‘The Middle East and World War III – Why No Peace?’

The book analyzes wider perspectives of the Israeli-Palestinian-Arab- Muslim conflict, and the Muslim worldview, based on Koranic verses, of the status and rights and duties of the non-Muslim.

By ALAN BAKER
How shall Israel best prevent involvement in any conflict involving nuclear weapons, whether as war or terrorism? (photo credit: REUTERS)
How shall Israel best prevent involvement in any conflict involving nuclear weapons, whether as war or terrorism?
(photo credit: REUTERS)
In what is a very ambitious and aspiring work, dramatically titled The Middle East and World War III – Why No Peace?, Dr. Michael Calvo, Sorbonne educated and a graduate of New York University, an expert in international law and comparative jurisprudence, takes on the complex, unique and evidently intractable Middle East conflict.
In an intricately detailed and masterful manner, replete with multimedia links as well as a full list of annexes containing all relevant instruments, international and national documentation and correspondence, he analyzes the various components of the Middle East conflict from its historic, biblical, Koranic, legal and political aspects.
Calvo opens the book with a detailed chronology listing the systematic use of terrorism by the Palestinian leadership, timed and synchronized to cater to Western gullibility, to utilize the Western tendency to “political correctness” and pro-Arab, anti-Israel sentiment. When seen in the concentrated manner set out by Calvo, one cannot but conclude that there was, and continues to be, a distinct, systematic pattern and well organized policy, regulating and controlling the timing and intensity of acts of terrorism in tandem with international and regional developments and the mindset of the international community.
Such an infrastructure of terrorism is not really surprising in light of the psychological and religious brainwashing and incitement generated and conducted by the Palestinian leadership in mosques, schools, universities, media and cultural instruments as well as in the social media. Dismissed and overlooked by an often patronizing worldview of Western countries as an accepted pattern of cultural behavior in the Arab world, the West, including those countries with a distinct commonality of cultural, social, political and security interests with Israel, nevertheless simply look on with cynical and patronizing paternalism, disregarding the issue’s monumental proportions and the damage caused to Palestinian society, and, for whatever reason, ignoring the tragic danger to Israel and its society.
Calvo analyzes how the Palestinian leadership manipulates foreign media, rewrites history to sell it to a passive and often lethargic international community that is eager to accept whatever fake history is sold to it by the Palestinian leadership. They do this through feeding false historic and legal facts into resolutions in international organizations, utilizing an automatic majority of Arab and Muslim states, as well as catering to those Western countries eager to coddle the Muslim countries. All this in order to push through resolutions abusing the bona fides of the international community, undermining the most basic, professional and constitutional tenets of international organizations, and misleading international leaders.
Calvo demonstrates how, through such methods, the Palestinians perfected the art of “lawfare,” recruiting international NGOs to institute, organize and fund lawsuits against Israeli leaders and senior military commanders, and against international corporations with commercial interests in Israel. This was further developed by the Arab League, through social networking, into what is known today as the international BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) campaign, which basically has reinstituted and reactivated the original Arab Boycott against Israel.
Calvo brings historic evidence to show the age-old roots of the BDS campaign, in propaganda techniques used by the Nazis and by the Soviet authorities against Jews, Jewish communities and businesses – all intended to undermine the very right of existence of the State of Israel.
The book analyzes wider perspectives of the Israeli-Palestinian-Arab- Muslim conflict, and the Muslim worldview, based on Koranic verses, of the status and rights and duties of the non-Muslim in Muslim societies, including the Jews.
While this book is not an easy read, and in many respects its chapters are brimming over with historic and legal information that could confuse a casual reader, it is nevertheless a mine of information for whoever needs or wants to delve into the nitty gritty of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and to see and hear the pertinent material and documentation, recordings, video clips and YouTube recordings.
The author is the former legal adviser of the Foreign Ministry and Israeli ambassador to Canada. He participated in the negotiation and drafting of all Israel’s peace agreements with its neighbors, and is presently head of the International Law Program of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs.