LEANING RIGHT-I recently listened to a brilliant broadcast by Los Angeles attorney Bark Lurie on a subject that most of us do not give much thought – the Arab/Israel conflict. This was prompted by Secretary John Kerry’s call for talks between Israel and the Arabs.
This call for talks borders on the definition of “insanity.” Once again, insanity was outlined as continuing to do the same thing and expect a different result. Kerry is attempting the same approach that has proven useless for decades. He didn’t introduce anything new. Was this just show by the administration? Does he just want optics?
At the end of the broadcast Lurie presented facts that included the following:
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Of the 7,000,000 people who live in Israel, 1,400,000 are Arabs
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In the world there are 13 million Jews and 1.5 billion Arabs
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The 22 Arab countries in the Middle East and Africa have a land mass 640 times larger than Israel
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Israel land mass is 9,000 square miles
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Arab land mass is 5,000,000 square miles
Lurie first promised that at the end of his presentation he would give the real reason for the conflict existence. He then methodically and analytically examined all the myths and exposed the fallacy of each. The myths included the following:
- The first was the mythical issue of land appropriation. He outlined that land appropriation of Palestine was not an issue. He pointed out that the acquisition of Palestine was based on purchase of land. He highlighted that in the summer of 2000 at Camp David the leaders of Israel had offered Yasser Arafat all the Arab claims on land. Arafat rejected the offer and pundits concluded that he really wanted the eradication of Israel. The land had been purchased by the Israel people under the monitoring of the United Nations.
- Next he debunked the religious issue. He showed that this is a “one way street” issue. Attacks only occur against synagogues. They do not occur against mosques. There is a saying that if the Arabs dropped all weapons there would be peace. If Israel dropped all weapons it would no longer exist.
- The conflict has also been blamed on differing economics. Israel is very prosperous. The Arab people living outside the monarchies are destitute and uneducated.
He continued down the list analytically revealing the flaws in all the myths. I began worrying that he would run out of time before revealing his reason for the conflict but he keeps a sharp eye on the clock.
He finally got to the gist of his presentation. The conflict is based on the nature of the combatants.
Israel is a democracy. The Arab countries are dictatorships.
In the history of the world no democracy has ever attacked another democracy. They have, however, defended themselves against other threats and attacks whenever necessary. The first order of business of a democracy is prosperity. Israel is surrounded by 22 Arab dictatorships.
For a dictatorship the first order of business is power. The dictatorship maintains power by intimidation of the people and going to war is used to distract the attention of the people. They need enemies and Israel is the scapegoat.
Arabs point to Israel as the reason they are poor and never get ahead.
By the way Lurie’s presentation is entitled “Definition of Insanity” and is available here.
(Kay Martin is an author and a CityWatch contributor. His new book, Along for the Ride, is now available. He can be reached at [email protected])
-cw