Perspective, yes; but whose? Haim Harari is Past President, Weizmann Institute of Science. There is no indentification of the "large multi-national corporation" before whose advisory board Mr. Harari have his speech in April, 2004, according to the article p linked.

Reduced to its simplest form, what we have here is an argument with two or three major thrusts. With no less than eight examples - but Mr. Harari could "go on and on and on" - we learn that many of the Islamic and/or Arab world's problems cannot possibly be blamed on Israel. Before anyone might consider that our "taxi driver" doth protest too much, he leaps to his central justification:

The root of the trouble is that this entire Moslem region is totally dysfunctional, by any standard of the word

What follows is an argument for preemptive intervention against Iran, Syria and Lebanon. It is the reponsibility of the "civilized world" to intervene; it is a call for a new crusade.

Along the way, we find familiar, but flawed, arguments that freedom must have limitations;

Other aspects of a civilized society must also have limitations. Can a policeman open fire on someone trying to kill him? Can a government listen to phone conversations of terrorists and drug dealers? Does free speech protects (sic) you when you shout “fire” in a crowded theater? Should there be death penalty, for deliberate multiple murders? These are the old-fashioned dilemmas. But now we have an entire new set.

Those who have been over this territory before will recognize flaws in these arguments: the prohibition is against falsely shouting "fire" in a crowded theater. Whenever there really is a fire, one has not only the right, but indeed the obligation to shout "fire," crowded theatre, or not.

But the question springs to mind: is it not the equivalent of "falsely" shouting fire in a crowded theatre to falsely claim that Iraq had WMD, or - more to the point here - that "the entire Moslem region is totally dysfunctional," and - by extension in the "Taxi Driver's" argument - dangerous?

Perspective, or fear-mongering redux?
S