The sadness of the Middle East is that it has come down to a fight to the knife between the Israelis, who want only to live in peace, and the Arabs, who want only to die killing Jews. There can be no peace settlement when one side has no interest in peace. And so it comes down to this for Israel: kill or be killed.

The desert horsemen swept the land
From Mecca to Khartoum
The Christian cities of the coast
Were soon to meet their doom
The Caliphate extended to
The hills of Hindu Kush
And conquered Spain and then to France
Where close to Tour the push
To conquer Christian Europe paused
No doubt because the fates
Intended that the Turks would meet
Death at Vienna’s gates
Lepanto saw them off at last
Ascendant Europe grew
In science, arts and guns and ships
The many ruled by few
And so for many hundred years
The desert horsemen slept
To dream of conquest of the West
And Allah’s promise kept
Today it is the West that sleeps
While desert horsemen ride
Again to kill the infidel
On Islam’s rising tide
To those who cry give peace a chance
The Arab smiles, amused
He laughs as Western pundits rage
And Israel accused
For in the end it comes to this
A fight now to the knife
Between the Arab wish to die
And those who wish for life