Clash of Civilizations

For John, BLUF:  While the Administration negotiates in private, we can hear, in public, the arguments against cutting a deal with Iran.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

---

While we await The House and the Senate to convene at approximately 10:45 a.m. for a Joint Meeting of Congress to receive His Excellency Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister of Israel, we can contemplate Commentator Roger Kimball's missive, here.  It is titled "The Lessons of Culture, Benjamin Netanyahu Edition".

I think the schwerpunkt of Mr Kimball's opinion piece is contained here:

Those attacks, he said, were part of “a war to reverse the triumph of the West.”

Netanyahu was right then, and he is still right. For the prime minister of Israel, it is an existential — a life-or-death — issue. (Actually, it is an existential issue for the entire world, as Ilan Berman shows in his forthcoming book Iran’s Deadly Ambition.) The tiny, dynamic country of Israel is surrounded by Islamic states of varying degrees of radicalism, monstrousness, and doctrinal identity; nearly all are united in hating Israel and plotting for its destruction.

Actually, I would argue that in the current state of affairs in the Middle East Israel has some degree of support, or at least cooperation, from Egypt, Jordan and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.  But, Iran and Daesh and some other nations are a problem for Israel, and for us.

As one person noted this morning,

They [The Arab Muslim Societies] have no historic experience or religious context for representative arrangements, inclusiveness, democracy, power sharing, what ever you want to call it.  They have authority, tribes, families, military leaders, royal families.  Life is zero sum, not win/win.  They may want to change this mindset one day, but only they can change this.

Only they can change this.  In the mean time, we have to stay alive.

Hat tip to the Instapundit.

Regards  —  Cliff