The Middle Ages

Submitted by John R (United States), Nov 22, 2006 at 18:15

Ninety-two percent of respondents in a recent poll of one thousand Egyptians over 18 years of age called Israel an enemy state. In contrast, a meager 2% saw Israel as "a friend to Egypt."

I wonder why. Could it be because most people in Egypt are Muslims?

These hostile sentiments express themselves in many ways, including a popular song titled "I Hate Israel," venomously antisemitic political cartoons, bizarre conspiracy theories, and terrorist attacks against visiting Israelis. Egypt's leading democracy movement, Kifaya, recently launched an initiative to collect a million signatures on a petition demanding the annulment of the March 1979 Egypt-Israel peace treaty.Muslims at work.

Also, the Egyptian government has permitted large quantities of weapons to be smuggled into GazaEgypt. to use against Israeli border towns. Yuval Steinitz, an Israeli legislator specializing in Egypt-Israel relations, estimates that fully 90% of PLO and Hamas explosives come from

Muslims hate Israel.

Cairo may have no apparent enemies, but the impoverished Egyptian state sinks massive resources into a military build up. According to the Congressional Research Service, it purchased $6.5 billion worth of foreign weapons in the years 2001-04, more than any other state in the Middle East. In contrast, the Israeli government bought only $4.4 billion worth during that period and the Saudi one $3.8 billion.

Islam + nuclear weapons = bombing Israel.

With the benefit of retrospect, however, we see that the treaty did palpable harm in at least two ways. First, it opened the American arsenal and provided American funding to purchase the latest in weaponry. As a result, for the first time in the Arab-Israeli conflict, an Arab armed force may have reached parity with its Israeli counterpart.

Does not sound good for Israel.

What a sick place this Middle East is, wracked with 12^th century tribal and sectarian violence, stoked by Islamism.

How can we change this unbowed, lionized, maligned Middle Ages of a religion called Islam, who brays at the modern world? Probably we have no choice but to wait 1000 years for this religion to become like modern Christianity of today. We are in the 21^st century already! Not a good time for a religion to still be like this, not in a nuclear age.

John R.

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