Watching the tragedy unfold in Lebanon while the United States sits and does nothing, and even encourages Israel to be tough, has had a dramatic effect all over the world. It certainly made me think a lot about what is going on, and the reasons behind so much misery.
Europe challenged the Muslims during the Crusades for hundreds of years and at the end European leaders learnt their lessons, went back to their home countries and focused on their mistakes. It would have been an enormous achievement for a European king to conquer the holy land and give to the Christian world as it belonged. It would have been a moral boost for Europe, and definitely a popularity boost for the king, or the kings, to have reached this most holy of all earthly achievements, to reside over the holy land.
However God did not punish the Europeans for their defeat. God even bestowed them with the Renaissance, and there started the world's greatest leap forward for the sake of all humanity. God did not mind the loss of the holy land to the Muslims, and the Europeans learnt from their mistakes and slowly but certainly forgot about religious bigotry and focused more on their own lives and minds. This change did not only take place among the European elite, or the leadership, but among all the peoples of Europe who had participated in the Crusades.
But history has this bad habit of repeating itself, no matter how obvious the resemblance.
American power is the only guarantee for keeping the world free and democratic and any threat to American authority can easily become a threat to freedom in the whole world. This is how things are now, whether we like it or not. The danger has been seen as Islamic fundamentalism by a large extent and some localised leaders ideologically and personally opposed to the US. But the main issue is about extremism in the Muslim world. Muslim fundamentalism is indeed something to be fearful about.
For almost half a century America has protected Israel with a very clear biased attitude that has not necessarily been for some geopolitical self-interest. And that's actually where the real problem lies. The American people have embraced the modern type of addressing the issue of the so-called holy land. The American Evangelicals, who are the most powerful voting block in the US, have become ever more interested in the role of the United States in fulfilling the prophecies of the holy book, the Bible. And Israel has accepted this unholy marriage with its ideological opponents, the Christian Evangelicals, because of necessity.
Who is winning? For the short term Israel seems to be winning, but for the long term, as it is becoming ever clearer, it's not such a foregone conclusion. But the United States and the whole free world is definitely losing out because of this popular misunderstanding. Actually the holy land is not as holy it seems to be. It is actually the unholiest land on earth. It has been a source for conflict ever since it was declared holy. And that was somebody's mistake. I don't know for sure who's idea it was. Maybe whoever it was, he was either mad, drunk, or under some type of hallucination.
The only possible way to deal with the Middle East is to get engaged and solve the issue in a way that the involved Arabs, and Muslims in general, would feel being represented. The US must force Israel into accepting some great concessions.
What is the big deal about this piece of land anyway? Let's be serious! It's hot, arid, and its peoples are close to being declared insane. It's not worth damaging America's reputation and democratic values.
