The Crazy and Dangerous Neighbors Next Door
The Crazy and Dangerous Neighbors Next Door
Imagine you live on an island with a couple of hundred other families. Some are very rich, some are very poor. Some have a lot of land, some have very little. Some families are very big, some are very small. You, yourself, have a small family with little land, but are fairly wealthy. However, after a spat with a very poor, yet violent, family next door, most of the rest of the island either dislikes you or cannot stand you. You have few friends and even most of those are really fair-weather friends, who as often as not side with your enemies instead of you. Those who are supposed to be your friends live kind of far away, and all of the neighbors right next to you are among your worst enemies. They despise you and would kill you if they could but, fortunately, you not only have more money than them, you spend it wisely and have such effective ways to defend yourself that about all your enemy neighbors can do is spite you and do little things to irritate you.
On this island there is supposed to be a local government, but it is dysfunctional, impotent, and for all intents and purposes, useless. It only gets involved in disputes between neighbors that turn bloody and, even then, it usually screws up the situation and makes it worse. Other than that, each family is pretty much left alone to do whatever they want as long as they stay on their own land.
Now then, among your close neighbors is a family headed by a lunatic. Even most of the rest of the island recognizes this. This lunatic and his family have hated your family for generations. Not only do they despise the very fact that you exist, they vow to do everything they can to wipe you off the face of the earth. Previously, it was safe to ignore the ravings and rantings of the lunatic because all he could do was talk. However, recently it has been brought to your attention that the lunatic and his family have acquired the means to follow through with his threats.
You have done the right thing and appealed to the government, which is still completely powerless and useless—in addition to the fact that it also does not like you very much. You have asked those other families that claim to be your friends for help against the lunatic and his family. Some of them pay lip service and might even offer moral support, but do absolutely nothing concrete to help you. They say the best thing to do is to try to talk to the lunatic and his family, try to reason with him. When that fails miserably, your friends get together and try to agree to not do any business with the rogue family but, since many of them make only half-hearted efforts and others completely ignore the agreement, that is a total failure as well.
Now then, you find yourself pretty much alone with no one at all to depend on to help you should the lunatic take out his weapons and come to your house to kill all of you. You know he has the weapons in his house. His public statements and behavior give every indication that not only will he use them against you some day, but that day will come much sooner than later.
You think you can break the laws of the island and sneak into the lunatic neighbor’s house and either steal or destroy the weapons you are fairly certain he will use on you someday soon. However, the price you would have to pay for breaking the island’s rules could be very, very steep. You might set everyone else on the island against you. You most certainly will set off the nearby neighbors who already hate you. You can almost count on most of the island siding with the lunatic. It is almost certain that the lunatic will come on over and attack you anyway, even if you do take away his best weapon. You are not at all certain any of your supposed friends will protect you or even stand with you. In fact, there is the possibility that you might set off bitter feuds among the families on the island that will burn for centuries and cause many deaths.
Yet, your only other alternative is to continue to obey the island’s laws and just sit back in your house and wait for the day the lunatic will come with his weapons to kill you—and you know that day will come.
What would you do? Strike first and risk the wrath of your local neighbors and most of the rest of the islanders, perhaps even setting off a civil war on the island, with groups of clans against other groups of clans? Or, just wait for the lunatic to strike first and hope you survive the attack to fight another day, even though you know for a fact that the first strike will kill many of your family members and do terrible damage to your house?
Now imagine this: the island is the Earth. You are Israel. The family of uncouth, bloodthirsty lunatics is Iran. Does that change your answer?
Remember the old saying, “If the Arabs had no guns there would be peace in the Middle East. If Israel had no guns there would be no Israel.”
Think about it.
Jeff Vanderslice
Imagine you live on an island with a couple of hundred other families. Some are very rich, some are very poor. Some have a lot of land, some have very little. Some families are very big, some are very small. You, yourself, have a small family with little land, but are fairly wealthy. However, after a spat with a very poor, yet violent, family next door, most of the rest of the island either dislikes you or cannot stand you. You have few friends and even most of those are really fair-weather friends, who as often as not side with your enemies instead of you. Those who are supposed to be your friends live kind of far away, and all of the neighbors right next to you are among your worst enemies. They despise you and would kill you if they could but, fortunately, you not only have more money than them, you spend it wisely and have such effective ways to defend yourself that about all your enemy neighbors can do is spite you and do little things to irritate you.
On this island there is supposed to be a local government, but it is dysfunctional, impotent, and for all intents and purposes, useless. It only gets involved in disputes between neighbors that turn bloody and, even then, it usually screws up the situation and makes it worse. Other than that, each family is pretty much left alone to do whatever they want as long as they stay on their own land.
Now then, among your close neighbors is a family headed by a lunatic. Even most of the rest of the island recognizes this. This lunatic and his family have hated your family for generations. Not only do they despise the very fact that you exist, they vow to do everything they can to wipe you off the face of the earth. Previously, it was safe to ignore the ravings and rantings of the lunatic because all he could do was talk. However, recently it has been brought to your attention that the lunatic and his family have acquired the means to follow through with his threats.
You have done the right thing and appealed to the government, which is still completely powerless and useless—in addition to the fact that it also does not like you very much. You have asked those other families that claim to be your friends for help against the lunatic and his family. Some of them pay lip service and might even offer moral support, but do absolutely nothing concrete to help you. They say the best thing to do is to try to talk to the lunatic and his family, try to reason with him. When that fails miserably, your friends get together and try to agree to not do any business with the rogue family but, since many of them make only half-hearted efforts and others completely ignore the agreement, that is a total failure as well.
Now then, you find yourself pretty much alone with no one at all to depend on to help you should the lunatic take out his weapons and come to your house to kill all of you. You know he has the weapons in his house. His public statements and behavior give every indication that not only will he use them against you some day, but that day will come much sooner than later.
You think you can break the laws of the island and sneak into the lunatic neighbor’s house and either steal or destroy the weapons you are fairly certain he will use on you someday soon. However, the price you would have to pay for breaking the island’s rules could be very, very steep. You might set everyone else on the island against you. You most certainly will set off the nearby neighbors who already hate you. You can almost count on most of the island siding with the lunatic. It is almost certain that the lunatic will come on over and attack you anyway, even if you do take away his best weapon. You are not at all certain any of your supposed friends will protect you or even stand with you. In fact, there is the possibility that you might set off bitter feuds among the families on the island that will burn for centuries and cause many deaths.
Yet, your only other alternative is to continue to obey the island’s laws and just sit back in your house and wait for the day the lunatic will come with his weapons to kill you—and you know that day will come.
What would you do? Strike first and risk the wrath of your local neighbors and most of the rest of the islanders, perhaps even setting off a civil war on the island, with groups of clans against other groups of clans? Or, just wait for the lunatic to strike first and hope you survive the attack to fight another day, even though you know for a fact that the first strike will kill many of your family members and do terrible damage to your house?
Now imagine this: the island is the Earth. You are Israel. The family of uncouth, bloodthirsty lunatics is Iran. Does that change your answer?
Remember the old saying, “If the Arabs had no guns there would be peace in the Middle East. If Israel had no guns there would be no Israel.”
Think about it.
Jeff Vanderslice
Two separate perspectives on the debate, one serious, the other, a more lighthearted look, but nonetheless offering an honest view.