World War III - Jews, Arabs and Oil

I got mail from my Dad! He saw Fouad Ajami's Op-Ed in the NY Times titled "Brothers to the Bitter End" on June 19th, and wanted to know what I thought. It's an opinion piece, written by an Arab, critical of Arabs. I'm sure the Arabs are seething and will disregard it as the work of a deranged self-hating Arab.

Who is Fouad Ajami? According to Wikipedia, he was born in Lebanon, the son of Shiites who migrated from Iran in the 1850's. In 1973 Ajami joined the political science department of Princeton University, making a name for himself there as a vocal supporter of Palestinian self-determination. He is today the Director of the Middle East Studies Program at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) of Johns Hopkins University.

Here's a link to his piece at the International Herald Tribune (the NY Times has already archived it in the "Pay Per View" section):

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/06/19/opinion/edajami.php

I read it, and this is the reply that I sent to my Dad:

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June 20, 2007


Hi Dad -

He gives a rarely seen glimpse of the truth, I'm surprised the Times agreed to publish it. You should already know that in the past, the Times has very rarely blamed the Palis for their own ills, and they rarely blame the Arab world for perpetuating the misery in the first place. Consider a person, if one existed, who has received their news exclusively from the Times for the last 20 years and from no other source. That person would have no choice but to believe that all Palestinian violence is a natural reaction to unprovoked Israeli aggression and the tyranny of Israeli occupation. The blame has been laid solely at the feet of the Jews, who are not only accused of creating the problem single-handedly, but are expected to fix it by giving and giving until there is nothing left to give.

The position of the European Union, and all the leftist movements, and by intellectual unions all over the world (e.g. boycotts of Israel in the last few weeks by major UK academic and labor unions) is to prevent the creation of a two-state solution. Rather, they want to see a single bi-national state in which the Jews would live as a minority under Islamic rule.

Where they are concerned, this wish is motivated largely by pure anti-semitism. However, they are in fact naive accomplices in an even larger geo-political struggle: Over the next 20 years, the greatest global conflict in the history of human civilisation will not be about water or global warming. Instead, it will be a struggle between the US, Europe, Russia and China to control the world's oil supply. The most natural opening move in this game will be to gain the favor of the Arabs. At first, none of the powers will want to be seen as the bully, therefore they will work to appease the Arabs together. In order to satisfy China's insatiable oil thirst while leaving some for the rest of the world, the Arabs must be persuaded to increase production. The pressure to deliver a prize will become unbearable, and the world will have no choice but to offer the Jews as a sacrifice.

As we know from history, the effectiveness of appeasement is short-lived. Other economic and power factors will influence the actors, and there will be a need to wrest control of Arab oil from the Arabs. However, this will not be an altruistic one-for-all all-for-one undertaking. The struggle for economic and political dominance must produce one winner. That is simply human nature.

Armies will invade, nuclear missiles will fly. It will not be a pretty scene.

Then, as now, few in the US will look back and see that the last 30 years were completely squandered. In all that time, virtually no progress was made to find an alternative to oil. The masses remained addicted to the opiate of cheap oil, the auto industry churned out enormous gas-guzzlers without improving fuel economy in any significant way, nuclear energy was villanized, the population expanded over 20%, average home sizes doubled, bringing in turn a doubling of heating and cooling costs. The US economy, critically dependent on consumption to sustain itself, needs tremendous amounts of energy. Does anyone in the US ever think about where it all comes from?

Back to the OP-ED, I could add dozens of points that he left out, but it would be futile. It is pointless to look at the Israeli-Arab conflict under a microscope. It won't matter. Watch the news over the next month, three months, six months, one year, two years, five years and you will clearly see appeasement from every corner.

Of course, I have my own cunning plan to save the world from itself, but that's a topic for another email!

Regards and Love to all,

Sunhouse