WTC.impressionisticcollage

AN IMPRESSIONISTIC COLLAGE

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."

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"Gods, by their very nature, can avenge their own wrongs. Case dismissed." Priceless! 11/29/04 17:58:07 GMT