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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LindyBill who wrote (25256)	4/15/2002 8:40:39 AM
From: JohnM	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Here is a column from the Ayn Rand Institute to chew on, John. All I ask is that you don't do an "ad Hominem" on it. Are you talking about "doing an 'ad Hominem' on you? Never. Fourth volume of Whyte--half way through. Third volume is the best of the four. Or doing an 'ad Hominem' on Ayn Rand? Well, that would be fun but it's very old hat. As for doing one on this author, I'm not certain what that means. I simply find the article doesn't address any problem that concerns me. I can't disagree with the assertions about Arafat's leadership. They sound a bit more harsh than my other ant-Arafat readings, but I'm certainly in no position to judge between them. And I'm certainly not going to make a case for Arafat. But Sharon's approach has so far given Arafat a real boost. He's obviously much more in charge now than two years ago. Any way Sharon tries to end Arafat's leadership makes matters much worse. And the Palestinians are not going there now.

To: LindyBill who wrote (25256)	4/15/2002 10:04:26 AM
From: carranza2	Respond to of 281500

Thanks for posting that, LB. It is the crux of the problem. East is East and West is West and never the twain shall meet, and all that. Why such seething nihilism? Consider that when the Jews came to Palestine, it was a desert. People were living in the same primitive manner as they had been since the time of Moses. The Jews brought Western knowledge and Western values to the Middle East. They turned an almost barren land into a modern, industrial civilization. They raised cities where there had been only dirt; they developed irrigated farms where there had been only dry sand; they built cars and trucks and planes where there had been mainly pack animals. They produced wealth where there had been only poverty. They brought freedom and individual rights to a land where these ideas were unknown. And many of the Arabs hated Israel for doing so, because it was an achievement they could not, and did not want to, equal. That is why they have always wanted to destroy Israel. That is why the Palestinians continue today in that quest. When a person sees that a different culture can produce a much better life, greater knowledge, greater mastery over nature, greater comfort and security, greater respect for the individual,than his own, he has two choices. He can adopt the new culture as a blessing, or he can seek to destroy it,and himself-because it stands as a reproach to his irrational form of existence. The Palestinians have chosen the latter. They are guilty of what Ayn Rand called "hatred of the good for being the good." They hate the Israelis not because of their vices, but because of their virtues, their ability to better their lives by embracing reason, science, technology and individual rights. Israel (despite its own, growing crop of religious mystics) represents the triumph of secularism and freedom in the Middle East. Israel stands for the principle of . . . life.

To: LindyBill who wrote (25256)	4/15/2002 2:27:44 PM
From: Nadine Carroll	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

When a person sees that a different culture can produce a much better life,greater knowledge, greater mastery over nature, greater comfort and security, greater respect for the individual,than his own, he has two choices. He can adopt the new culture as a blessing, or he can seek to destroy it,and himself-because it stands as a reproach to his irrational form of existence. Let me repeat a quote that appeared in a column I posted on this thread, a quote attributed to a Yale-educated Saudi, "Israel represents the castration of Islam. That is why Israel must be destroyed."