Effective Propaganda, Disastrous Policy

Submitted by David Katcoff (United States), May 29, 2011 at 18:46

Since most Israelis are as new to the region as their state, they are at an inherent disadvantage in that they can always be painted as interlopers. The Arabs have exploited that point effectively, and it has had great resonance with many elites.

The trouble is, it throws away the possibilities that cooperation and compromise can bring and is a recipe for endless war.

The origin of this mentality is Islam, a religion that canonizes the triumphs of a warrior, and elevates a divisive, winner-loser duality more appropriate to the 7th century than the 21st.

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