The Root of Evil in the Middle East

The cause of the recent spate of terrorism was neither Islam nor Israel. The cause is the surplus oil wealth that finds its way, willy-nilly, into the hands of adventurers (Nasser, Saddam, Arafat, Farrakhan or Bin-Laden) bent on conquest.

The arch-terrorists of today are not desperate, oppressed minorities fighting for a cause. The aim of Palestinian fighters is to conquer and then to liquidate the State of Israel. In 1967 the Arabs had all that they are pretending to be fighting for. They also rejected all reasonable offers of a peaceful solution ending with Ehud Barak's generous offer. Saddam wants to dominate the Arabian Peninsula and beyond. He stockpiles biological and chemical weapons to spread terror in the region, while starving his own population. Bin Laden wants to topple the Saudi regime and had enough money to employ German technicians to plan his spectacular attack on New York and Washington.

Solution? The Security Council, now in happy unanimity, should appropriate all the mineral wealth of the world and distribute it in a responsible manner for the benefit of all mankind. Unfortunately, the surplus oil wealth has also been used to influence the media into spreading pro-terrorist propaganda.