Bush, Arafat and Sami Al'Arain (who works right down the street from me) have been in the news and in my thoughts today. I listened with interest to Bush's new policy statement on the West Bank, and I like it. What I like about Bush's recent policy statement is that it holds the so-called Palestinians accountable.
Americans like to say that they have nothing against "the people," it's the leaders we are after. True enough if you count oppressed people, like those who live under communism.
But ask yourself this:
1. How much traction would the Nazi's have gained in the 30's if the bulk of popular opinion held that they were a bunch of lunatics?
2. How much traction would slavery have made in the antebellum South if almost everybody (or even a simple majority) thought it was lunacy to go to an auction to buy a human being?
3. And how much traction would the terrorists have in "Palestine" if the people realized the lunacy of sending their children to blow up other children?
My impression overall is that our response to the Jewish holocaust-- of which the terrorist war is, in part, an extension -- is the defining test of our time: the test that will define the limits of what it means to be human. The Jewish Holocaust diminished us all. Likewise, the African Holocaust diminished us all. Both showed us that being a human was less excellent than we would like to think.
The Jews have been persecuted for centuries: by the Egyptians, the Persians, the Greeks, the Romans, the Arabs, the Turks, and the Germans. Twice they narrowly escaped genocide. Yet the Jews threaten no one, except with their ideas, a partial list of which follows:
1. Respect for God.
2. Rule of law.
3. Private property.
4. Truthfulness.
The Arabs, in contrast, were a conquering army. Arab armies controlled most of the known world at the end of the first millenium, an empire stretching from modern day Iran to the Balkans to Spain. The Arabs' main problem is that they lost their last wars of aggression (in 1948 and 1967). As the National Review pointed out, history is not kind to armies (people!) who pick a fight, then lose.
Nevertheless, the "Palestinian" Arabs have the opportunity to have peace. The choice is, and always has been, theirs.
Meanwhile, we have a choice to make also. The words President Bush uttered will ring through history, whether we heed them or not: "You are either with us, or you are with the terrorists." How we heed those words, and what we do about it, will be the defining moment of our civilization.