Epicureans, committed or otherwise, should seek ataraxia, that is peace and calmness of mind. This becomes difficult when one is confronted with people like Charlie, who seem to be in favour of a deliberate conflagration in the Middle East for religious ends. I have said that Charlie should be allowed to have his say, but on second thoughts this sort of talk is not in the spirit of this blog, nor , I dare say, palatable to most religious people. It might be more rewarding for Charlie to go to a millenialist blog to debate his views.
However, since he has raised the issue of nuking Iran and causing mayhem and bloodshed for no very good reason, the following up-to-the minute report is interesting, and simply illustrates that the people on the ground in the Middle East want peace and a diplomatic solution. It is the extremists, especially in the US, both the Christian Right and Zionist Right, who have a vested interest in continued confronation:
Herzliya, Israel – Israel’s most prestigious annual gathering of national security strategists, meeting here under the shadow of Iranian threats and Palestinian violence, heard a succession of Israel’s highest-ranking officials call for renewed diplomacy as the best way to keep Israel safe.
Defying a rash of international speculation that either Israel or America is planning military strikes on Iran’s nuclear structures, most of the senior Israeli leaders who spoke at this year’s Herzliya Conference — including Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, Vice Premier Shimon Peres, Defense Minister Amir Peretz and a parade of defense professionals — argued that Iran could be contained through a combination of deterrence and coalition building with moderate Arab states.
Many participants, including American and European as well as Israeli leaders, argued that peace deals with Syria or the Palestinians would be an essential first step. The views presented contrasted sharply with the positions usually offered by Israel’s advocates in the West, that resolving broader Middle East crises has no relationship to Israel’s disputes with its neighbors.