EAST MEREDITH, NY - The current hard-line legislation considered by Israeli lawmakers to ensure "loyalty" of Arab citizens reflects tensions and mistrust on both sides of the Arab-Israeli divide. The climate is leading many to believe that maintaining equality between Arab and Jewish citizens of Israel is unsafe or unnatural.

But this conclusion ignores the past.

Arab anger towards Jews has not always been there. Likewise, Jewish hostility towards Arabs is rather new. Muslims and Jews - both Semitic peoples - coexisted in relative peace for twelve hundred years. Many activists on both sides who work to bridge the widening gap between Jews and Arabs inside Israel and in the West Bank draw encouragement from positive stories of co-existence throughout history.

Most people are now unaware of this legacy. Stories of Muslims who have shown compassion towards Jews during the Holocaust should be more widely known but for some reason remain hidden. In a recent booklet titled "The Role of the Righteous Muslim Persons," Fiyaz Mughal proudly documents stories of Muslims who sheltered Jews in their homes, their farms and their workplaces during the Holocaust. The heroes described in the book were from Arab North Africa and Eastern Europe. One example given by Mughal is that of Si Ali Sakkat: "In Tunis, 60 Jewish internees escaped from an Axis labour camp and knocked on the farm door of Si Ali Sakkat, who took the risk of hiding them until they were saved by the Allies."

This should not come as a surprise, bearing in mind that there had been a thriving Jewish community in the Middle East up until the 1940's and 50's, when contemporary tensions eclipsed a history of co-existence.

In 2006, researcher Robert Satloff published a book entitled "Among the Righteous: ... [Read More]

 

 

July 5, 2010, East Meredith, NY.

America has an ambiguous Middle East policy.

President Obama was elected to introduce change in America and Prime Minister Netanyahu was elected to preserve the status quo in Israel. When Obama receives Netanyahu on July 6, the two leaders will try their best to communicate in harmony. Their last meeting in March was problematic, and their early June encounter was canceled by the bloody events of the Gaza flotilla.

The US president is frustrated with Israel’s intransigence, but he is unable to express his sentiments publicly. He is thinking of next November’s mid-term congressional elections; Jewish electoral support for Obama has always been critical.

As a convener of the peace process, the US is feeling the pressure from both sides. Israel expects America’s support of its occupation policy while the Arabs feel cheated by America’s tolerance of injustice and unfulfilled promises.

Views differ on security. President Obama and his national security team believe that independence for Palestinians is a requirement for lasting Israeli security. In contrast, Prime Minister Netanyahu and his government seem to believe that a devastating military blow to Iran and Hezbollah, and Syria if needed, would establish a stable regional context for dealing with the occupation of Palestinians and their growing national aspirations.

Proximity (indirect) talks between Israel and Palestinians have worsened rather improved the level of confidence. The US wants Israel to discuss final borders of a future Palestinian state and other major issues of the conflict (refugees, Jerusalem, settlements) but Israel has been slow in responding, insisting that Palestinians are not ready for full independence and Iran’s threat remains its primary security issue.

... [Read More]

Occupation of Palestinians hurts Israel

Ghassan Michel Rubeiz, June 19, 2010,

East Meredith

A festering military occupation may end up doing more harm to the occupier than to the occupied. Since 1967, Israel has held tenaciously to the occupied Palestinian territories and to the Syrian Golan Heights.

The 1967 war suddenly made Israel a regional super power. But this sudden change occurred before Israel had matured in the process of state-building. Israel has not yet been able to integrate its Jewish character with its democratic principles; it has no formally proclaimed clear borders. Israel is too busy fighting with Arabs to pay full attention to serious unresolved issues of its identity. The current Israeli news about Ultra-Orthodox Jews of European origin objecting fiercely to their children’s required attendance of schools with Jews of Arab descent is symptomatic of the dormant and explosive issue of Jewish identity.

The 1967 occupation changed Israel from a society that had been creatively busy in building a liberal democracy to one that tries the impossible to rationalize and secure the occupation. This occupation prevents the birth of a Palestinian state, deprives the two neighboring states of Syria and Lebanon from reclaiming lost land and provokes the entire region.

On at least seven accounts Israel is expected by the international community to modify its position: prolonging a military occupation, expanding settlements, building an intrusive wall of separation, annexing territories, maintaining the Gaza siege, launching devastating pre-emptive wars and starting the regional nuclear race. One wonders if Israel is gradually falling into perilous political self isolation through an occupation which it cannot, and should not, sustain.

Despite its highly controversial occupation of vast foreign land, Israel remains an example of a liberal democracy in a regio... [Read More]

EAST MEREDITH, NY - As Arab-Jewish ties in Israel fluctuate they mirror larger regional tensions. The raid on the Gaza flotilla may impact Israel's external relations with Turkey but they are also likely to introduce new significant unknowns into the already complicated relations between Jews and Arabs within Israel.

Overcoming discrimination, the Palestinian citizens of Israel have managed to live in relative peace with their Jewish co-citizens. Although the Arab community is largely separate-living in Arab towns and cities-they share many aspects of their lives with their neighbours.
But attitudes are changing with mounting tensions in the region. A recent study led by Sammy Smooha of the University of Haifa revealed that relations between the 1.5 million Arab Israelis and the five million Jews in Israel have worsened over the past decade. No doubt, the events of the past week have rendered the situation described in the report even worse. Reports that Sheikh Ra'ad Saleh, head of the Northern Branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel, was among the injured, were thankfully mistaken, but these events certainly do not bode well for inter-communal relations in the near future.

Israeli Arabs have generally remained subdued and moderate throughout the years; they have enjoyed the benefits of a constrained democracy and advanced economy, but they suffer serious discrimination in housing, access to resources and political representation.

Yet comparing current sentiments of Israel's Arab minorities to those of 2003, the University of Haifa study revealed that those Arabs who are "unwilling to have a Jewish friend" nearly doubled, from 16 to 29 percent. Sixty-two percent "feared an eventual transfer of Arab communities near the Green Line to Palestinian Authority control, compared to 56 percent in 2003"; those "willing to move to a future Palestinian state r... [Read More]

PALM BEACH GARDENS, Florida - The Mideast peace "proximity talks" are a step backward from years of direct negotiations. The ethnic Diasporas in the United States have both helped and hindered the resolution of the conflict. Stuck in a cycle of self-serving advocacy, each side assumes the adversary to be misguided. Biased and unconditional support of idealised roots in the grim realities of the Middle East has helped to perpetuate a fratricidal scenario. Could this cycle be reversed? Is it unrealistic to envision Arabs, Jews and Muslims in America joining forces in support of Middle East peace?

Well, miracles do occur. Years ago, President Sadat of Egypt made a stunning and unexpected visit to Israel, once he had seen the futility of the status quo. The "miracle" was a peace treaty between Israel and Egypt. Although critics of Sadat considered this to be capitulation, supporters felt that this Arab statesman generated a lasting momentum of reconciliation.

Today, one hopes that the threat of a new regional war would set the stage for a historic surprise, possibly a Sadat-like game-changing event. The status quo cannot hold. Ending the conflict would protect Israel from the inevitable moral and material hazard of the occupation, improve the regional climate for US relations with the Arab world and satisfy the national aspirations of Palestinians.

If the Middle East linked Diasporas in America would think outside the box, they could help save the peace process. America's genius is in its integrated diversity. There is already an appreciable record of inter-communal reconciliation. There is, for example, a national effort to twin 50 mosques with 50 synagogues across the United States and Canada. Last November, mosques and synagogues joined together for a weekend of programmes designed to promote unity and mutual understanding. There are a variety of cooperat... [Read More]

On March 22 Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu defiantly declared to the world that: “there will be no freeze on construction in Jerusalem. Everyone knows it”.  

An enduring occupation requires a high level of arrogance and a poker face in rationalization of injustice.  The international community is well aware that Israel may have reached its limits in “digesting” the occupation demographically. Washington, in particular, is worried about Tel-Aviv’s denial of reality: for every Jew there is an Arab within post 1967 Israel controlled land.

The Israeli government is nervous about a serious shift in the US administration’s attitude towards an extended, worsening and hazardous occupation. The White House expects Israel to freeze illegal building of housing in occupied Palestinian territories and to come to the peace table. But Israel insists that it is not ready to stop building on “liberated” land. Tension between Tel Aviv and Washington is mounting.

The US relationship with Israel has been exceptionally close for years.  Many believe this relationship has in fact turned symbiotic; seemingly the interests of the two states are deemed to be identical.  Recently, however, the leadership of the US military and national security has voiced concerns over this level of closeness to Tel-Aviv and over Washington’s handling of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

[Read More]