I am not a Jew. I have never been to Israel. I have no religious convictions of any kind. I’m an American of mixed European descent from a family that’s lived in New England since it was a British colony. Technically I have no dog in this fight. Why, then, am I having such a visceral reaction of anger and disappointment to the anti-Israel rallies being held outside my door and in cities and college campuses across the country? A better question is: why isn’t everyone?
The people attending these rallies will tell you that they are not pro-Hamas, merely anti-Israel. Their timing and their rhetoric say otherwise. What I witnessed, what the world witnessed, were crowds of people gleefully celebrating the slaughter of 1,400 Jews before their families could even recover their bodies. They did this carrying signs that read “from the river to the sea” and “by any means necessary” and, in some cases, openly chanting “gas the jews”. Surely any reasonable, empathetic person would be appalled at this display. Apparently not. Surely those in the media who are quick to condemn celebrities who misuse pronouns will also condemn those who celebrate terrorism. Apparently not. Surely those college administrators who routinely censure professors for failing to tread ever-so-lightly on the ever-more-fragile sensibilities of their students will not allow an unambiguously racist rally on their campus to go without comment. Apparently not.
Most of the people attending these rallies make some effort to obscure their identity with scarves, hats, sunglasses and surgical masks. They will tell you this is to protect themselves from the retribution of the authorities. That’s what klansmen say about their hoods. If you are lucky enough to live in a society where freedom of speech is a constitutional right you should have the courage of your conviction and make your case openly, even if you are arguing on behalf of those who would deny that freedom to others.
My father, who was a homicide detective for thirty years, once told me that the reason there are two sides to every story is usually because one side is lying. Those who would argue that it is the Israelis who are actually to blame for the recent attacks are either deceived or dissembling. Israel has repeatedly, for nearly eighty years, offered the Palestinians nearly everything they’ve asked in exchange for peace and been repeatedly rebuffed. Hamas does not want peace, they want genocide. They are not obfuscating about this, they proclaim it openly, repeatedly, and in writing. We should believe them. They’ve been offered peace, they’ve been offered independence and self governance, they’ve received billions in international aid and their position remains the same: they will not be appeased by anything short of the annihilation of the Jewish people. You can not negotiate with someone whose only demand is that you not exist.
Israel is, of course, like any nation, not without fault, but the overwhelming share of blame for the suffering of the people of Gaza falls on Hamas. If you attack your neighbors while hiding behind innocent women and children, you are responsible when those women and children are harmed, not the people you attacked. The people of Gaza continue to suffer because Hamas benefits from their suffering. The elected leadership of Gaza has, for years, deflected resources away from infrastructure, education, healthcare and basic human services and into weapons, missiles and tunnels. This is a win-win strategy for Hamas, they get the arsenal needed for their holy war and they get to blame the resulting suffering on Israel. It is barbaric, cynical and, thanks to the collusion of useful idiots in mass-media and academia, a very effective strategy.
In a way the anti-Israel rallies on college campuses should surprise no one. American academia has, in recent years, become a bastion of illiberal rhetoric. Its proponents have wormed their way in through the great loophole of liberal ideology which goes something like this: In order to be a good liberal one must be tolerant of the beliefs and practices of other people - even when those beliefs and practices are violently intolerant. This, in turn, has led to systemic rot in our academic discourse, a kind of moral cowardice which insists that there is no objective right and wrong and all sides of any argument must be equally legitimate by virtue of existing. The reality is that Israel, with all its many flaws, remains a democratic state in which personal and religious freedom are guaranteed by law regardless of race, gender or sexual orientation whereas a state governed by Hamas would resemble what the Taliban has created in Afghanistan. Why must we insist on pretending this doesn’t matter?
The people attending these rallies will tell you that the real issue is the disproportionate use of force by Israel. What would an appropriate Israeli response to what happened on October 7th look like? What does ‘appropriate’ even mean in the face of such unimaginable brutality? The unfortunate reality is that any response which leaves Hamas in control of any part of Gaza will guarantee future terrorist atrocities. A so-called ‘proportional response’ from Israel will only assure they will be attacked again. A proportional response to the confederate attack on Fort Sumter in 1861 would have left nearly four million people to languish in slavery. A proportional response to the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor would have done nothing to stem the tide of aggression from the Japanese and their German allies. Why is Israel, and only Israel, held to a different standard of self defense than every other nation on earth and in history? How can Americans tell the free citizens of a democratic nation that they have no right to defend themselves when threatened by fascists with extermination?
Attempts to apportion blame in this conflict become moot at some point and here’s why: The moment you embrace kidnapping, torture, rape and the murder of civilians, infants, the elderly, women and children as a valid means of expressing your grievance or achieving your goals, you have foregone the right to ask sympathy or support from any civilized person or state.
Fifty years ago Golda Meir famously said “If the Arabs put down their weapons today, there would be no more violence, if the Jews put down their weapons today, there would be no more Israel.” It was true then and it remains true. It’s a statement that no honest person can dispute. And yes, it matters.
And I third the nomination. This is the most wonderful comment. I took screen shots of it so I can memorize all of it. So clearly stated, wonderfully thought out and based strictly on facts, not on identity-crazed passion or political propaganda. This person, or someone as equally well spoken and articulate is who we need standing at the front of college classrooms. Not those that continue to encourage division, hatred and stereotypes. Not those that have the nerve to ask all the Jewish students to stand on one side of the room and ask the non Jewish students to stand on the other, and then point out “this is what the Israelis have been doing to the Palestinians for decades”.
The rallies you speak of should scare all Americans. Their attendees do not assimilate and have no plans to. They are not loyal to America’s founding principals. The problems European cities are experiencing today are festering here in the US, waiting quietly, growing.
I am, indeed, officially scared. I actually have been scared by the ascendance of this perverted DEI ideology for a long time, but I couldn't - and still can't - convince those around me. You see, having grown up in USSR, I knew this rot the moment I caught the first whiff. I wonder now if there's enough healthy tissue left in America to survive this.
Omar definitely should be deported. She's guilty of immigration fraud and needs to go.
Tlaib was supposedly born here but, if even possible, is more vile and anti-American than Omar. She certainly needs to be expelled from the House, at minimum.
All one need do is to to look at Western Europe and devastating waves of "refugees" who have zero intention of assimilating, let alone zero gratitude for their host nation and its people. Sweden and France come immediately to mind, but really this has metastasized across the entire continent. America is next.
Thanks, Matt. I too am a non-Jew viscerally angered and frightened almost beyond reason by the weasel-worded tolerance of antisemitism by academic, corporate and political leaders.
It all boils down to the vile lie that oppressed people have the right to do anything they want (“by any means necessary”). They don’t - no one is above morality.
If the murderous history of Stalinism proves anything, it’s that the means will corrupt the ends every time, if you do not employ moral means.
I am a fellow non-Jew similarly appalled by what is happening and scared as only a Soviet immigrant can be.
There is a new article in Jon Heidt substack “After Babel” today in which he acutely noted that the campuses shameful spectacle of silence is not about anti semitistm; it is about fear. I agree with him, it is a trivial, shameful, repulsive cowardice. That’s it.
But it supports anti-semitism we are witnessing in this potpourri collected by Rupa..
"A kind of moral cowardice which insists that there is no objective right and wrong and all sides of any argument must be equally legitimate by virtue of existing." Moral cowardice is the problem. I have no problem seeing gray areas in life, but I also have no problem with seeing some things in black and white. There's been a century long push by the sociopaths in our society to break people down and remove all personal boundaries. It started as a steady drip and the drip is now a flood. Notice how the word "nuance" seems to be everywhere these days? If all is "nuanced," then one can't make the statement that slaughtering civilians and torturing and murdering children in their homes is evil. There's no male and female because sex is "nuanced." Age of consent is "nuanced." Then there's the tendency to excuse all away with youthful activism. Anyone of any age that is celebrating this slaughter is not excused and is not welcome near me. Your father, the homicide detective, no doubt understood the mentality of killers and other criminals and the signs displayed in their youth. This is one of my black and white moments.
Thank you Matt. I am Jewish and so appreciate the people who take the time to become educated and display the bravery to speak out. I am devastated by the hatred i am seeing and my children are experiencing. It is unlike anything i could have ever imagined. So thank you.
You pointed out what I've noticed too: the agitators on the side of "Correct Think" on the Left for some reasons are always hiding their faces. It's the same with these anti-Israel protestors, and the Antifa misogynists protesting against the few women daring to stick their necks out to openly rally against trans ideology obliteration women's rights. They always have their full faces covered, while no one rallying on the Israeli side do. And no women who are branded "bigot", "Nazis", "fascist" who they accused to have committed the gravest sin of wrongthink ever cover their faces either. This is how, for all the self-righteous proclamation of moral superiority, which side is actually on the right side of history.
Matt Pepper...I have no idea how old you are, but I hope you have procreated, are currently procreating or have plans to have children in the future. You should have a thousand children to spread your critical thinking genes and your ability to articulate your moral argument for good. Your essay is refreshing and and gives hope. Bravo...
I am am a Jew, an old one. I have many dogs in this flight plus 8 grandchildren. Thank you Matt and other replies. You have given me reasons to smile this morning.
This is brilliant. Thank you. My only addition is regarding our academic institutions, whose "systematic rot" you note accurately. What I add after noting the comments of those at this Ottawa rally (typical of what you hear everywhere at these rallies) is the unbelievable historical IGNORANCE of these people. Just about every "fact" they offer in justification of their indifference to this Hamas pogrom is totally wrong. I have spent my career creating history curriculum materials for middle and high school students, and to witness the absence of any sort of actual past reality in these mostly young people's brains is painful to watch. What a colossal failure of our educational system.
I am afraid that "colossal failure" is a feature and not a bug in the system. To lie by omission is still a lie and a half-truth is the most effective lie.
Excellent and well written post. Thank you:) My family hails from northern India, I too, have no dog in this fight. But I stand with Israel for all the reasons you have mentioned. Couldn't have said it better.
The best comment I've ever read on this site. To the handfull of serial commenters who feel the need to comment multiple times on every single piece on this site this is how it's done.
I find debate over what ethnic or religious group of people have the original claim to a piece of land as impossible as it is dangerous—the truth is that every inch of this planet has been fought over since the first caveman realized that the grass was greener over the next hill, so determining who bares the original sin is impossible. What matters most now is that the Jews are there, have been for half a century, and they are a beacon of liberal democracy and human rights in a region of the world that almost totally lacks both. The slippery slop of this "my people used to own this, so I have a right to take it back" way of thinking is dangerous—it could just as easily be used to justify horrible atrocities here in the US, or anywhere else for that matter. It must be stopped.
It is a fascinating geo-political question in many cases. Everyone lives on land previously owned by others. Leaving purchases aside, they live on land previously taken by someone else. It is only recently (maybe 100 years) that we have begun to think of borders as static (or, in our southern border; non-existent) and reject the right of conquest which most people on the planet accepted and many still do. Hell, the entire Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is specifically a product of right by conquest and it's only about 100 years old.
The slippery slope issue depends on persistence and power. The Israelis had a lot of the former but little of the latter until 50 years ago.
Israel is unique. We can trace their occupation and right of ownership back well over 2500 years ago. Ownership by divine grant and by conquest. Few places are so densely and richly adorned with that type of tradition.
What Israel has done with their tiny state is nothing short of remarkable.
The big problems they face includes Iran, a terrifying acceptance by westerners of Hamas propaganda, and being surrounded by hundreds of millions of Arab Muslims who consider Jews fighting Persians (by proxy) a win win situation. It's pretty clear that the Muslim states in the region have little interest in the Palestinians outside of them harassing Israel. After all, no state has welcomed them into their country. The Abraham Accords hopefully will help. But our recent foreign policy and condemnation of the de facto ruler of KSA may have a ring of being morally upright, but it came with a heavy cost, KSA cozying up to Iran. Iran remains the largest exporter of violence and instability in the region.
Thank you, Rupa, for simply relaying unvarnished statements from those you interviewed. (That that is somehow unusual in today’s press is itself a sad commentary.) I also appreciated how you leavened their comments with historical fact and context. The entire piece was a refreshing point-counterpoint and this is why I subscribe to the free press.
“Everyone I spoke with said the political entity of Israel had to be wiped off the map, but they were unclear about what should happen to the Jews living there. When I asked Abdullah and his friends, including a woman who only agreed to speak with me off-camera, where the Jews should immigrate to, they were vague.”
“They should go back to their country.”
I can’t even begin to wrap my head around a statement like this. Mind boggling.
A major problem I see emerging on the left is that words are losing their sense of meaning with disturbing rapidity. Words that used to have meaning like "violence" or "phobia", or in this article "genocide" and "ethnic cleansing". Extreme language, and its misuse, is becoming the status quo on the left. What is surprising is that one needs only be the most naive observer to know that Israel is not in the midst of a genocide against Arabs, American police are not in the midst of a genocide against black Americans, or that "the patriarchy" isn't working so well with women graduating from college at twice the rate of men, etc. Even stranger, often the people leveling these accusations are either (a) engaging in precisely the behavior they claim to be denouncing (all the cancellation/bullying from the micro-aggression obsessed left) and/or (b) being leveled at the people that are actually the victims of the charge, not the perpetrators (as far as I can tell, Jews have fended off more real genocides than any other group... so, now they're genocidal I guess?..)
The level of miseducation of these people has, alas, no cure. They deny such basic facts (like the historical and archeology presence of Jews in Judea and Samaria for thousands of years) that there is no set of common principles to build a debate with them upon.
Thus group of protesters are very young and very ignorant. If they have such contempt for the Jewish state then pick up a weapon and go to Gaza. No, they march the streets of free countries with bullhorns claiming they know the truth. They want others to listen to them when they don’t listen at all.
“The marchers tended to romanticize the land of Palestine before the arrival of the Zionists in the late 1800s, portraying it as a harmonious blend of Muslims, Christians, and Jews. Zionism, they insisted, was little more than “white supremacy.””
Perhaps this is confusion about Ashkenazi from Eastern Europe coming home after 1900 years in exile. They are light skinned and do pass as white.
ummm- genetically I believe they are white? I think (at least up until recently) there were technically only 3 identifiable racial groups- Negroid, Mongoloid and Caucasian. Different ethnic groups are some combination of the 3. Arabs were previously considered "white"(as were Eastern hemisphere Indians). It is only more recently when being "white" is considered "bad" and there are advantages to being "non-white"that we have everyone declaring themselves as something other.
People need to go back in history and understand that Jewish people lived in the levant before prophet Mohammed was born. The area was ruled by different entities over the years. It was a part of the Ottoman empire until the WW1, then under a British mandate. The myth created and not questioned that Jewish people came from somewhere else and pushed out Palestinians is not accurate.
These worshippers of terrorists seem all to share the common traits of stupidity, gullibility and ugliness. Canada has made a huge error in admitting them. Why do we?
“But then, in 1967, during the Six-Day War, Israel captured Gaza from Egypt in a stunning military victory.”
I don’t know the exact history, but it would appear to me that when Israel returned the Sinai Desert to Egypt, Gaza should have been part of the deal. Perhaps Egypt didn’t want it.
This is long but a background as to why no Arab countries want to provide refuge to the Palestinians:
Why don’t other Arab countries want Palestinians to come as refugees? Why then does Australia want them? - text copied from Quora:
Well something called Black September in 1970.
Basically after the 6-Day War in 1967, Israel occupied the West Bank, forcing the Palestine feedayen to relocate to Jordan, where they began to launch large scale attacks on Israel.
Israel retaliated, leading to the Battle of Karameh in 1968, against a combined PLO and Jordanian Armed Forces. While Israel destroyed the Karameh camp, one of PLO’s centers in Jordan, they ultimately had to retreat, leaving to both sides claiming their victory. So far, so good.
The Arab world now began to back PLO, pouring in aid, arms, as the PLO grew rapidly, and by 1970 it began to aim for the overthrow of the Hashemite Monarchy in Jordan. I mean just consider this, you have been rendered homeless, the ruler of a country gives you asylum, helps you in the war, and you try to overthrow him.
It is like what we say in Hindi, “Jis thaali mein khaatha hai, usi mein thookta hai”( Spit in the same plate, you eat from). The Palestinians began to run a parallel state, openly cocking a snook at Jordanian laws, they actually attempted to assasinate Hussein, yes the very same King Hussein who had given them shelter.
Hussein had enough of it and was seeking to kick them out, but was wary of Arab nations intervening, especially Syria, which had no love lost for Jordan. However when the Palestinians hijacked 3 civilian airliners, evacuated the passengers, and blew them up in what was called the Dawson’s Field Hijackings, Hussein had enough.
Dawson's Field hijackings - Wikipedia
1970 Palestinian militant plane hijackings "Dawson Field" redirects here. Not to be confused with Dawson Airport . In September 1970, members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) hijacked four airliners bound for New York City and one for London . Three aircraft were forced to land at Dawson's Field , a remote desert airstrip near Zarqa , Jordan , formerly Royal Air Force Station Zarqa, which then became PFLP's "Revolutionary Airport". By the end of the incident, one hijacker had been killed and one injury reported. This was the second instance of mass aircraft hijacking, after an escape from communist Czechoslovakia in 1950. On 6 September, TWA Flight 741 from Frankfurt (a Boeing 707 ) and Swissair Flight 100 from Zürich (a Douglas DC-8 ) were forced to land at Dawson's Field. [1] [2] On the same day, the hijacking of El Al Flight 219 from Amsterdam (another 707) was foiled: hijacker Patrick Argüello was shot and killed, and his partner Leila Khaled was subdued and handed over to British authorities in London. Two PFLP hijackers, who were prevented from boarding the El Al flight, hijacked instead Pan Am Flight 93, a Boeing 747 , diverting the large plane first to Beirut and then to Cairo , rather than to the small Jordanian airstrip. On 9 September, a fifth plane, BOAC Flight 775, a Vickers VC10 coming from Bahrain, was hijacked by a PFLP sympathizer and taken to Dawson's Field in order to pressure the British to free Khaled. While the majority of the 310 hostages were transferred to Amman and freed on 11 September, the PFLP segregated the flight crews and Jewish passengers, keeping the 56 Jewish hostages in custody, while releasing the non-Jews. Six hostages in particular were kept because they were men and American citizens, not necessarily Jews: Robert Norman Schwartz, a U.S. Defense Department researcher stationed in Thailand; James Lee Woods, Schwartz's assistant and security detail; Gerald Berkowitz, an American-born Jew and college chemistry professor; Rabbi Avraham Harari-Raful and his brother Rabbi Yosef Harari-Raful, two Sephardi Brooklyn school teachers; and John Hollingsworth, a U.S. State Department employee. Schwartz, whose father was Jewish, was a convert to Catholicism. [3] [4] [5] On 12 September, prior to their announced deadline, the PFLP used explosives to destroy the empty planes, as they anticipated a counterstrike. [1] The PFLP's exploitation of Jordanian territory was an example of the increasingly autonomous Arab Palestinian activity within the Kingdom of Jordan – a serious challenge to the Hashemite monarchy of King Hussein . Hussein declared martial law on 16 September and from 17 to 27 September his forces deployed into Palestinian-controlled areas in what became known as Black September in Jordan , nearly triggering a regional war involving Syria , Iraq , and Israel . A swift Jordanian victory, however, enabled a 30 September deal in which the remaining PFLP hostages were released in exchange f
By September 1970, Jordanian Army surrounded the cities having a signifcant PLO presence, shelled the refugee camps. Syria sent a 10,000 strong unit in support of the Palestinians, however they were thoroughly routed by the Jordanian forces. By July 1971, the Jordanian armed forces kicked out the Palestinians, one by one, and around 2000 fedayeen surrendered, ending the conflict.
It did not end there, the Palestinian refugees moved to Lebanon to seek refuge there. Till then it was one of the more peaceful, liberal countries in the Middle East, with a diverse population of Christians, Sunni, Shias and Druze. The influx of Palestinians tilted the demographics in favor of the Muslims. And soon it led to a conflict between the Maronite Christian forces and the Palestinians, that led to a civil war, which raged for 15 years, devastating the country, left 150,000 dead, and a large scale exodus mostly of Lebanese Christians.
Incidentally porn star Mia Khalifa, was one of the Lebanese Christians, forced to leave the country, and settled in US. It’s another thing that nowadays she speaks for the Palestinians.
Even after the Taif Agreement of 1989, PLO refused to abide by the terms, and it was after the Battle of Sidon in 1991, that the Lebanese Govt, finally kicked them out.
So as we have seen, that is two fellow Arab nations that had to get into a messy conflict, after taking in the Palestinian refugees.
Other Arab nations have their own issues, Egypt is wary of taking them in as they usually mix with the radical Muslim Brotherhood and sundry Islamists, turning out to be a security risk.
When Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1990, Yasser Arafat backed him, leading to Saudi, Kuwait, and all the Gulf nations totally pissed off. This when they had sheltered most of the Palestinian refugees.
And that comes to this guy, often hailed as a moderate, wise statesman, another guy on whom the Nobel Peace Prize was wasted.
Yasser Arafat was a bloody, manipulative crook, who was responsible for Black September in Jordan and the Lebanese Civil War. It was only later on that he recognized he could no longer fight Israel, and sought a two state solution. Anyway more on him later.
The fact is Palestinians have been their own worst enemy, led by crooks like Arafat or medieval barbarians like the Hamas. They got too greedy for their own good in Jordan, which had given them asylum, they went to Lebanon and stoked up a civil war there. Would you blame other Arab nations for not taking them in.
Sidenote. I was in my early 20's back in the early 1980's and taking classes in polisci at the University of Houston. There was a lecture with question and answer scheduled with a few reps from Arafat's PLO. The guy I was dating came with me and I was completely open to hearing their information. It was one of those big lecture halls and it was full. The things they said made no sense and I felt like I was in a magic horror show with smoke bombs everywhere. I looked sideways and my date looked like he was in a trance. I looked around the hall and it was the same with every face I looked at but one, and he was a middle-aged guy in a yarmulke. We locked eyes for a bit, connecting over not being hypnotized, and nodded to each other. It was hard to accept that there were only 2 of us in that entire hall. The faces around me looked like something out of a scifi, like they were gone. The scary thing is the PLO males weren't even trying hard. It was a clown show. I wish there was a way to vaccinate people from turning off their brains.
Good history lesson, thank you bringing this forward. Makes sense in todays context. Arabs have a very good memory.
If you go back further, just after WWI, to when the British designated the British Mandate for Palestine. You’ll see that there was an Arab Palestine portion, for Arabs. But the Hashemite King, now Jordan, convinced the British to give that land to his people because of favors to the Allies during the war (the Hashemites defeated the Ottomans in Mecca). So actually, the Palestinians do have a dispute with the King of Jordan. Because of this, the remaining part of the Mandate, Jewish Palestine was then “partitioned” by the UN for the Jews and Arabs in 1947. Hence the battle over Israel that we see today.
Thank you for putting this into perspective. I have vague recollections of the hijackings etc. but at that time in my young life-I was more concerned w/ what shampoo might fix my split ends, than issues in the middle-east!
Holy cow! Every word is true. All my thought exposed to the world! Everyday I wonder why all these protester are here? How the leftist lie at every stage and at every universities! Even the leftist has infected the Democratic Party and all branches of government. Let’s not leave out the MSM and social media. I wonder everyday, “has the world gone mad?” How can sane people tolerate this garbage? How could these lies be perpetrated? Maybe because l’m old that I question everything.
Finally someone who tells the truth. Excellent response. Thank you!
I cannot speak to the character of all people at the rally, nor does this presentation. However, WOW the folks that are being represented here are simply ignorant and from what I can see doing nothing but virtue signaling. None of these folks is even speaking with any real conviction. I'd be surprised if these same people, when planning their weekend, don't simply look around for any progressive agenda event and that's where they go. They probably have thin understandings of the history, the nuance, and the context anything. It's not about the particular event, it's just a signal to them.
Thank you for documenting these people and what they say, Rupa. What a dirty job but a necessary job to do.
I can not even imagine what an Israeli or a Jew feels seeing these arguments coming from real people these days… but boy, these voices and these faces will be a lesson
I strongly support Israel in this conflict, but if you think that Muslims and Christians have equal economic opportunity in modern Israel, then you are utterly delusional. I think that Muslims and Christians exaggerate freely and willingly the impositions of the Israeli state, but they aren't lying about the fact that they have de fact exclusion from the economic prosperity enjoyed in Italy. Much of this is because many of them live behind the wall... which Israel had to put up because they kept getting bombed. Love all the peoples in this land, wishing for peace.
The ones behind the wall are residents of the Palestinian Authority and not of Israel. They vote in the Palestinian Authority, the PA has ministries of education, health, welfare, etc. Please do not conflate those in the PA with Muslims and Christians in Israel.
the ethnic breakdown statistics she cited are from Israel plus Palestine or Israel minus Palestine? Do you count the Jews living in the West Bank as Israeli? That was unclear. Regardless, even outside the wall, it's clear that the economic opportunities are different. Ultra-Orthodox Jews often punish the government if they seem them as favoring religious minorities, and then they exact the price tag. I am behind Israel's war against Iran-proxy terror, but we can't pretend like the monetary and cultural advantages enjoyed by Jews in Israel aren't _very_ substantial. This isn't to say that others don't have rights, it's just not exactly a utopia, and the same resentments you see in the US are going to be seen over there.
I don't get where you say that the Ultra-Orthodox punish the government if they see them as favouring religious minorities. Give an example.
And price-tag is a totally different phenomenon -- it is vigilantism not supported by the government or the rest of the country, vigilantism when Jewish communities in Judea-Samaria are attacked by Palestinian Arabs and not protected by the Israeli army.
There are many problems within Israel and we are much louder than the rest of the world in protesting what is wrong here. But while we are fighting a war it is not the time to look at that. Israelis have come together in amazing ways to fight the enemy that sees even those living in Haifa and Tel Aviv as occupiers.
Price-tag is when ultra-Orthodox vandalize public property., totally not supported by the government, but it constrains the government because they get punished when favoring outside groups: https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2014/may/price-tag-israeli-extremists-target-christians.html I hear you that Israel is pretty good about protesting things - however, if we are trying to promote the idea of Israel as a multicultural utopia, we run the risk of going too far if it runs up-against people's common-sense perceptions. I think it should be acknowledged, and I have no idea how often it is, but things aren't always great for religious minorities living in the Israeli territory outside of the Palestinian authority. I totally side with Israel on most things, and the protests against the evictions in Jerusalem were totally drummed-up controversies based on nothing valid. However, there are other issues--many of them likely caused by Jewish israeli's being so preoccupied with Palestinian questions and literal survival, and they aren't given as much attention. Also, there is a very difficult job inside of Israel of keeping ultra-Orthodox and secular Jews on something resembling the same page.
They are not vandalizing public property -- they vandalize Arab property. Vandalization is wrong. Period.
I read the part of the article you linked to that I could open. Because you sparked my interest, I read this article that gives even more information. https://www.jpost.com/christianworld/article-753659 I agree that something has to change and it is not enough for us to pride ourselves on the fact that Christian lives are safer in Israel than in the Palestinian Authority. For example, Bethlehem and Ramallah used to be Christian majority cities and now there are barely any there.
Nobody is saying Israel is a utopia of any kind. We struggle to be a decent place for all to live in.
I think that one of the reasons they are moving from certain areas (out of Palestine) is economic opportunity, not oppression from Muslims. But, I only spoke to Arab Christians in a few places, I didn't meet with anything like 500 familities. However, point taken, if I were a Christian I would choose Israel over West Bank based upon a far greater disgust with PA activities compared to mild disapproval of Israeli activities - I would do this even if live was easier in the West Bank... but of course, it would never be _my_ decision, but that of my family.
I am not a Jew. I have never been to Israel. I have no religious convictions of any kind. I’m an American of mixed European descent from a family that’s lived in New England since it was a British colony. Technically I have no dog in this fight. Why, then, am I having such a visceral reaction of anger and disappointment to the anti-Israel rallies being held outside my door and in cities and college campuses across the country? A better question is: why isn’t everyone?
The people attending these rallies will tell you that they are not pro-Hamas, merely anti-Israel. Their timing and their rhetoric say otherwise. What I witnessed, what the world witnessed, were crowds of people gleefully celebrating the slaughter of 1,400 Jews before their families could even recover their bodies. They did this carrying signs that read “from the river to the sea” and “by any means necessary” and, in some cases, openly chanting “gas the jews”. Surely any reasonable, empathetic person would be appalled at this display. Apparently not. Surely those in the media who are quick to condemn celebrities who misuse pronouns will also condemn those who celebrate terrorism. Apparently not. Surely those college administrators who routinely censure professors for failing to tread ever-so-lightly on the ever-more-fragile sensibilities of their students will not allow an unambiguously racist rally on their campus to go without comment. Apparently not.
Most of the people attending these rallies make some effort to obscure their identity with scarves, hats, sunglasses and surgical masks. They will tell you this is to protect themselves from the retribution of the authorities. That’s what klansmen say about their hoods. If you are lucky enough to live in a society where freedom of speech is a constitutional right you should have the courage of your conviction and make your case openly, even if you are arguing on behalf of those who would deny that freedom to others.
My father, who was a homicide detective for thirty years, once told me that the reason there are two sides to every story is usually because one side is lying. Those who would argue that it is the Israelis who are actually to blame for the recent attacks are either deceived or dissembling. Israel has repeatedly, for nearly eighty years, offered the Palestinians nearly everything they’ve asked in exchange for peace and been repeatedly rebuffed. Hamas does not want peace, they want genocide. They are not obfuscating about this, they proclaim it openly, repeatedly, and in writing. We should believe them. They’ve been offered peace, they’ve been offered independence and self governance, they’ve received billions in international aid and their position remains the same: they will not be appeased by anything short of the annihilation of the Jewish people. You can not negotiate with someone whose only demand is that you not exist.
Israel is, of course, like any nation, not without fault, but the overwhelming share of blame for the suffering of the people of Gaza falls on Hamas. If you attack your neighbors while hiding behind innocent women and children, you are responsible when those women and children are harmed, not the people you attacked. The people of Gaza continue to suffer because Hamas benefits from their suffering. The elected leadership of Gaza has, for years, deflected resources away from infrastructure, education, healthcare and basic human services and into weapons, missiles and tunnels. This is a win-win strategy for Hamas, they get the arsenal needed for their holy war and they get to blame the resulting suffering on Israel. It is barbaric, cynical and, thanks to the collusion of useful idiots in mass-media and academia, a very effective strategy.
In a way the anti-Israel rallies on college campuses should surprise no one. American academia has, in recent years, become a bastion of illiberal rhetoric. Its proponents have wormed their way in through the great loophole of liberal ideology which goes something like this: In order to be a good liberal one must be tolerant of the beliefs and practices of other people - even when those beliefs and practices are violently intolerant. This, in turn, has led to systemic rot in our academic discourse, a kind of moral cowardice which insists that there is no objective right and wrong and all sides of any argument must be equally legitimate by virtue of existing. The reality is that Israel, with all its many flaws, remains a democratic state in which personal and religious freedom are guaranteed by law regardless of race, gender or sexual orientation whereas a state governed by Hamas would resemble what the Taliban has created in Afghanistan. Why must we insist on pretending this doesn’t matter?
The people attending these rallies will tell you that the real issue is the disproportionate use of force by Israel. What would an appropriate Israeli response to what happened on October 7th look like? What does ‘appropriate’ even mean in the face of such unimaginable brutality? The unfortunate reality is that any response which leaves Hamas in control of any part of Gaza will guarantee future terrorist atrocities. A so-called ‘proportional response’ from Israel will only assure they will be attacked again. A proportional response to the confederate attack on Fort Sumter in 1861 would have left nearly four million people to languish in slavery. A proportional response to the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor would have done nothing to stem the tide of aggression from the Japanese and their German allies. Why is Israel, and only Israel, held to a different standard of self defense than every other nation on earth and in history? How can Americans tell the free citizens of a democratic nation that they have no right to defend themselves when threatened by fascists with extermination?
Attempts to apportion blame in this conflict become moot at some point and here’s why: The moment you embrace kidnapping, torture, rape and the murder of civilians, infants, the elderly, women and children as a valid means of expressing your grievance or achieving your goals, you have foregone the right to ask sympathy or support from any civilized person or state.
Fifty years ago Golda Meir famously said “If the Arabs put down their weapons today, there would be no more violence, if the Jews put down their weapons today, there would be no more Israel.” It was true then and it remains true. It’s a statement that no honest person can dispute. And yes, it matters.
Matt- Bari should publish your post. It is eloquent and clear-headed. Thank you!!
Bari, I second that this should be published!
And I third the nomination. This is the most wonderful comment. I took screen shots of it so I can memorize all of it. So clearly stated, wonderfully thought out and based strictly on facts, not on identity-crazed passion or political propaganda. This person, or someone as equally well spoken and articulate is who we need standing at the front of college classrooms. Not those that continue to encourage division, hatred and stereotypes. Not those that have the nerve to ask all the Jewish students to stand on one side of the room and ask the non Jewish students to stand on the other, and then point out “this is what the Israelis have been doing to the Palestinians for decades”.
The rallies you speak of should scare all Americans. Their attendees do not assimilate and have no plans to. They are not loyal to America’s founding principals. The problems European cities are experiencing today are festering here in the US, waiting quietly, growing.
Thank you for speaking out.
I am, indeed, officially scared. I actually have been scared by the ascendance of this perverted DEI ideology for a long time, but I couldn't - and still can't - convince those around me. You see, having grown up in USSR, I knew this rot the moment I caught the first whiff. I wonder now if there's enough healthy tissue left in America to survive this.
Well worth re-reading Theodore Roosevelt's thoughts on being an American. It means embracing the American culture, people, mores and flag.
These people do none of that. Think Tlaib, Omar, et al. They do not belong in America.
Tlaib and Omar should be deported.
Omar definitely should be deported. She's guilty of immigration fraud and needs to go.
Tlaib was supposedly born here but, if even possible, is more vile and anti-American than Omar. She certainly needs to be expelled from the House, at minimum.
you are so right
All one need do is to to look at Western Europe and devastating waves of "refugees" who have zero intention of assimilating, let alone zero gratitude for their host nation and its people. Sweden and France come immediately to mind, but really this has metastasized across the entire continent. America is next.
Sadly, I agree.
Thanks, Matt. I too am a non-Jew viscerally angered and frightened almost beyond reason by the weasel-worded tolerance of antisemitism by academic, corporate and political leaders.
It all boils down to the vile lie that oppressed people have the right to do anything they want (“by any means necessary”). They don’t - no one is above morality.
If the murderous history of Stalinism proves anything, it’s that the means will corrupt the ends every time, if you do not employ moral means.
I am a fellow non-Jew similarly appalled by what is happening and scared as only a Soviet immigrant can be.
There is a new article in Jon Heidt substack “After Babel” today in which he acutely noted that the campuses shameful spectacle of silence is not about anti semitistm; it is about fear. I agree with him, it is a trivial, shameful, repulsive cowardice. That’s it.
But it supports anti-semitism we are witnessing in this potpourri collected by Rupa..
Martin Luther King is a shining example of someone who did not embrace “by any means necessary.” A man of integrity.
"A kind of moral cowardice which insists that there is no objective right and wrong and all sides of any argument must be equally legitimate by virtue of existing." Moral cowardice is the problem. I have no problem seeing gray areas in life, but I also have no problem with seeing some things in black and white. There's been a century long push by the sociopaths in our society to break people down and remove all personal boundaries. It started as a steady drip and the drip is now a flood. Notice how the word "nuance" seems to be everywhere these days? If all is "nuanced," then one can't make the statement that slaughtering civilians and torturing and murdering children in their homes is evil. There's no male and female because sex is "nuanced." Age of consent is "nuanced." Then there's the tendency to excuse all away with youthful activism. Anyone of any age that is celebrating this slaughter is not excused and is not welcome near me. Your father, the homicide detective, no doubt understood the mentality of killers and other criminals and the signs displayed in their youth. This is one of my black and white moments.
Thank you Matt. I am Jewish and so appreciate the people who take the time to become educated and display the bravery to speak out. I am devastated by the hatred i am seeing and my children are experiencing. It is unlike anything i could have ever imagined. So thank you.
This is so eloquently well-written, thank you.
You pointed out what I've noticed too: the agitators on the side of "Correct Think" on the Left for some reasons are always hiding their faces. It's the same with these anti-Israel protestors, and the Antifa misogynists protesting against the few women daring to stick their necks out to openly rally against trans ideology obliteration women's rights. They always have their full faces covered, while no one rallying on the Israeli side do. And no women who are branded "bigot", "Nazis", "fascist" who they accused to have committed the gravest sin of wrongthink ever cover their faces either. This is how, for all the self-righteous proclamation of moral superiority, which side is actually on the right side of history.
Thank G-d for honest, clear thinking people like you!
Matt Pepper...I have no idea how old you are, but I hope you have procreated, are currently procreating or have plans to have children in the future. You should have a thousand children to spread your critical thinking genes and your ability to articulate your moral argument for good. Your essay is refreshing and and gives hope. Bravo...
I am am a Jew, an old one. I have many dogs in this flight plus 8 grandchildren. Thank you Matt and other replies. You have given me reasons to smile this morning.
This is brilliant. Thank you. My only addition is regarding our academic institutions, whose "systematic rot" you note accurately. What I add after noting the comments of those at this Ottawa rally (typical of what you hear everywhere at these rallies) is the unbelievable historical IGNORANCE of these people. Just about every "fact" they offer in justification of their indifference to this Hamas pogrom is totally wrong. I have spent my career creating history curriculum materials for middle and high school students, and to witness the absence of any sort of actual past reality in these mostly young people's brains is painful to watch. What a colossal failure of our educational system.
I am afraid that "colossal failure" is a feature and not a bug in the system. To lie by omission is still a lie and a half-truth is the most effective lie.
Excellent and well written post. Thank you:) My family hails from northern India, I too, have no dog in this fight. But I stand with Israel for all the reasons you have mentioned. Couldn't have said it better.
Damn Matt Pepper, you should write for the NYT. Oh, nevermind …..you don’t equivocate.
Don’t insult Matt. He is far too eloquent and level-headed for that publication.
The best comment I've ever read on this site. To the handfull of serial commenters who feel the need to comment multiple times on every single piece on this site this is how it's done.
Where are the counter protests?
What happened to all the "anti racist" Floyd demonstrators?
I thought they wanted to make a public stand opposing racism?
Some racism is more equal than other racism.
I wish I could restock this comment
Mic drop.
I find debate over what ethnic or religious group of people have the original claim to a piece of land as impossible as it is dangerous—the truth is that every inch of this planet has been fought over since the first caveman realized that the grass was greener over the next hill, so determining who bares the original sin is impossible. What matters most now is that the Jews are there, have been for half a century, and they are a beacon of liberal democracy and human rights in a region of the world that almost totally lacks both. The slippery slop of this "my people used to own this, so I have a right to take it back" way of thinking is dangerous—it could just as easily be used to justify horrible atrocities here in the US, or anywhere else for that matter. It must be stopped.
"...the original claim..."
It is a fascinating geo-political question in many cases. Everyone lives on land previously owned by others. Leaving purchases aside, they live on land previously taken by someone else. It is only recently (maybe 100 years) that we have begun to think of borders as static (or, in our southern border; non-existent) and reject the right of conquest which most people on the planet accepted and many still do. Hell, the entire Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is specifically a product of right by conquest and it's only about 100 years old.
The slippery slope issue depends on persistence and power. The Israelis had a lot of the former but little of the latter until 50 years ago.
Israel is unique. We can trace their occupation and right of ownership back well over 2500 years ago. Ownership by divine grant and by conquest. Few places are so densely and richly adorned with that type of tradition.
What Israel has done with their tiny state is nothing short of remarkable.
The big problems they face includes Iran, a terrifying acceptance by westerners of Hamas propaganda, and being surrounded by hundreds of millions of Arab Muslims who consider Jews fighting Persians (by proxy) a win win situation. It's pretty clear that the Muslim states in the region have little interest in the Palestinians outside of them harassing Israel. After all, no state has welcomed them into their country. The Abraham Accords hopefully will help. But our recent foreign policy and condemnation of the de facto ruler of KSA may have a ring of being morally upright, but it came with a heavy cost, KSA cozying up to Iran. Iran remains the largest exporter of violence and instability in the region.
The Corded Ware culture has been robbed, my friend, robbed!
So have the boat shaped ax culture. But whataya gonna do? Probably reparations, right?
My mother is part boat-shaped ax culture, so I am totally with you! I want my amphoras of olive oil and feral animal skins as reparations, NOW!
My mother was a hamster! Reparations, sans feral animal skins please?
Thank you, Rupa, for simply relaying unvarnished statements from those you interviewed. (That that is somehow unusual in today’s press is itself a sad commentary.) I also appreciated how you leavened their comments with historical fact and context. The entire piece was a refreshing point-counterpoint and this is why I subscribe to the free press.
So refreshing!
“Everyone I spoke with said the political entity of Israel had to be wiped off the map, but they were unclear about what should happen to the Jews living there. When I asked Abdullah and his friends, including a woman who only agreed to speak with me off-camera, where the Jews should immigrate to, they were vague.”
“They should go back to their country.”
I can’t even begin to wrap my head around a statement like this. Mind boggling.
🤯
A major problem I see emerging on the left is that words are losing their sense of meaning with disturbing rapidity. Words that used to have meaning like "violence" or "phobia", or in this article "genocide" and "ethnic cleansing". Extreme language, and its misuse, is becoming the status quo on the left. What is surprising is that one needs only be the most naive observer to know that Israel is not in the midst of a genocide against Arabs, American police are not in the midst of a genocide against black Americans, or that "the patriarchy" isn't working so well with women graduating from college at twice the rate of men, etc. Even stranger, often the people leveling these accusations are either (a) engaging in precisely the behavior they claim to be denouncing (all the cancellation/bullying from the micro-aggression obsessed left) and/or (b) being leveled at the people that are actually the victims of the charge, not the perpetrators (as far as I can tell, Jews have fended off more real genocides than any other group... so, now they're genocidal I guess?..)
👏🏻👏🏻
Spot on.
The level of miseducation of these people has, alas, no cure. They deny such basic facts (like the historical and archeology presence of Jews in Judea and Samaria for thousands of years) that there is no set of common principles to build a debate with them upon.
Thus group of protesters are very young and very ignorant. If they have such contempt for the Jewish state then pick up a weapon and go to Gaza. No, they march the streets of free countries with bullhorns claiming they know the truth. They want others to listen to them when they don’t listen at all.
and they LOVE being on camera!! 15 mins. of fame!
The only source of news that I've found where you actually get educated reading the comments!
“The marchers tended to romanticize the land of Palestine before the arrival of the Zionists in the late 1800s, portraying it as a harmonious blend of Muslims, Christians, and Jews. Zionism, they insisted, was little more than “white supremacy.””
Perhaps this is confusion about Ashkenazi from Eastern Europe coming home after 1900 years in exile. They are light skinned and do pass as white.
How sadly uninformed is this generation.
ummm- genetically I believe they are white? I think (at least up until recently) there were technically only 3 identifiable racial groups- Negroid, Mongoloid and Caucasian. Different ethnic groups are some combination of the 3. Arabs were previously considered "white"(as were Eastern hemisphere Indians). It is only more recently when being "white" is considered "bad" and there are advantages to being "non-white"that we have everyone declaring themselves as something other.
Yes, my reference is to the current wave of language used by those infected with the woke mind virus.
I get it Brian-- I'm just trying to remind us how foolish this distinction of white vs everyone else is!
I agree 1000%.
People need to go back in history and understand that Jewish people lived in the levant before prophet Mohammed was born. The area was ruled by different entities over the years. It was a part of the Ottoman empire until the WW1, then under a British mandate. The myth created and not questioned that Jewish people came from somewhere else and pushed out Palestinians is not accurate.
These worshippers of terrorists seem all to share the common traits of stupidity, gullibility and ugliness. Canada has made a huge error in admitting them. Why do we?
“But then, in 1967, during the Six-Day War, Israel captured Gaza from Egypt in a stunning military victory.”
I don’t know the exact history, but it would appear to me that when Israel returned the Sinai Desert to Egypt, Gaza should have been part of the deal. Perhaps Egypt didn’t want it.
This is long but a background as to why no Arab countries want to provide refuge to the Palestinians:
Why don’t other Arab countries want Palestinians to come as refugees? Why then does Australia want them? - text copied from Quora:
Well something called Black September in 1970.
Basically after the 6-Day War in 1967, Israel occupied the West Bank, forcing the Palestine feedayen to relocate to Jordan, where they began to launch large scale attacks on Israel.
Israel retaliated, leading to the Battle of Karameh in 1968, against a combined PLO and Jordanian Armed Forces. While Israel destroyed the Karameh camp, one of PLO’s centers in Jordan, they ultimately had to retreat, leaving to both sides claiming their victory. So far, so good.
The Arab world now began to back PLO, pouring in aid, arms, as the PLO grew rapidly, and by 1970 it began to aim for the overthrow of the Hashemite Monarchy in Jordan. I mean just consider this, you have been rendered homeless, the ruler of a country gives you asylum, helps you in the war, and you try to overthrow him.
It is like what we say in Hindi, “Jis thaali mein khaatha hai, usi mein thookta hai”( Spit in the same plate, you eat from). The Palestinians began to run a parallel state, openly cocking a snook at Jordanian laws, they actually attempted to assasinate Hussein, yes the very same King Hussein who had given them shelter.
Hussein had enough of it and was seeking to kick them out, but was wary of Arab nations intervening, especially Syria, which had no love lost for Jordan. However when the Palestinians hijacked 3 civilian airliners, evacuated the passengers, and blew them up in what was called the Dawson’s Field Hijackings, Hussein had enough.
Dawson's Field hijackings - Wikipedia
1970 Palestinian militant plane hijackings "Dawson Field" redirects here. Not to be confused with Dawson Airport . In September 1970, members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) hijacked four airliners bound for New York City and one for London . Three aircraft were forced to land at Dawson's Field , a remote desert airstrip near Zarqa , Jordan , formerly Royal Air Force Station Zarqa, which then became PFLP's "Revolutionary Airport". By the end of the incident, one hijacker had been killed and one injury reported. This was the second instance of mass aircraft hijacking, after an escape from communist Czechoslovakia in 1950. On 6 September, TWA Flight 741 from Frankfurt (a Boeing 707 ) and Swissair Flight 100 from Zürich (a Douglas DC-8 ) were forced to land at Dawson's Field. [1] [2] On the same day, the hijacking of El Al Flight 219 from Amsterdam (another 707) was foiled: hijacker Patrick Argüello was shot and killed, and his partner Leila Khaled was subdued and handed over to British authorities in London. Two PFLP hijackers, who were prevented from boarding the El Al flight, hijacked instead Pan Am Flight 93, a Boeing 747 , diverting the large plane first to Beirut and then to Cairo , rather than to the small Jordanian airstrip. On 9 September, a fifth plane, BOAC Flight 775, a Vickers VC10 coming from Bahrain, was hijacked by a PFLP sympathizer and taken to Dawson's Field in order to pressure the British to free Khaled. While the majority of the 310 hostages were transferred to Amman and freed on 11 September, the PFLP segregated the flight crews and Jewish passengers, keeping the 56 Jewish hostages in custody, while releasing the non-Jews. Six hostages in particular were kept because they were men and American citizens, not necessarily Jews: Robert Norman Schwartz, a U.S. Defense Department researcher stationed in Thailand; James Lee Woods, Schwartz's assistant and security detail; Gerald Berkowitz, an American-born Jew and college chemistry professor; Rabbi Avraham Harari-Raful and his brother Rabbi Yosef Harari-Raful, two Sephardi Brooklyn school teachers; and John Hollingsworth, a U.S. State Department employee. Schwartz, whose father was Jewish, was a convert to Catholicism. [3] [4] [5] On 12 September, prior to their announced deadline, the PFLP used explosives to destroy the empty planes, as they anticipated a counterstrike. [1] The PFLP's exploitation of Jordanian territory was an example of the increasingly autonomous Arab Palestinian activity within the Kingdom of Jordan – a serious challenge to the Hashemite monarchy of King Hussein . Hussein declared martial law on 16 September and from 17 to 27 September his forces deployed into Palestinian-controlled areas in what became known as Black September in Jordan , nearly triggering a regional war involving Syria , Iraq , and Israel . A swift Jordanian victory, however, enabled a 30 September deal in which the remaining PFLP hostages were released in exchange f
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dawson%27s_Field_hijackings
By September 1970, Jordanian Army surrounded the cities having a signifcant PLO presence, shelled the refugee camps. Syria sent a 10,000 strong unit in support of the Palestinians, however they were thoroughly routed by the Jordanian forces. By July 1971, the Jordanian armed forces kicked out the Palestinians, one by one, and around 2000 fedayeen surrendered, ending the conflict.
It did not end there, the Palestinian refugees moved to Lebanon to seek refuge there. Till then it was one of the more peaceful, liberal countries in the Middle East, with a diverse population of Christians, Sunni, Shias and Druze. The influx of Palestinians tilted the demographics in favor of the Muslims. And soon it led to a conflict between the Maronite Christian forces and the Palestinians, that led to a civil war, which raged for 15 years, devastating the country, left 150,000 dead, and a large scale exodus mostly of Lebanese Christians.
Incidentally porn star Mia Khalifa, was one of the Lebanese Christians, forced to leave the country, and settled in US. It’s another thing that nowadays she speaks for the Palestinians.
Even after the Taif Agreement of 1989, PLO refused to abide by the terms, and it was after the Battle of Sidon in 1991, that the Lebanese Govt, finally kicked them out.
So as we have seen, that is two fellow Arab nations that had to get into a messy conflict, after taking in the Palestinian refugees.
Other Arab nations have their own issues, Egypt is wary of taking them in as they usually mix with the radical Muslim Brotherhood and sundry Islamists, turning out to be a security risk.
When Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1990, Yasser Arafat backed him, leading to Saudi, Kuwait, and all the Gulf nations totally pissed off. This when they had sheltered most of the Palestinian refugees.
And that comes to this guy, often hailed as a moderate, wise statesman, another guy on whom the Nobel Peace Prize was wasted.
Yasser Arafat was a bloody, manipulative crook, who was responsible for Black September in Jordan and the Lebanese Civil War. It was only later on that he recognized he could no longer fight Israel, and sought a two state solution. Anyway more on him later.
The fact is Palestinians have been their own worst enemy, led by crooks like Arafat or medieval barbarians like the Hamas. They got too greedy for their own good in Jordan, which had given them asylum, they went to Lebanon and stoked up a civil war there. Would you blame other Arab nations for not taking them in.
Sidenote. I was in my early 20's back in the early 1980's and taking classes in polisci at the University of Houston. There was a lecture with question and answer scheduled with a few reps from Arafat's PLO. The guy I was dating came with me and I was completely open to hearing their information. It was one of those big lecture halls and it was full. The things they said made no sense and I felt like I was in a magic horror show with smoke bombs everywhere. I looked sideways and my date looked like he was in a trance. I looked around the hall and it was the same with every face I looked at but one, and he was a middle-aged guy in a yarmulke. We locked eyes for a bit, connecting over not being hypnotized, and nodded to each other. It was hard to accept that there were only 2 of us in that entire hall. The faces around me looked like something out of a scifi, like they were gone. The scary thing is the PLO males weren't even trying hard. It was a clown show. I wish there was a way to vaccinate people from turning off their brains.
Good history lesson, thank you bringing this forward. Makes sense in todays context. Arabs have a very good memory.
If you go back further, just after WWI, to when the British designated the British Mandate for Palestine. You’ll see that there was an Arab Palestine portion, for Arabs. But the Hashemite King, now Jordan, convinced the British to give that land to his people because of favors to the Allies during the war (the Hashemites defeated the Ottomans in Mecca). So actually, the Palestinians do have a dispute with the King of Jordan. Because of this, the remaining part of the Mandate, Jewish Palestine was then “partitioned” by the UN for the Jews and Arabs in 1947. Hence the battle over Israel that we see today.
Thank you for putting this into perspective. I have vague recollections of the hijackings etc. but at that time in my young life-I was more concerned w/ what shampoo might fix my split ends, than issues in the middle-east!
Thank you for this information!
correct - Egypt refused to take back Gaza.
Would you want it?
Thank you, only makes sense.
Holy cow! Every word is true. All my thought exposed to the world! Everyday I wonder why all these protester are here? How the leftist lie at every stage and at every universities! Even the leftist has infected the Democratic Party and all branches of government. Let’s not leave out the MSM and social media. I wonder everyday, “has the world gone mad?” How can sane people tolerate this garbage? How could these lies be perpetrated? Maybe because l’m old that I question everything.
Finally someone who tells the truth. Excellent response. Thank you!
I cannot speak to the character of all people at the rally, nor does this presentation. However, WOW the folks that are being represented here are simply ignorant and from what I can see doing nothing but virtue signaling. None of these folks is even speaking with any real conviction. I'd be surprised if these same people, when planning their weekend, don't simply look around for any progressive agenda event and that's where they go. They probably have thin understandings of the history, the nuance, and the context anything. It's not about the particular event, it's just a signal to them.
Thank you for documenting these people and what they say, Rupa. What a dirty job but a necessary job to do.
I can not even imagine what an Israeli or a Jew feels seeing these arguments coming from real people these days… but boy, these voices and these faces will be a lesson
for a lot of people one day. Hopefully.
I strongly support Israel in this conflict, but if you think that Muslims and Christians have equal economic opportunity in modern Israel, then you are utterly delusional. I think that Muslims and Christians exaggerate freely and willingly the impositions of the Israeli state, but they aren't lying about the fact that they have de fact exclusion from the economic prosperity enjoyed in Italy. Much of this is because many of them live behind the wall... which Israel had to put up because they kept getting bombed. Love all the peoples in this land, wishing for peace.
The ones behind the wall are residents of the Palestinian Authority and not of Israel. They vote in the Palestinian Authority, the PA has ministries of education, health, welfare, etc. Please do not conflate those in the PA with Muslims and Christians in Israel.
the ethnic breakdown statistics she cited are from Israel plus Palestine or Israel minus Palestine? Do you count the Jews living in the West Bank as Israeli? That was unclear. Regardless, even outside the wall, it's clear that the economic opportunities are different. Ultra-Orthodox Jews often punish the government if they seem them as favoring religious minorities, and then they exact the price tag. I am behind Israel's war against Iran-proxy terror, but we can't pretend like the monetary and cultural advantages enjoyed by Jews in Israel aren't _very_ substantial. This isn't to say that others don't have rights, it's just not exactly a utopia, and the same resentments you see in the US are going to be seen over there.
The Jews living in Judea-Samaria are Israeli.
I don't get where you say that the Ultra-Orthodox punish the government if they see them as favouring religious minorities. Give an example.
And price-tag is a totally different phenomenon -- it is vigilantism not supported by the government or the rest of the country, vigilantism when Jewish communities in Judea-Samaria are attacked by Palestinian Arabs and not protected by the Israeli army.
There are many problems within Israel and we are much louder than the rest of the world in protesting what is wrong here. But while we are fighting a war it is not the time to look at that. Israelis have come together in amazing ways to fight the enemy that sees even those living in Haifa and Tel Aviv as occupiers.
Price-tag is when ultra-Orthodox vandalize public property., totally not supported by the government, but it constrains the government because they get punished when favoring outside groups: https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2014/may/price-tag-israeli-extremists-target-christians.html I hear you that Israel is pretty good about protesting things - however, if we are trying to promote the idea of Israel as a multicultural utopia, we run the risk of going too far if it runs up-against people's common-sense perceptions. I think it should be acknowledged, and I have no idea how often it is, but things aren't always great for religious minorities living in the Israeli territory outside of the Palestinian authority. I totally side with Israel on most things, and the protests against the evictions in Jerusalem were totally drummed-up controversies based on nothing valid. However, there are other issues--many of them likely caused by Jewish israeli's being so preoccupied with Palestinian questions and literal survival, and they aren't given as much attention. Also, there is a very difficult job inside of Israel of keeping ultra-Orthodox and secular Jews on something resembling the same page.
They are not vandalizing public property -- they vandalize Arab property. Vandalization is wrong. Period.
I read the part of the article you linked to that I could open. Because you sparked my interest, I read this article that gives even more information. https://www.jpost.com/christianworld/article-753659 I agree that something has to change and it is not enough for us to pride ourselves on the fact that Christian lives are safer in Israel than in the Palestinian Authority. For example, Bethlehem and Ramallah used to be Christian majority cities and now there are barely any there.
Nobody is saying Israel is a utopia of any kind. We struggle to be a decent place for all to live in.
Thank-you for your balanced approach. I hear you.
I think that one of the reasons they are moving from certain areas (out of Palestine) is economic opportunity, not oppression from Muslims. But, I only spoke to Arab Christians in a few places, I didn't meet with anything like 500 familities. However, point taken, if I were a Christian I would choose Israel over West Bank based upon a far greater disgust with PA activities compared to mild disapproval of Israeli activities - I would do this even if live was easier in the West Bank... but of course, it would never be _my_ decision, but that of my family.
Italy ?
I meant Israel - they have no prosperity in Israel. In Italy, the Muslims aren't doing too well there, either.