Barry Rubin of GLORIA Center is taking a look at the latest call to arms by Hamas. If it is to be believed, it sounds like a last desperate message from a cut off segment of the army hoping the cavalry will arrive soon. From the looks of things the cavalry is not coming. In fact it may not even exist. Barry quotes Fathi Hamad, a Hamas member of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC).
"Where is your valor? Stop being such cowards. The time has come for you to awaken from this deep slumber. The time has come for your honor, dignity, and valor to awaken. Where are you, Muslims?...As a sign of your love for Allah and the Prophet, you should sweep away the borders, which were created by imperialism. We are in need of weapons, we are in need of food, we are in need of moral support, as well as support by the media, economic support, medical aid, and support in weapons."
Note that his request for aid has brought no response. The Arab states are not interested in helping Hamas because they recognize it as part of a radical Islamist threat to them. And they are not very much interested in confronting America or fighting Israel either. Ironically, the West is far more concerned over the welfare of Gaza's Palestinians and aiding them than are other Arabs or Muslims.
Evidently honor has taken a back seat to profits. The leaders of the Arab world have finally figured out that overt war against the West is not profitable.
What is left is covert war. Covert war requires intimate contact. Spies and observers in the enemy camp. Essentially this is what brought down the Soviet Union. Intimate contact with the West ruined their self confidence. The Arabs in particular and Islam in general does not have the advantage of an Iron Curtain especially in the 'net age.
I think the advance of pornography in Muslim/Arab culture which I have been following is instructive. The Arab/Islamic cultures have strict prohibitions and yet it proliferates. Reports say that 70% of cell phone users have pornography on their phones. The thing to keep in mind is that this is only one vector and important only because it can be easily tracked because people pay attention to it.
There are other vectors which although "silent" are never the less powerful.
...all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. --That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
What may be most seductive is that the West offers its adherents ease in this life. No need to await the next. Materialism weakens any religion based on a better life in the hereafter. American churches have adapted. Many offer their religion as a path to material success as well as goodness in this life. Islam, so far, has not adapted.
What has made the West so powerful is doubt. Doubt the State. Doubt the Church. Doubt received Wisdom. Science applied to every facet of life. All Islam has to offer is faith. Faith is not enough. It must be coupled with doubt. Or as some wag once put it:
According to Strategy Page , Israel is getting some cooperation from Al Fatah in going after Hamas.
Fatah support provides Israel with more information on who Hamas leaders are, where they are and when. This has led to more frequent missile attacks, leaving over a dozen Hamas leaders dead in the last two weeks.
If in the future, Al Fatah reverts to its old ways of preaching the two-state solution while also engaging in terror, it may find that this was an example of divide and conquer.
Gringo · February 23, 2008 06:49 PM
So, the Iraq government has the same role in Iraq as Fatah has in Palestine?
And should we not doubt scientific consensus as well then? Hence, the model of evolution should also be subject to the same rigorous examinations that all other scientific hypotheses are, yes? And ID, YEC, OEC too, yes? Then we are all agreed.
I would not say that the West lived on Doubt, though. There was no doubt, after all, that the universe had order and we just had to find out what it was. There is no doubt amongst conservatives, after all, that conservative positions and by and large better than liberal ones. There is no doubt that premeditated murder is wrong, that theft is wrong no matter what the excuse, that technological progress has contributed to the real improvement of living standards. OK, that last may have some morons doubting, but you know what I mean.
Instead, I would rephrase and say that it was examination and testing, rather than doubt, that made the West strong. The attitude should not be 'I dunno that this is true...' which doubt conveys to 99.9% of the population. It should be 'Hmm, let's find out if this can be true. How can I do that?'
My $.02, anyways. (does anyone know the Alt+xxx code for the cent symbol?)
GK · February 25, 2008 03:38 AM
& c e n t ;
All smashed together (without spaces).
My use of doubt was broadly philosophical and was not meant to disparage the testing (examination) phase of finding out what is true.
The Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler
Don?t bang your head!
Nothing covert about Turkey's (99.8% Muslim) recent invasion of America's colony Iraq.
Unless all you read is far-right blogs, of course.