Crisis in the middle east

When I came back from Pakistan in 1983, I said that World War III would begin in the middle east. We are not at that stage yet but we are very close to a global conflict caused by nationalism driven by religious intolerance.

We are again facing the ineptitude of the British and the U.S. who created Israel by taking land away from the Palestinians. By partitioning the middle east without regard for local realities they perpetuated the sources of conflict rather than ameliorate the problem. Both Syria and Iran seek the destruction of the Jewish state. And both will continue to seek the destruction of a democratic Iraq. They want an Islamic theocratic nationalistic government in both Iraq and in the area that is now controlled by Israel.

Our hope for solving the current crisis is weak at best because the Jewish lobby is such a dominant force in our foreign policy. Both Democrats and Republicans are seeking the Jewish vote in the November elections, so we as a nations will not come down on Israel to stop them from using force rather than diplomacy in dealing with their neighbors.

The justification for creating a Jewish state in the middle of an Islamic territory was weak in 1948, and remains weak today. Yet, the state was created to assuage the guilt of the WWII allies for ignoring the genocide carried out by Nazi Germany.

The solution to the middle east conflict and avoidance of WWIII, if there is to be a solution, must come from enlighten Islamic/Arab governments. The “West” created the problem and is unlikely to be able to solve the diplomatic problem, given the Christian and Jewish fundamentalist leaning of western governments.