MarkSilverberg

Hello again, Marc - it was good to see you last week.

Along similar lines, I'm reading "Jews in America," by Ruth Gay (Basic Books, NY, 1965). Gay says on Page 148, in a discussion about Jews who survived Nazi Europe, that they had ". . . the willingness to . . . abandon all principles but the desire to live."

I think today it is the Islamic fundametalists who have willingly abandoned all principles. The difference between them and the Jews in Nazi Europe is that the Jews were fighting for their lives while the Islamic fundamentalists are fighting for political goals.

Best regards,

Fred F. 

Hello, Mark. Good article, as always.

I sometimes think the difference between the Western democratic mindset and the militant Islamic mindset is that the Western mind focuses on method while the militant Islamic mind focuses on results.

Thus (and I'm working mostly from memory here) the US Constitution is light on what results it seeks to achieve (see the Preamble) but heavy on the procedures to be followed in order to achieve them (see virtually all the rest of the Constitution). It's almost as though it doesn't matter to us what result we arrive at so long as we follow Constitutional procedures to get there.

Conversely the Hamas and PLO Charters are light on procedure but heavier on objectives. Thus it doesn't matter by what procedures, say, the Right of Return is accomplished so long as it is accomplished. It doesn't matter if due process is ignored, if people are treated unequally or if political decisions are the results of decrees rather than legislation - so long as Palestinians may freely occupy what is now Israel.

Best regards,

Fred F.