Submitted by rick(United States), Dec 19, 2006 at 16:54
Despite their near annihiliation when Jews escaped to Palestine in 1945 or were driven to Israel from Arab nations post 1948 socialist, left wing and humanitarian Jews looked to the Arab population as a friend Of course there was ample evidence that Arab hostility to Jews was not much less than was European hostility. But that evidence was discounted in favor of hope and what is believed to be human behavior - if you treat people with respect and invite them into your home they will not kill you.
In 1967, with the fall of Judea & Samaria from Jordanian hands and into Israel's ,General Dayan made overtures to the Arabs not to flee as many were prone to do. He emphasized that Arabs had nothing to fear from Jews and basically said we want to be your friend. The Jewish belief in a universal brotherhood that overcomes all sectarian, national, religious or ethnic divisions has always been present in the philosophy of Jews. Despite the pograms, the exile from nations, the refusal of any country including the US to accept Jews as equals. Well into the 1950s, United States universities had quotas and in some instances outright bans on admitting Jewish students. Public universites such as City College of New York rivaled Harvard and Yale due to Jewish students forced to go there.
I recall a scene in the movie Schindler's List of a young energetic Jewish female architectual student in the camps running up to one of the Nazi officer guards to excitedly inform him that the structure the Germans had told the Jews to build was unsafe and needed support so it wouldn't collapse. She was innocent and brave at the same time. She spoke to the German officer as one does to a normal person. He pulls out his pistol and executes her on the spot. It was a shocking scene, to me the most shocking scene of the movie.. She forgot who she was, where she was and who was in charge. The same understanding must be made by Jews today.
Arabs are not friends and history has so proven. There are inequalities between Jew and Arab in Israel no doubt but aside from Gulf Arabs rich from oil, Israeli Arabs have a higher standard of living than any other Arabs. Hgher than Egyptian, Syrian, Yemeni, Sudanese, etc. All the Arabs who worked so diligently for Israel's demise.
Yet, Israeli Arabs are not comfortable in a Jewish State. They want it disbanded or destroyed and another non Jewish nation to take its place. Another experiment of secular socialist Jews has failed. Arabs are no less hostile to Jews as were Europeans. Your Arab neighbor thinks and precieves Israel and Jews despite living there very much as an Arab across the border who has never even met a Jew but knows all about them through al-Manar television.
If Israel in 1940 were a tiny nation in Europe instead of the Middle East would it allow a non Jewish minority which is openly sympathetic to Germany to not only remain within but increase their power and influence? I think not.
Israel must face a horrible truth and that is these Israeli Arabs are no different from the Arabs from outside of the nation of Israel. If you do not feel comfortable to invite Syrians, Egyptians and Iraqis into Israel proper then you should be uncomfortable with the present Arab population as well
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