Mac....'clan'... 'us' 'them' are all realities.

It boils down to perceived personal, clan, tribal, national interest.

Feel free to criticize Israel..but your reference to their superior firepower should also persuade you of the stupidity of messing with them.

"Does not a king with 5000 first consider the 10,000 against him?"

Unfortunately, Arab/Muslim/Druze/Bedoin tribalism does not leave a lot of room for 'consideration' of anything other than clan interest...

That's life... and such views have predictable consequences.

Anyone who doesn't subscribe to Political Correctness knows what the problem is in the Middle East. I think the problem is religion. The Jews and Christians want to be left alone, the Muslims want Jihad. All this talk of peace talks between Palestinians and Israelis, how can it work? The Hamas charter calls for a Jewish genocide, how can you talk peace with an attitude like that? The Muslims want world conquest, the Jihad was revived once we gave them the tools to do so, mainly money and weapons for oil. Essentially what you have there are competing ideologies, Judaism and Islamism. History tells us the Jews mostly kept to themselves, however muslims went out in all directions waging war and converting by force. The fact is nowhere on this planet was Islam accepted through logic and reason, even the Arabs were conquered. Once we accept this reality we would all be better prepared to deal with middle east.

Message to the witless:

"Those who study jihad will understand why Islam wants to conquer the whole world.
All the countries conquered by Islam or to be conquered in the future will be marked for everlasting salvation.
For they shall live under Allah's law (Sharia)...
Islam says: 'Kill [the non-Muslims], put them to the sword and scatter their armies.'
Islam says: 'Whatever good there is exists thanks to the sword and in the shadow of the sword!
People cannot be made obedient except with the sword!
The sword is the key to paradise, which can be opened only for holy warriors (jihadists)!'
There are hundreds of other Koranic psalms and hadiths (sayings of the prophet) urging Muslims to value war and to fight.
Does all that mean that Islam is a religion that prevents men from waging war?
I spit upon those foolish souls who make such a claim...
Those who know nothing of Islam pretend that Islam counsels against war.
Those [who say this] are witless."

Ayatollah Khomeini, 1942 (Islam Is Not a Religion of Pacifists)

Repeating, for the witless:

"...Islam wants to conquer the whole world.

Those who know nothing of Islam pretend that Islam counsels against war.

I spit upon those foolish souls who make such a claim...

Those [who think they know more about Islam than Ayatollah Khomeini] are witless."

It seems we have a new "Red Neck" here. Sounds a lot like *Proxy*

..

I watched *Jim Middelton* on Asia Pacific focus earlier today. He was quizzing an expert regarding the issue of Indonesian Muslims arriving at extremist Islamic schools in Yemen.

The expert went on to explain how this was common place and had been for a very long time noting that the Yemenis were the ones who brought Islam to Indonesia in the first place.

..

I found it interesting from the perspective that more people are starting to appreciate the interconnectedness of the extended family of Islam.