If We Moderates Fail To Speak Out Against Extremists Everyone Is Doomed.

If We Moderates Fail To Speak Out Against Extremists Everyone Is Doomed.

By Jean-Pierre Ady Fenyo, Philosopher.

If there is any one thing the brutal Winter War in Gaza, which was between a minority of extremists holding hostage most of Gaza’s Palestinian citizens and an Israel that cannot afford to let extremists develop a situation that would forever manage to ruin every realistic chance for peace, has taught us it is this: extremists should not and cannot be tolerated by moderates on either side, anywhere in the world! Extremism and extremists are a threat to world socio-economic stability, security and overall peace, but the longer the world’s moderates fail to realize the urgency of the need to unite and speak with one unitary and strong voice against extremists, regardless of which specific conflict it may be, the closer we get to a situation that could very well push the world into a truly hopeless abyss of extreme violence spiraling totally out of control, which would eventually, probably within years, set the whole world ablaze! You do not have to be some neurotic doomsday nut to understand why the status quo of a massive failure of moderates to truly unite, and to speak out as one, risks letting extremists decide the course of history. And if extremists are left to decide the course of human history humanity will soon be history.
One would think that the Winter War in Gaza (2008-2009) would have been enough to send a shockwave of alarm bells going off in the capitals of those relatively moderate Middle Eastern and North African, predominantly Arab and Islamic, states. The Good Lord knows that if Egypt’s moderate government were ever to fall and end up in the hand of extremists then that, in of itself, would be enough to end all chances of a relatively peaceful settlement and agreement between relatively moderate Palestinians and Israelis, and that would herald a time when almost every relatively moderate Arab government would fall and the likes of Hamas and Hezbollah would begin to take over and start both a fight amongst themselves and a seemingly endless series of extremely dangerous attacks on Israel, which would not just mean that decades of very hard diplomatic work and strategic alliance building (on the part of The United States and Europe) would vanish into oblivion, but it would mean that extremists on both sides (Israelis and Arabs) would claim to have been proven right all along: that peace cannot exist between these two peoples! And an Arab world taken over by extremists and united by perpetual and senseless extreme hatred of Jews and Israelis would also be a world that would pose a threat to Western Civilization and Liberal Democratic values, including Human Rights and the rights of Individuals, mostly by means of energy resource blackmail. The world, which already suffers from the previous eight years of Neo-Con incompetence and dangerously destabilizing policies in The Middle East and elsewhere, would surely fail to restore itself, economically and otherwise, and that would certainly lead to exceedingly violent rioting throughout Europe and North America, which would then be exploited by brutish megalomaniacs who would manage to take over control and cause further havoc and mayhem everywhere! Hundreds of years of hard work and real progress would go down the drain in a matter of a few years, if not faster, and World War Three would be one horrific mega-shock after another, including chemical, biological and nuclear warfare, to the point of total annihilation of all significant life on Earth!
And when one studies up on the whole complexity of the region’s conflict, and takes into consideration the current Iranian regime’s obvious efforts to attain nuclear weapons, with full launch capacity, capable of striking all of The Middle East and most of Europe, and when one understands what Iran would do, once it would attain such a capacity, then the urgency for real unity and progress among moderates should be absolutely obvious. For Iran would not use its nuclear weapons to strike Israel directly, but instead would be able to force the hands of Europe and The United States, after sinking several large Oil Tankers at the narrowest point of The Persian Gulf, thereby choking off a significant supply of the world’s desperately needed Oil! Iran would then be able to avoid being directly attacked by conventional military means as the USA would not want a Europe obliterated by Iranian nuclear weapons…something the extremist Iranian regime would not hesitate to do if attacked for having gained full control of the flow of Gulf Oil to the world! And then Israel, which would most likely face economic and social collapse, should the Western world stop supporting it, would then have no option but to play its only remaining cards, and that would definitely lead to World War Three, which would not last more than a few months at best!
Just this past Monday representatives of non-moderate Sunnite Islamic groups, who obviously do not represent all Sunnite Arab Muslims, met in Turkey and began to voice their desire to ignite a fully violent Jihad (as opposed to any relatively peaceful type of Jihad) in Gaza and the West Bank! Should they succeed the situation would soon become even worse than it was just this past Winter, and that would mean a final blow to any and all chances for an otherwise urgently needed, lasting, viable peace!
Time is really running out for President Barack Obama and his magnificent team of professional peace-makers to unite the relatively moderate Arab nation’s governments and to support the lukewarm beginnings of true peace between Israel and the relatively moderate PA Palestinians of the West Bank (and eventually to include Gaza…once the Hamas extremists have been properly dealt with by the PA). And one reads too many editorialists and commentators talking about how the War in Gaza means that peace between Israelis and Palestinians will now be further delayed for another two to four ears, at least! Well, we just don’t have the luxury of waiting any longer. I have good reason to think, based on various ominous reports and logical insight, that if a relatively peaceful Two-State solution is not reached by June, then too many things will ensue (happen) that will make it impossible to ever have peace at all! Both Israel and the relatively moderate Arabs must be made to understand why this is so, and how important it is for them to begin to dare to speak out against extremists on all sides. And for that to happen, for Arab and Israeli moderates to be able to come out and speak with one, loud, unequivocally strong and united voice, the rest of the world’s moderates must join the chorus and let the extremists, not just those in Iran and throughout The Middle East, but everywhere in the world, know that we moderates are not willing to remain silent and divided any longer. If we moderates fail to speak out against extremists everyone on Earth is doomed. This is just as true about The Middle East as it is about ultra-nationalists in Europe exploiting the current economic and social crises, and extremists elsewhere in the world who seem to be born of generations of people whose mindset and way of thinking is based on the artificial idealism and the surreal extremism that is caused by almost constantly playing fortuitously violent computer video games, as well as communicating over the Internet instead of in real life and even pretending to live inside virtual reality worlds! Most of these people of the Computer and Internet Age are addicted to “Virtual Reality Think” and have very weak social skills and are desensitized to extreme violence. They are generally intolerant, lack compassion and have trouble understanding why it is that in the real world one cannot just wipe out every ‘enemy’ and every person who causes the slightest annoyance or discomfort! They are unable to understand why real solutions to real problems in the real world are going to be imperfect, and as such require both willingness and even the desire to compromise and to tolerate differences in a relatively peaceful manner.
Yes, it’s that scary! The world is more and more in the hands of generations of people who grew up surrounded by computers, video games and the Internet, and who can easily become exceedingly dangerous once they mix extremist agendas with such modern technological means of communications and networking, through which it has become all too easy to sell preposterous myths and dangerously unrealistic expectations and ideals.
So, no matter how you look at the situation today; the need for peace in the Middle East is so urgent and so important that any failure to convey this awareness is, in of itself, going to give more power to the extremists who wish to convince young minds that peace is impossible and that the enemy can and will eventually be obliterated! Nothing could be further from the truth! Violent conflict between peoples will bring nothing but further senseless horrors and will push the whole world into that final abyss of total destruction and death.
What I wonder is this: Is anyone intelligent and influential enough really listening to this? And will they not see for themselves how right I am when I say that we just don’t have any time left to wait another year or more?!?