“We can forgive the Arabs for killing our children. We cannot forgive them for forcing us to kill their children. We will only have peace with the Arabs when they love their children more than they hate us.”
Critics provide endless examples of Israel’s racism and hatred. Indeed, probably most are true. The difference between Israel’s sins and those of the Palestinians is that the Jews justify them, excuse them, regret them, even repent of them. But they call them what they are: sins. The Palestinians call them virtues.
To judge a nation’s sins, you have to address the context because…everyone sins. It’s easy to look at the corruption and ugliness of a people and say they are bad. But bad compared to whom? Why is Israel judged by some super standard?
Are there coffee shop discussions in Israel with a “kill ‘em all” rhetoric? Surely. But how are Arabs really treated? 20.7% of Israeli citizens are Arab. There are more who refuse citizenship to avoid recognizing Israel. There are Arab political parties, some of whom openly call for Israel’s destruction. There have been several attempts to ban any party calling for Israel’s destruction but the bans are always voted down because Israel values free speech. There is an Arab on the Supreme Court and there have been many notable Arabs in the highest levels of society including the Cabinet, military (some generals), and Foreign Service. Arabs currently hold 12 of 120 seats in the Knesset.
In 2009, Israeli Arab Journalist Khaled Abu Toameh, declared to a Muslim audience, "Israel is a wonderful place to live and we are happy to be there. Israel is a free and open country. If I were given the choice, I would rather live in Israel as a second class citizen than as a first class citizen in Cairo, Gaza, Amman or Ramallah."
Ishmael Khaldi is an Arab citizen of Israel and the nation's first high-ranking Muslim in the Israeli Foreign Service. He wrote, “I am a proud Israeli – along with many other non-Jewish Israelis such as Druze, Bahai, Bedouin, Christians and Muslims, who live in one of the most culturally diversified societies and the only true democracy in the Middle East. Like America, Israeli society is far from perfect, but let us deal honestly. By any yardstick you choose – educational opportunity, economic development, women and gay's rights, freedom of speech and assembly, legislative representation – Israel's minorities fare far better than any other country in the Middle East”.
Can you imagine this scene in any Muslim country?
Israelis make constant overtures of peace. One of Israel’s hospitals recently treated the daughter of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh. Gazans are frequently flown to Israel for emergency treatment. After Israeli civilians murdered 16 year old Mohammed Abu Khder in retaliation for Palestinians kidnapping and murdering three Jewish teens, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu actually called the Palestinian victim’s father personally to apologize and express outrage and solidarity. The mother of one of the Hamas suspects, however, was proud of her son for the murders. “My boys are all righteous, pious and pure. The goal of my children is the triumph of Islam.”
The common narrative is that Israel has no interest in peace. Yet, they evacuated Gaza, ripping hysterical and grieving families out of their homes. They’ve offered to do much the same in the West Bank. In 2000, Bill Clinton moderated and sponsored the Camp David Summit. Israeli Prime Minister and former IDF General Ehud Barak bucked public opinion, offering all but a sliver of the moon to Yasser Arafat. Palestinians would receive sovereignty over 86-91% of the West Bank, 100% of Gaza, most of East Jerusalem with custodianship of all Islamic Holy sites, and the dismantling of 63 settlements in the West Bank, the only ones remaining to be the ones with large populations. The main sticking point was the full resettlement of Palestinian refugees, the so-called “right of return”. Israel offered the repatriation of 100,000 and financial aid to a 30 billion dollar international fund to resettle refugees within the new Palestine and surrounding Arab nations.
Arafat’s counteroffer was the second intifada, a years-long episode of rock throwing and suicide bombing. Most observers view it as an epic mistake. Some thought the intemperate and foolish traipsing of the hawkish Ariel Sharon all over the Haram-Al Sharif/Temple Mount, the third holiest site in Islam and the holiest site in Judaism as the catalyst. But many Palestinian officials as well as Arafat’s wife admitted Arafat planned it all along. The widowed Suha Arafat said on Dubai television in December 2012, “'Immediately after the failure of Camp David (negotiations), I met him in Paris upon his return...Camp David had failed and he said to me, ‘You should remain in Paris.’ I asked him why, and he said, ‘Because I am going to start an intifada. They want me to betray the Palestinian cause. They want me to give up on our principles, and I will not do so.’” Today, there could be a member of the nations called Palestine but Arafat, who had grown incredibly wealthy by being an international victim, was not ready to take on the burden of running a country.
The “Nakam”, meaning “vengeance”, were a group of Jews who, after WWII, travelled Europe silently dispatching those with Jewish blood on their hands. Then they hatched "Tochnit Aleph", an astounding plan to repay eye for eye and tooth for tooth, millions of guilty and innocent alike. They would poison water supplies all over Germany, forever putting the world on notice that to spill Jewish blood would invite pain. They enjoyed strangling former SS officers and Auschwitz guards but regarding this plan, one question nagged them: "Who set you as leaders among us?" So they sought the moral approval of the prominent Chaim Weizmann, the future first president of Israel, and the heads of Hagana, the future Israeli Defense Force. The plan was blessed. They would soon carry out what would certainly be the most consequential act of revenge in history. Except, as Abba Kovner boarded a ship, he was arrested. Betrayed. The Hagana intercepted the group’s members at water treatment plants all over Germany to stop the “dishonorable” plan. Less than a year after the bitter pill of the holocaust, the Jews chose forgiveness over vengeance, creation over destruction. Bring the temple down on their own heads? Unthinkable. The Jews were sick of dying and wanted to live. Someday, God willing, the Palestinians too will get sick of dying.
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