Sunday, August 27, 2006

Paradigm shift

Perhaps we Israelis are too quick in condemning the Europeans for their crass and facile condemnation of Israel, which we readily attribute to barely suppressed anti-Semitism. In fact, there is a strong element of anti-war sentiment in Europe as a reaction to their long history of mutual hostility and conflict. This is a positive historical paradigm shift in attitudes that has permeated Europe, but unfortunately comes at a bad time for the reality of the new challenge from radical Islam.
The Holocaust was one aspect of the inter-tribal wars that continued in Europe until WWII, pitting the nationalisms of the French, Germans, Hungarians, Poles, Russians, Czechs, Italians, etc. against each other. The more recent outbreaks in the Balkans, in which Serbs, Croatians and Bosnians murdered each other pitilessly was another manifestation of this phenomenon. Yet, the majority of young Europeans are tired of these internecine conflicts, they want peace and a good life, without the old hatreds constantly causing death and destruction. That is the meaning of the EU, and that's one reason why they are impatient with Israel, they can't understand why we keep fighting and keep killing poor Palestinians and Lebanese.
Young Europeans have all but forgotten the nationalist aggression of Germany and Italy, the unalloyed hatred that their people expressed openly for Jews, French, Poles and any one a little different from themselves. Although they can be criticized for much, most European youth mean well, they want to be tolerant and multicultural. And they just can't imagine that "third world" brown skinned people can be the aggressors, that poor struggling immigrants can in one generation become a threat to them.
When Jews came into Central and Western Europe in relatively modern times (from the 1880's onwards), fleeing from persecution mainly in Russia and Eastern Europe, they were happy to be tolerated and left alone. They never dreamed of trying to change the culture of these countries. Yes, some of them were socialists, and this generated some antagonism, but they never considered that their Jewish culture could or should be influential in their newly adopted countries, let alone become dominant. This is not true of the larger number of Muslim immigrants that have practically inundated these countries in recent years. Many of these immigrants do not want to assimilate, do not want to become British or French. This is in opposite contrast to the prevalent tendency to multiculturalism in these countries. The tolerance shown by the hosts is not reciprocated by the Muslims, they think their religion/culture is in fact superior and ought to be dominant, especially the extremists/fundamentalists among them.
But, the arrogance of this attitude is not based on social or economic factors (they don't promise a brighter future), but purely on religious/cultural ones. In their belief system, God is on their side and it has been pre-determined that Islam, the only true religion, will be predominant. It is incumbent upon them to struggle even violently to bring about their ascendency. So far the Europeans have hardly "got it" except for a few clever fellows, such as Tony Blair and the local Jews.
Of course, the Americans have not had to undergo such a paradigm shift, so they immediately reacted to 9/11 with a strong and vigorous reponse, hence the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Unfortunately the US is now bogged down in Iraq, and they are running out of steam just as the real threat ensues, namely Iran. The crazy Mullahs and Ahmedinejad see their chance, they can develop nuclear weapons (noone will do anything about it) and they can start wars, testing their proteges, namely the Shia Hizbollah in Lebanon and the Sunni Hamas in Palestine, and get away with it. Yes, the Shia area of Lebanon was reduced to rubble by the IAF and many were killed, but why should they care. All the Muslims killed, including the Israeli Arabs in Galilee, will go to paradise in a good Muslim cause, while the infidels and Jews will go to hell. Either way they win, if they suceed they suceed, and if they fail, they will all become holy martyrs. So for them its a "win-win" situation, while for us its a "zero-sum game."
Only another paradigm shift in European opinion can change their basic assumptions about the Middle East and the nature of the conflict, and it ain't gonna happen. So we must continue along our path, a nation alone, as before, but with the support, for the moment, of the Great Satan, that is also threatened with extinction. God forbid that we are forced to tackle Iran (a nation of 68 million people) alone.

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