From Scott McConnell of the Ayn Rand Institute: This week’s meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas will not advance the prospects for peace in the region.
The Arab-Israeli conflict is not about Jews or land or settlements or even 2,000 years of history. It is about ideas.
The Middle East conflict is about reason vs. faith, the individual and his rights vs. the collective, self-defense vs. the initiation of violence, freedom vs. dictatorship. Which side are you on? I am on the first of each of these and that is why I support Israel, because it is too. Whatever its inconsistencies, Israel values the crucial ideas of Western civilization: reason, rights and freedom. Only when the Palestinians accept and live by these values will they be worth negotiating with. Ideas do have meaning–and consequences.
