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| Secretary of State John Kerry and Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu (JTA) |
Jews get stabbed in Israel and the Secretary of State says
it’s about the settlements.
I am so sick and tired of this nonsense coming out
of the mouths of high ranking officials when it is clear that settlements had
nothing to do with why Jews are being stabbed. Although I have said (and still believe) that
the current spate of terror could have been avoided, the real reason Jews are
being stabbed is because of the Jew hatred instilled in the Arab mind in virtually all
walks of their lives.
Hatred that dates back to pre-state Israel. Hatred that is
preached and taught at all levels of Arab society. In mosques, schools, news and
entertainment media… decades upon decades of it!
When an innocent Jew gets stabbed, the Arab street cheers. When
a rocket from Gaza injures or kills some Jews, the Arab street cheers. When a teenage
suicide bomber blows himself up and takes a few Jews with him, his mother feels
proud.
Settlements?! Jew hatred is part of their culture.
One need not look any further than a miniseries broadcast in
Egypt a few years ago that promoted the ideas contained in the infamous ‘Protocols
of the Elder of Zion’ Jews were portrayed as an evil Cabal plotting to take over the
world by any means necessary. It was no doubt watched by millions of Arabs
who soaked it all in. Children’s programs in the Arab world are rife with antisemitic references
and images.
I’m surprised that there are any Arabs that would see Israel
and the Jewish people in anything but a completely negative light. (There are
such Arabs. They have somehow overcome the propaganda and see the truth. But
most see us the way we are portrayed in their mosques, in their media, and by their political leaders.
Palestinian leaders may pay lip-service to wanting peace
with Israel. And sure – they mention settlements
all the time as the big impediment to peace. But their leaders prefer (and in
many cases advocate) violent resistance - as does Hamas and other Islamist
Jihadists. PA president Mahmoud Abbas renounced the violence but urged
continued peaceful (wink, wink) resistance. Right! Peaceful my foot!
And yet the world – even the US Secretary of State ignores
all of this and at best makes it about moral equivalency. Or worse just blames
it all on Israel – as he did in this JTA article.
And it is all fueled by a media quick to take up the moral
equivalency banner… as though a Palestinian who stab a 70 year old innocent woman is the same thing
as an Israeli soldier or police officer shooting a knife wielding Palestinian
about to attack someone. They are both the same – to the media. And the
American public can’t tell the difference because the trusted news anchors on
TV news are saying it is so.
Kerry claims to be pro-Israel. Well, if he is, he has a
funny way of showing it. Blaming Jews for being stabbed by Arabs does not
instill confidence in that claim.
I know he is America’s chief diplomat. And diplomacy has to
show even handedness. But even handedness does NOT entail blaming one side for
the terror spree against it by the other.
From the JTA article:
“I will go there soon, at some point appropriately, and try to work to reengage and see if we can’t move that away from this precipice,” Kerry said at the Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. “We’re working on trying to calm things down.”
That’s nice. If he really wants to help calm things down, it
would help if he told the truth. It’s not about settlements. (And I am AGAINST
settlement expansion!) It’s about a century old culture of hatred that is constantly
being exacerbated in every corner of the Arab world.
Diplomacy must be based on truth. If Kerry really believes
this is all about settlements, he is completely deluded and incompetent. There
were no settlements when Israel was attacked in 1967 by its Arab neighbors –
who were led by an Egyptian leader threatening to drive the Jews into the sea!
Settlements?! If Kerry was focused instead on Arab hatred
instead of settlements, he would at least be on the right track – even if nowhere
near accomplishing anything.
