Who and what are the ID People? No, they're not libidinous disciples of Sigmund Freud. Truth to tell, some are prime ministers. Some are foreign ministers. Others are party leaders. More than a few are academics and journalists. They are legion. And whatever their differences or diverse nationalities, they all have one thing in common: they are Intellectually Dishonest.

What does their dishonesty consist in? Simply this: They know you can't make peace with people committed to your destruction. They know you can't make peace with people who do not recognize the sanctity of human life. They know you can't make peace with people conditioned by a culture of hatred -- a hatred so deep as to induce these people to use their own children as human bombs.

But this means that those prime ministers and foreign ministers and party leaders who would have Israel engage in peace negotiations with the Arab Palestinian are not merely ignorant or obtuse: no, they are Intellectually Dishonest. Their dishonesty has so warped their minds that some almost believe that peace is possible between the Jews of Israel and their Muslim enemies.

There is no point in telling these ID People about the murderous verses in the Quran or in the Hadith -- the recorded or reported sayings and deeds of Muhammad. It's futile to cite Robert Spencer or Bat Ye'or or Nonie Darwish or Brigitte Gabriel or Ibn Warraq or Winston Churchill and others who have written about Islam's barbaric character.

The brilliant American Lee Harris -- he has been called the philosopher of 9/11 -- agrees with Syrian-born psychiatrist Wafa Sultan, that Islam is the enemy of civilization. To expect genuine peace with the followers of a bellicose religion is to sacrifice one's intellect, that is, to succumb to Intellectual Dishonesty. (And to make much in wartime of Muslim moderates when mainstream Islam is anything but moderate is also indicative of Intellectual Dishonesty.)

The Middle East expert Daniel Pipes recently admitted that Israel's peace treaty with Egypt has proven to be a failure, that the Egyptians are committed to Israel's annihilation no less than Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Dr. Pipes has also warned that it would take at least two generations to undo the murderous hatred of Jews which Palestinian leaders have instilled in their children. Dr. Pipes, a man of wisdom and courage, knows that one would have to sear into Arab consciousness a hatred of war, which could only occur as a result of their being devastated.

Ariel Sharon's protégé Ehud Olmert, knows this, and so does Benjamin Netanyahu. The trouble is they are Intellectually Dishonest and it's time they were called such. I would say the same of Condoleezza Rice. Lady, you're not a fool; you're not deceived by Mahmoud Abbas and the hype about his being a moderate. You're just Intellectually Dishonest.

This is no time for politeness. It's time to call a spade a spade. It's time to say that the Big Lie of the Middle East is the word peace. It's time to say that all those who talk about making peace between Israel and the Palestinians are Intellectually Dishonest, be they politicians, journalists, or even rabbis. And if you want to add that they are moral cowards, go to it!

We have to transcend the misleading and mendacious language of public discourse. Stop calling so-and-so politically correct when he or she is simply Intellectually Dishonest. When Olmert and others advocate a Palestinian state, call him Intellectually Dishonest, because the rival clans that compose the Palestinians don't want a state; they want to destroy the Jewish state.

When Bibi calls for negotiations with the Palestinians on the basis of reciprocity, a term foreign to the Arab-Islamic mind, call him Intellectually Dishonest.

Intellectual Dishonesty is so rampant among politicians, academics, and journalists that it is undermining Western civilization. Western civilization has two basic sources: the Bible of Israel (on which Christianity is based) and classical Greek philosophy. If there is one thing these two basic sources have in common, it is this: Truth. Without truth there can be no trust. Without trust there can be no civilization.

If it be objected that politeness is a necessary aspect of civilization, I answer: if politeness supplants truth, then it's nothing more than hypocrisy -- another form of Intellectual Dishonesty.

It follows that Islam, which, by the way, makes a virtue of mendacity, is not the only enemy of civilization. No less dangerous is the enemy within: the Intellectual Dishonesty rampant among our opinion-makers and policy-makers. These ID People must be exposed. They are undermining the respect for truth which animates civilization: its rationality, its dignity, and its progress.

 
Professor Paul Eidelberg is President of the Foundation For Constitutional Democracy. He can be reached by mail at 244 Madison Avenue, Suite 427, New York, NY 10016, Tel: 212-372-3752, and by email at Constitution@usa.net

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