Inviting people to use symmetry in reasoning

Submitted by Prashant (United States), Apr 16, 2022 at 16:39

Dear Dr Pipes, The above message of reader 'Diana from California' prompted me to research the leftist Israeli activist Itai Feitelson. That search, in turn, led me to the referred cry-baby story published by the Guardian in the UK (ref1). The Guardian story writes about how some Israeli activists are trying to make familial bonds with the Palestinians. But, the same story also makes veiled and slanted attacks on Israel. Guardian fails to acknowledge the Israeli government, Israeli, and religion for cultivating and sustaining the goodness that the above activists are exhibiting.

There is nothing wrong when people from Israel attempt to reachout to the (so called) Palestinian people. Goodness is always admirable and touches our hearts. What is wrong is when reputed newspapers like the Guardian use the instances of such kindness to further malign the Jewish society vis-a-vis the Islamic societies.

I consider British leftist media as a lost case which is difficult to redeem. But, I invite people to use the mathematical concept of Symmetry to evaluate the situations at hand. Symmetry is a very easy concept to construct in a thought experiment:

the Guardian article describes an effort by some Israeli activists to learn Arabic and reach out to the Palestinian families. Even a Palestinian Muslim Imam's family was visited.

The symmetric situation will be that some Muslim youth in Israel sit down and learn Hebrew and reach out to Israeli families including one of a rabbi.

Such a thing is very unlikely to happen. What is more likely is that these Muslim youth, even if they come together, will waste their time debating how corrupted the Jewish Bible is. Of course, as I said above, the Gardian used the Israeli bonhomie to make yet another attack on Israel.

Symmetry is a very powerful tool. It helps the reasoner identify the absurdities in their reasoning extremely quickly. The above symmetric argument, for example, led me to conclude that Muslims should rather spend their energies in making friends than in asserting how wrong the other scriptures are. Someone please say तथास्तु (tathastu or so be it or Amin) with me.

Ref1 the Guardian story about Israeli activists: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/dec/19/we-are-family-the-israelis-sharing-life-and-hope-with-palestinians

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