Rejecting The Myth

As a follow up to my last post, I'd like to direct anyone who is interested to Jewish Voice For Peace where there are some excellent questions and good sharp answers about Israel, Judaism, Islam, and the Middle East. One point is clear: there is a mythology based on rumor and ignorance that is driving what is arguably the World War of our time, ever deepening the rift between the society of the Middle East and the society of the West.

Like the myth that the conflict between Arabs and Israel has been going on for centuries: it hasn't. Muslims and Jews coexisted peacefully for hundreds of years before Israel was created, the Jews living in Islamic states where they were a protected minority free to practice their religion. Occasionally there were outbreaks of violence and racial strife, but nothing like there is today and Jews enjoyed far more freedom from persecution in Arab countries than they faced in Europe. It was only after World War II, when the Zionist movement led to the formation of Israel and the dispossession of the Palestinian people, that there was a backlash of anger and hatred toward Israel. The conflict is not religious or ideological. The conflict is over land, and the Israeli military's aggression against Arabs and Muslims. It is the Jewish peoples' perception that Muslims hate them because they are Jews, and vice-versa. I know many Israelis who claim that images of teenage boys throwing stones at IDF troops are proof that the Palestinians teach their children to hate, and we've all heard about the belief among Arabs that Jews make their challah, or bread, with the blood of Muslim children. It's time we start asking the other side what's true and what isn't, instead of making our assumptions.

Here in the U.S., it's going to take a long time to debunk the assumption that the reason 9/11 and other terrorist attacks happened is "because they hate our freedom." The Bush administration, the Blair administration, and pretty much every other first-world country on the planet still stubbornly refuse to enter negotiations with terrorists. Whether you are or aren't of the opinion that our past responses and current tactics have done diddly to prevent acts of terrorism, you may be interested to know that Osama Bin Ladin quite clearly stated in his last audiotape in January 2006 that Al Qaeda would cease staging attacks on the American public should our troops retreat from Arab lands; he stated: "My message to you is about the war in Iraq and Afghanistan and the way to end it. We do not object to a long-term truce with you on the basis of fair conditions that we respect." (The White House immediately rejected the truce, citing its foresaid stubborn refusal to negotiate with terrorists.) Before that, back in 2004, he appeared in another videotape, underscoring his contention it was U.S. foreign policy that led to the 9/11 attacks, saying, "Security is an indispensable pillar of human life and free men do not forfeit their security, contrary to Bush's claim that we hate freedom. If so, then let him explain to us why we don't strike for example - Sweden?" In that video he also said, in reference to the ever-growing guerilla, or "insurgent" movement of Al Qaeda, "One cannot say that al-Qaeda is the sole factor in achieving those spectacular gains. Rather, the policy of the White House that demands the opening of war fronts to keep busy their various corporations - whether they be working in the field of arms or oil or reconstruction - has helped al-Qaeda to achieve these enormous results." Well, the White House refuses to listen to or acknowlege Bin Laden, but I don't. Especially when his stipulations for ending agression against US civilians are (oddly enough) in agreement with the US anti-war movement. In the news reports about these tapes, none of this is mentioned. You have to read the transcripts yourself to find out what he actually said. The Bush Administration does not want us to know that the leader of Al Qaeda offered a truce, because a truce does not comply with their agenda.

Like the persecution of Galileo and those other visionaries who claimed that the world was round, someday we will read in the history books and see the true nature of the actions we are taking now. With all that hundreds of years of science and medicine and society have achieved, humans continue to shape their perception of the world by their myths and demons. But truth is not only stranger than fiction, it is much, harder to come by; luckily, once you know the truth, it's nearly impossible to forget it.