An Israeli Arab from Akko (Acre) and who now lives on a kibbutz is campaigning to be a Jewish Home Knesset Member candidate because she “agrees with everything“ the party stands for.
“I support settlers. They are the true Jews,” Annette Khasikya said in an interview with Israel Radio Monday. She supports the concept of ”Greater Israel,” meaning all of Judea and Samaria as part of Israel, and dismisses the Oslo Accords and the expulsion of Jews from Gush Katif in 2005 as tragic mistakes that “invited terror.”
She also thinks that the Jewish Home party is the only one that will care for the “rights of Arabs and not those who want to harm the State of Israel.”
To top it off, her three children, including a daughter, are or were soldiers. One son was decorated for his fighting in the Protective Edge campaign against Hamas in Gaza last summer, and the other son is a Golani combat soldier.
A Muslim in the Jewish Home party sounds like a contradiction in terms, but the party’s title expresses the idea of all of Israel being a home for the Jewish People. It does not mean it is a party for Jews, just as the Torah specifically provides for “resident aliens,” known in Hebrew as “Ger Toshav,” and not to be confused with the “Righteous Gentile (Ger Tzedek).”
The Torah specifically states that non-Jews – there were no Muslims or Palestinians at the time, no matter how much the Palestinian Authority tries to proclaim Jesus as one of theirs – are to be respected and given rights in Israel if they keep up their part of the deal as resident aliens.
The must surrender idol worship, observe the Seven Commandments of the children of Noah, testify as such before a rabbinic court and not be circumcised, which could be a problem for most Muslim men.
The concept of a “resident alien” is rooted in the Torah, but there is a difference of opinion – did you expect otherwise? – if it is applicable today.
That does not get the Jewish Home party off the hook.
Here is a woman, a former Likud party supporter, who is proud to be a Zionist and is not afraid to say so.
“The Jewish Home party is not extremist,” she says. “It is very Zionist; it loves the country and wants to preserve the country.”
She complains that she suffers from the stigma of Arabs being anti-Zionists and terrorists to the point that Jews do not want to rent a home to her daughter, but Khasikya rejects the idea of joining a left-wing or Arab party.
“I don’t need the left or the Arab Knesset Members,” she declared. “If they would represent me, I would not have to stand up today and declare I am a Muslim, a Zionist and that I love the country.
“Arab Knesset Members represent a different people. The left presents itself as if they worry about Arabs. None of them worry about Arabs; I worry about Arabs. I know what we need.”
Her agenda includes setting up a “Gadna” pre-army unit for Arab youth “so they can discover love for the country, the IDF and their Israeli identity.”
Khasikya may sound like a nut case, but her views actually are consistent not only with the Torah concept but also with the doctrine of the Druze, whose motto is to be faithful to the country in which they live. She represents the ideal non-Jewish Israeli citizen.
The first thought that might come to mind when speaking of an Arab MK is Hanin Zoabi, the fiery anti-Zionist who supports Hamas and was on the Mavi Mamara boat sponsored by IHH terrorists who tried to break the maritime embargo on Hamas-controlled Gaza four years ago.