Seeing Things in Black and White

Prof. Paul Eidelberg has an interesting analysis of Ariel Sharon's interview with Ha'aretz that explains much about what's currently happening with the Roadmap. Apparently, Sharon has lost the ability to distinguish between black and white (inferred as between good and evil by Eidelberg).

His Ha’aretz interview troubles me. For Sharon’s most significant statement in that interview is the seemingly innocuous remark that his son Omri taught him "not to see things in black and white." Therein is Sharon’s and Israel's tragic flaw. For Israel’s enemies, being Moslems, most emphatically do see things in black and white. This being the case—and quite apart from other reasons—Israel’s surrender of any land to her enemies is suicidal folly. One does not compromise with an uncompromising foe.

What are the logical consequences of such a flaw?

Why have Israeli prime ministers behaved like blind-deaf-mutes vis-a-vis the black intentions of Israel’s enemies. Can it be that, like Omri, Israel’s ruling elites cannot see things in black and white? Can it be that they have been tainted by the cultural or moral relativism that Israeli universities imported from the democratic world? a relativism that undermines conviction in the justice of one’s cause? a relativism that erodes Jewish pride and thereby leads Jewish politicians to negotiate with a murderous villain like Yasser Arafat? a relativism that prompts these politicians to seek America’s (fictitious) "even-handed" or morally neutral diplomacy? a relativism that stifles their moral outrage when Jewish children are murdered or crippled by Arab savages? Not to see things in black and white means not to distinguish between good and evil, and this cannot but emasculate Israel’s ruling elites.

This, more than any other single factor, is why they have lacked the will and the wisdom to deal with the Moslem’s culturally-induced hatred of "infidels," a hatred that erupts in violence and terrorism almost everywhere on the planet, as Daniel Pipes recently documented. This bellicosity, this satanic evil, is personified by Arafat, the most authentic representative of resurgent Islam. Yet Sharon could equivocate: "if there is no terrorism, Arafat can be a partner."

And when we follow this through to its logical conclusion...

If Prime Minister Sharon no longer sees things in black and white, then he cannot see with clarity the ... contradictions between Israel and its enemies. If so, he will the more readily be deceived by Arab peace ploys and may therefore make mistakes that endanger Israel’s existence.[5] Lacking a black and white perspective of the Arab-Jewish conflict, he will be less capable of educating Jewish public opinion and thereby uniting his country behind a wise and resolute national strategy. At the same time, he will be less capable of defending Israel’s cause before the United States, to which extent Israel will be the more exposed to American pressure.

This is his final, chilling sentence.

Know, therefore, that Israel will suffer grievously until it has a Prime Minister that sees things in black and white.

Unfortunately, I'm beginning to think that his analysis of the problem is correct.