What do you mean by PEACE?

[grimpixie]

This essay by Lisa Liel has got me thinking…

In Arabic, peace means submission. Peace in Islam and in all cultures which grew out of Arabic domination means the submission of the weak to the strong.{snip}

The conflict in Israel is a tragic result of Israel’s inability to understand what peace means to their Arab foes. Throughout history, Jews have refused to submit. {snip}

In the wake of the 1967 Six Day War, the Arab countries were beaten. The story is told of a single Israeli soldier with a single rifle watching over more than 200 Arabs on the Temple Mount the day Jerusalem was taken. They had been beaten, and they knew it. But the Israelis didn’t know it. With their mindset of “never submit”, they could not imagine the opportunity they had. The very next day, Defense Minister Moshe Dayan gave the keys of the Temple Mount, the single holiest site in the world for Jews, to the Waqf, the Islamic institution charged with care of Islamic holy places. With that act, he refused the submission of the Arabs, an act which led inexorably to the bombing of the Twin Towers. But Dayan could have done nothing else. He anticipated the reactions of the Arabs based on his own worldview, and thought he would avoid future conflict by this action. He was tragically wrong, and his error has been repeated over and over by one Israeli government after another. {snip}

Strangely enough, to a western mentality, the only possibility of ending the conflict in the Middle East is for Israel to stop pulling its punches and to bring the Arabs fighting it to their collective knees. Literally. Those who think this will merely cause the Arabs to fight harder simply fail to understand the Arab mindset.

Does this mean that we need to pound the entire Muslim world into dust before there is a realistic chance of a Middle East without war? Perhaps W’s “War on Terrorisim” has the right idea after all…

Gp

[Latro]

Just another example of ‘Soft healers make stinking wounds.’

[kuroashi]

Lemme just do a Clinton here and ask what “means” means, for clarification’s sake. Are we interpret this to mean that teh entire Arab-speaking world is unable to comprehend “peaceful coexistence as equals?” After watching Lawrence of Arabia , that idea holds water.

Should we also believe that the aforementioned “peaceful coexistence as equals” is what Israel seeks? Is that what handing over the keys was supposed to be a gesture of?

This question begs for an answer from people who have experienced life in the region, who understand that words cannot be interpretted into other languages at face value.

[grimpixie]

*Originally posted by kuroashi *
** After watching Lawrence of Arabia , that idea holds water. **

Won’t you expand on that statement, there sounds like there is an interesting story behind it and I haven’t seen the movie…

Gp

[kuroashi]

To briefly summarize, Lawrence, as a British Army fella, goes to “Arabia” to find the locals shooting each other over rights to watering holes, and is laughed out of town after suggesting that the various tribes unite to push the Turk out. Later, the idea of a united “nation” of Arabs is brought up, and comes to fruition, thanks to his charisma. This is WWI era, and many of the disputes which existed then are still here in the present.

So, maybe we can blame this concept of peace = submission on a not-too-distant tradition of distrust toward others.