Posted on 03/30/2003 1:22:40 AM PST by Seeing More Clearly Now
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/A/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1048735390542
Jerusalem Post, Mar. 27, 2003 Europe on the brink, By BEREL WEIN
The vehemence of the protests and unqualified opposition to the war against Iraq emanating from European capitals and streets is very troubling. Protesting for peace is meaningless unless there is a plan to create and maintain that peace.
I have not heard any positive plans for achieving peace emanating from France, Germany, the Vatican, Russia or the other protagonists. They have not presented any reasonable alternative to counter Saddam Hussein. Nor have they come up with any good, concrete ideas on how to deal with all the other festering sores on the world's body politic.
Demonstrations, no matter how loud, numerous and popular, do not by themselves constitute a policy. The peace demonstrations that engulfed us here in Israel during much of the Nineties are seen in cold retrospect to have produced war and not peace. Demonstrations fueled by platitudes, wishful thinking, starry-eyed idealism and the usual component of nihilists, students and assorted radicals lead absolutely nowhere.
To the demonstrators it is fun to be part of a large crowd, to feel a sense of self-righteousness in opposing war and injustice and violence, to feel heroic and burn flags and effigies. But none of this is practical policy. Usually it leads to greater frustration as the demonstrators' excesses eventually boomerang against the cause they are allegedly advancing.
Turning a blind eye to Mideast terrorism and its governmental and organizational sponsors is not a viable policy that will lead to any sort of peace anywhere. And no amount of demonstrating can change that reality, just as all of the hundreds of thousands of peace demonstrators here in Israel could not alter the reality of Yasser Arafat and his cohorts. King David had it riht in Psalms, when he said, "I am for peace, but while I speak of peace they conduct war against me." Reality is always bitter and unappealing to deal with.
Europe in the 1920s and 1930s suffered from the maladies of pacifism, ideological delusions and a breakdown of vision and will. By the middle of the 1920s it was apparent to the realists in the world what a murderous regime the Soviet Union really was. Yet there was never a problem bringing hundreds of thousands of people onto the streets of Europe (especially on May Day) to praise the new workers' paradise being formed in the Soviet Union. The communists and their millions of sympathizers in the West - especially in Europe - ruled the streets. These same demonstrators, in the main, would soon take to the streets in support of Mussolini and Hitler. The street mob rarely takes right and wrong into account. It is fickle, dangerous and has shifting allegiances. And it can always be fired up by hate of a particular country or group. TODAY GEORGE Bush, Tony Blair, Ariel Sharon and others are the villains on the street. Saddam Hussein, Yasser Arafat, Bashir Assad, Kim Jong-il and other murderous leaders are noticeably absent as the target of demonstrations.
Europe sought to accommodate, appease and contain Hitler, Stalin and Mussolini. It was spectacularly unsuccessful in this pacifist undertaking, and tens of millions of people paid with their lives for their refusal to face reality early on. Churchill was reviled and placed in the political wilderness in the 1930s for telling the truth about British pacifism and unpreparedness, as well as about German and Russian intentions. World War II was a result of Western European weakness - not necessarily of arms alone, but of not facing reality. One would have thought that World War II and the subsequent Cold War would have made a lasting impression on Europe. Apparently not. A new generation has arisen that does not have World War II memories. Even though it is only 12 years since the Soviet Union collapsed in the rubble of its brutal inefficiency and cruelty, the young of Europe do not seem to remember the Evil Empire either.
Much of Europe is again ready to appease the terrorists of the world, to seek to understand them and mollify them by giving in to their demands. Europe gave Hitler Czechoslovakia, and hoped he would go away.
It gave Mussolini Ethiopia, and hoped that he too would go away and leave them alone. Unfortunately, feeding the tiger rarely changes its nature. I have a pretty good idea what Europe would be willing to give away to mollify Muslim terrorism today. Saudi Arabia warns that toppling Saddam will destabilize the Arab rule. If that means the Arab street will get a dose of reality, and that the corrupt and dictatorial regimes that now rule will be changed, destabilization may not be such a bad thing.
In any event, both Europe and the Arab world have to face reality. The world will not be made safe for democracy - or for anything or anybody - by demonstrations. Sensible, realistic, painful policies of lasting impact are the only alternatives to world chaos. Europe should right itself before it sinks again into the pit of defeatism, pacifism and unreality.
Preach it!
Make SW Asia judenrein, and everyone will be happy.
Just let their friends the Arabs finish the job, OK?
Even this would not be enough. Several European sheick, specifically in Britain and Norway, declared that they have formed organizations working toward establishing Islam as the state religion in the respective countries. The British one said that the work is not done until "the flag of Islam is placed at 10 Downing Street."
Some Europeans thought that Hitler, wanted just the Rhineland, then just Sudettenland, just Austia, just concer communism, just to kill the Jews. I do not know why: he wrote everything in Mein Kampf and never deviated from the stated plan.
Presently, many of the Islamic leaders have stated, in their respective Mein Kampfs, that they want to restore Islam's glory and Caliphate. As cruel and barbaric the actions against Israelies and Jews in general have been, they are but a small part of the phenomenon. The shrinkage of the Western world, withdrawal from colonies, and collaps of Christianity in Europe has finally been sensed not just by scholars but the Arab street; they have now resumed the offensive posture against the West. This time they cannot be stopped at the gates of Vienna: 10% of French are Muslim, and ONE out of every THREE babies born today in that country is Muslim.
I do not think the Muslims would stop their jihad if Jews disappeared tomorrow.
An exceptionally good article about the hazards and short-sightedness of the peaceniks.
There is a simple reason. That's because the protests aren't about "peace".
Instead, they're about anti-Americanism and anti-capitalism.
The only "peace" these people want is the peace of victory. Their own!
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