I may be wrong about this citation, but I believe the following theory comes from a history professor, Robert Bates. The theory is that fundamental cultural changes are often the result of an overwhelmingly destructive military defeat. The war must have been one in which the vast majority of the population was purposefully, and in the main, willingly incorporated, physically and mentally, into the war effort. Thus, a defeat under these conditions is an indisputable and profound national failure. It reaches all the way to the most elemental level of national culture, which leads the defeated nation into a fundamental reorganization of its society.

Let’s take Germany as the most recent example. WWI was a military defeat, but it did not involve a thorough societal re-examination. Since German soldiers still occupied part of France at war’s end, it was easier to look afterwards for scapegoats, i.e. new enemies, than examine the weaknesses of Prussian military heritage and culture. After WWII, that escape valve no longer existed. Germans were forced to examine how their culture had led them to the cul de sac of military defeat and societal humiliation. The German culture has changed profoundly in the last 60 years. One more ancillary point is that the collapse of East Germany was not a profound moral and ethical defeat for its citizens and, as a consequence, the socialist Left Party (from areas which were once East Germany) is gaining ground within the West German citizenry already receptive to restraints on nationalist and individualist ideas (a consequence of WWII). A similar story could be told regarding Japan.

The point of this story is that the Israeli-Arab conflict in Palestine - I fear - is one which will only be resolved by the cleansing of all-out war and the realignment of the defeated culture along lines dictated by the values reflective of the winning side. There simply seems no escape from this eventuality when one of the competing sides cannot - from a honor-shame cultural perspective - abide the continued physical existence of the other. Unfortunately, much tragedy is yet to be written in the affairs of that part of the world.

The infantry experience tends to simplify things. Once I asked my favorite platoon sergeant where he preferred to shoot the bad guys. His answer was, succinctly, “In the back.”

The death of an enemy of humanity is never a tragedy, Book. All rules have exemptions.

I have said this before and I will say it again. Israelis and Jews in general and in the specific, lack bloodlust. The desire to kill and destroy one’s enemies is sealed off by Judaism’s teachings and history. Making them the target of choice for people throughout history that wish to attack a group but don’t want to face being attacked by that group.

It may have been indeed true that God chose the Jews as the Chosen Ones, simply in order to demonstrate to us, the rest of humanity, the price of weakness and meekness. So that people can freely choose to survive or not, with no excuse that they were mislead into things.

It is simply not normal that any group of people, especially a tight knit community that is the Jews, can suffer so many attacks without striking back in kind. America is one thing, we have no more terrorist attacks on US soil that reminds us of what we are fighting. Israel is reminded of that every day and has been reminded of who they are fighting for the last 2 milleniums. Individual Israelis prove the gamut of the human spectrum. But Israel as a nation with a national character is inevitably without the fire of destruction. Jews can create but they refuse to learn the arts of destruction. Thus ensuring that the creations of Jews are always temporary and ephemeral. Everytime they worked to build a future in one country, they would get kicked out and have to start over precisely because the Jews refuse to learn the arts of destruction.

America is what she is only because Americans did not refuse to learn the arts of creation and destruction. A nation or an individual is never complete without knowing and studying and practicing both. That’s why the Islamic war against humanity would have been an easy enemy to destroy had not the West been weakened by the sabotage of the Soviets and Communism. THe Islamic war for Hell is focused on death, not life, because they refuse to learn arts of creation, choosing instead to devote their energies to destruction alone.