If I were a Jew

I cannot recreate the emotional baggage that comes with being a Jew, but perhaps that is a good thing; here is my attempt to look at the current conflict through the eyes of an Israeli Realist as he attepts to craft a strategy that could actually lead to American-style normalcy in his region.

The objectives are two fold; cessation of rocket attacks in the near term and a generalized security in the long term. Unfortunately, what Israel is doing now is not leading to those or any other discernable objective.

Israeli strategic planners have to face this reality:

1: Their enemies are outbreeding them.

2: Their legacy military advantage from being a Western  ally is eroding and eventually their enemies will have military parity (military size X military effectiveness).

3: Most of the world is either indifferent or hostile to Jews.

They have two roads to pursue:

A: Attrit their enemies today so that 1 and 2 are no longer true.

These attacks are clearly not doing that, but they are exacerbating 3.

B: Eliminate the enmity that exists towards them.

This would be a moral and practical challenge somewhat similar to the challenge offered by Jesus to the Jews in 30 AD. We know how the Jews responded and we also know that a scant 40 years later the chosen path of violence led to the annihilation of Israel for nearly 2 millenia.

We can also trace the current fiasco to the Bush-Sharon Doctrine that called for isolating Arafat and Syria while pursuing "democracy" in the Islamic world (Saudia Arabia, Pakistan, Morroco, Egypt and other "allies" not withstanding). Israel should have been more pragmatic and supported diplomacy that was designed to physically isolate themselves from their enemies (walls, expulsion, unilateral withdrawal), while at the same time building a diplomatic atmosphere that would allow the autocratic but essentially rational Arab regimes to wean their populations away from anti-Modern lifestyles.

That would require a PR campaign targeting the young generation of Arab/Muslims that expressed our wish and solemn invitation to them to join us in the modern world. It would require adept use of new media like the internet and such, as well as economic development, and even old-fashioned grass roots and face-to-face diplomacy to change hearts and minds. You would think that pro-Israeli cultural centers like Madison Avenue, Hollywood, and Washington D.C. could actually use their PR skills to sell something other than tax cuts and tooth paste.

Finally, I want to point out somethings that are often forgotten when passions rise:

1. In the Grand Scheme of Things (tm) Jews and Arabs are practically identical. Maybe that's why they hate each other so much, but it could also be a path to peace. Genetically the two tribes are very similar, their languages are similar, their religions are practically identical.

2. What the major religions teaches is wrong: Jews are not the Chosen People of God. Muslims copied their Chosen People nonsense from the Jews, though they denuded it of its ethnic component. The Evangelical idea that the path to true peace requires a Last Battle in the vicinity of Jerusalem is wrong and dangerous. It does not become intelligent people in the 21st century to turn a blind eye to the ravings of fanatics and lunatics and war mongers. No matter who you are or where you hail from, everyone needs to include a repudiation of this scurrilous nonsense in their discussions of the Middle East.

3. Social and legal barriers to Muslim/non-Muslim, Jew/non-Jew marriages need to be fought and ended. If peoples refuse to mix as nature intended, can it be any wonder that they fight instead?