Life without Israel or Jews

Oftentimes, I hear many gentiles (especially Europeans) or extremely liberal Jews say that if the state of Israel did not exist the world would have been a better place. Muslim terrorism wouldn't exist, the Arab world wouldn't hate America, and that everyone would just get along.

Unfortunately, this is quite a simplistic answer without much emphasis on fact. Let us pretend that Israel no longer exists, let us pretend that Jews (the much reviled source of hatred of the Muslim world) do not exist. What would happen then?

Would Russians continue to fight the Dagestanis and Chechens?

Would Serbs continue to fights the Kosovars and Bosnians?

Would the Pakistanis and Indians get along?

Would the Thai Muslims continue to try to succeed in the south of that country?

Would Muslim terrorists disappear from the Phillipines and China?

Would Darfur be averted?

Would Sunnis and Shiites in Iraq and Iran stop fighting?

Of course I can go on and on, but the simple fact is that none of these conflicts involve Israel or Jews in the remotest way, and yet they all have one thing in common, Muslim religious zeal. Now of course there are extremists in many religions including Judaism and Christianity, but somehow the main populace has been able to contain the numbers of such ideologues to a significant minority.

The point of making Israel and Jews into the world's villain is simply unfounded. If Israel didn't exist who is to say that Muslim extremist wouldn't find some other cause to rally around. They would most certainly find some "fourth" or "fifth" most holy city to expel the infidels from. For instance Al-Qaida's founding mission was not attacking Israel, it was expelling the infidels from Saudi Arabia, during the first Gulf War era.

Without Israel life would be much worse for the United States. If the US allows Israel to cease to exist, they will find themselves one step closer to confronting radical Muslim terrorist here at home. I view Israel as the important outlook station, without which America will be blind to its threats.

On a Separate note: Speaking of Jews, it would be kind of interesting to ponder what would have happened if Kievan Rus adopted Judaism rather than Christianity. Few people realize how close this was to reality. Judaism made it to the top three, along with Islam and Christianity, but lost out at the end. I hear it might have won the Congeniality prize but that's just pure speculation. Anyway here is an article about the discovery of an ancient Jewish city in Russia....http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080920/ap_on_re_eu/russia_lost_capital