HUDNAH AND SULH DO NOT MEAN "PEACE"

 

by Moshe Sharon

   The war of terror, which has been waged against Israel since October 2000, has brought again to the fore simple facts, which the government of Israel, as well as most of the media, refuse to understand and face boldly. The facts are derived from one truth which should be presented in the clearest words possible: the Arab-Moslem strategic decision has always been, and will always remain, the destruction of the State of Israel, and the annihilation of its Jewish population. The Palestinians are the spearhead of this Arab-Moslem long-term strategy, and terror has been chosen as the method to weaken Israel by spreading in it defeatist feelings, and loss of self confidence.

One of the tactical weapons in the overall plan of the materialization of this strategy is also the exploitation of the general sincere hope and yearning for peace in the Israeli public. The Arabs have long ago discovered that it is enough to use this word "peace" in English or its equivalents in Hebrew and other European languages (but not in Arabic) in order to win to their side almost any public. Nobody has asked them to explain what they mean or compelled them to act according to the simple message of the word among civilized people. The Arabs have learned to make good use of the term "peace" -- they would sign any document and distribute any promise knowing that in return for meaningless words they would achieve real territorial and other strategic gains and improve their positions on the ground from which an attack on Israel can be carried out with more deadly success.

To make things look "genuine" and to impress the fools of Israel and Europe, three words are used by the Arabs who use three Arabic words for their war and peace, and these three words sum up their aim and policy: jihad, hudnah, and sulh. Any one who knows anything about Islam understands their true meaning.

Jihad is a holy war against the infidels -- namely the Jews (later against the Christian too). It is war, and killing, and nothing else; but the Moslem propagandists speaking to the delicate European ear sells the story that it is not a real war but a metaphorical expression. This is a lie. Jihad is a holy war and the Islamic Jihad is nothing less than an organization of murder. The person killed in the jihad is a martyr -- shahid, who goes directly to heaven to enjoy food, drink, and sex. The killing of a Jew, any Jew -- man, woman or child, is regarded as holy war.

The second word is sulh. Sulh is not peace. It is an agreement, which Islam bestows upon the vanquished enemy. The Moslem side decides the terms of the sulh, and it can be reached only after the enemy has capitulated, and raised the white flag

The third word is hudnah. Hudnah is concluded only between the Moslems and non-Moslems, when the Moslem side feels itself, at a certain point, too weak to carry on the jihad. The aim of the hudnah -- cessation of hostilities for a limited period -- is to gain time in order to strengthen the Moslem military capability, and restart the war from a better condition. Hudnah also aims at tranquilizing the enemy to believe that it has achieved peace, and catch him off guard. The Islamic side can abolish the hudnah at will even before the time of expiry, if it feels strong enough to resume the war. Yet hudnah is the only possible relation of no-war with the non-Moslems. But for this, the enemy must be very strong. Only its strength justifies the postponement of its destruction through jihad.

The Arabs, as Moslems, and of course Arafat, build on the ignorance of the Israelis, on the one hand and on their dreams of peace on the other in order to sell them the poison of death in the wrapping of "peaceful jihad", "sulh peace" and "hudnah ceasefire". Sulh is not peace and hudnah is no unconditional armistice. The only condition which compels the Muslims to keep the hudnah is the their conviction that the enemy is too strong to allow the renewal of war. Weakness of the enemy encourage s the resumption of jihad.

 
Moshe Sharon is Professor of Islamic History at the Hebrew University.

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