This is not to say that Israeli soldiers aren’t brave and honorable. It’s just to say that the special ingredient that may have given Israel an edge in so many past wars has burned away.

Jews back then could raise their genkai, their limits. Now, they seem to be limited and restricted, and unable to surpass the limits imposed upon them even though they are stronger in terms of economy, population, technology, etc.

It just seems to repeat itself. Back in the days of despair, that kind of desperation gave strength. Now in the days of prosperity and safety, that strength is being leeched away. It is the forever cycle of entropy and order, chaos and creation, darkness and light. One cannot be without the other, yet having achieved ultimate order, entropy will drag you back, and having achieved close to all out chaos, order will give you the strength to fight back.

It’s a weird state of the human condition.

Bill C
I was only offering Hussein’s article as historical perspective. In 1947, the Arabs had a compelling argument to make.

Clearly, the Brit’s were taking the only practical solution to the the Jewish refugee camp ‘problem’. King Abdullah’s suggestion that America, et al ‘take’ many Jews was from the Zionist perspective, a ‘non-starter’.

The tragic irony in all of this is of course that had the Arabs accepted the state of Israel, through political force of numbers they would at the least have major influence in Israeli today and possibly even govern it. Certainly, in time they would have assumed majority status.

By every measure, the Arabs would have benefited far more by acceptance than rejection of Israel.

But then, stupidity is infinite…

When the mail came, I dove for the magazine as usual and I will never forget those pictures. Right now, nearly sixty years later, my skin is starting to crawl and I have goose pimples and pains in my stomach.

I need no reminder of them and would go very far out of my way to avoid seeing them again.

What’s so horrible is that Jews are still not living in a settled world and in fact world sympathy generated by Hitler has been dissipated and even young Israeli’s are anti-war.

In way as a corollary to this subject, I just read Juan Williams, “Enough.” It’s amazingly well written and I don’t say that lightly. There are few books that are so well written, organized and edited that I don’t have something I can criticize. It’s mostly a paean to Bill Cosby and his plain spoken criticism of the post civil rights movement’s black leadership.

Of course, I remember those days too and the suffering of the people who through slavery and segregation kept their dignity and never stopped working and hoping for a chance to prove they were equals to any other race. I had tears in my eyes as Williams recounts a bit of the history of the post civil war negroes in the south and the degradation of their suffering by their progeny who take their suffering and throw it back in their faces by “refusing to be like whitey” and instead throw their lives away.

Williams strives mightily to say it like he sees it, but he just can’t quite let go of the cant he’s lived with all his life. There’s hope though, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed that he makes it across that wide divide.

I should have made it willing and able. Without Syria, iran has no way to get weapons to Hezbollah.

As to the essay which you linked, Israel has many Arabs licing peacefully in Israel. If the Palestinians had not chosen the path of violence I have no doubt that they would be living and prospering together. We cannot ignore recent history. Palestianians must prove that they can live in peace over a period of time and then they will get some of what they want. They cannot throw a murderous temper tantrum when they don’t get everything they want.

I recognize that there is an Arab point of view, although I think there tactics, rhetoric, dishonesty, and genocidal instincts in the last 60 years have destroyed any vestiges of validity I might otherwise have been inclined to accord their position. As you noted, D-Brit, the deed is done, and there are two choices left for the Arabs — live with it gracefully and get on with their lives, or try to destroy the State of Israel entirely, and water the ground with the blood of the Jews. To the extent they’ve manifestly chosen the latter approach, I have no sympathy for their history.

Probably an oversight on your part Bill but it is Iran who is the real power behind Hezbollah. Syria is primarily a conduit and forward staging groud for Iranian controlled Hezbollah.