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Carthage, Hamas and the Terrorists' Homestead
NMB, Florida September 21, 2001 A.H. Schectman
THINKING ALLOWED
Essays on Issues, Ideas and Reflections on the Times. Published Now and
Then. Opinions Pro or Con Are Welcome.
CARTHAGE, HAMAS AND THE TERRORISTS' HOMESTEAD
I can't remember exactly but the Latin begins like this: "Carthage. ". There
are three words that say Carthage is no more. The Romans finally beat the
Phoenician (Carthaginian) armies on land and on sea and completely
obliterated their Capitol, Carthage. They finished the job by plowing it
under and then sowing the soil with salt so nothing would ever grow there.
It remains arid today.
The result was the erection of one of the most powerful empires ever seen
on this earth. The "Carthaginian Lake" became the "Mare Nostrom" (the
Mediterranean Sea became "Our Sea".) Instead of a western world speaking
the derivative languages of Latin, we could well have been speaking
offshoots of the Phoenician Semitic tongue. If Hamilcar and Hannibal had
won, the world would have been much different.
Thomas Friedman in the Op Ed section of the New York Times today reminds us
of the Syrian City of Hamas. It was a center of Fundamentalist Islamic
resistance to the western elements of modern Syria and opposed - for
doctrinal reasons - the rule of the dictator Hafez al Assad. Assad
destroyed Hamas and like the Romans leveled the city and exiled the
inhabitants - those he left living. They fled to refuges in the Bekka
Valley in Lebanon and to other places including the United States. These
Fundamentalists have not been a factor in Syrian life since Hamas was
destroyed. They were, however, seen to rise in influence elsewhere.
For a long time an Israeli response to terror was to identify a terrorist
and then level his house. Most times those living in the house escaped
because missiles and bombs were not used in retaliation. The Israelis used
bulldozers and selected specific houses and left the others alone. Their
methods were like the Romans and Saddam Hussein. But they were not trying -
and the world would not let them - to build an empire next to a destroyed
Palestine who are, perhaps, the descendants of the Phoenicians. I can't seem
to remember how it goes . "Carthag.."
There may be a lesson here. What do you think? Carol's Evaluation: 10 out
of 10.
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