No Contradiction

Submitted by Stephen Berman (United States), Jan 27, 2004 at 13:34

Daniel:

You quote Dr. Sway as claiming to "cherish" the Jewish presence in Israel, then you try to refute his statement by his statements that he wishes the State of Israel did not exist.

I think you know that these two ideas are not incompatible. As you have eloquently argued, Jihad means military conquest, and not forced conversion. The Islamist position (at least theoretically) is that the State of Israel must remain under control of Muslims. Jews can live there if they abide by the crushing laws the Islamist would impose.

Dr. Sway may indeed cherish the Jewish presence in Israel. He just can't stand the idea of Jews engaging in self government on purportedly Muslim turf...

---

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".