Posted on 04/04/2014 4:09:38 PM PDT by SJackson
An Arab student born in East Jerusalem explains why there's nothing funny about the hatred that drove Jews out of Europe.
It happens every time I visit the U.S., and it’s happened increasingly over the last five years. I say I’m Palestinian (usually after trying out the less inflammatory “I’m from Jerusalem” and then being pressed for detail). There’s a pause, and then—“Oh, so... is it a problem for you that I’m Jewish?”
There it is. The assumption that because I am Palestinian, I harbor animosity toward Jews—and not just Israeli Jews, but all Jews, all the time, everywhere. It was one of the first questions I got asked when my new roommate met me at the beginning of my college career, and again as I mingled at my first-ever internship lunch. It was what made a Jewish kid switch seats and move across the room from me during a seminar—he was worried, I was later informed, about sitting next to a Palestinian. It’s happened time and again, yet it still takes me by surprise.
Despite this initial hurdle, I’ve formed close relationships with many Jews—and that, in turn, often inspires condescension from others. It’s adorable that one of my closest friends is Jewish; it’s inspiring to see us eating together and making jokes. Such comments may be meant benignly, but they deftly reduce a 60-odd-year struggle for political independence to a squabble between siblings.
I try to explain, as mildly as I can, that my having Jewish friends doesn’t signify the end of the grim state of affairs in the region. I point out that, historically, Arabs and Jews actually lived pretty well together. In spite of rhetoric to the contrary, the Mideast crisis isn’t a case of why-can’t-they-just-get-along. It isn’t about ethnic differences. It isn’t hummus vs. hoummous.
(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...
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An interesting article by Sari Nusseibeh's daughter, a typical Arab student in the same way Kennedys and Bushes are typical Harvard and Yale students. Not sure it means much, even if I accept her voice and her dad's as moderates, the population is behind the terrorists. An idea for John Kerry and his boss. If you want a peace process, support free elections in the West Bank and Gaza. See what emerges, a peace partner or an enemy.
Perhaps there might have been a better way to achieve statehood, but now that it is done, the Jewish people have a right to live on this land and defend themselves. There are no illusions of who and what they have to live next to.
And the Palestinian cause ???
“If you want a peace process, support free elections in the West Bank and Gaza”
That’s just what we need. More illiterate savages voting.
For some reason, voting has become vastly overrated.
Yeah, I don't buy the rants from the author, either. The local arabs latched on to the claim of being Palestinian (since about the 1960s). Well, the Jews are also Palestinian. Let's call an arab, an arab; just as Jews are called Jews. Arab states tolerated Jews within their borders with massive restrictions, and mistreated them to the point they were driven out, converted or killed. You don't see Israeli Jews doing the same to arabs within their borders. Jewish Nationalism is necessary to the survival of Jews. The arabs have plenty of national homelands surrounding Israel, but want the whole world.
A couple observations I left off my ping.
First, what you correctly label as Arab antisemitism Arabs refer to as European antisemitism, as though they caught an airborne disease. If the hatred that drove Jews out of Europe "isn't funny", she might take a gander at her co-religionists around the world.
Also, she states most Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem aren’t recognized as voting citizens. It's my understanding that nearly 50 years later the offer of Israeli citizenship to residents of East Jerusalem is still open. If they're not citizens, it's because they don't want to be citizens.
Her implied criticism of America and Americans over the harm caused by anti-Jewish jokes is a bit lame, considering the calls to genocide amongst her fellow Palestinians.
Well, I don’t entirely disagree, but the administration should recognize that they’re negotiating with an illegitimate government. If an agreement was signed tomorrow, if a future government rejected it based on the fact it was negotiated by once elected officials, one election is enough cancel the rest, I couldn’t really disagree. Not to mention all agreements advocated since Oslo began violate the PLO Charter. The PLO being the official, per the UN, representative of the palestinian people. And then there’s the inconvenient truth that the government only controls 65% of the population, the rest being run by a designated terror group. A lot of effort for nothing, other than the prelude to the next war.
the point is that there is no such thing as a legitimate “palestinian” cause
since there is no such thing as a legitimate “palestinian” people
excerpted from longer web posting:
“The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a
Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle
against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality
today there is no difference between Jordanians,
Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and
tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of
a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand
that we posit the existence of a distinct ‘Palestinian
people’ to oppose Zionism.
“For tactical reasons, Jordan, which is a sovereign state
with defined borders, cannot raise claims to Haifa and Jaffa.
While as a Palestinian, I can undoubtedly demand Haifa,
Jaffa, Beer-Sheva and Jerusalem. However, the moment we
reclaim our right to all of Palestine, we will not wait even
a minute to unite Palestine and Jordan.”
(PLO executive committee member Zahir Muhsein, in a 1977
interview with the Dutch newspaper Trouw.)
This fact is also clearly expressed in the covenant of Fatah,
the ruling faction of the PLO:
http://www.fateh.net/e_public/constitution.htm#Goals
The Movement’s Essential Principles:
Article (1) Palestine is part of the Arab World, and the
Palestinian people are part of the Arab Nation, and their
struggle is part of its struggle.
Adolf Eichmann had Jewish friends as well.
Probably. If peruse testimony from the war crimes trials you’ll hear that explanation often. I had Jewish friends, dentist, grocer, et al. Wasn’t personal hate, rather collective.
Yes, imo tribal and/or national affiliation is more important than identification as an Arab. Thus the disunity and chaos throughout the Arab world. Not to minimize tribal differences, but I suspect the religion and it’s subsets is a more important issue. Unites to some extent, then like Arab tribalism, pits one against the other.
“How Anti-Jewish Jokes Hurt the Palestinian Cause”, but murdering Jews at every chance doesn’t. Up yours, koranimal.
LOL - injecting a little reality there... good one Civ.
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