WhatsappSecretary of State Anthony Blinken is recently quoted by NBC News saying “There’s a profound opportunity for regionalization in the Middle East, in the greater Middle East that we have not had before,” Blinken said during an interview at the World Economic Forum’s summit in Davos, Switzerland. “The challenge is realizing it.”
While Blinken is correct about a profound opportunity in the Middle East, he is 100% wrong about the opportunity.
Let me explain the disconnect of Western thinking regarding the Arab Muslim enemy we are up against, using an educational experience of mine from Columbia University graduate school.
During the Camp David Accords in the year 2000, I was a graduate student at Columbia University studying for a degree in Organizational Psychology. As part of the course work, I had to take a generic class on conflict resolution that was given in a huge auditorium to hundreds of students.
All semester long, the conflict resolution professor was teaching how mediators to international conflicts must first focus on helping the different sides understand their differing cultures. Only after there was a basic understanding and appreciation for the differing cultures, can the mediator then begin the process of mediating a solution. I remember clearly that the Professor even explained that the understanding of culture includes even understanding whether you use a fork or a spoon when eating, and whether you look in the other person’s eyes, or not, when talking, and other very detailed cultural differences. That was the level of cultural understanding needed to properly mediate a resolution,
As I was in this class during the Camp David Accords, the Professor one day happily announced in the middle of class that we would see peace in the Middle East, as the Camp David Accords would succeed.
I raised my hand in this huge auditruim and upon being called by the Professor, I mentioned that according to everything the Professor had been teaching us all semester, I can promise that the camp david accords would fail, because once again, it was a western cultural peace process beiing forced upon a Middle East culture. American and Western mediators totally ignore the culture of the Middle East and Islam. Hence, the peace process would fail, as it always does.
Suffice it to say, the professor was quite mad at me and screamed at me in front of the whole auditorium.
The following week, the camp david accords fell apart, no peace, and I didn’t receive an apology from the professor.
THe Middle East, Islamic culture is one of honor and religion.
The Hamas terrorists streamed into Israel on Oct. 7th screaming “Allah Akbar”, their religious chant of “G-d is great”. Hamas has named their war “the Al-Aqsa flood”, nothing to do with Gaza, it has to do with the Temple Mount.
Terrorists in the name of “palestine” dream of being martyrs to get their 72 virgins in heaven. They do not care about dying. Hence, killing Hamas terrorists, no matter how senior, won’t win this war, they will just be replaced.
The only thing Middle East Islamic culture cares about is land.
This is a religous war and the only way Israel can win it, is ensuring that any enemy that tries to kill us, not only loses their lives, but they lose land.
Israel can not have victory in this war without liberating Gaza from any Hamas, Palestinian Authority or other renamed Arab-Muslim self-entity. And all Gazans must be given the opportunity to leave Gaza to other pro-Hamas countries.
Unfortunately, while Israel is the only country in the Middle East where Sunni Muslims, Shiite Muslims, female Muslims, gay Muslims, athiest Muslims can live with freedom and equality with Jews, Christians, Druze, Bahai etc., too many of our Arab Muslim neighbors prefer to support killing Jews and destroying the Jewish state of Israel, giving a clear message that they do not want to enjoy the blessed opportunity of living with the Jewish state of Israel. So, they should be allowed to live elsewhere.
It is time the Western world allows Israel to speak Arabic, the language of the Middle East. The Western language of appeasing evil via peace process and ceasefires has come to an end for the people of Israel.
It’s time the US foreign policy experts who do not understand the culture of the Middle East sit back with its Western misunderstanding of the Middle East, and allow Israel to finally use Arabic to put an end to the evil we are up against that is a threat to the whole freedom-loving world.
No matter what pressure the Biden administration applies on Israel, the people of Israel finally want to speak Arabic.
