Fear of the new

Those of us who are Israelis or Israeli-supporters wax lyrical over the latest Israeli hi-tech innovation, the importance of Israeli products for the cell phone or the computer, the strength of the economy and the growth of Israeli cities, etc. But, it is a mistake to think that these impressive developments in any way reconcile our enemies to Israel's existence. On the contrary, the Arab and Muslim enemies of Israel have always feared Israel as a western implant in their midst, not being prepared to recognise the organic relationship of the Jews to their Land. Every success of Israel means that the "rejectionists" become more certain of their need to attack and defeat us.

Even though the British ruled vast swaths of Arab land, Egypt, Sudan, Iraq, the Gulf States, the Muslims feared the introduction of western culture into their region. They opposed the "equal" treatment of women, they feared Christian proselytizing, they hated the idea of democracy, rather perferring the "Caliph" approach of the powerful leader, from the Mahdi in Sudan to Nasser in Egypt. The only countries that have officially reconciled themselves to Israel are Egypt and Jordan, only because Egypt was beaten comprehensively by the IDF and Jordan is so weak it is dependent on Israel for protection. All the Arab states have more or less strong non-democratic rulers (Mubarak of Egypt), sometimes Sheiks (Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the Gulf States) or sometimes military dictators (Assad of Syria). They are all more or less backward, and the Arab region is the second most backward in the world after Africa. All of these rulers and all of their peoples fear western modernization, sure that it will undermine their archaic system of rule and Islamic control. So boasting of Israel's successes will not persuade them to make peace with Israel, it will only strengthen their determination to oppose western influence and destroy all that Israel represents.

Now it could be argued that for the first time the Palestinians have leaders, Pres. Abbas and PM Salam Fayyad, who are not commited to the use of terrorism, but after a lot of experience trying it, see that it is not useful to accomplish their goals. Perhaps they have overcome their fear of the West and Israel. They instead have turned to economic development and negotiations, albeit with very intransigent demands. This is typical of Middle Eastern bartering, where the first demand is always exaggerated and expected to be rejected, but Israelis being inexperienced at this technique, usually give ground immediately. Now perhaps the two sides have met their match and hopefully something good will come out of the current talks, even if they fail. At each stage we get further ahead and both sides get used to dealing with each other and intransigent demands become less rigid. The problem is that once the Palestinians agree to compromise with Israel, they will certainly gain more than they give, and in the end we'll end up with a more successful Palestinian entity or state to deal with than we dealt with before. WIll this be a net gain for Israel? Only time will tell.