This is from Richard Sherbaniuk, a well-traveled, highly-informed writer who recently published his first novel, The Fifth Horseman. Richard reflects on the hatred behind the terror and what it portends for the American Empire.
Imagine -- just imagine -- strapping explosives to yourself, knowing you will die while taking out perhaps dozens of innocent people with you, just because they are Jews. Or hijacking a plane, knowing that you will die in it, while taking the lives of innocent people just because they are Americans.
No one seems to address this -- this is hatred so profound it is deranged,
and literally self-destructive. But no one, not even terrorists, does
s
omething without a reason. Why do these people hate so much?
An impressionistic collage:
At the recent Durban conference much was made of the "Zionism equals racism"
business. This of course is nonsense -- Zionism was a political movement --
but it is indisputable that Herzog, the founder of the movement, visited
Palestine and said, "A land without people for a people without a land." The
Arabs living there obviously did not rank as 'people' in his estimation.
When I was in Israel during the first intifadeh, I had a guide named Zev,
who was a Hungarian Jew and younger than me. He was a good guide, but early
on I asked him his opinion about the Palestinians. He replied like a robot:
"There is no such thing as a Palestinian because there is no such thing as
Palestine [this was in 1987]. It is a political term used by those who
refuse to accept either Israeli or Jordanian citizenship" -- which makes
sense, in a hair-splitting sort of way. I asked him what term he used -- he
replied, Arab or Bedouin.
Then one day we passed the El Ein Sultan Palestinian camp, a desolation of
cardboard, tents, tin cans and plastic. Zev waxed eloquent about how the
only reason the camps exist is because Jordan, Syria and Egypt will not take
them in as refugees (which is perfectly true, and never gets reported in the
Western media) and about how lazy Arabs are, that the men don't want to
work, that they don't want running water because the only time the women get
to congregate is when they gossip around a well (I kept extensive notes, so
I am not making any of this up) and so on. I kept silent, but nodded, which
encouraged him further. He said, "The Arabs are different from you and me.
Scientific research has proven that their body temperature is one to two
degrees lower than ours. They are genetically adapted to the desert, and
cannot thrive anywhere else."
Now, if a German said something like that about a Jew, or a white man said
the same about a black, there would be universal outrage. But it's OK for
Zev to say it about Arabs. Which is racism, plain and simple.
Also, when I went to the Wailing Wall, I had to pass a security checkpoint.
An elderly lady who obviously lived in the area had a bag of groceries,
which she had to empty onto the table, and then give her purse to one of the
Israeli soldiers. He examined everything, after emptying the contents of her
purse onto the table, and then, while talking to another soldier and not
looking at the lady, deliberately ripped the seams of the purse before
handing it back, again, without even looking at her. I helped the woman
gather her stuff, and she had to put the contents of her purse into the
shopping bag.
Now, if somebody did that to my grandma, I'd feel inclined to throw a few
stones too.
Bethlehem. Lunch with Yury, an Oxford scholar, and a few other people.
Terrific meal of lamb, rice, etc. I say something inane to the waiter, like,
"My compliments to the chef", and a few minutes later the waiter returns
with a platter of lamb, rice, etc., but just for me. I'm still hungry, so I
manage to polish it off, and when the waiter comes back I start to say
something and Yury kicks me under the table, so I stop, and the empty
platter is swept away. Yury says, "Arab hospitality. You praise something,
they are honor bound to give you more as a gift. If you'd praised the food
again, you would have gotten another platter, and if you didn't eat it all
it would be an insult." A lesson learned. I waddled out. But I like Arab
hospitality, and I think the concept of zakat (charity) -- one of the Five
Pillars of Islam -- is a concept worthy of emulation by every society around
the world.
Tiny. You could fit two Israels, end to end, in the distance between
Edmonton and Calgary, with about 40 kms to spare.
Jews and Palestinians -- It's a game of musical chairs, with only one chair,
and two people who want it badly enough they will kill for it, and -- to mix
metaphors -- this town ain't big enough for the both of us.
Nazareth. A Catholic priest who helped translate the Dead Sea Scrolls --
he's fluent in Arabic, Aramaic, Hebrew, Yiddish, and God knows what else. I
ask his opinion. He speaks very carefully: "I do not think Israel will exist
25 years from now. It is an utterly artificial creation. It is a European
society, founded and settled largely by Europeans, with a European judicial
system, transplanted into the heart of a foreign culture where it does not
belong. They are surrounded by enemies who regard them as aliens, and
without support from the United States they wouldn't last five minutes."
A famous Arab scholar, named Hourani, wrote a magnificent book entitled "A
History of the Arab Peoples" and tried to explain how Arabs feel about the
West. He used the example of the movies. There was an Indiana Jones film
where Indie is in an Arab market and he's confronted by an Arab with a
magnificent Damascene sword, which he twirls around, and it's obvious that
if the two of them fight on equal terms Indie is doomed. So he pulls out a
pistol and shoots the Arab, and the audience laughs -- the West is again
triumphant, in an easy, casual way. Hourani points out that this sort of
thing humiliates and enrages Arabs, whose culture was for centuries far
superior to that of the West.
Judaism is a triumphalist religion (the very concept of "The Chosen People"
is racist) and when you read the Old Testament it is a litany of slaughter
as the Israelites take their gifts from Yahweh, fertilizing the soil with
the blood of the original inhabitants. Christianity is a religion based on
sin and guilt. Islam is a religion based on shame and revenge. They are all
different, and they do not mesh well.
I have read the Koran cover to cover, trying to understand. It was an
effort. The Prophet says that "A woman should never be beaten, not even with
a flower." So the savagery of the Taliban and other 'Islamic' regimes
towards women has little to do with the Koran, and much to do with
pre-Islamic cultural traits. St. Paul, in 60 A.D. or so, traveled through
what is now Turkey, which at the time was the wealthiest part of the world.
He noted that some women were veiled. He asked why, and was told that it was
because if a woman did not want to be approached by men, the veil indicated
that she was off-limits. Any man approaching a veiled woman would be beaten
and perhaps killed by bystanders, as a virtual psychopath who ignored the
most basic visual cues. Upon reflection, St. Paul thought it was a darn fine
idea, as a way of respecting and protecting women.
You know what? So do I. It still happens in Turkey -- a Western woman alone
in an Istanbul restaurant can ask to have a miniature flag -- usually
American or British -- placed on her table to indicate to any roving males
that she is off limits, and woe betide the guy who tries something.
Yasser Arafat. The qualities that make a good guerilla leader --- mobility,
violence, treachery, opportunism -- are not the qualities that make for good
government. The guy is a gangster, with a flair for theatricality -- how on
earth can anyone wear a kefiyah all the time, and maintain a perpetual
three-day beard growth to please the cameras?
Someone once said that God is in the details. It's the details that tell you
so much, whether it's Zev, or the treatment of the grandma at the Wailing
Wall. Arafat has a system to deal with his perpetual budget troubles. He is
Arab, which means tribal loyalty to family and friends, which means nepotism
and patronage and money flushed away, which means he is essentially a
medieval sheik with an AK-47. Years ago he worked out a system whereby,
using his many bank accounts, if he signed his name on a check in a certain
way, the check would clear. If he signed his name another way, his
subordinates understood that the check was supposed to bounce.
How'd you like to do business with this guy?
Also, the Israelis are busy bombing Arafat's headquarters and killing his
closest associates. They could take Arafat out in 30 seconds, but they
won't. Why not? Better the devil you know than the devil you don't? A deep
game.
My mother-in-law's cardiologist is an Ismaili Muslim. Oxford graduate, very
nice man, volunteers in the community, was head of the Police Commission,
and an excellent physician. We had lunch one day. I had read a fair bit
about the Ismailis. They are the descendants of the ancient Cult of the
Assassins, led by the Old Man of the Mountain. They terrified nations for
hundreds of years, and would fortify themselves before a mission with
hashish (hence, assassins -- hashassin). Their stronghold was besieged and
finally taken by Genghis Khan's grandson Hulagu (?) in the 14th century,
whereupon they fled to northern India, and from there they dispersed around
the world, many of them finding their way to Africa and, after Amin took
over Uganda, to Canada and so on. But they worship the Aga Khan, a direct
descendant of the Prophet Mohammed, Blessed Be His Name (the good doctor
never refers to the Prophet without that tag) and they tithe to the Khan,
who uses the money to build hospitals and other facilities in Third World
countries (zakat). The annual practice of giving the Khan his weight in
diamonds was discontinued in the late 1950s as being, well, a little too
much (Ali Khan, an international playboy, was married to Rita Hayworth).
The current Khan has called upon the good doctor several times to supervise
the construction of these hospital facilities -- the latest was in Tanzania,
two years ago. The Khan asked, and he went without question. You never read
about this stuff in the papers, but probably the single biggest benefactor
of health services in the Third world is the Aga Khan. And any Ismaili
anywhere in the world can personally appeal to the Aga Khan and he will
provide interest-free loans for five years so that a business can be set up.
Anyway, we had lunch at the Faculty Club, and I can't remember how it came
up, but I was astounded at the good doctor's ignorance of Christianity. He
didn't know the most basic stuff, but he was impressed that I had read the
Koran, so we talked a lot about that, and he said, well, if you've read the
Koran, I guess I should read the Bible. It was a joke, and yet it wasn't.
So, here in Western Canada is an accomplished professional who is descended
from the Assassins, ended up on a wealthy family estate in Uganda, was
expelled by the cannibal Amin, went to Oxford, worships the Aga Khan and
tithes to him, is a splendid example of selfless community service, in a
largely Christian society, the fundamental beliefs of which he knows
virtually nothing of.
And people tell me I write unbelievable fiction.
After all this rambling, my point is that you can never assume anything
about the motives of other people.
I suppose if I were Muslim, poor, sleeping in a hovel in a refugee camp, and
being hectored by some Hamas terrorist about how my plight is due to the
evil Jews and Americans, and the Koran says if I die in righteousness, I
will be transported to Paradise, yeah, I'd probably listen. And perhaps act.
But it's the clash of world views that is the key. And it is possible to
overcome that -- sometimes.
I saw a great movie the other day called The Deep End. A gangster is
blackmailing a woman, he arrives at her home to threaten her again, her
grandfather has just had a heart attack, and he suddenly assists in saving
the man's life. A bond is forged between the two of them that cannot be
broken.
The Crusades -- which is essentially what is happening now, a clash between
Judeo-Christian belief and behavior and the principles of Islam. In the
13th century, in the Middle East, at Acre, King Richard the Lion-Heart was
sick in his tent with fever. His arch-enemy Saladin (who, interestingly
enough, was a Kurd) heard about this and sent two gifts -- a white stallion
and a bucket of ice cream to cool his fever. The Crusaders, who were a
crude and brutal bunch, were astounded that their enemy could be more
chivalrous than they were.
Hatred and its evils happen if -- and ONLY if -- you deny the humanity of
other people. Nazis and Jews, Jews and Palestinians, Serbs and Bosnians,
Greeks and Albanians.
With the Arabs and the Israelis, it is hopeless, in my opinion. One of them
wins, and the other loses. The place is just too small. The days when a
persecuted religious minority like the Puritans could leave England and
cross the Atlantic for a New World, or the Mormons could flee to the deserts
of Utah to escape persecution, are long over. There is no place to run.
Arafat is a deceitful piece of shit, and the ultimate aim, under all the
rhetoric, is for the Arabs to drive the Israelis into the sea, and that's
it. I saw the Golan Heights, and thought, if you surrender this, you are
doomed.
Hatred. What is it based on? Humiliation. Oppression. A sense of
inferiority. A sense of religious triumphalism. Dr. Eugene Hamell: "The
wrongs of the past are remembered mythically, as though the past were the
present."
I can't do anything about this stuff except try to understand.
And what is necessary to understanding is that sense of paradox, a sense of
the doubleness of things, that something can be one thing and yet be another
at the same time. Without a sense of paradox, there can be no true
intelligence.
Do the Jews deserve a homeland?
Yes, but the Ismailis, in their own diaspora, do just fine as an
international community without a homeland.
Are the Palestinians hard done by?
Yes.
Should they kill Jews?
No.
Is Yasser Arafat a disgusting human being?
Yes.
Is he head of the Palestinian government?
Yes.
Should we negotiate with him?
Yes.
Do we like negotiating with him?
No.
And so on.
Once again, where does this extreme hatred come from, a hatred so intense that people
will kill themselves? A mafia member might hate someone enough to kill, but
he will take some pains to ensure that he doesn't go down with his victim.
So this tribal type of suicidal warfare (which is what it is) is utterly
different.
And I must now declare an interest. Different people do different things in
different ways, and I respect that -- within limits. I used to be the
Director of Multiculturalism for an immigrant agency, and I have come to
despise the term 'multiculturalism', the basis of which (I can't remember
the exact wording) is that being in Canada involves adhering to Canadian
laws, while recognizing the worth of one's own cultural heritage and
celebrating it (with government handouts).
Now, I dealt with Vietnamese boat people, refugees from Ethiopia, and on and
on. And I came to the conclusion that government sponsored multiculturalism
is horseshit. You want to celebrate your cultural heritage? Fine -- nobody
is going to stop you. Unless of course your cultural heritage is Eastern
European and involves jollies like pogroms against Jews, which is
unacceptable here, or the utterly disgusting West African practice of
infibulation, which means using a dull razor or a broken bottle to remove a
young girl's genitalia so she cannot experience pleasure during intercourse,
because that is sinful, and then sewing her vagina shut so that her future
husband can have the pleasure of hearing her scream when he breaks into her.
People lament that there is no such thing as Canadian culture. Well, yes
there is, and pograms and infibulation have nothing to do with it. You want
to do this crap, go back to the old country and do it, because it is not
acceptable here. And that is Canadian culture.
Which brings me to my final point. Alex quotes Robert Steele about how the
USA is perceived by other countries around the world. I suggest that,
despite its multitudinous deficiencies, the USA is the most benign great
power in history. As a child (I think I was 10) I saw a newspaper headline
about people being killed at the Berlin Wall, trying to get out of communist
East Germany. I was in bed, my dad came in to say goodnight, and I asked him
what was so bad about communism that people would die trying to escape from
it. He explained it to me in a plain and simple way which I have never
forgotten.
The Vietnamese boat people. Cambodians. Poles, Czechs, Romanians,
Ukrainians, Chinese. Cubans. Now Afghans. You think they fled their
homelands for the United States because they didn't like the weather
forecast?
Western Christian civilization is the highest pinnacle of human achievement
in history. It has its flaws, but, as Winston Churchill once said, Democracy
is the worst form of government, except for all the others that have been
tried from time to time.
Hatred. If bin Laden was the mastermind behind the New York bombings, and if
he is in Afghanistan, the solution is very simple. You are not a great power
if you don't behave like one. If the above is proven, the US government
tells the Taliban that they will give up bin Laden within 48 hours or
Afghanistan will be turned into a parking lot. And if they don't produce him
within 48 hours, you carry through. But you won't have to -- when they are
not lashing guys without beards or stoning women to death because they've
been raped (and of course it's their fault) they sit on their prayer rugs
and sip tea and watch CNN. So they know exactly what is going on. A video
clip of 200 bombers being loaded with nuclear weapons targeted for
Afghanistan will make those bearded medieval savages drop their tea cups
right quick.
Roman Emperor Augustus: "The Germans respect you only so long as their
wounds pain them."
One of my favorite movies is The Godfather. In it, a renegade gangster is
wreaking havoc. Capo Clemenza is meditatively cleaning the gun that Michael
Corleone will use to take the guy out. Clemenza says, "It's like how they
shoulda stopped Hitler at Munich. You can't let guys get away with that
stuff."
How true.
In the 19th century in India, a new British Viceroy heard about the worship
of the goddess Kali, and the practice of Thugee, whereby innocent travelers
would be strangled by members of the Thug cult, and if there happened to be
a baby present, sticks would be slowly inserted into its nostrils until they
entered the brain, and the more the baby screamed, the better pleased was
the goddess Kali. The new Viceroy summoned Captain Sleeman, a man known for
his intelligence and resourcefulness, and said, "This is an utterly vile,
heathenish practice, and Her Majesty will not tolerate it. Thugee will be
eradicated from the entire Indian subcontinent. Captain, you have five
years." Sleeman did it, although it took him six years.
What is interesting is that when the jails started to fill with Thugs, the
Viceroy wanted to hang them all in public. Sleeman disagreed, saying that
he didn't know if the Hindoo (his spelling) religion had a concept of
martyrdom, but it wasn't worth the risk of creating martyrs. Given that
Indians were terrified of Thugs, because they always attacked at night and
were rumored to possess supernatural powers, and their choice of victims was
random, he suggested that they be jailed for life, but that the prisons be
open to the public, so Indians could see for themselves what a Thug was
like, cowering in his cell. This worked splendidly. The Thug mystique
evaporated in the light of day, and a young cavalry officer named Winston
Churchill went to visit one of the last of the Thugs in his cell, an elderly
gentleman with a flowing white beard and twinkling eyes, and who said he
missed the good old days.
An alien culture can indeed be alien in ways we cannot comprehend.
There was also the British naval officer who was sent to some God-forsaken
country where a massacre was taking place. He arrived on the beach in
full-dress white uniform, unarmed, with another officer and a cowering
translator, as the killers hesitated, dazzled by the uniform. He said to
the translator, "Tell these filthy bastards that Her Majesty will not
tolerate any more of their bestial behavior", and that was the end of it.
Now, is anyone going to tell me these were not good things? Some cultures
are superior to others. They just are. And with Africa, being colonized by
the British was the best thing that ever happened to them. The Brits left,
and look at what we have now?
As L'il Abner once said, "Good is better than evil because it's nicer."
The USA is slipping -- from a Great Power viewpoint -- into senility. A
popular term in the military these days is "casualty averse" -- this means,
we can't have our boys being killed in front of the cameras where their
parents can see them. The Romans went the same way -- flush with money, they
hired mercenaries -- often German -- to fight for them. It's not the same
thing as fighting for your own country.
Population is destiny, and the Great Power struggles of the future will take
place between China and India. Japan is a blip, and will occupy the same
place in history as the Hanseatic League. The U.S. can go either way.
Despite the bombings, they are safe in Fortress America, if they take
precautions.
The Romans fought three savage wars with the Carthaginians, who were an
enormously wealthy and powerful maritime nation based in North Africa, at a
time when the Romans were basically a bush league power on the fringes of
civilization. At the time, the Romans couldn't sail worth a damn, but they
were superior on land -- most of the time. The great Carthaginian general
Hannibal delivered one of the most devastating surprises in the history of
warfare when he crossed the Alps in winter and attacked Rome from behind.
Still, the Romans won. Largely because they figured out how to turn a sea
battle into a land battle.
But during the wars with Carthage, a Roman general was captured. I think his
name was Marius. It was a desperate time, everything hanging in the balance.
The Carthaginians beat him up and told him to take the terms of a peace
treaty to Rome, and made him promise, upon his oath as a Roman, that he
would return with an answer from the Senate. Marius got to Rome with the
treaty and, in front of the Senate, tore the document to pieces. He then
told the Senators everything he knew about the disposition of Carthage's
forces, with advice on how to beat them, and told them to never make peace.
He then said, Well, I've got to go back to Carthage. The Senators pleaded
with him, until he said, I gave my word as a Roman that I would return. The
Senate said, Well, in that case, you have to go. So Marius returned to
Carthage, where he was flayed alive.
If you are a Great Power, you behave like one, and scare the shit out of
everyone, sometimes even without trying. At the height of the British
Empire, in 1895, Lord Salisbury, who was Prime Minister, was asked about his
theory of foreign policy. He replied, It is to drift down the stream of
Time, occasionally putting out a gentle oar to avoid a collision.
We should all be so lucky, so civilized, but those days are long past.
The French got around this dilemma in the 19th century in an interesting and
uniquely French way by creating the Foreign Legion. An army of mercenaries
who could be deployed anywhere, and who would do anything. Personally, I
think this is a great idea -- The Dirty Dozen, only magnified.
Anyway, we should all try to understand the roots of hatred and eradicate
them, if possible. But sometimes it is not possible. Which means
confrontation, whereby someone wins and someone loses. With something like
the Taliban, I have absolutely no problem in describing them as medieval
savages, and that Western civilization is infinitely superior, and the
Taliban should (and could, which is the point) be destroyed.
Good is better than evil, because it's nicer.
But...
A Laotian proverb: "When the elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers."
A surgical strike would be ideal, but it is not possible -- what is known so
euphemistically as 'collateral damage'. But you either deal with the bullies
on the block, or you don't. And if you don't, they think they win, and they
continue being bullies. Every time I look at some solemn bearded Taliban
asshole wearing spectacles (hey, guy, if Western civilization is so evil,
why are you wearing eyeglasses from Armani?) I have to laugh.
A fight between religions.
The Emperor Tiberius was not a very nice person, but he was no fool. As
Roman emperor, he was Head of State, Head of the Armed Forces, Chief Priest,
and Head of the Supreme Court (no wonder so many of them went mad).
Tiberius was presiding at court one day. A man had gotten drunk at a
cocktail party and on his way home had relieved himself on a statue of Zeus,
and was thus charged with blasphemy, according to some obscure and ancient
statute. As the prosecutor began a windy oration about respecting the
dignity of the gods, Tiberius held up his hand and said words that should be
engraved over the entry of every church, mosque, synagogue and temple
everywhere in the world:
"Gods, by their very nature, can avenge their own wrongs. Case dismissed."