Transcription
Hey everyone. So when we typically think of the conflict in the Middle East, there's a lot of discussion as to what type of dispute this particular situation is. Is it a religious dispute? Is it a land dispute? A lot of people think, "Oh, it's just a dispute over land."
Take a look at Dr. Hamid when he's asked by a reporter what his reaction and explanation is; then we'll talk about it.
“Palestinian crisis, a land dispute, in your opinion?”
“No, I don't think so at all. It's a religious issue. And I asked one: it's mainly when you see the whole Palestinian issue, their problem is they don't want Jews to survive there. So if all Jews became Muslims one day, they will have no problem with that. So the issue with them is Jews.
I asked one day a friend of mine, 'If all Jews converted to Islam in Israel, will you still have this fight and trouble?' He said, 'Of course not.' I said to him, 'Then this is not a problem of land; it's a problem just because they are Jews.'
So, when you listen to the Arab media, when you follow the Arab media, when you follow the people, it's all about a religious war against the Jews. They wanted to take it further to apply the prophecies that Muslims will slaughter and kill every Jew in the world.
This is one of the prophecies in some book called Al Bukhari. It's not in the Quran, but it's in a book called Bukhari that's well respected by many Muslims as a source of Hadith, a book for the words of Prophet Muhammad. And what they dream about is to fulfill this prophecy of killing every Jew there.
So the problem here is, in my view, it's not a view. When you listen to the mosques, when you listen to the sermons, when you see the media inciting hatred and violence against people just because they are Jews, you will realize that it's not a land dispute.
What if America pushes Israel to concede land? This will encourage the jihadists more and more on their path. In fact, America should do the opposite. When the jihadists attacked America on September 11, they wanted to see these concessions happening. And if you show them concessions, they will just attack you again, as when you were weak in 1998 and you didn't respond strongly enough against the attack on your embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. They attacked you again, and it was stronger.
But when you went very hard on them, they haven't attacked you for years because they are afraid of you. So the jihadist mind is a different mind. You have to show them that what they want to achieve is getting the opposite.
If they are expecting you to pressure Israel, for example, to make concessions to them, then in fact you do the opposite of this. This will give them a lesson: “Don’t attack us again because we will not surrender to you, and we will do the opposite of what you want.”
So they feel they are losing, not gaining, by their attacks. This is a message that you have to convey to them to change their mind and to make them think twice before attacking you again or trying to attack you.
Two important points I think that he makes, and he is again of Muslim Arab background, excuse me. The two points I think that are important and that everyone should perhaps take away from this are:
Number one, that it's not a dispute over land. It is a religiously oriented battle by radicals that have a very specific ideology about eradicating those that are not of their particular religious mindset. That includes other Muslims that are not of their particular religious mindset, not only against Jews and not only against Christians, but again other Muslims as well.
And so, it is a religiously oriented pursuit that the terror comes from. That's number one.
Number two is that because it's a religiously oriented war, then giving land is not going to do anything to quell any sort of tension. In fact, as I believe that Dr. Hamid correctly pointed out, when you concede land, it only makes them get stronger and go harder.
That's why no land for peace is ever an option, any real option on the table.
So, just food for thought when you're thinking about the context of how this war and how the history of this war kind of plays out. It is not about land or land for peace; it is about an ideological battle of radical Islam against those that are not members of radical Islam.