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To:            arutz-7@israelnationalnews.com, arutz-7b@israelnationalnews.com
From:          Arutz-7 Editor <neteditor@israelnationalnews.com>
Subject:       Arutz-7 Op-Ed: WHY AMERICA HAS ALREADY LOST THE WAR
WHY AMERICA HAS ALREADY LOST THE WAR
by Moshe Feiglin
Arutz Sheva Israel National Radio <http://www.IsraelNationalNews.com>
September 28, 2001 - Tishrei 11, 5762
In This Article:
   1. Did I Hear Right?
   2. Israel's Mistake
   3. ...And the U.S. Mistake
   4. Face Up: It's a Religious War
   5. Self-Imposed Censorship
   6. The Ad That Wasn't
DID I HEAR RIGHT?
That Thursday I already realized that America had lost the war.
I came to the US for four days for a meeting that was to have been held in 
Manhattan on Tuesday evening, September 11. The meeting didn't take 
place  no one could get in or out of the great city. I'm not sure if all 
those invited to the meeting are still alive. There were no flights back 
home, and all that remained to do was to listen to the reports and hope for 
a place on the first flight returning to Israel.
I never stay abroad on Shabbat. The trip is more costly and less efficient, 
but that's the way it is; my own rule. I had now missed out on Shabbat in 
Eretz Israel and I could only pray that I would be home in time for Rosh 
Hashana.
It was impossible to get away from the reports of the massacre in downtown 
Manhattan. The news was everywhere: on the air, at home, in the car, in the 
shops. I entered the neighborhood grocery store. The storekeeper's radio 
was on. President Bush was speaking to the American people:
"I declare tomorrow to be a day of prayer," said the President. "I ask 
every American, during lunch time tomorrow to pray for all the injured, 
their families, and the American nation. Go to church, to the synagogue, to 
the mosque and pray," ended the President.
"Did I hear right?" I ask the storekeeper, "Did he say mosque?"
She nodded.
"At this very moment you've just lost the war," I say to the astonished 
storekeeper, and start looking for what I need on the shelves.
When the black boxes of the hijacked airplanes are recovered, we will hear 
the pilots screaming "Allahu Akbar" in the last moments before the crash. 
They slaughtered the Americans in the name of Allah, and now the President 
calls on them to pray to him.
ISRAEL'S MISTAKE
During the first hours, it seemed that the American revenge would be 
horrifying and terrible. But as the hours passed, and the days, the 
American tiger turned out to be a helpless kitten. The American President 
was busy running after the countries of the world, trying to set up a 
strange coalition against a few cave dwellers in Afghanistan, while 
senators explained on live television to the American people that "we must 
remember that the enemy is the terrorists, not Islam."
America has been trapped by the same weakness that has visited Israel in 
recent years: an inability to identify the enemy and fight it.
Regarding Israel:  The State of Israel was founded on the notion that the 
Jewish people are a "normal" people like all other nations, with similar 
Western cultural values.  Accordingly, Israel's disputes with its neighbors 
are also "normal" territorial issues that could be resolved in a logical 
manner.
But in truth, the Jewish people are not "normal" and their conflicts are 
not "normal" ones. The war being waged against us is not about territories, 
but rather about our very existence as a Jewish nation. It is a war against 
our message and our mission. That is what our enemies are fighting against 
- but we respond to them through our own subjective interpretation of 
reality: we speak of security and of territories. We fail to understand why 
they refuse to accept even all the territory.
"The Emperor has no clothes!" Arafat shouts at us and murders three people 
in Netanya.
"Do you want us to wear something else in your honor?" Peres asks.
"He's naked!" shouts Arafat and murders a young mother from Alfei Menashe.
"Perhaps we'll wear red for you?" asks Beilin.
Arafat continues to attack us, and we continue to propose solutions that 
fail to admit the naked reality. It is no wonder we are losing the war.
.AND THE U.S. MISTAKE
The same is now happening to America. While America is not a Christian 
country, it is the standard-bearer of Western culture which draws from 
Christian culture. Why do the terrorists hate the US so much? Why are they 
prepared to commit suicide in order to kill Americans? After all, America 
has not conquered their country. On the contrary, many of them receive 
generous aid from the US. How strange that even Arabs in New Jersey, who 
are actually living in the fleshpots of America and were liable to have 
suffered physically from the terrorist attack, rejoiced at the sight of the 
horrible massacre.
Why this hatred?
Two daughters branched out from Judaism and left the fold to conquer the 
world: Christianity and Islam.  Judaism integrates the qualities of strict 
justice and mercy, in harmony and in proper measure. Christianity took only 
the quality of mercy, while Islam took the quality of strict justice.
The Moslems see with jealousy how the culture based on Christian mercy 
succeeds in gaining control over the world. Let everyone come and benefit 
from the cornucopia open to all, the American-Christian culture says; to 
everyone we proffer the other cheek, and even the whole body. Come and take 
your part in the wealth, come and enter the gates of the World Trade 
Center. We aren't conquering you with the sword, but with gold.
"Why are they bringing their wars here?" a soot-covered broker shouted into 
a CNN reporter's microphone. He didn't understand that he himself was 
engaged in conquering, not territories, but the opposing culture, straight 
from there - from the Twin Towers.
But every Moslem child understands it clearly. What the political 
commentators and senators in the US fail to realize is crystal clear to the 
other half of the world. America is not at war with a single individual - 
Bin Laden - but with every child that will be born tomorrow in Cairo, 
Amman, Beirut, Gaza and, if he is a Moslem, even in New Jersey.
FACE UP: IT'S A RELIGIOUS WAR
America will never admit that it is involved in a war of cultures, in fact 
in a religious war. Such an admission implies that American values are 
fundamentally at question. But the fact is that they are not as universal 
as Americans would like to believe. The happiness they pursue in the name 
of all humanity may be happiness for a specific group based on 
Christianity, but it means hell for another group that is just as large.
But it appears that this other half is now beginning to attempt to 
actualize its own aspirations for happiness (via rivers of blood). America 
will never admit it, and consequently will be unable to fight back, because 
they have failed to identify the enemy. They seek the terrorists just as 
Sharon is pursuing individual terrorists. They are pursuing the wasps 
instead of destroying the nest, because they are afraid of the nest. They 
are afraid of a real confrontation between their values and those of Islam.
They want a coalition with moderate Arab countries. The situation is so 
ludicrous that even Arafat is being wooed - Arafat, who invented hijacking; 
Arafat, the father of 20th-century terrorism. They want to make a coalition 
with him, if only to avoid facing reality.
They will in fact catch the wasps. Bin Laden doesn't stand a chance. He 
won't be able to escape the power of the US. And then what? Today every 
Arab child wants to be a Shahid, a martyr for Islam. Bin Laden will enter 
the pantheon of the Shahids, but another million are waiting their turn and 
they are impatient.
America is waging a physical war against a metaphysical enemy. They are 
incapable of understanding what we in Israel witness every day -- overjoyed 
parents of suicide bombers.
In the coming months, we will see a lot of military planes take off and 
land. We will see destroyers and missiles and millions of tons of TNT 
exploding in the Iraqi desert and in Afghanistani caves. They will kill 
thousands of innocent people and in the end America will lose -- because it 
failed to identify the true enemy.
This campaign is called Infinite Justice - but this justice has no aim, and 
will therefore actually lack justice. If only America had the clairvoyance 
and the moral fortitude to face up to reality, America could win easily, 
without a coalition, without deploying armies and without senseless killings.
SELF-IMPOSED CENSORSHIP
America is too busy deceiving itself. Not only the politicians, but 
everyone in the population. An interesting phenomenon I noticed was the 
self-imposed censorship of the American media. I sat and watched as the 
drama unfolded live on television. In the first hour, there were live 
broadcasts from Ramallah and Shechem, in which the "Palestinian" masses 
could be seen rejoicing over the massacre in Manhattan. I was pleased to 
see the pictures broadcast for all to see. Suddenly the reports ceased as 
if they had never happened. I don't believe that the American 
administration contacted the media networks and told them not to screen 
them. It happened naturally: don't show the American people a reality that 
conflicts with its fundamental values. "We shall preserve the American way 
of life and win" was the message.
Instead of the joyous footage from Ramallah, there began to appear an 
endless stream of interviews with American professors having Arab names and 
speaking with Arabic accents. The message was this: Here is a Moslem 
professor called Ahmed - but he is also an American. "I vehemently condemn 
this attack," one said, "and the majority of Arabs are not like these 
despicable terrorists.  But," he continued in a knowledgeable manner, "when 
you aid the Israeli occupation of Palestine, you cause more Arabs to be on 
the side of the terrorists, rather than on my side".
Hence Israel is out of the coalition. Even the offer of a crack rescue unit 
from Israel that was ready within hours to come and help was courteously 
declined [ed. note: likely causing the deaths of additional Americans under 
the ruins.]
Israel is the mistress that must be hidden, while Arafat, the king of 
terrorism, is courted as the legitimate wife.  It's actually better this 
way, since at the end of the day America is not truly Israel's ally - but 
we'll leave that issue for another time.
THE AD THAT WASN'T
The day after the attack, a wealthy American acquaintance approached me and 
asked for my comments on the situation. He then surprised me by making this 
offer: "I'll pay for a full-page ad in the New York Times - and I want you 
to compose it." I didn't want to do it, because America's war isn't my war 
and because I had hoped that this well-meaning Jew would direct his 
financial resources to far more important endeavors in which we are engaged 
in the Land of Israel. However, the man persisted, so I composed the 
following quick draft:
	I T ' S   A   C U L T U R A L /   R E L I G I O U S   W A R
	We can kill a million Bin Ladens, but they will continue to celebrate. 
[Photo of Arabs celebrating in the streets.]
	They have destroyed our symbols. [Photo of the twin towers going up in 
flames]
	We must destroy their symbols. [Photos of the El-Aksa mosque on the Temple 
Mount and the Kaba building in Mecca.]
	Shocked? Americans don't do such things?
	Right.
	Therefore, America will continue to be destroyed until we understand.
(end of ad)
My friend was astonished, "But they'll start a religious war!" he 
exclaimed, "Can you imagine what acts of vengeance will result from this?"
"And what have you suffered just now?" I asked him. "Do you think that they 
only killed several thousand people, because at the moment they don't hate 
you so much?"
"This is a religious war," I explained to him, "They aren't afraid to die. 
They have sanctified death, they die with the name of Allah on their lips, 
and seventy virgins are waiting for them in Paradise. You don't frighten 
them with your bombs. At best, you'll turn them into Shahids. They have 
directed their attack against your god. You have no alternative but to 
direct your attack against theirs. When you destroy their god, they will 
become powerless and come back down to this world. They will suddenly be 
frightened by the sound of footsteps and by the drop of a pin. They will 
know that not only do they understand your language, but you understand 
theirs, and you are fighting them according to their own rules."
"Think about it," I added.  "How many people are you going to kill in vain, 
and how easy it would be to win this war without killing anyone."
My friend was convinced, but in the end decided not to run the ad.
-----
I am worried by what is to come. Since America is going to lose, tremendous 
frustration is going to build up in the American population. The Twin 
Towers will only be the beginning. The success of the terrorist attack will 
create an unconquerable desire among every Arab child to claim his share of 
martyrdom. Terrorist attacks will increase and America won't have an answer.
The Arab professor's words of incitement will then start ringing true to 
American ears: Israel is the problem and, by extension, so are the Jews.
There won't be large-scale pogroms in America: small ones maybe, but not 
the kind we became accustomed to in Europe. After all, there is something 
too good about the American people that won't allow it. But how will a Jew 
show his face in the street when every American is convinced that he has 
lost his job and his property and that his relatives are being killed in 
terrorist attacks and in an endless war - all because of the Jews?
My return trip to Israel was no picnic. I sat at the airport in uncertainty 
for nearly 24 hours with thousands of others, until I managed to board one 
of the El Al shuttle flights returning the stranded Israelis home.
"If this is the line of Israeli visitors wanting to go home," I thought to 
myself, "how long will the line be when American Jews rush to come home to 
Israel?"
I always kneel and kiss the ground when I return home.
Our holy land had never received as warm a kiss from me as it did this time.
*          *          *          *          *          *          *
Moshe Feiglin, founder of Manhigut Yehudit, The Jewish Leadership Movement 
<www.manhigut.org>, led the campaign of mass civil disobedience against the 
Oslo accords in 1995.  He is currently championing the registration of 
thousands of new members to the Manhigut Yehudit bloc in Likud to create a 
Judaism-based leadership for the State of Israel.
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