Something... and Half of Something

Mr. Nice Guy, the Karaoke Precedent President, has said rather clearly to Israel that he’s not much interested in its survival. In fact, growing numbers of people are convinced that had Israel never been created by the British after WWII, the Middle East would be calm, quiet, peaceful, and no trouble to the rest of the world.

Hmmm . . . I wonder. O.K. Let’s consider that. No Israel. An Arab state of Palestine is set up where Israel now exists. Everybody’s happy, right? Oh . . . Maybe not . . .

Not all Arabs like all other Arabs. And remember, Iran and Afghanistan are not Arab nations. In fact, quite a lot of hostility exists not only between but within Arab states.
Sunnis and Shias really don’t like each other.
Iraq still considers Kuwait a runaway 19th province which it eventually will reabsorb.
Egypt and Saudi Arabia strongly disagree over which should be the natural leader of the Caliphate once the globe is cleansed of the decadent and corrupt influence of Europe and America.
The Kurds still want their own state, but Turkey, Iraq, Syria, and Iran will never let them have it.
Iran and Iraq will continue to thump their chests and fart in each other’s general direction, causing periodic border skirmishes, air strikes, and eventually strategic attacks with nukes and other WMDs, which both will continue to develop.
Oil-poor states harbor much bitterness toward oil-rich ones in the Arab world, and constant bickering willd continue over borders, slant drilling, irrigation, and both salt and fresh water rights.

The defeat or disappearance of Israel would change none of all that; in fact, it would exacerbate some of it. Most Arab governments and leadership can’t seem to develop infrastructure, create jobs, or work toward any form of progress beyond an anti-Crusade mentality. Take away petroleum revenues and add all the Arab states’ gross domestic products together and they’d be less than Ireland’s or Chile’s (that’s a guess . . . didn’t Google it).

And take away the revenues and employment brought to the region by the mere existence of Israel, and that total gross domestic product dwindles even further. Most of the Arabs in what Islamists like to call “Palestine” are there only because of the wealth created by Israel’s energy and know-how. The Arab population of the region prior to 1948 was so small that it wouldn’t show up on an X-Y graph today.

An Arabic Palestine in place of Israel would be very much like the Berlin of the Cold War. Other Arab states would never reach agreement on the mission or purpose of such a state, particularly one without industry, without natural resources, without capital. The West Bank would be Jordanian; Gaza would be Egyptian; the Golan Heights would be Syrian; the place would remain a battleground and very possibly bring several states to war sooner or later.

The entire Arab world is threatened by the double sword of modernity. Piles and piles of cash have flowed into the region, but unemployment remains among the highest rates in the world, and the populations are divided between the obscenely rich 1% and the devastatingly poor 90% with a few reasonable types, such as merchants, commercial fishermen, and farmers making up a silent middle class.

Modern medical advancements have significantly reduced infant mortality rates and death from disease and deprivation throughout most of the Arab and Islamic world, resulting in burgeoning populations with no jobs available and too much time on their hands. Young Arab males feel useless, frustrated, full of self-loathing. Technology has eliminated the need for the extra-large family, but the culture and tradition of a man demonstrating his masculinity by producing huge numbers of offspring remains intact.

Dictatorships, hostility, overpopulation, corruption, and fundamentalist brainwashing would continue unabated in the Arab world, with or without an Israel to focus their hatred on. Hamas and especially Hisb’allah would still need targets for the despair, the frustration, the anger of their ever-swelling masses, and absent an Israel, the natural targets remain the decadence and corrupting influence of Europe and America.

Islam’s jihad would continue without missing a step if Israel disappeared overnight. Terrorist attacks with mass destruction devices, including biological and chemical agents, would become reality in the holy name of Islam. Iran is working diligently to assure its own suicide by globocop by stubbornly refusing to end its pursuit of nuclear weapons. Those weapons will soon be reality, and the Ayatollahs are just demented enough to authorize their use in the name of Muhammad, whether against the hated Jews or the equally despised Americans who have placed infidel troops in the Holy Sands of Saudi Arabia from whom all madrassas flow.

No, Obama just doesn’t get it. He either can’t or just refuses to see that the defense of Israel is at the very minimum a matter of principle and honor, whether he agrees that it should be there or not. We’re GOING to have problems with Islam, regardless of how appeasing he is to them, how willing he is to bargain, how nice he is in terms of negotiation and compromise. The problem is that they don’t compromise. They don’t bargain. Their strategy is completely opposite from ours. We take pride in playing the game fairly, with honor, with respect and courtesy. They see it as end-game only, and the end justifies the means in all cases. World domination is the point, and we’re an obstacle to that, and Israel is the Fort Sumter.

Of course I sent my thank you. I'll probably be posting from a concentration camp soon via my illegal laptop.