that it is already done.” Fickleness of thought and the ease and quickness of opinion changes is a manifestation of the knowledge and education level of the masses. “Yesterday we loved the Americans. Today we want them to go home,” is heard with frequency in Iraq, Afghanistan, and now in Lebanon. Islam swings between, “The Jews are our brothers” to, “Death to the Jews.” “Well why not? If it benefits us, we will say one thing and swear on the Koran that it is so. If it does not, we will claim with equal fervor that the thing is odious in our eyes.” Arabic lends itself to wondrous phraseology. Consider this description of a toady. “Twenty thousand British battleships could not pull his moustache from his master’s behind.” Cyrano de Begerac showed that the power of language is also the power of love. All national leaders and tyrants know that the power of language is the power of war.

The place of religion in the Moslem world is almost incomprehensible to religionists and lay people in the Western world. Even fundamentalist Christians must find Islamic fundamentalism anathema to belief in God without the overlay of morals and ethics of which Christianity has taken ownership. Mullahs are often dictatorial and they and their followers allow of no deviation from their religious and civil dictates. The Koran – or rather, those favored portions of the Koran chosen and interpreted by individual Mullahs, becomes immutable law. Even the idea of peace with the Jews, pro and con, can find the appropriate portions in the Koran. The Koran and fundamentalist preachers’ exploitation of the bloody passages and mandates in it are foundational to this period of conflict between Islam and the West. Conflicts also arise between Mullahs and their followers and other Mullahs and their adherents based on unique Koranic interpretations. In addition, the sects and shades of belief provide more deadly divisions. As the Iraq debacle has shown, Sunnis and Shiites often fight each other unless they have a common enemy against whom to draw their swords.

The conflict rests on the shoulders of the ethics and mores of the Arab/Muslim world and manifests itself in terrorism and the bloodshed of wars. This world is vastly different from the Western world. It is a world in which, as in ancient times, tribalism and shamanism hold powerful positions, where superstition and religion are indistinguishable in many minds. It is a world in which the value of human life takes second place to pride, customs, history, geography, religious belief and sectarianism. There exists a code or sensibility of honor very different from the denotative meaning of those words as used in the Western world. In the Arab world, “honor” is what any man says it is. It is a world that accepts slavery and the abasement of women as normal and proper. It is a world that accepts dismemberment and beheading as appropriate punishment for religious and civil crimes. It is a world where a religicized rock holds life and death in its location on a map. It is a world where unwritten law is changeable at will by despots of all stripes. It is a world where wealth endows the wealthy with disproportionate power over the non-wealthy. It is a world mired in primitivism and savagery when a man’s “honor” is offended or when “infidels” are the offenders or when religious sensibilities of any kind or dimension are impugned.

The oligarchs in the Arab world make common cause with the dominant religionists in their midst or with those most threatening to their survival. The support of the oligarchs enables the Mullahs to impose their will on adherents often by way of reward provided by their patrons. The Arab and Islamic nations are ruled by warlords, kings, or sheiks. Only Egypt has a dictator who rules by false-front elections. From the 1948 establishment of the State of Israel to this very day, the Arab oligarchs have pointed to the Jews as the source of all the ills that have befallen Arabs and Moslems throughout the world. And those countries close to Israel have attacked that tiny nation time and time again without managing to destroy it. If the oligarchs were ever to defeat Israel, they would then have to find another scapegoat to justify their continued luxurious state and their populations’ miserable existence.

Except for narrow segments of societies in the various Arab countries, the work ethic of the Arab world does not resemble that of the Western world. This is not a claim that all Arab workers are less hard-working than their counterparts in Western societies. Nor is this a claim that given the proper resources and motivation, that Arab workers could not be more productive than what their country’s economies show. However, low gross domestic product, low levels of economic activity, more primitive production facilities through the entire spectrum of their economies – with the exception of foreign-controlled oil production – have kept populations in all the Arab countries in an inferior economic condition. This window of economic activity reflects a broader picture of backwardness throughout the Arab world. However, those millions of people know through their television sets what amenities and luxuries they are missing. The prevailing belief is that it is the Jews and the existence of Israel that has prevented them from advancing and acquiring the goods and goodies of the modern Western world. It is not difficult to assume, therefore, an intense jealousy and some level of hatred for the Jews and the Jewish state exist in the minds and hearts of the people. Those feelings are easily exploited by willful and clever Arab leaders.

The educational systems in the Arab world have the primary of function of teaching the Koran, love of their nation’s rulers, and loyalty to existing regimes. In many instances, hatred of the West and of Israel is taught in equal measure. Saudi Arabia is the main supplier of text-books to the Arab countries. The anti-Jewish, anti-Israel material fed to millions of young minds has had a poisonous effect whose impact is seen in the development of terrorism and the on-going conflict between Israel and the surrounding Arab nations. Education to hatred and intolerance keeps the fire burning that is a part of the conflict in the Middle East.

Is there a way out of this situation? Perhaps. Separation of church and state is a prerequisite to peace. America led the way to this political course in the past. However, with the increased sway of fundamentalism in American politics, fundamentalism in the Moslem world will be much harder to remove from political structures. Secular public education is a requirement for a foundation for peace to be prepared. And other necessities to reduce the conflict are education to peaceful co-existence throughout the years of public education, raising the standard of living of the Arab masses through self-help mechanisms of loans and education, destruction of armaments held by non-government bodies and organizations, education to and implementation of modern societal functions such as government, civil law, business development, health-care systems and the like, building modern infrastructures of energy supply, water and sewage treatment, increased transportation capacity, public housing to replace shanty-towns and refugee camps. All of these enterprises will demand enormous infusions of capital with substantial monetary profit. But then, war and terror eradication demand enormous infusions of capital that gets blown into bits.