Prof. Paul Eidelberg

If you make a make candid survey of the punctuated negotiations that have taken place between Jews and Arabs during the past twenty-three years, that is, since the enfolding and conclusion of the OSLO or Israel-PLO Agreement of September 13, 1993, a disturbing conclusion strikes you.

Those negotiations, which engaged the minds of six Israeli Prime Ministers, specifically, Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon Peres, Benjamin Netanyahu, Ehud Barak, Ehud Olmert, Ariel Sharon, and again Benjamin Netanyahu – those negotiations, yield an obvious conclusion:  opposite these Jews, the Arabs win hands down. Indeed, they make the ostensibly better educated Jews of Israel look like fools, to put it mildly!

Since OSLO, it’s clearly demonstrable that the Arabs have advanced, while the Jews, despite their vaunted military power, have retreated.  Why? This brief essay provides an indispensable part of the explanation.

We are discussing the Arabs who constitute the Palestine Liberation Organization (the PLO), renamed the Palestinian Authority (PA) since Oslo. These Arabs – really Muslim Arabs – have progressed from a welter of terrorist groups dispersed in the Middle East and North Africa into a formidable multi-faceted organization with offices in Israel, the United States, and in the various capitals of Europe.

Since Oslo, these Muslims have obtained the Gaza strip and swaths of Jewish land in Judea and Samaria – even in the ancient Jewish capital of Hebron. These Jew-killing Arabs of the PA have acquired the prestige and influence of representation in the United Nations, even though their terrorist activities violate the UN Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights!

Although the PA is not state actor, and even though Hamas, one of its two major factions, is the Palestinian wing of the notorious Muslim Brotherhood, the PA’s influence in the United Nations exceeds that of Israel – proof enough that the Arabs excel the Jews in international diplomacy. To clinch the argument, the PA, despite its despotic character, receives annual grants of hundreds of millions of dollars from democratic America as well as innumerable financial subsidies from the European Union.

Of course, our Middle East experts will attribute this bizarre state of affairs to the influence of Arab oil and petrodollars, as if nothing more need be said of this theater of the grotesque. After all, as every school boy knows, Muslims are enormously more numerous than Jews. And since the disciples of Muhammad occupy one-fifth of the world’s land surface, their geo-political standing vis-à-vis minuscule Israel is pathetically obvious.

Nevertheless, history records that minuscule Rome, a city on seven hills, overawed nations and armies on three continents, and did so not only by virtue of Rome’s superior military power, but also because of Rome’s bold and brilliant statesmanship and efficient system of government.

Does this mean that Israel’s political and military leaders are inferior to those of Rome? Does it mean that the Israelis lack the practical wisdom or expertise as well as the stamina and daring of their Roman counterparts? Does it mean that the structure of Israel’s government hinders the art of statecraft, or that the mentality of Israeli leaders undermines the application of military science, whether derived from Carl von Clausewitz or Sun Tzu?

But don’t Israel’s political leaders benefit from academic think tanks and the professional advice of university-trained political scientists?  Don’t these auxiliaries of modern government and warfare augment the practical wisdom of Israeli decision makers? And by so doing, don’t these auxiliaries bolster Israel’s self-confidence and fighting spirit? Don’t they heighten Israel’s ability and determination to defeat her enemy – indeed, to disarm and emasculate the enemy and thus make its leaders shudder at the thought of waging another war with the killing machine of the Jewish State – notwithstanding the promised delights of Islam’s paradise?

On the other hand, perhaps the education I have in mind, the education that should shape the hearts and minds of Israel’s political and military echelons, exists in another universe of discourse. Aside from their studying military hardware and topography, one gets the impression that Israel’s war college  –  if one may use such politically incorrect language – is more concerned with sociology and “conflict resolution” than with the inherent relentless bellicosity and relentless global ambition of authentic Islam and Islamic theology.

Judging from my experience at Bar-Ilan University, where I taught some Israeli officers, and judging also from my meetings with high-ranking Israeli officials, and supplementing this knowledge with the critical comments of some astute Israeli journalists, I have the impression that Israel’s democratically distracted political and military leaders have not seriously studied the biographies and memoirs of the great warriors and wartime leaders of history.

I know of one prominent general, in fact an Israeli prime minister, who publicly declared that self-restraint vis-à-vis Arab terrorists is a form of strength –  which of course may be true if we stop with the Ethics of the Fathers and ignore the exploits and Psalms of King David.

By the way, the general I just alluded to not only orchestrated Israel’s retreat from Gaza. He is also on record of having said that his son taught him “not to think in terms of black-and-white” – even though Jews were being reduced to body parts!

That anemic doctrine has been purveyed at Israel’s Command-and-Staff College, who’s one-time Director, the Middle East specialist that helped craft the Oslo or Israel-PLO Agreement, was a self-professed moral relativist! Small wonder that when Jews negotiate with Arabs, the sons of Ishmael win hands down!

By Prof. Paul Eidelberg

First, I want to reiterate the enlightened thoughts of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, who had the courage to call for a “religious revolution” in Islam, by urging Muslim leaders to help in the fight against extremism.

In a speech celebrating the birthday of the Prophet Mohammad, President el-Sisi warned that they had no time to lose. “I say and repeat, again, that we are in need of a religious revolution. You imams are responsible before Allah. The entire world is waiting on you. The entire world is waiting for your word … because the Islamic world is being torn, it is being destroyed, it is being lost. And it is being lost by our own hands.”

“We need a revolution of the self,” said this pious and unusual Egyptian President, “a revolution of consciousness and ethics to rebuild the Egyptian person – a person that our country will need in the near future.”

He went on to say: “It’s inconceivable that the thinking that we hold most sacred should cause the entire Islamic world to be a source of anxiety, danger, killing and destruction for the rest of the world. Impossible that this thinking – and I am not saying the religion – I am saying this thinking is antagonizing the entire world! Does this mean that 1.6 billion people (Muslims) should want to kill the rest of the world’s inhabitants – that is 7 billion – so that they themselves may live? Impossible!”

Most significant is el-Sisi’s reference to the “Egyptian”.  By emphasizing the word “Egyptian,” el-Sisi was focusing not the religion of the Egyptian – Islam – but on the Egyptian’s NATIONALITY, which antedates Islam!

It thus appears that el-Sisi wants the Egyptian people to remember that Egypt was once the leading civilized nation in the region, indeed, that it was a center of learning, of astronomy, technology, and biology – as the great pyramids and sarcophaguses of Egypt amply testify.

And what is most politically relevant, Maimonides, Israel’s greatest philosopher, was the Court physician in Cairo, attended on its monarch, aided the sick, and wrote texts on medicine relevant to this very day!

Let us therefore connect these salutary facts of Egypt’s past with the present, specifically with Israel’s present ability to provide medical, desalination, and other scientific technology to alleviate the suffering of Egypt’s impoverished people, who need no longer be so dependent on American largesse.

With the cooperation of President el-Sisi and Prime Minister Netanyahu, Egypt and Israel, with some help from other nations, can inaugurate a new Middle East, a Middle East of peace and prosperity.

By Prof. Paul Eidelberg

President Barack Obama has made the U.S. virtually irrelevant in world affairs. That was his purpose, but this means that Obama himself is now irrelevant.

The Muslim world not only despises him, but may be approaching a moment in history when serious Muslims may turn friendly eyes toward hated Israel. Indeed, if Egyptian President Abdel Fatah el-Sisi wants to start a revolution in Islam, he should arrange for a visit to Jerusalem and outdo Sadat by means of a “treaty of friendship” with Israel understood primarily as a diplomatic alliance against the Muslim Brotherhood and ISIS!

Before continuing, allow me to quote from an interview of President el-Sisi conducted by Fox News’ Bret Baier in Cairo, Egypt, in March, 2015.

The Egyptian President called for the creation of an “Arab ready force” or regional coalition backed by the U.S. to defeat ISIS. He stressed a need for the U.S. to play a greater role in helping his country fight terrorism, a cancer spreading from the Middle East while Obama plays golf.

When asked to define the Middle East’s perceptions of the Obama administration’s leadership, President el-Sisi said in English, after a long pause, it was a “difficult question.” He said he was worried that “The suspending of equipment, weapons and arms was a negative indication to the public opinion that the United States is not standing by the Egyptians.”

He addressed the need for what he called a religious “revolution,” urging moderate Muslims in Egypt and around the world to “stand up” against terrorists hijacking their religion. According to the Egyptian President, there is a real fear among Muslims that fanatical religious leadership and oppression can become the norm in the region.

“We have to admit,” he said, “that terrorism is now a major threat not only to Egypt or even the immediate region, but it is a threat to the stability and security of the whole world.” He warned can also see that “the map of terrorism and extremism is expanding, it is not recessing.”

He said that “current U.S. policy toward Egypt … for example, the 13 June 2013 the suspending of equipment, weapons and arms was a negative indication to the public opinion that the U.S. is not standing by the Egyptians.”

El-Sisi took power after former Muslim Brotherhood-backed President Mohammed Morsi was overthrown in 2013. While el-Sisi acknowledged that Morsi came to power as a result of “free and fair elections,” he said that millions of Egyptians took to the streets to remove this extremist leadership, which was leading Egypt into a “vicious cycle of civil war.”  “We thought that the United States would take time to understand what really happened in Egypt … that [the overthrow of Morsi] was and has been the will of the Egyptians.”

Though the U.S. still gives roughly $1.5 billion a year to Egypt, second only to Israel in U.S. in foreign aid, mostly military shipments have ceased since the military leadership overthrew Morsi [and] cracked down on radical Islamist groups, including the Muslim Brotherhood. The U.S. held back deliveries of F-16 fighter jets, M1A1 tanks and Harpoon missiles.

President El-Sisi spoke out against what he described as “political Islam.” He said the people of Egypt have a “real fear of this kind” of system, adding they feel “these people have turned their lives into a living hell.”

He made these remarks in the course of defending the ouster of Morsi, who, as indicated, had been aligned with the Muslim Brotherhood.

Responding to characterizations of Morsi’s removal as a “coup,” el-Sisi acknowledged that “free and fair elections” resulted in Morsi’s election, but that millions of Egyptians took to the streets to remove that leadership. He claimed the country was headed into a “vicious cycle of civil war,” at the time and that he and other military leaders intervened. Now let’s start a new page.

If Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Egyptian President Abdel el-Sisi were to conclude a treaty of friendship that would include, in addition to the blessings of Israeli technology of which the impoverished Egyptian people are so much in need, this might facilitate a constructive solution to the conflict between Israel and the self-styled or fictitious Palestinians.

That fiction, which the American professor New Gingrich mentioned a few years ago when he was an aspiring presidential candidate, would be acknowledged today by Senator Marco Rubio and other Republican presidential candidates.

Of course, I am thinking in grandiose terms, but no other terms are appropriate to the dilemmas of the Middle East, as was indicated by President el-Sisi’s courageous urging imams to reform Islam itself!  It may not be inappropriate, therefore, to quote Isaiah 19:25, where the Eternal says, “Blessed [be] Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel mine inheritance.”

The inclusion of Assyria no longer seems to have any obvious application since it now includes areas where ISIS is operating, specifically in northern Iraq and further north bordering Syria. Note, too, that bordering Iraq to the east is northwestern Iran. A very large and strategic area is thus exposed to ISIS, an area that includes Lebanon and Jordan, which of course border Israel.  We need to think in grandiose terms, for which we have been given – let us dare speculate – a statesman in Israel and a statesman in Egypt to take the first step to ushering in a new and promising chapter in human history.