Muslim Religious War, Arab Nationalist/Racist War, and Palestinian Civil War

Submitted by Ludvikus (United States), Jan 1, 2018 at 12:18

Dear Dr. Daniel Pipes,

Are the arguments below non-strategic - merely advocating for one side or the other?

1) Because Militant Islam, aka Islamism is founded on the teaching of Mohammad, the alleged Messenger of God, "Peace be upon him," the world is therefore in a state of religious warfare somewhat similar the the Protestant Reformation. But in this case, its extreme Sunni Muslims against all others, Jews, Christians, Shia, etc.

2) The militant struggle of most Arab people and nations against the Israeli Jews in particular, but all outside Zionists, Jews and Christians, is a Nationalist/Racist focused on the establishment of a non-Arab state, a Jewish State, a Western state, with Jerusalem as its capital.

3) The territory carved of of the Ottoman Empire by Britain in particular during World War One and named Palestine has been in a continuous state of civil war between the Arabs of Palestine and the Jews of Israel for over a hundred years; what differentiates this civil war is the extent of interference of outside powers, including the United Nations. National states in the 19th century emerged primarily when "races" were still merely "nations"; Zionism was not a religious Jewish movement - it was a Jewish nationalism movement like that of other peoples, except perhaps the Arabs, who never quite succeeded in separating Arabs from their Islam - Nasser's Egyptian national socialism was an attempt, but he confused the Egyptian Arabs with Pan-Arabism and failed when he lost his provoked war against Israel in 1967. Israel no only defeated the local battle against the Palestinians (Civil war) but also it defeated the international component, of Egypt Syria, Jordan, and Iraq, countries which fought on behalf of Arabs and Muslims (a "race" and a "religion" respectively).

In conclusion, there is no way for Israel to achieve a Victory merely through its vast superiority on the field of military battle; what American Critical Theory calls "Narrative" is extremely important. It is what the Israelis call Hasbara. One instance is the case of calling post-1967 War "conquered" Palestinian territories "OCCUPIED" rather than "LIBERATED" (from Egypt and Jordan).

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".