VENI, VIDI… DID I REALLY UNDERSTAND!?

When an Ideology Matters More Than a Child

“Peace will come when Arab mothers love their children more than they hate us.”

Few statements attributed to Golda Meir have been quoted, praised, and condemned as often as this one. To some, it captures an uncomfortable truth. To others, it is an unfair oversimplification of the Arab world.

Yet there is another remark attributed to Golda Meir—far less well known—that appears to say exactly the opposite:

“I believe Arab mothers pray the same prayer as Israeli mothers: peace for their children and for the entire region.”

Read separately, the two statements seem irreconcilable.

Read together, they raise a far more profound question.

How can an ideology become stronger than the most powerful human instinct of all—a mother’s love for her child?

That, in my view, is the real question we should be asking if we want to understand jihadism.

Too often, the debate swings between two equally simplistic positions. One insists that terrorism has nothing whatsoever to do with Islam. The other claims that........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)