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The Samson OptionReader comment on item: Caliph Ibrahim's Brutal Moment Submitted by Michael S. (United States), Aug 15, 2014 at 03:07
I think that gets to the nugget of what you're saying, as the thing that matters. Islam is an Abrahamic religion, like Judaism and Christianity. All three of them have a tendency toward sharp, acrimonious divisions among themselves. All three have also expressed this acrimony, moreover, with violence: The Jews, with their in-fightng in Jerusalem, right in the middle of their rebellion against Rome; the Christians, in the Fourth Crusade and Thirty Years' War, and the Muslims throughout their history. Eastern religions are no less divided; but their divisions are less exclusive. In Japan, people's births are commonly marked by Shinto rites and their deaths by Buddhist rites; and they spend the years in-between following religiously-kept social traditions. Notice that I haven't specificly zeroed in on any "Sunni-Shi'ite" split here. The Abrahamic religions are inherently divisive; because they all claim to have the exclusively correct worship of the one true God. Muslims don't have to be Sunnis or Shi'as, to divide on these matters: All it takes is for some mullah to stir up his followers sufficiently into a puritanical frenzy. Israel sometimes gets attacked as a spin-off of these rivalries, as it has been these past few weeks, and sometimes it is attacked in its own right. From Israel's point of view, the missiles from one side kill the same way as the missiles from another. Turkey's President-elect Erdogan is a megalomaniac like Hitler, and I expect him to attack Israel in near future. According to Ezekiel 38-39, he will do so in alliance with Iran, Sudan and Libya (not Russia). Considering how fluid the inter-Islamic rivalries are today in Iraq and Syria, I would not be surprised if the Turks and Iranians decide to divide up Iraq and Syria between them, to stabilize their frontiers. This will put them in direct contact with Israel, which also has an interest in pacifying Lebanon and southern Syria. That's what I expect to see in the near future. Further down the road, there only remains Zechariah 14, a nuclear war resulting from all the nations of the world (namely, the UN) attacking Israel. This will happen, when the US stops vetoing such actions in the Security Council. Considering Obama's behavior of late, and the distinct possibility that his successor could be even more anti-Israel, I expect this also to happen in a few years -- but after the Turkish attack. Those are the line-ups I am keeping my eye on. I think Israel needs to beef up its nuclear deterrent -- especially its ability to project nuclear weapons systems to ANYWHERE on earth. That may mean satellites, submarines, forward-deployed secret caches, container ships -- your guess is as good as mine. The Samson option (q.v.) is their only reliable one, so far as I can see. 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". Reader comments (38) on this item
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