I am a devout believer in Wilsonian idealism. In addition to being a model statesman, President Woodrow Wilson was an accomplished scholar with a Ph.D. in political science.
In 1918, he knew that the best way to prevent a second world war would be to free the oppressed peoples of Europe from the authoritarian Russian, German, Austrian and Ottoman empires.
Wilsonian idealism has continued to be a cornerstone of American policy. Just listen to Reagan’s inspiring words about the oppression of Eastern Europeans.
If we don’t apply Wilsonian idealism to Palestine, the West will be in big trouble. The United States must listen to the United Nations’ concerns about the legal status of Palestine and take a more aggressive stance in paving the way for a bi-national solution.
Having grown up in the shadow of Sept. 11 and al-Qaida bombings in Madrid and London, I have no doubts that one of the most serious threats to our Western civilization is Islamic fundamentalism. The U.S. and Europe should show no clemency in punishing Islamic terrorists.
Yet, to effectively eradicate a threat, we must try to discern its causes. Nothing unleashes violent religious fundamentalism more quickly than political oppression.
After decades of repression of Islam by ruling communist parties, in the 1980s, Chechnya and Bosnia were about as secularized as Sweden and France. Yet after the genocidal policies of Vladimir Putin and Slobodon Milosevic, respectively, these two areas are now hotbeds of Islamic terrorists.
A similar dynamic has occurred across the Middle East. Radical Muslim clerics take advantage of the alienation, oppression and poverty of young people and brainwash them. I don’t think Arabs who blow themselves up in shopping malls are particularly interested in scores of virgins in paradise. Rather, they simply can’t find any meaning in their lives.
President Carter is correct in calling Israel an apartheid state. Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians is institutionalized racism.
Palestinian suicide bombers are a disgusting violation of human dignity, but they tell only part of the story.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs estimates that since 2000, 4,228 Palestinians have been killed in the conflict, as opposed to 1,024 Israelis.
Furthermore, Israel’s occupation of Gaza and the West Bank has been repeatedly condemned by the United Nations as a violation of international law. How can we expect to create a more peaceful, loving world if we ignore the pronouncements of the U.N.?
After what the Jews suffered during World War II, it is only fair for them to receive their own democratic homeland. As the only Western state in the Middle East, Israel can be a model for the consolidation of secular democracy in the region.
However, for Israel to be a paragon of democracy, it should become more open to the demands of the U.N. An end to building settlements in Gaza would be a good start.