The Key to Understanding the Arabs (sez Joel)
Call it, "the Moslem hypothesis." Let's try to understand the Arabs' behavior, which seems utterly illogical and self-destructive, on the basis of the Koran.

Granted, most nominal Moslems, like most nominal Jews and Christians, don't necessarily know their own religion's teachings very well. However, if we postulate that all Arab behavior should be looked at first in the context of "What would Mohammed do?" - we find a remarkably consistent picture.

And it's simple: The Koran says that the earth belongs to Allah (not to be confused with the God of the Jews and Christians), but not everyone knows it. The part that knows it is called, "Dar al Islam" - the house of Islam. The other part is called, "Dar al harb" - the house of war or destruction.

It is the duty of every Moslem to conquer, violently, Dar al harb and turn it into Dar al Islam. This duty can only be suspended for the purpose of regrouping to gather strength, and even then never for more than ten years.

While it is fruitful to explore the cultural issues--eg, Arabs are much less reluctant to lie than Westerners, for any reason--the Big Reason that NO mediator or peace proposal can bring peace about is simple: The Arabs do not want it.

We Jews and Israelis--and our Christian friends--have a hard time believing that. Many of us know Arabs who want peace.

Perhaps they just don't want it enough.