Israel & Palestine

["Kessaissia, Mazine" <mazine.kessaissia@mail.utexas.edu>]

Let me know, in the light of what I exposed earlier, clarify some issues 
behind the unconditionnal support of the US to the Israelis, against the 
Palestinians. This is important to understand because all what is happening 
today is inter-linked with this Palestinian question.

I would like to make two clarifications. First, there is no conflict between 
Islam and the West, or between Muslims and Westerners. Muslims have no problem 
with Sweden, Germany, France, Italy, Belgium, or any other Western European 
country. The problem is with the US and Israel, and it is not a cultural 
problem. Rather, it is a result of the Israeli invasion of the Middle East for 
the past 54 years and the US unqualified support for that invasion. But since 
the 1991 Gulf War, the US has become directly involved in the conflict. 

Second, there is no Western culture, Eastern culture, or Arab culture. Rather, 
there are sub-cultures in each society that share racial, ethnic, regional, 
and class characteristics (to name some). What is known as the West (Western 
Europe and North America) is as diverse as other regions of the world. There 
are Catholics, Protestants, Jews, Muslims, and people of other faiths and 
creeds in the West and the East. But religion is not the only defining factor 
of culture, although it is a major one. Language is another. You can think of 
the huge linguistic diversity of the West, you don't want me to list down how 
many languages are there in the West. Then, you think about customs, 
traditions, and the other so many factors that distinguish one culture from 
another. In brief, what I am saying is that people in the West are not mass 
produced to think and behave in a certain way that enables somebody to compare 
them with people from other regions of the world, including Muslims who are 
also as diverse. 
Finally, without a class analysis, somebody cannot understand any society or 
culture. For example, majority of Americans are Protestants who speak English. 
However, they are different in their education, occupation, income, housing, 
food consumption, transportation ... etc. because of the difference in their 
social class (upper, upper-middle, lower-middle, working class, working and 
non-working poor). As a consequence, there is no standard or agreed 
upon "Muslim" view of the West, nor an agreed upon what constitutes a "Western 
culture."

With this as a background, I can address the question concerning what some 
fundamentalists Muslim groups think of categories of people in the West 
generally, and the US in particular. If you compare the lifestyle of 
fundamentalists or even the average observing Muslims with the lifestyle of 
categories of non-religious Westerners, Muslims find themselves much better 
off. For example, an observing Muslim does not drink, or have premarital or 
extramarital sex, or deals in interests. This means that observing Muslims 
have less problems related to alcohol consumption, divorce, unwed pregnancy, 
abortion, and indebtedness. Now, reverse the issue and ask about how 
Christian, Jewish, or Hindu fundamentalists view Muslims, and you will reach 
the same conclusion. They view themselves as much better off. Muslims are 
viewed as terrorists, who do not like freedom, to say the least. 
Fundamentalists of all religions may think that they have monopoly on morality 
but they are minority in each society. 

A more accurate way to compare is by using social class. Upper class wealthy 
business owners or rulers in most countries have a lot in common, irrelevant 
of religion or national origin. The same can be said about professional and 
middle class people. The poor are the same everywhere, marginalized, 
exploited, and helpless. 

The current conflict between the US and Israel, on one side, and the Arab and 
Islamic world, on the other, is not about religious differences. Arabs have 
been under a continuous Israeli assault since 1948, when Israelis dispossessed 
and uprooted the Palestinian people. Then, Israel attacked its neighboring 
Arab states in 1956, 1967, 1978, 1982, and finally the Palestinian territories 
of the West Bank and Gaza Strip since April 2002. The only time Arabs 
initiated a war against Israel was in 1973, as an attempt to restore their 
lands that they lost in 1967. The US has been the protector, benefactor, and 
sustainer of Israel. However, the 1991 Gulf War brought the US directly to the 
conflict, and now another war on Iraq is impending that will lead to more 
hostility. The conflict is partly about religion and morality, but it is also 
about oil, power, territory, and resources.