Can You Believe? The Topsy Turvy World Called the Middle East

By Sherwin Pomerantz

I thought I would let the smoke clear after last week’s release of everybody’s son, now Sgt. Major Gilad Schalit, and the agreement by Israel to release over 1,000 convicted terrorists in return before blogging again. Now that some days have passed it is interesting to watch what has happened here in the region in the aftermath of last week’s mixed feelings of joy and concern.

In Judea and Samaria (i.e. the West Bank), Palestinian Authority Chairman Abbas has announced a government payment of $5,000 to each released terrorist. Of course, the Authority has no funds to pay even its monthly obligations for salaries to government employees so these monies then will need to come from funds supplied each month by the United States and the European Union. Can you believe?

The dichotomy of this situation would be laughable if it were not so sad. On the one hand Abbas regularly states that the Authority is against encouraging terror, while simultaneously rewarding terror through the payment of these release bonuses, partially funded by western governments. At the same time, of course, in speeches since last week’s release Abbas has regularly urged more kidnappings of Israeli soldiers to be used as bargaining chips to force the freeing of the remaining (approximately) 5,000 Arab security prisoners and terrorists still in Israeli jails. Can you believe?

One of the remaining prisoners is Marwan Barghouti who is serving five life terms for his masterminding and involvement in multiple deadly terror attacks against Israelis. Yossi Beilin, one of the architects of the failed Oslo Accords of 1993 and the creator of the Geneva Initiative, is quoted as saying earlier this week: “Barghouti is a political leader, not a terrorist, even if he led others to use terror and was responsible for the second intifada.” In Beilin’s twisted logic being an accessory to a crime or aiding and abetting criminal activity does not make one a criminal. Somewhere during his PhD studies in Political Science at Tel Aviv University he must have been absent the day they spoke about the implications of being an accomplice to a crime. How else to explain this convoluted thinking from one of Israel’s best minds? Can you believe?

During this same period of time Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi was killed by rebel forces in his hometown of Sirte. Quickly thereafter Libya’s transitional leader, Mustafa Abdul-Jalil declared the end of the 8-month civil war and set out plans for the future with a strong Islamist tone. After declaring that Libya would be called an Islamic Nation (n.b. nobody seems to mind any nation, Libya, Iran, Iraq, being called Islamic as long as Israel is not called Jewish), he added that Islamic Sharia law would be the basic source of legislation and existing laws that contradict the teachings of Islam would be nullified. No surprises there.

In an insightful comment on the uprisings that have been going on in the Arab world over the past 10 months, Ambassador (Ret.) Yoram Ettinger writes: “Western observers tend to ignore the significance of the 1,400 year old monopoly of Islam over the religious, educational, social and political aspects of every Arab country. Such a repressive monopoly guarantees an Islamic victory in every democratic process. The 1979 freeing of Iran from the autocracy of the Shah produced the Khomeini Revolution, a radical, oppressive, megalomaniac Islamic regime. The 2002 election in Turkey yielded the less-radical Islamic regime of the Justice and Development Party, headed by Erdogan, who aspires to lead the Islamic World and reinstate the Ottoman Empire.”

He goes on to note: “Arab regimes dread freedom of religion, freedom of expression, freedom of speech, free competition, free press, free Internet and free minds. In 2006, Condoleezza Rice’s insistence upon introducing democracy to Gaza catapulted Hamas terrorists to power. In 1996, Jimmy Carter certified the electoral victory of Arafat, who proceeded to launch an unprecedented campaign of terrorism. In 1979, the eagerness to spread democracy led Western leaders to support the Khomeini Revolution. During 1917-1967, a sustained campaign, by the British empire, to introduce democracy to Arab lands failed decisively.” So why is the current situation so hard to believe?

Our job now must be to resist delusional reasoning that allows us to believe, albeit incorrectly, that things will change for the better in the near term. While the potential for positive movement is present throughout the region, the signs, so far, are less than encouraging.

Dr. Carl Sagan, American astronomer, astrophysicist, cosmologist and award winning author said before he died in 1996: “It is far better to grasp the universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.” And that, today, is our test and should be the yardstick by which we assess reality.