Soccer Dad

Israel vs. The Alliance of Civilizations

The UN has assembled the Alliance of Civilization to resolve the conflict between Muslim and Western civilizations. Its conclusion: it doesn't exist...and it's Israel's fault anyway.

A UN-sponsored group called the Alliance of Civilizations, created last year to find ways to bridge the growing divide between Muslim and Western societies, released a first report Monday that says the conflict over Israel and the Palestinian territories is the central driver in global tensions.

"Our emphasis on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not meant to imply that it is the overt cause of all tensions between Muslim and Western societies," write the report's authors, a group of academics and present and former government officials from 19 different countries. "Nevertheless, it is our view that the Israeli-Palestinian issue has taken on a symbolic value that colors cross cultural and political relations ... well beyond its limited geographic scope."

So that is the source for the 6,584 killed and injured by Muslim terrorists around the world since 9/11.

Actually, it's not all Israel's fault--that would unfair.
No, it's America's fault too.

Criticism of US policies, though at times oblique, is a major feature of the document and hits on themes that have angered representatives of the Bush administration in the past. For instance, in a discussion of Al Qaeda's attack on the US on Sept. 11, the report states: "Later, these attacks were presented as one of the justifications for the invasion of Iraq, whose link with them has never been demonstrated, feeding a perception among Muslim societies of unjust aggression stemming from the West."

A copy of the report is available here. The report includes suggestions and ways to implement them--and many of the ideas are really thoughtful, such as the need to ensure accuracy in the media.

But it is hard to take the report seriously when you read things like this:

4.4 The partition of Palestine by the United Nations in 1947, envisaging the establishment of two states - Palestine and Israel - with a special status for Jerusalem, led to the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948, beginning a chain of events that continues to be one of the most tortuous in relations between Western and Muslim societies. Israel’s continuing occupation of Palestinian and other Arab territories and the unresolved status of Jerusalem - a holy city for Muslims and Christians as well as Jews – have persisted with the perceived acquiescence of Western governments and thus are primary causes of resentment and anger in the Muslim world toward Western nations. This occupation has been perceived in the Muslim world as a form of colonialism and has led many to believe, rightly or wrongly, that Israel is in collusion with “the West”. These resentments and perceptions were further exacerbated by Israel’s disproportionate retaliatory actions in Gaza and Lebanon. [emphasis added]

o Again with the "occupation"--putting aside the control that Palestinian Arabs now have in Gaza as well as Yehudah and Shomron: since Palestinian Arabs never had sovereign control over those areas, they are indeed disputed, but not 'occupied'.

o Israeli occupation of "other Arab territories"? It's not clear which area, acquired in which defensive war, is being referred to. (Shaba'a Farms? Golan?) But the language used is not only vague but needlessly provocative as well.

o Jerusalem--considering the context of the paragraph, is the report seriously suggesting that Israel is the cause of the existing tension in that area, or that if only given the chance the Wakf would be happy to share control?

o 'Disproportionate' actions in Gaza and Lebanon--along with "occupied" and "unresolved status of Jerusalem"--the newly favored buzzword for those that put the onus for peace on Israel.

Which raises the question of who is part of this Alliance of Civilizations?

The report is the result of a UN-sanctioned "High Level Group" meeting of some twenty "eminent personalities" that UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan appointed last year. The group, which was cosponsored by the Prime Ministers of Turkey and Spain and included among its authors Nobel Peace Prize-winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu and former Iranian president Mohammed Khatami, issued the final report on Nov. 13 at its final meeting in Istanbul.

Co-sponsored by the Prime Ministers of Turkey and Spain? Oh, you mean these guys:

Prime Ministers Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero of Spain and Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey called on the international community to act urgently against Israeli attacks on Palestinians. “It’s not possible to accept what’s happening in Palestine. Innocent people, women, children and old people are killed,” Erdogan said during a news conference.

“The world can’t stay silent against these atrocities, against this use of excessive force,” he said. Zapatero underlined the necessity of an “urgent” intervention by the international community to stop Israeli bombings of the Palestinian territories.

Lost somewhere in there is the outrage at the Palestinian bombing of Israelis.

Well, at least Nobel Peace Prize-winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu is on the team. Mort Klein even has a helpful list of Tutu quotes:

o "Israel is like Hitler and apartheid"

o Tutu accused Jews of exhibiting "an arrogance--the arrogance of power because Jews are a powerful lobby in this land and all kinds of people woo their support,"

o Tutu has claimed that Zionism has "very many parallels with racism."

o Tutu said that "the Jews thought they had a monopoly on God; Jesus was angry that they could shut out other human beings." In the same speech, he compared the features of the ancient Holy Temple in Jerusalem to the features of the apartheid system in South Africa.

And what about former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami? Amir Taheri saw Khatami's visit to the US in September as

an opportunity for the U.S. media to ask Khatami about the atrocities committed by his administration, including the assassination of dissidents, the arrest and torture of thousands of people, including trade unionists and student leaders, the closing of over 150 newspapers and magazines, the banning of hundreds of books and dozens of films, the arming of the Hezbollah in Lebanon, shipping weapons to Yasser Arafat's terror units and Islamic Jihad, and providing the Jaish al-Mahdi in Iraq with money and arms.

So much for the 'eminent personalities' in this group.

As John Hood points out, according to the report:

There is no clash of civilizations, no fundamental tension between modern, industrial societies with free institutions and a largely pre-modern, un-free Islamic world. Thus, terrorism and the threat of nuclear proliferation within and from Islamic countries are not serious threats to life and liberty, and don't deserve all the attention and preventive action from the U.S. and its allies.

Alliance of Civilizations?
Sounds more like Dalliance of Civilizations.

Daled Amos

Technorati Tag: UN and Alliance of Civilizations and Bishop Desmond Tutu and Israel and Mohammad Khatami Posted by daledamos at November 16, 2006 2:16 AM | TrackBack