And what did you expect?

No surprise here.

Palestinian Attacks Go on Despite Truce

JERUSALEM Nov 26, 2006 (AP)— Israeli troops withdrew from the Gaza Strip as a last-minute cease-fire deal took hold Sunday morning, but two major Palestinian militant groups, saying they had no intention of stopping their attacks, fired volleys of homemade rockets into Israel.

The ongoing rocket attacks by Hamas and Islamic Jihad tempered hopes for a lasting truce, which was meant to end five months of deadly clashes.

I believe the problem is the mindset of the Muslim civilization. As told by Samuel P. Huntington in The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order they have a different viewpoint on group loyalties than we do in the West. I’ve made a crude chart that attempt to get the concept across:

Huntington describes it as a “U” and an inverted “U”. I have it as more like ‘V’s because I didn’t want to enter in all the data points to get a smooth U. But the point is that when our nations leaders say, “We are going to make peace, stop fighting while we talk” our civilization will obey even if the local groups think the fighting should continue. Muslim civilization doesn’t have that much loyalty to their nation. The local tribe and community has more influence. And on the other end of the scale they have more loyalty to other Muslims than their nation as well.

This also explains why Saddam Hussein picked people from his hometown as his guards and elite army units. He trusted them far more than people from other areas of the country.

Where does that leave us? How can we, or the Israels, negotiate peace? Or even have peace with Muslims? Good questions. I’m not sure it can be done unless we destroy their culture.

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