Emes Ve-Emunah: I Love Lucy

Why Arabs hate us so much has been discussed here ad infinitum. Simply put, they are just plain anti-Semitic. They hate Jews. They couch it all in terms of being anti Zionist. But that is just a convenient ‘out’ which allows them to continue to hate the Jewish people.

Our mere presence in Israel exacerbates that hatred. They do not accept our claim to the land. They see Jews as foreign colonialists and see Israel (Palestine) as all theirs. The holiest site for them in the holy land is the Temple mount. When their jurisdiction over the area is challenged even in the slightest way, they go berserk.  ‘How dare the lowly Jews do this to us now?’ …they might think.  ‘What right do they have to even be herein our land?!’ ‘The holy land is Palestinian, not Jewish’. That we have hegemony over them is a source of painful and deep shame for them. They Israeli Independence day Yom Nakba’ – Arabic for ‘day of catastrophe.’

Arabs are a religious people. By far – more of their population are observant of Islam than Jews are of Judaism. Which makes them a far more dangerous entity than those who are not.

So what do these antisemites do to make themselves feel better when they feel dominated and persecuted? When they aren’t attacking us – either with Arab armies with tanks or as individuals with knives – they teach their children to hate Jews – using every anti-Semitic canard ever uttered in pursuit of that goal.

Which exacerbates that hatred to the point where at the slightest pretext they feel justified killing Jews just because they are Jews.  Anyone that thinks this is not the case ought to listen to their preachers. Just yesterday ISIS has urged Palestinians to seek out and kill Jews – including innocent ones. Not that that should surprise anyone. But ISIS is not alone in this type of thinking – as current events there show.

This is what makes people like Lucy Aharish so remarkable. She is a very courageous woman. Easily recognizable since she reports for an Israeli TV station. Is it just a matter of time that she too is murdered? Will ISIS or other Jew hating Arab Muslims seek her out, capture her and behead her on international TV?

She must know that her words do not endear her to her people. The knife wielders are – in the vast majority of cases – ‘true believers’ who believe Jews are inherently evil and worthy of death. Not that the majority of them would do it. But there are a lot that think along those lines. I don’t see how they can look at her in any other way than as a traitorous woman that was no doubt brainwashed by the Jews – and now deserving of a violent and very public death.

When one considers how much sense she makes, it is truly amazing that any sane human being would disagree with her. As I said there are indeed plenty of people that do. But far more do not.

When innocent Jews get slaughtered, they somehow get blamed for the violence. It’s because of the settlements; the occupation… what have you. Jews can do no good. Jews mistreat Arabs because they are Jews. (Of course they will never explicitly say that  – but I see no other explanation for attacking innocent Jews.)

And many media types (and even some in government) seem to blame the Jew too. They see more Arabs being killed than Jews which makes it seems unfair.  Those are the foolish ones.

The more clever among media types actually lie to make Israelis (Jews) look bad. This is true even in the mainstream media.  In one recent case NBC reporter Ayman Mohyeldin lied so egregiously in this vein that he had to be corrected on air by the news anchor who pointed it out.

I am a lover of peace. I believe that if it were possible to make peace with the Palestinians so that all the violence against Jews would cease – it would be worth sacrificing a lot. A two state solution would be a no brainer for me.  If all Arabs thought the way Lucy Aharish does, we could have peace in a New York minute.

But they don’t. The lie that Israelis don’t really want peace is so ingrained in so many of them that they actually believe it. That is patently untrue. History has shown that time and again.

Israel accepted the UN partition of Palestine with an internationalized Jerusalem. The Arabs responded by attacking Israel in an attempt to wipe it off the map – a typical antisemitic response.

More recently Ehud Barak a highly decorated Israeli general who as Prime Minister was willing to divide Jerusalem as part of a peace deal.  Which I supported at the time.  The Arab response was an intifada.

The reality is that a 2 state solution at this point will only encourage every Jew hating Arab to indiscriminately attack Israelis even more than they do now. And they will be in a far better position to do it. Meanwhile the world media will find some way to blame Israel for it. That there are many sane Arab Muslims like Lucy Aharish doesn’t matter. They are not in control. She and others of her mindset have somehow managed to escape the anti-Semitic Arab propaganda. It is the nature of those who have no internal hatred for us to treat us well. On the other hand – it is the nature of hate to precipitate violence against those you hate.

The situation only seems to be getting worse. But just about any alternative to the status quo from right to left seems like a far worse option that we have now.

Except one. Changing the educational paradigm of Jew hatred in the Arab world. If we could get them to stop hating us, we could make peace with them.  But from where I sit, that is an insurmountable challenge.  You cannot change a mindset ingrained into the international Arab psyche overnight. It will take at least a generation to do that – even if it is tried. And it won’t be. The Arab world simply will not buy the fact Jews are not innately evil. Not after over 100 years of indoctrination.