<html><div style='background-color:'><DIV class=RTE> <P>>From: Chris Doss <lookoverhere1@yahoo.com> </P></DIV> <DIV></DIV>>Reply-To: lbo-talk@lbo-talk.org <DIV></DIV>>To: lbo-talk@lbo-talk.org <DIV></DIV>>Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Hitchens hit <DIV></DIV>>Date: Tue, 12 Apr 2005 11:29:58 -0700 (PDT) <DIV></DIV>> <DIV></DIV>> <DIV></DIV>>--- Dwayne Monroe <idoru345@yahoo.com> wrote: <DIV></DIV>> > <DIV></DIV>> > It's important to recall why Mr. Scheuer needed to <DIV></DIV>> > write his, by <DIV></DIV>> > American standards, non-mainstream view of AQ.  The <DIV></DIV>> > common wisdom, only <DIV></DIV>> > slightly caricatured, is that a group of fanatical <DIV></DIV>> > Arab men looked <DIV></DIV>> > across the ocean at America, noted how scantily clad <DIV></DIV>> > Britney Spears <DIV></DIV>> > generally is -- among other manifestations of US <DIV></DIV>> > style freedom -- and <DIV></DIV>> > decided to destroy our *way of life*. <DIV></DIV>> <DIV></DIV>>Well, that belief is obviously wrong. <DIV></DIV>> <DIV></DIV>>The problem with the jihadis is that they have <DIV></DIV>>cosmically (literally) maximalist demands that cannot <DIV></DIV>>be compromised on. Were jihadis content with Chechnya <DIV></DIV>>achieving its independence? No. Would they be content <DIV></DIV>>with a two-state solution for Palestine/Israel? I <DIV></DIV>>doubt it seriously. Indeed they would probably view <DIV></DIV>>Palestinian statehood as confirmation of their belief <DIV></DIV>>that God is on their side and would be encouraged in <DIV></DIV>>their anti-Israel (which is anti-Jewish now) Jihad, as <DIV></DIV>>they were when Chechnya kicked out the Russians in <DIV></DIV>>1996 -- "now is our chance to conquer the Muslim lands <DIV></DIV>>of the Caucasus for God!" "Now is our chance to drive <DIV></DIV>>the Jews into the sea!" <DIV></DIV>> <DIV></DIV>>These are really bad dudes. The coopt and poison every <DIV></DIV>>liberatory movement they happen across. <DIV></DIV>> <DIV></DIV>>Nu, zayats, pogodi! <DIV></DIV>> <DIV></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>A few comments need to be made on this.  There is no reason why Palestinians should be content with a two-state solution - why indeed honour and reward ethnic cleansing and leave intact an ethno-religious military super-state with aggressive expansionist proclivities.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>More importantly, this business about driving the Jews into the sea is a fiction.  Allegedly <A href="http://www.newjerseysolidarity.org/resources/roots/toc.html"><FONT color=#b4445c>Ahmed Shukeiry</FONT></A> used the phrase in about 1964, a few years after the allegation was first made, though there is no actual proof of his having said it and Shukeiry himself went to his grave denying that he had said it.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>On 11 October 1961 Israeli Prime Minister David Ben Gurion declared in the Israeli Knesset: </DIV> <DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE> <BLOCKQUOTE>'The Arabs' exit from Palestine...began immediately after the UN resolution, from the areas earmarked for the Jewish state. And we have explicit documents testifying that they left Palestine following instructions by the Arab leaders, with the Mufti at their head, under the assumption that the invasion of the Arab armies at the expiration of the Mandate will destroy the Jewish state and push all the Jews into the sea, dead or alive'.</BLOCKQUOTE></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV> <DIV>Finally, and most importantly, the 'jihadis' (what a capacious phrase!) need recruits and a certain amount of passive support, which they are less likely to get if there is a just settlement in Palestine or elsewhere.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>There would hardly be a Wahabbi movement left in Chechnya, if you ask me, had the Putin regime not used the bombing in Moscow (which may well have been an FSB job) to launch an outrageous, atrocious re-invasion of Chechnya that has involved not merely mass murder, but a generous helping rape, torture, disappearances and the like.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>However theoretically 'maximalist' the demands of the Islamist right, their proximate cause is absolutely necessary to sustain the distant visions of a new Caliphate, which may in Islamic theology take a million years according to God's will - that is, it may well be deferred if reality dictates.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV></div><br clear=all><hr>MSN Premium gives you PC protection, junk-mail filters, advanced communication tools and great software like MSN Encarta® Premium. <a href="http://g.msn.com/8HMAENUK/2728??PS=47575" target="_top">Click here for a FREE trial!</a> </html>