"Iran clarifies the Middle East"

by Dennis Prager
December 30, 2003

If you want to understand the Middle East conflict, Iran has just
provided all you need to know. 

A massive earthquake kills between 20,000 and 40,000 Iranians, 
and the government of Iran announces that help is welcome from 
every country inthe world ... except Israel. 

This little-reported news item is of great significance. 
It begs commentary. 

Israel not only has the world's most experienced crews in quickly
finding survivors in bombed out buildings, it is also a mere 
two-hour flight from Iran. In other words, no country in the 
world would come close to Israel in its ability to save Iranian 
lives quickly. 

But none of this means anything to the rulers of Iran. The Islamic
government of Iran has announced to the world that it is better 
for fellow countrymen and fellow Muslims men, women and children 
to die buried under rubble than to be saved by a Jew from Israel. 

That is how deep the hatred of Israel and Jews is in much of the 
Muslim world. 

Hundreds of millions of Muslims Arab and non-Arab, Sunni and Shia 
hate Israel more than they love life. Leaders of the Palestinian 
terror organization Hamas repeatedly state, "We love death more 
than the Jews love life." And now, Iran announces that it is 
better for a Muslim to asphyxiate under the earth than be rescued 
by a Jew from Israel. 

Naive Westerners which includes most academics, intellectuals, 
members of the international news media, and nearly all others 
on the left refuse to acknowledge the uniqueness of the Arab-Muslim 
hatred of Israel and Jews. Yet, there is no hatred in the world 
analogous to it. Not since the Nazi hatred of Jews has humanity 
witnessed such hate. 

That is why finding survivors from earthquakes, creating a Palestinian
state and life itself are all far less important in much of the 
Islamic and Arab worlds than killing Jews and destroying the little 
Jewish state. 

That is why Arab newspapers run articles by Arab professors describing
how Jews butcher non-Jewish children to use their blood for holiday
meals. 

That is why Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad could get a
standing ovation from the heads of every Muslim country when he told
them "the Jews rule the world by proxy." 

That is why Palestinian parents celebrate the suicide terror of their
sons the joy of killing Israeli families far outweighs the pain of the
death of their child. 

Western naifs like to believe platitudes such as "Deep down, all people
are really the same," "All people want peace," and the great untruth of
multiculturalism that no culture is morally superior to another. That is
why they choose not to face the truth about the Nazi-like hatred that
permeates the Arab-Muslim world and the consequent moral gulf that
exists between it and Israel. It shatters too many of their illusions. 

Surely the Iranian refusal of rescuers from the Jewish state ought to
help all these people acknowledge the unique hatred that is at the root
of the Arab-Israeli dispute and recognize it is, therefore, a conflict
unlike any other on earth. 

So, too, the immediate and sincere Israeli offer of rescuers to Iran
should make the moral gulf between Israel and its enemies as clear as
day. Despite the fact that Iran is the greatest backer of anti-Israel
(and anti-American) terror and despite the fact that Iran repeatedly
declares that Israel must be annihilated (in other words, seeks a second
Jewish Holocaust), Israel offered to send its people to save Iranian
lives. 

The two reactions Iran's preference for Iranian deaths to Israeli help
and the Jewish state's instinctive offer to help save Iranian lives
ought to be enough anyone needs to understand the source of the Middle
East conflict. But they won't. Because those who are anti-Israel or
"evenhanded" are not so because of the facts, but despite them.
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Dennis Prager, one of America's most respected and popular nationally
syndicated radio talk-show hosts, is the author of several books and 
a frequent guest on television shows such as Larry King Live, 
Politically Incorrect, The Late Late Show on CBS, Rivera Live, 
The Early Show on CBS, Fox Family Network, The O'Reilly Factor and 
Hannity & Colmes.