The Essence, Not Externalities, Will Bring the Solution

Submitted by David (United States), Jan 7, 2009 at 23:43

The solution to Middle East situation eludes Dr. Pipes because he limits his study and discussions to areas that address only its external and superficial aspects.

To resolve this situation, he must first understand its essence, which is not cultural, military, geographic, or even "religious" in the sense that that term projects. To resolve this situation, Dr. Pipes or anyone else must sit down with Jewish texts and learn what the Jewish people have always known about who they are, who the Arabs are, what is the Land of Israel, what is the timeline of history, and related questions.

This does not seem to be on the horizon, however, because of current academic vogue, which has been fashioned and is now dominated by Christians and secular-minded Jews uneducated in their own language, philosophies, and traditions.

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".