The Middle East is not the West.

It sounds obvious, but this distinction evades the Western press and people, and it’s a problem because Extremists exploit this failure of understanding to advance their own nefarious agendas.
What do I mean? Westerners believe all people are good at the core. We presume that all people deep down just want life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. This presumption is wrong. As we are seeing in the Middle East, there are Islamic Extremists that do not revere these fair aspirations, but instead glorify death, subjugate and oppress, and silence individual pursuits, dreams and freedoms through violence, torture and murder.

That comment sounds severe to your Western sensibilities, doesn’t it? (I’m sure I’ll get some nasty-grams about it.) You can’t believe it, you won’t believe. And that’s how they get you.

Terrorists can continue apace so long as the West refuses to ignore the obvious, refuses to ignore their true nature, which they are shamelessly demonstrating over and over again. In the last few weeks alone we’ve seen: Christians persecuted and crucified, and thousands of civilians mass murdered in Iraq and Syria. We’ve seen thousands of rockets lobbed into Israel, discovered tunnels armed with tranquilizers and handcuffs, primed for mass massacre and the kidnapping of 200 civilians. Yet we still can’t concede that these people’s ideology fundamentally differs from our own. Ergo, we grant them the freedom to take away others’ freedoms because we believe in freedom. It’s twisted.

the hajTo better understand, let me recommend some summer reading. “The Haj,” a historical fiction based on over 1,000 interviews, delves deep into the tribal mentality of the Middle East and exposes, from the inside, the ideology the West is up against. It encapsulates, in detail, the early years of Jewish-and-Arab Palestine. Written from the Arab point of view, The reader sees the slippery slope of extremism. The action-packed book moves, rich with history, description, character, and some of the finest writing I’ve ever read. Uris too wrote, “The Exodus,” the famous novel and film that led us all to believe that Paul Newman was the greatest Zionist of all time. Though missed by many in my generation, I hope to bring it back to people’s attention. Understanding the Arab tribal mentality and Jihad is crucial right now.

Lest anyone try to dismiss this novel’s authenticity because Uris himself was a Jew, let me share an honest review I found on a book-review site:

“Being an Arab myself, I felt extremely sad about the misery of our race in the last century. Facing our brutal facts as Arabs is the only way to hope for a change and a better future…This book, and although it is very harsh to read, is a true representation of the story of what happened at that time. It also gives a great description of the Arab character. Although now its quite different, some villages and rural areas are still stuck in the stagnation of the past century.

 

It is highly recommended for all my Arab friends and for those who are interested in the historian and cultural knowledge of the middle east in the last century.”

We have entered an era where Israel again fights blood-libel allegations that it intentionally targets and kills women and children. Communities around the world chant “gas the Jews” at violent rallies that have ended in burning synagogues. Groups whose sole raison d’être is to destroy Israel and worldwide Jewry have bottomless funds, weapons, man-power, political legitimacy, and wide-spread support in the press. Hatred at such proportions terrifies Westerners because it is so foreign and antithetical to our basic belief system. But we must open our eyes. Our enemy is sophisticated and is relying on our naivete. 

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