The Islamic Winter Blows into Jerusalem

 
by Mordechai Kedar
 
 

Read the article in the original עברית

Read the article in Italiano (translated by Yehudit Weisz, edited by Angelo Pezzana)

One of the biggest complaints of the Syrian regime against the involvement of Qatar in Syria during the past two years is that the Emir of Qatar has been utilizing all of his wealth in fighting the wrong enemy: instead of fighting Israel, which is the true problem of Arabs and Muslims, the Emir of Qatar uses his strength and wealth in a fight against the "resistance" regimes, mainly Syria and Libya, who take a strong stand against Israel and Zionism. Qatar does not usually respond to accusations of this sort, because everyone knows that Israel has always been used to hide the real problems of the Arab and Muslim world, which center around corrupt, rotten, cruel and illegitimate regimes.

However, the Syrian propaganda has ultimately succeeded. Last Tuesday [March 26], while the Jewish people celebrated the first day of the holiday of Freedom, the Arab League summit met in Doha, the capital of Qatar and took two important decisions: one was to arm the Syrian opposition, which also includes - as everyone knows - some al-Qaeda style jihadi groups, such as " Jabhat al-Nusrah", to oust Bashar Asad and his regime from the   institutions of the League and to make the Syrian opposition the official representation of Syria in these institutions. And indeed, behind the sign for "the Syrian Arab Republic" in the summit conference, sat Muath al-Khatib, head of the coalition of Syrian opposition organizations.

The second decision was to establish a fund of a billion dollars in order to strengthen the Arab and Muslim character of Jerusalem, and to add a sense of validity and resolve to this decision, Qatar announced that it is donating a half billion dollars to the fund. According to the decision, the fund will serve to finance projects and plans to strengthen the steadfastness of the residents of Jerusalem and to strengthen the Palestinian economy so that it will be able to free itself from dependence on the Israeli economy. "The Islamic Development Bank" was appointed to manage the fund. in parallel, the summit conference decided to form a delegation of ministers headed by the prime minister and foreign minister of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani, and it will include members from Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Palestine, Egypt and Morocco as well as the secretary-general of the League. The function of this delegation will be to pressure the American government in the Palestinian matter in general and the issue of Jerusalem in particular.

 The question at the moment is whether to relate seriously to Qatar's intentions, especially in light of the fact that in about one more month we will mark forty six years of the unification of Jerusalem. This number is important, because in another four years the Islamic world will mark fifty years of the loss of Jerusalem and its return to the Jewish bosom, and an era of fifty years has a symbolic significance of permanence and perpetuity. Our assumption must be that Qatar relates to the matter of Jerusalem with total seriousness, for several reasons:

1. Islamic rule in East Jerusalem, and especially in the area of the Temple Mount, implies, according to Islam, the abolition of Judaism, and is supposed to prove the Islamic notion that Islam has come into the world in order to replace Judaism and Christianity. Muslims cannot tolerate Jewish rule on the Temple Mount because from their point of view it means that Judaism has again become a relevant religion after Islam had superseded it when Islam arrived in the world in the seventh century CE.

2. More than anything else, Jewish rule on the Temple Mount symbolizes the Israeli victories over the Arab world in the wars since 1948. This is an insult to the Arab honor and Islamic pride.

3. There is not and cannot be another interpretation in this matter: the Jews can live as "dhimmis" (a protected people) of Islam as long as they accept upon themselves the limits that the Muslim regime places upon them, and in no way can they be permitted to live as sovereign and ruling masters on the land and in the places that Islam has consecrated for itself such as the Temple Mount, which, since the end of the seventh century, has been called "the al-Aqsa Mosque".

4. Since the "Arab Spring" - which Qatar funded and promoted in many ways - is seen as a blood bath whose victims are Arabs and Muslims, Qatar must atone for its sins by using some of its resources against the ultimate historical rival, which is Judaism, and specifically, Israel.  

5. The fact that the president of the United States takes a conciliatory approach toward the Palestinians and their Arab brothers, means that there is a significant chance that the present administration will be sympathetic to the Palestinian, Arab and Islamic demands regarding Jerusalem.

6. Within the Arab and Muslim world there is an almost unanimous consensus that sees Jerusalem as Islamic property. This consensus allows Qatar to lead in a matter that almost everyone agrees upon, for a change. 

7. The battle for Jerusalem is almost the only thing that all of the Palestinian streams agree on, and therefore it can be used as the basis for reunification of Fatah and Hamas.

8. In Israel there are more than a few "bleeding hearts" who think that giving up Jerusalem will appease the Arabs and Muslims and after that, they will let Israel live in peace. They call for "compromise", meaning that Israel should give up East Jerusalem, including the Temple Mount, and Qatar can depend on them too in the struggle against Israel in this matter.

What Can We Expect?

A billion dollars is a large amount, very large, and Qatar can do many things with it in Jerusalem, all of which are allowed according to Israeli law: purchasing buildings and lots from Jews and Christians at an exorbitant price; acting to prevent Jews and Christians from purchasing buildings and lots; establishing civil social organizations and Islamic and general "charity" institutions together with Jews and Christians who particcipate, whether from naivete or malice; Supporting "maintenance"activities by the Wakf in the Temple Mount; support of activities for adults and youth in the Temple Mount organized by the northern and southern Islamic movements in Israel; issuing grants to  the Arab residents of Jerusalem for building, both with a permit and without one; issuing grants to Arab residents of Jerusalem for buildings that have been destroyed by the state or by the city; funding organizations that act to prevent the destruction of buildings; increasing the media coverage of al-Jazeera - the jihadi channel of Qatar - in Jerusalem, in order to renew awareness of "the occupation" after the events of the "Arab Spring" displaced it from the center of the world's attention; funding suits of individuals for restitution of property from individuals, the city and the Israel Land Authority; funding of suits to delay and cancel the city's development plans; international activities for increasing awareness of the Israeli "occupation" in Jerusalem; funding for convening international conferences on the subject of "theJudaization of Jerusalem"; activities against Israeli publications abroad that show Jerusalem as the capital of Israel; funding for appeals to international organizations and tribunals against the steps that Israel takes in Jerusalem; funding of the Arabic educational system in Jerusalem in order to prevent Israeli Ministry of Education from setting foot in it; funding for establishment and development of infrastructures (water, sewage, electricity, communications, roads, sidewalks and parks) in East Jerusalem; funding for the establishment of mosques in East Jerusalem; funding for Israeli NGOs such as "Ir Amim" and similar ones via the New Israel Fund or American funds such as the Ford Foundation; funding of Israeli politicians who support the division of Jerusalem; funding of international "understand the reality" delegations in Jerusalem; funding for "roots" journeys for people from the United States and Europe to Jerusalem; funding for books and publications about the Islamic past and the "dismal present" of Jerusalem; support for consolidation of Muslim foreign workers - and especially from Eritrea - in Jerusalem; funding an organization for demonstrations in Jerusalem in order to highlight its problems in the news media; covert funding of martyrs' families who have sacrificed themselves and those who will sacrifice themselves in terror attacks in Jerusalem.

These are only a few of the activities that Qatar will be able to fund, either openly or indirectly. Some of these activities are happening already!!! It's important to note that Qatar is capable of streaming money into Israel by way of funds, companies and organizations that act legally in Europe or the United States, and it is extremely difficult in a democratic country like Israel to put a stop to the flow of these monies and to stop the activity that is funded by them. 

It could be that the Israeli legislature will have to use the Basic Law on Jerusalem in order to widen the authorities of the state in a way that will be able to cope effectively with the threats of Qatar to bring an "Islamic winter" to Jerusalem that it has been supporting since December of 2010. Democracy does not have to allow jihad to be waged against it, even if this jihad uses means that appear to be legal. This is called "defensive democracy", and a democratic state that refrains from defending itself is a "suicidal democracy".

Qatar's support for anti-semites is not new: only a few months ago the Emir of Qatar visited the Gaza Strip and left the terrorist government of Hamas almost a half billion dollars, and not to fund a delegation of "Lovers of Zion" in the Strip. With this, Qatar has proven that it is a state that supports terror, and in the most official way. If the Jewish people and its Christian supporters do not wake up in time, we might find ourselves victims of the jihad that Qatar has declared on Israel in the matter of Jerusalem. The Israeli legislature must take immediate action in order to lay down the legal infrastructure for the Israeli and Jewish defensive battle for the capital of the Jews since 3000 years ago. 

The Jewish and Christian world must use their political abilities and financial resources  to preempt the encroaching evil that is threatening Jerusalem, brought in by the desert tribes and funded by the monies from the black gold. 

In November of the year 636 CE the Islamic siege of Jerusalem, which was then under the command of the Byzantine bishop Sopronius, began. Half a year afterward, toward the end of April, 637, after Khaliph Umar bin al-Khattab arrived at the gates of the city, Sopronius  surrendered and handed the keys of Jerusalem over to the cruel ruler of the desert tribes. The question that the world is now presented with is: will the keys of the holy city again be handed over to the tribes of the desert who enter on the wings of petrodollars from the Arabian Peninsula? Has the time not yet come to undo the legacy of criminal archaeologist, Moshe Dayan, who granted control over the site of the Temple to the Wakf so that he - Dayan - could secretly excavate it? Will the Jewish and Christian world allow oil monies to subjugate again the holy city and bring its residents to their knees?

===============

Dr. Kedar is available for lectures

Dr. Mordechai Kedar (Mordechai.Kedar@biu.ac.il) is an Israeli scholar of Arabic and Islam, a lecturer at Bar-Ilan University and the director of the Center for the Study of the Middle East and Islam (under formation), Bar Ilan University, Israel. He specializes in Islamic ideology and movements, the political discourse of Arab countries, the Arabic mass media, and the Syrian domestic arena.

Translated from Hebrew by Sally Zahav with permission from the author.

Additional articles by Dr. Kedar

Source: The article is published in the framework of the Center for the Study of the Middle East and Islam (under formation), Bar Ilan University, Israel. Also published in Makor Rishon, a Hebrew weekly newspaper.

Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the author.

http://mordechaikedarinenglish.blogspot.co.il/2013/03/the-islamic-winter-blows-into-jerusalem.html?q=arabs+and+Israel

A Nation of Hatred and Blood

 
by Mordechai Kedar
 

Read the article in the original עברית
Read the article in Italiano (translated by Yehudit Weisz, edited by Angelo Pezzana)

These days, the state of Israel is celebrating sixty five years since its re-establishment, one thousand nine hundred years after the destruction of the second Temple and expulsion of the Jews from their land. The Jewish people experiences one success after another, and despite the difficult starting point of a cruel war, the wars that came afterward, the political trials and tribulations, and economic difficulties, Israel is a success story in every way. A well-developed democracy, free press, high quality of life and the world's longest life expectancy.

The Arab world, on the other hand, is going backwards. Going? Running! Sliding down the slippery slope into a quagmire of boiling fire, blood and tears. And unlike in the past, it is difficult now for the Arabs to blame foreign forces for the tragedies that are afflicting many Arab countries: Iraq, Egypt, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Tunisia, Bahrain and more. Today, whoever blames Israel for the troubles in the Arab world is seen as delusional, as someone who is living in an old-fashioned black-and-white film. 

This critical situation causes Arab intellectuals to search for the guilty party within the Arab world, within the culture and the behavior of their people and their governments. Basil Hussein is not one of the most famous of Arab publicists, and it may even be that this is not his real name. From the few articles of his that have been published in recent months on the Internet, one may assume that he lives in Iraq, and is perhaps of Kurdish origin. His penetrating words are worthy of being disseminated, and we bring here a translation of two of his articles that were posted in recent months in the liberal Internet site Elaph (my comments in parenthesis, M.K.).


 The first article was published on the 10th of April with the title: "Indeed, we are a bloody people". In the article it is written: 

"Indeed, gentlemen, we are a bloody people. Don't be surprised when I say that we are a bloody people and don't try to find excuses for the fact that we are a bloody people. Our words, our actions and our speech - all prove that we are a bloody people. The color of passion and lust is red, but everything that leads to blood is like a green traffic light. 

We are a bloody people: our tragic celebrations are bloody. Don't forget that even our names are blood and only blood. Is there not one among us, one of our flesh, whose name is "Qadhaf al-Dam" ("bloodletting", the name of Qadhaffi's tribe, M.K.)? And we also have "Covenant of Blood". And perhaps your memories fail or do you make yourselves forget: Isn't it we who for tens of years grieved and still yell "with spirit and with blood" (we will redeem you, O ..., M.K.) then are we not worthy of the description 'bloody people'?

Go to the mosques, to the Shi'ite centers and to the monasteries, listen to the words of the speakers on the podiums, people who act as if G-d doesn't draw them near to him except with letters of blood, with words of blood, with expressions of blood, with prayers of blood. Their cries, their howls, their curses - all is blood and only blood. Some of their beards are colored with blood, with rivers of blood, instead of musk and amber. And after this you deny that we are a people of blood?

When I watch television, I see that the most common words are 'This one is Sunni and that one is Shi'ite", "this one is a Kurd and that one is an Arab', 'This one is Muslim and that one is Christian', 'this one is Druze and that one is Berber', 'This one is a Copt and that one is Nubian' (an African people that lives in southern Egypt and northern Sudan, M.K.) , 'this one has citizenship and that one does not', 'this on is a city dweller and that one is a Bedouin', 'this one is an infidel and that one is something else', 'this one is white and that one is black', should I count the names for you? But the important thing is 'kill, kill, because you will only enter paradise by shedding blood'. 

I know that Islam is (a religion of, M.K.) peace, and our prophet is peace, the Qur'an is peace and our blessings are peace, the greatest evening for us (the night of al-Qadr, 27 Ramadan, the night when the Qur'an descended, M.K.) is peace, and permit me to remind you that this night is "peace until the dawn" (Qur'an, Sura 97, M.K.). Therefore I shout to you: insane ones, bathing in blood, where did this culture of blood come from? Where did all of this fanaticism and hatred of life, of ourselves, of others and toward the world come from? How have we turned into a people of blood?

And whoever does not speak in the language of blood, we tell him: "O my son, you are a traitor because you deny the blood, and therefore your punishment is the guillotine. Forward march." Even hypocrisy is not hypocrisy if it is not soaked in blood. Our money does not increase unless we trade in blood. You will not become an exemplary leader unless you shed a sea of blood. Woe to you unless you do this, otherwise you'll regret it. Gentlemen, pardon me, the time has come for us to admit that we are a people of blood.

Be happy and rejoice my friends, because the grave of the murderer Hulagu (the Mongol who destroyed Baghdad in the year 1258; his name is the source of the word hooligan, M.K.) has been destroyed; he and his dark history have fled from our land because he has become a dwarf, a student (of ours, M.K.) in bloodshed. Believe me, no one except for you remembers his story, when the people of blood are spoken of. I commend you for climbing the pile of skulls in order to gain protection, because even the vampires flee from fear of you. What description is more fitting than a 'people of blood'?

I don't know whether to laugh or cry, because I've begun to fight blood with blood. You ask how? Because my pain has turned to blood; I weep about the blood that I see. I toss and turn on my bed of pain out of fear for the nation and I vomit blood from disgust. Don't blame me for fearing Allah but hating blood."

This is the end of the article as it was published in the Elaph site. The readers who responded totally agree with the writer, and add additional indications of the culture of blood. One of them writes: "Unfortunately this is the reality. All that we see around us is blood, and even our dreams are bloody. The sad thing is that you don't see anyone trying to change the situation. No one tries to show that life is better than we imagine, if only we knew how to value it and live our lives differently, without bloodbaths. There are many good things in life, but unfortunately we don't see them and don't value their significance."

Another reader adds: "Unfortunately blood is pleasing to our palate; we live in an ocean of blood. The article is a wonderful lament that describes our bitter situation well. All of the other nations have unity and coalesce, while our countries fall apart and are torn to pieces. These are words of mourning over the destruction of our unity."

A female reader writes: "How long will we continue to pay for the sins of others? How long will we continue to be victims of those who lust for death and hate life? How long will we remain silent in the face of an ignorant minority that controls our minds, our futures and our possessions? How long will we remain a nation that runs after illusions (the belief in Paradise, M.K.) and hates progress? Thank you, Dr. Basil, because you have told us that we live in a cemetery for the living. We are confounded by the developed world, and sink more deeply every day into a tragedy of blood". Another reader draws the writer's attention to the fact that besides Layl al-Qadr which is a night of peace, the rest of the 364 nights of the year are nights of blood.

Dr. Basil Hussein explains why the Arab world has become an ocean of blood in a different article, that was published on the 20th of February this year entitled "A Society of Hatred":

"It is difficult to deny the fact that the level of hatred is increasing among Arab societies. Moreover, we have an industry that has turned hatred into an art. I was amazed, and it could be that many intelligent people were shocked together with me,  at the level of hatred, resentment and hostility which exists in the political, religious and cultural arenas and at all levels, so much so that moderation has become a fault, the voice of wisdom has become treason, excessive hatred has become a good thing and it has become desirable to trade in it. Therefore Imam Mahmoud al-a'zali (who died in the year 1111 CE, M.K.) said that simple people can be more intimidating than the sultan.

Ibn Khaldun (philosopher of history who died in the year 1406, M.K.) said that public battles are common in times of Ideological inferiority and cultural stagnation. This profound scholar was right. Indeed, we live in an age of ideological inferiority, and it is a wonder that this is happening within an era of revolution in the areas of knowledge, science and information, and that especially in such an era we have become a backward society and illiteracy is very widespread. We are also experiencing ignorance with many characteristics and many aspects, and therefore we have become ignorant even regarding love of the homeland, and instead of worshiping Allah and loving the homeland we have become worshipers of the idols of the sect, the tribe, the ethnicity and all of the various identities and narrow loyalties.

We are no longer true Muslims who are commanded to do good and recognize the multiple aspects of humanity, which is a way of life where people respect each other (Qur'an 49, 13, M.K.) and live together in peace, without bickering, or being alienated from each other or hostile to one another. We have not become members of modern civilization like the rest of the cultured world and we have not become united, despite the fact that I believe wholeheartedly that Islam is a civil religion, because the original Islamic state is the religion of a city-state (for example the Greek Polis).

We have changed from a united nation to a nation torn apart, scattered and crumbled, just as the concept of nationalism has become a ridiculous idea, a vulgar word.

O, how backwards we have become. We are a society that has not boarded the train of progressive society, and therefore we wander in a path among insignificant matters because we have begun to delude ourselves that these are important things. As a result of this we have suffered the greatest of defeats and have become an insignificant society that lusts for trivial things but makes great mistakes, despite the fact that we are supposed to be a nation of readers. We are a nation of ignoramuses who don't read or write. Just to remind you: the number of Arabs who don't know how to read and write is a hundred million. The average time that an Arab spends reading is 6 minutes per year, contrasted with 200 minutes that a person in an advanced country spends. Therefore we are excluded from history, and the others play with us however they like.

Why are the creations of the giants of Arab culture in the twentieth century not present in the public arena, in the scientific and cultural arenas, which are dominated by transitory values and polluted by the (foreign, M.K.) flood? Why, why, O why? Indeed, we have become a nation without a future, without wisdom, without a living conscience, without philosophers, without leaders and without intellectuals. We have succeeded in creating only hatred, and the arrows of hatred that we shoot, return upon us and we are impaled in our inner parts."

This ends the words of Dr. Basil Hussein. It seems to me that he needs no interpretation, because his sharp words are a commentary on the psychological condition of the public at large that surrounds him. The combination of a culture of hatred with an uncontrolled desire to see blood flow, is a fatal combination, primarily for the Arab domain. Foreign powers (Iran, Turkey, the West, M.K.) are pulled into the oblivion, the collective mental vacuum that Dr. Basil describes,without knowing what a black hole they are getting themselves into. 

The Arab failure to establish a legitimate governmental framework emphasizes the contrast with Israel, and the obvious success of the Jewish people in establishing the state of Israel,  developing it and preserving it as a lily among the thorns of the Middle East.

===============

Dr. Kedar is available for lectures

Dr. Mordechai Kedar (Mordechai.Kedar@biu.ac.il) is an Israeli scholar of Arabic and Islam, a lecturer at Bar-Ilan University and the director of the Center for the Study of the Middle East and Islam (under formation), Bar Ilan University, Israel. He specializes in Islamic ideology and movements, the political discourse of Arab countries, the Arabic mass media, and the Syrian domestic arena.

Translated from Hebrew by Sally Zahav with permission from the author.

Additional articles by Dr. Kedar

Source: The article is published in the framework of the Center for the Study of the Middle East and Islam (under formation), Bar Ilan University, Israel. Also published in Makor Rishon, a Hebrew weekly newspaper.

Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the author.

http://mordechaikedarinenglish.blogspot.co.il/2013/04/a-nation-of-hatred-and-blood.html?q=arabs+and+Israel

The Cultural Crisis in the Arab and Islamic World

by Mordechai Kedar

Read the article in the original עברית

Read the article in Italiano (translated by Yehudit Weisz, edited by Angelo Pezzana)

Anyone in the world who takes any interest in the news, whether from newspapers or the electronic media, can immediately discern the difference between what is happening in Europe and the United States versus what is happening in the Arab and Islamic world. In the Western countries, the news usually deals with the economic crisis, visiting leaders, natural disasters, traffic accidents, and criminal acts such as murder, burglary and violence. The perpetrators are usually people acting alone who commit the crimes out of criminal or personal motives, or inadvertently. Therefore, when a terror attack such as that which happened in Boston occurs, the Western media all become alarmed, and ask "why". Why, when three people are killed and about one hundred seventy are wounded in a terror attack, does the event dominate all the media for many days, while larger disasters - for example a bus falling over a cliff resulting in the death of tens of children - get much less coverage?

The answer is simple: When the incident in question is a "home-made" disaster, stemming from the Western way of life - for instance, traffic accidents, murder in a romantic framework or the death of Western soldiers in foreign countries - the media and the public ultimately accept that the disaster is difficult to prevent and is part of life, and return to the normal routine. On the other hand, a terror attack carried out by a Muslim immigrant is perceived in a totally different way: it is seen as a war waged by a foreign culture against the Western culture. Even if many people do not admit it, the sense in the United States after the attack in Boston is that "a foreign, alien culture is waging against us, using people who immigrated to our country, live among us, look like us, and sound like us but are actually totally different from us: they are Muslims". This perception turns all of the media's attention to the battlefield - the streets of Boston and its suburbs in the most recent case - so that we will be sure that the battle ends with the good guys winning and the bad guys losing. It is actually a war between the sons of light and the sons of darkness, us and them, our culture versus their culture and as in war, we must win at any price, even if it costs a fortune and means confining the residents of Boston in their houses for a whole day, which normally would be totally unacceptable in the United States, the land of freedom. That's how it is in the West.

In the Arab world and in a not insignificant portion of the Islamic world, the news is something totally different. The routine coverage during the past two years is of civil wars that cause tens of thousands of fatalities, a ruler massacring his citizens, mass murder resulting from clashes between tribal, ethnic, religious or sectoral groups, massive terror attacks, millions of demoralized  and impoverished refugees, a severe economic crisis and political and economic corruption. Here, three fatalities and hundreds of wounded is the usual bloody toll occurring every few minutes and has become routine, almost "not news". When you compare the news in the West with the news in the Arab world you get the impression that you're dealing with two different planets, two civilizations that are polar opposites from each other: one specializing in development of life and prosperity, and the other dealing with the creation of death, suffering, blood and tears. Here too, the question arises: why is there such a great difference between the Western countries and the Arab world; what causes the Arab world and the Islamic part of the world to be a source of violence, mass murder and almost incessant suffering for whole populations.

Because of the constant crisis prevailing in the Arab world, many intellectuals are critical, especially those who have studied or lived in the West and know that it is possible to live otherwise. Each one of them places blame on a specific component of the Eastern culture - the belief in the life after death, submission to a cruel ruler, nullification of the individual versus group interests, condoning of violence and accepting it as legitimate. Arab intellectuals publish severe criticism about what is happening in their societies and about the attribute of their society that causes, in their opinion, the misfortunes that the Arab world suffers from. These days, the Internet serves as the marketplace where everyone can publish his thoughts. 

Dr. Basil Hussein, an Iraqi who apparently lives in Northern Iraq, writes on the 10th of April this year in an article entitled "Indeed, we are a People of Blood":

"Go to the mosques, to the Shi'ite centers and to the monasteries, listen to the words of the speakers on the podiums, people who act as if G-d doesn't draw them near to him except with letters of blood, with words of blood, with expressions of blood, with prayers of blood. Their cries, their howls, their curses - all is blood and only blood. Some of their beards are colored with blood, with rivers of blood, instead of musk and amber."

About the disunity and sectarianism in the Arab world Dr. Basil Hussein writes:

"When I watch television, I see that the most common words are 'This one is Sunni and that one is Shi'ite", "this one is a Kurd and that one is an Arab', 'This one is Muslim and that one is Christian', 'this one is Druze and that one is Berber', 'This one is a Copt and that one is Nubian' (an African people that lives in southern Egypt and northern Sudan, M.K.) , 'this one has citizenship and that one does not', 'this on is a city dweller and that one is a Bedouin', 'this one is an infidel and that one is something else', 'this one is white and that one is black',"

Dr. Basil Hussein explains why the Arab world has become an ocean of blood in another article, that was published on the 20th of February this year entitled "A Society of Hatred":

"It is difficult to deny the fact that the level of hatred is increasing among Arab societies. Moreover, we have an industry that has turned hatred into an art. I was amazed, and it could be that many intelligent people were shocked together with me,  at the level of hatred, resentment and hostility which exists in the political, religious and cultural arenas and at all levels, so much so that moderation has become a fault, the voice of wisdom has become treason, excessive hatred has become a good thing and it has become desirable to trade in it."

Tariq Heggy, an Egyptian intellectual, wrote a penetrating article a number of years ago entitled " The Arab Mentality": 

"In the process of the ten last years I have written many books and articles on the flaws of the Arab mentality, all of which are cultural flaws, which is to say, flaws that are acquired, from three main sources, which are: a general atmosphere of tyranny, a backward educational system and media that were created in the general atmosphere of tyranny to serve the goals of the tyrant. Some of the obvious flaws of the modern Arab mentality are:

•     Limited tolerance of differing ideologies
•     Low acceptance of ideological pluralism
•     Limited acceptance of the "other"
•     Inability to accept criticism, and it is rare that anyone engages in self-criticism
•     Opinions that stem from a tribal or religious basis instead of from various ideologies
•     A deep-seated feeling of inequality compared to others in achievements or in productivity, which is expressed in a feeling of strong and exaggerated honor. But this (exaggerated honor) is just respect based on words, rather than respect based on achievements.
•     We are given to exaggerate in bragging about ourselves; we give to the heritage of the past greater weight than it actually had.
•     We often exaggerate in speech in an effort to cover up for the outrageous lack of practical achievements. Sometimes this culture causes a situation where a person's words are more important than his deeds.
•     We are inflicted with a limited ability to relate objectively and a tendency to personalize.
•     An unhealthy nostalgia stirs within us for the past and a desire to return to it.
•     The culture of compromise is unknown among us, there is no respect for it because we feel that compromise is a kind of defeat and loss.
•     We believe in not relating to women with respect
•     We are prisoners of mental patterns and stereotypes
•     It is extremely common among us to believe that behind everything there is a plot and that the Arabs are always the victims of these plots of others.
•     We do not understand the nature and essence of national identity - are we Arabs or Muslims, Asians, Africans or members of a Mediterranean culture?
•     There is often a connection between the citizen and the ruler, based on exaggeration and imbuing the leader with a quality of holiness outwardly, with a general tendency to glorify people.
•     There are many people who know very little of the world, its trends and the true balance of power.
•     We have a limited ability to value the individual, and so the connections between us are, for the most part, connections of tribe, family, customs or nationality. Humanity is not held to be the most obvious and strongest common denominator.
•     We often have a mentality of fanaticism that stems from a number of factors, chief among them are the Arab tribal mentality at various levels of severity.
•     Because the Arab mentality is characterized by insufficient freedom and cooperation, there is reticence towards freedom and its mechanisms.

Any expert in Middle Eastern affairs can add additional flaws to this list. But all of these flaws are acquired flaws, and therefore they are given to change." 

This concludes the citation from the words of Tarek Heggy.

Women writers in the Arab world today focus more on the problems of women in a patriarchal, exploitative and violent society. The Saudi publicist Wajihah al-Huwaydir suggests for Arab women to remain unmarried because men in the Arab world are not suitable to be life partners. Dr. Nawal al-Saadawi, an Egyptian physician, for many years has focused her criticism on the barbaric custom of female genital mutilation, neglect of women's health issues and exploitation of women in both the private and public spheres. 

Most modern intellectuals in the Arab world conclude that the source of the problems that Eastern societies suffer from is within those societies themselves, and therefore the solution can and must come from within them. In the past it was more acceptable to blame the West, colonialism, the United States and of course, Israel, for every problem in the Arab and Islamic world, but the more severe the internal crisis in the Arab world becomes, the more the number of fatalities, wounded and Syrian refugees increases, the deeper the constitutional, economic, social and political crisis in the countries of the "Arab Spring", especially in Egypt, and the more the fear of the nuclear project of Iran, an Islamic country, increases, then the more the traditional tendency to blame Israel, the United states and the West for the troubles in the Arab and Islamic world  decreases.

Israel is perceived as an orderly country of a "normal" people, loving life, progress and development, the exact opposite of what is happening in the greater region within which it lives. And the sharper this perception is, the stronger and more intense the envy becomes. On the other side of the Atlantic there is another "normal" country, the United States, where another people lives, basing its existence on life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The envy towards Israel and the United States that permeates the Arab and Islamic world becomes hatred directed against these two countries.  This is the source of the names "the Big Satan" and "the little Satan", which is how Iran, the regime of darkness and oppression, refers to them.

The terror aimed at buses, restaurants and hotels in Israel; economic centers, government centers and the marathon race in the United States, is a result of the envy of the Arab and Islamic societies, which are going through a deep crisis; it is envy that turns into hatred and terror.

They envy and hate the West not because of what the West does, but rather because of what the West is: a healthy, progressive and prosperous society, carefully supporting human rights and law and order, while the Arab and Muslim societies suffer from chronic illnesses expressed in violence, neglect, backwardness, dictatorships, corruption, illiteracy and terror. It is not I who say this but Dr. Basil Hussein, Tarek Heggy, Wajihah al-Huwaydir, Nawal al-Saadawi and many, many others, including their friends who, each year, research the Arab world and publish the United Nations Development Report, and understand where the problem lies but are powerless to redeem their societies, which are sinking into the fire, blood and tears of the cultural quagmire of their own making.

===============

Dr. Kedar is available for lectures

Dr. Mordechai Kedar (Mordechai.Kedar@biu.ac.il) is an Israeli scholar of Arabic and Islam, a lecturer at Bar-Ilan University and the director of the Center for the Study of the Middle East and Islam (under formation), Bar Ilan University, Israel. He specializes in Islamic ideology and movements, the political discourse of Arab countries, the Arabic mass media, and the Syrian domestic arena.

Translated from Hebrew by Sally Zahav with permission from the author.

Additional articles by Dr. Kedar

Source: The article is published in the framework of the Center for the Study of the Middle East and Islam (under formation), Bar Ilan University, Israel. Also published in Makor Rishon, a Hebrew weekly newspaper.

Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the author.

http://mordechaikedarinenglish.blogspot.co.il/2013/04/the-cultural-crisis-in-arab-and-islamic.html?q=arabs+and+Israel

Know thine Enemy

 
by Mordechai Kedar

Read the article in the original עברית 
Read the article in Italiano (translated by Yehudit Weisz, edited by Angelo Pezzana)

  
The Emirate of Qatar is located on the shore of the Persian Gulf, and lives on top of a large gas well. The tremendous amount of money that flows into this  country has enriched its two hundred thousand citizens incredibly: they do not pay taxes, they enjoy free educational and health services and laugh all the way to the bank. The money enables them not only to purchase anything they want, but also to have a dramatic influence on the Middle East. As a result of this, the ruler of Qatar has become the most influential person in the Arab World, and he is an active partner in significant international processes.

The chief means that the Emir of Qatar uses to influence matters in the Middle East is the al-Jazeera channel, the channel responsible for overthrowing the rulers of the Arab world one after another by means of incitement that it has been conducting against them ever since it began broadcasting, toward the end of 1996. Using this channel, the ruler of Qatar disseminates the doctrine of the Muslim Brotherhood, which is destined- according to his view - to replace all of the secular ideologies (nationalism, socialism, liberalism) that have penetrated into the Islamic world. A central component of the message of the Emir of Qatar and al-Jazeera is that the state of Israel is an illegitimate entity and must be fought with all means available to the Islamic world, mainly by spreading the message that the state of Israel is an illegitimate state that was established by a criminal act and all of its deeds are sin and iniquity.

Al-Jazeera implements all of the principles of taqiyya - deception, or misrepresentation - in order to seem like a fair and balanced station, a station that calls for democracy, individual rights, minority rights and women's rights, but this whole spectacle - produced with attractive and captivating computer graphics - is meant to advance the agenda of the Emir of Qatar: to amass power, to advance the political Islamic movement, to destroy Israel and to minimize as much as possible the influence of the United States in the world. Using taqiyya, the Emir of Qatar organizes international meetings and conferences that are meant to present a picture that is the opposite of his real agenda.

A month and a half ago I presented here my weekly article entitled "The Islamic Winter Blows into Jerusalem" in which I described the steps that the Emir of Qatar is taking in order to uproot Jerusalem from Israel. I noted there, the incredible sums that Qatar has allocated for the matter, about a half billion dollars from a fund of a billion dollars, and the various ways that money can be used to promote the unholy goals of the Emir of Qatar.

And the money indeed is beginning to have an effect: this week the al-Jazeera channel published in a news item entitled (my comments are in parenthesis, M.K.): "The Campaign in Qatar to Support the Perseverance of the People of Jerusalem (the Muslims, against Israel's attempts to take control of the city, M.K.) "  "Ninety prizes were awarded to the public who answered the questions about al-Aqsa (mosque, M.K.)". In this report, under the subtitle "Whoever has donated to it is as if he had prayed in it" (a quote from the Hadith, M.K); yesterday in Doha (the capital of Qatar, M.K.),  the Qatari Red Crescent organized an event in support of the al-Aqsa Mosque to collect donations for the projects dealing with health and education in the blessed city and to help its residents to stand steadfast against expulsion and Judaization. As part of the operation, lectures and competitions were organized relating to the situation of al-Quds, its history and its importance for the caliphs of Islam since the days of Umr ibn al-Khattab (the second caliph, who conquered Jerusalem in the year 638 CE from the Byzantines, M.K.) until the Ottoman period.

In the event that was held in coordination with the association of the "Youth for al-Quds", ninety prizes were awarded to members of the audience who answered the questions about the al-Aqsa Mosque and praises relating to praying within it, its spires and its gates. The Islamic propagandist Dr. Wajdi  Ghuneim gave a lecture in which he clarified that supporting al-Aqsa with one's money and time is "a very valuable sort of jihad". Ghuneim pointed out that al-Aqsa has a very important place in Islam and it must remain etched in the memory of society because it is the place from which the honorable prophet was transported at night, it is the third most important mosque and it lies on the ground where the dead will gather before Judgement Day and from where they will arise for judgement. Ghuneim urged the public to invest everything that is dear to them in al-Aqsa and not despair of liberating it, "because victory is with those who fight for Bayt al-Maqdis (the classical name of Jerusalem, M.K.) and the surrounding area, "and G-d sustains his light even if the infidels hate it" (Qur'an, Sura 61, Verse 8).

The head of the board of directors of the Red Crescent of Qatar, Dr. Mohamed bin Ghanem al-Ali al-Ma'adid, exhorted the public to donate to al-Aqsa and to the residents of Bayt al-Maqdis, who "suffer from the most terrible oppression and upon whom manyrestrictive measures are used in order to force them to leave. Al-Ma'adid took care to say that the operation offers important support and that it can help al-Aqsa and its people to cope with the plans to erase (the Islamic identity, M.K.) and Judaize (Jerusalem, according to the plot of, M.K.) the thieving entity (the term meaning Israel for those who won't even say its name, M.K.).

A War Between Cultures (The original subtitle, M.K.)

The deputy head of the Association of al-Quds Youth said to aljazeera.net that the event is held because of the war of cultures being conducted in Jerusalem between Israel and the Muslims. Muhammad Darwish added that the association participated in the campaign by disseminating the Jerusalem culture among the youth, to awaken the sense that al-Aqsa,  the captive, is part of the Muslim identity and entity and can never, ever be compromised.

The association organizes conferences and lectures on the matter of al-Aqsa in mosques, schools and commercial centers, in order to connect with the various sectors of society. According to the words of Darwish, this year the association organized a competition on the situation in Jerusalem and its history, which fourteen thousand students in Qatar took part in, and he noted that the rate of participation of the youth in the competition exceeded expectations.

The manager of development of financial resources of the Red Crescent said in a conversation with aljazeera.net that the event was held to collect donations for the "Jerusalem Fund", which (the Qatari Red, M.K.) Crescent established three years ago, and during the past three years it has raised more than twenty million rials. 'Adel al-Baker clarifies that the function of the fund is to support hospitals and (medical, M.K.) centers in the holy city, and to give monetary support to its residents in order to help them maintain a stronghold in the city and sustain their position. He added that as long as Israel gambles that the Jerusalem families will not be able to stand up to the efforts of Judaization and the attempts to impoverish them, the Muslims must maintain contact with these families, to ease their lives and allow them to survive.

The Arab Conscience (original subtitle, M.K.)

According to the words of al-Baker, this kind of operation must be done continually, so that Jerusalem will not deteriorate from a problem that is central to the Arab conscience into an occasional event that people remember once or twice a year. According to him, he feels that the Jerusalem families derive satisfaction from continual contact with the projects and the support that Qatar offers to Jerusalem and its residents. He calls on the Arab peoples to fulfill their obligations to the holy city and its residents, who are standing strong, who are willing to suffer and are determined fighters.

According to an announcement that the Qatari Red Crescent distributed to the public, it has carried out many projects in Jerusalem during the past three years, including building a day care unit in al-Maqasid hospital and equipping it with medical instruments; building a women's clinic, purchasing ambulances and establishing a water supply network in the village of 'Atara.

This ends the content of the news item, which clearly indicates that Qatar is investing money in Jerusalem, the capital of sovereign Israel, as an activity directly aimed against Israel and its presence in Jerusalem.

Only one conclusion can be drawn from this news item: the Emir of Qatar has decided to begin a war to tear Jerusalem away from Israel, and this is against the Basic Law: Jerusalem, legislated by the Knesset. The Emir of Qatar uses whatever means are available to him - money and communications media - in this phase, which he uses without any constraints.

But the war will not stop in Jerusalem: the Emir of Qatar, using petrodollars, al-Jazeera and the influence that he has amassed in the Middle East and in the world at large, is trying to promote political Islam similar to that of the Muslim Brotherhood and to undermine the Western world,  and its presence and influence on the Arab world and Islam, and since Israel is - according to his view - a Western colonialist project, Qatar must act in order to wipe out Israel, just as Qatar has destroyed Qadhaffi in Libya, bin 'Ali in Tunisia, Mubarak in Egypt, Saleh in Yemen and perhaps Asad in Syria as well. To the Emir of Qatar, Israel is no better than they are, and if it was worthwhile in his eyes to sacrifice hundreds of thousands of Arabs and Muslims in order to get rid of those rulers, then money and many Muslims can be sacrificed to get rid of Israel too.

Israel must recognize the enemy, whose name is the Emir of Qatar, early enough in the war, before it is too late. Identifying the enemy belatedly might make it possible for him to grow, develop, become more powerful and take on dimensions that it will be difficult to cope with.

In the first and immediate phase, Israel must declare Qatar as an enemy state, and abolish any Qatari presence from Israel, especially the al-Jazeera channel. Just as Israel does not allow Hizb'Allah's al-Manar channel or Iran's al-'Alam channel to operate from its territory, Israel must also forbid al-Jazeera to operate from its territory. There is no reason that Israel - as a state that aims to survive as the state of the Jewish people residing in its historical capital - should allow Qatar to conduct media-based jihad against Israel from within Israel. The government of Israel must say to the Emir of Qatar: "You don't need to have offices and studios in Israel in order to conduct your jihad against us. Kindly take them somewhere else to conduct jihad against us."

In the second phase Israel must stop the economic jihad that is being waged by Qatar as it streams funds into the sovereign state of Israel. The monies of Qatar must be defined as funding terrorism, because the Emir of Qatar is the main supporter of Hamas: he is the first Arab leader who visited Gaza under the rule of Hamas, and gave Hamas approximately a half billion petrodollars to develop the terror industry in the state of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, and there is no reason that Israel should allow him to turn Jerusalem into another Hamastan. 

In the third phase Israel must conduct a world wide mission to expose the involvement of Qatar in the promotion of political Islam in Western countries, which it does using al-Jazeera in English and Qatari money that flows to those Islamist organizations in the West that identify with the Muslim Brotherhood. The ultimate goal of the Emir of Qatar is to promote the agenda of these organizations, whose purpose is to impose Islam upon the whole world. This purpose became clear to all when the Qatari al-Jazeera channel was specifically chosen by Usama bin Laden to broadcast his recordings during the years that he was in hiding. 

The battle against the Qatari octopus and the various tentacles that it sends out to Israel and the Western world will require a change in legislation, because the current laws, which are built on principles of personal freedom are suitable to those who accept upon themselves the rules of the game which is the Western social and political system. But the Emir of Qatar, the main promoter of the Muslim Brotherhood in the world, takes advantage of the liberal and democratic principles that exist in Israel and in the Western world in order to instill the messages of political, illiberal and anti-democratic Islam, which he believes in and wishes to promote.

In a living body, the immune system must identify every enemy in order to fight it off. A body that does not identify dangerous invaders doesn't understand the danger that it represents to him, does not activate antibodies against them and its fate is sealed, because they grow and develop and when they are discovered, the situation is already irreversible. It is just as important for Israel to identify the enemy and stop its development before it is too late. Qatar is an enemy of Israel and the West, and all traces of its presence must be eradicated from our midst while the situation allows it. Western states are no different from Israel in this matter. 
Full disclosure: the writer of these lines, as an Arabic speaker, is interviewed from time to time on al-Jazeera and presents the Israeli, Jewish, Zionist, Western position to the viewers. This does not detract from his opinion that Israel and the West must rid themselves of al-Jazeera.

 

===============

Dr. Kedar is available for lectures

Dr. Mordechai Kedar (Mordechai.Kedar@biu.ac.il) is an Israeli scholar of Arabic and Islam, a lecturer at Bar-Ilan University and the director of the Center for the Study of the Middle East and Islam (under formation), Bar Ilan University, Israel. He specializes in Islamic ideology and movements, the political discourse of Arab countries, the Arabic mass media, and the Syrian domestic arena.

Translated from Hebrew by Sally Zahav with permission from the author.

Additional articles by Dr. Kedar

Source: The article is published in the framework of the Center for the Study of the Middle East and Islam (under formation), Bar Ilan University, Israel. Also published in Makor Rishon, a Hebrew weekly newspaper.

Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the author.

http://mordechaikedarinenglish.blogspot.co.il/2013/05/know-enemy.html?q=arabs+and+Israel

Why Israel should annex Area C

Why Israel should annex Area C

Sometimes bold actions have undesirable outcomes. That’s why they are bold — they are risky. One example is probably the single worst mistake the Israeli government has made since 1948: recognizing the PLO as the representative of the “Palestinian people” and inviting it back from exile into the Jewish heartland (the second worst mistake was the 1967 decision to give control of the Temple Mount to the waqf).

So I hesitate to recommend another bold action, especially at this tremendously dangerous time. But a decision to do nothing also has consequences, and in this case we can already see the beginning of the results of the policy of doing nothing.

I am referring to doing nothing about maintaining control of the highly strategic (and spiritually important) lands of Judea and Samaria, while permitting the US to push Israel into yet another pointless round of negotiations with a PLO that will not be satisfied by anything other than an Arab state from the river to the sea, and which cannot possibly be trusted to carry out any agreement it might make with Israel.

Meanwhile, the Arabs — financed by the Europeans and the US — are simply taking the land. One day, after extended fruitless negotiations, after countless Israeli concessions to “strengthen Abbas” or to “establish good will,” after numerous incidents of terrorism which the PLO will deplore in English and celebrate in Arabic, Israelis will wake up to find that there is a de facto Arab state in all of Judea/Samaria.

Then all that will be left will be for the UN Security Council to recognize it, for the IDF to withdraw, and for Israel to deal with a vicious terror state snuggled up to the soft belly of its population centers, international airport, etc.

We will get, in other words, a “two-state solution” whether we want one or not. But it will not be ‘land for peace’ — it will be land given up for absolutely nothing, and a step on the way to the annihilation of the state.

There is something we can do now. Presently — although the Arabs and their European friends are doing their best to change it — most (I’ve seen figures over 95%) of the Arab population of the territories lives in Areas A and B, the areas ceded to PLO control by the Oslo process, while the great majority of Jews live in Area C, the part under complete Israeli control. In addition to Jewish towns, area C includes areas strategic to Israel’s defense.

Israel needs to annex Area C, or at least strategic parts of it, now. Then, in language familiar to Americans, it needs to secure its bordersagainst infiltration and enforce land use regulations strictly. Otherwise it will lose control of the high ground overlooking its coastal plain, the Jordan Valley, roads connecting Jewish towns, and other essentials.

Area C becoming part of Israel would probably preclude the establishment of a contiguous sovereign Palestinian state in the territories. But such a state would not be democratic, would not be economically viable, and would not provide a solution for the Arab refugee problem. It would be dedicated to perpetual war with Israel. There is no good reason to create such a state, except as a weapon against Israel. If Israel annexed Area C, areas A and B could continue to be administered by the Palestinian Authority as they are today.

Annexing Area C will not end the conflict or guarantee Israel’s security forever. But not doing it is a recipe for more war, terrorism and insecurity.

The Arab takeover of Area C is proceeding according to a plan that was developed by former Palestinian Authority (PA) Prime Minister Salaam Fayyad, and financed, as I mentioned, by the Europeans and the US. Much of it is actually being carried out with the cooperation of Israel, apparently in the mistaken belief that the PLO’s thirst for conquest can be slaked by giving it the infrastructure of a state and encouraging economic development. But this misses the whole point of the PLO, which is not to have a state of its own, but to have our state.

It is true that the nuclear program of Iran and the thousands of Hizballah missiles are more dramatic than the relatively slow chipping away at the Land of Israel that I am describing. But Israel’s government and the IDF are taking steps to counter the immediate threats, while in many cases Israeli authorities are actually helping the PLO execute its more gradual plan.

The details of the plan and concrete examples are explained here. Read about it and you will understand that there is little time to waste.

http://fresnozionism.org/2013/06/why-israel-should-annex-area-c/

An Open Letter to the Arab League

by Mordechai Kedar
 

Read the article in the original עברית 
Read the article in Italiano (translated by Yehudit Weisz, edited by Angelo Pezzana)

To the Honorable Leaders of the Arab States,

We in Israel received with great pleasure your agreement to normalize relations with Israel  on condition that we agree to the establishment of a Palestinian state and exchanges of territories between that state and Israel. The Palestinian state that you propose to establish in Judea and Samaria would be the second Palestinian state, since the first Palestinian state was established six years ago in the Gaza Strip, and you clearly recognize it as such in practice. How else can the state visits of the Emir of Qatar and the secretary of the Arab League in Gaza  be understood?  Now you propose the establishment of a second Palestinian state? Perhaps a third!! Because Jordan is also a state with a Palestinian majority. And all of these states were established - as you know - on land that the League of Nations had designated for a Jewish state at the San Remo Conference, in April  of 1920. So why should we agree to exchange territories with any state or states that have been established or will be established on our land?

And if indeed a second Palestinian state will arise in Judea and Samaria (that which you call "the West Bank") can you promise us that this state will not at some time in the future become another Hamas state? Do you not recall that Hamas won a clear majority of the seats in the Palestinian Legislative Council in January 2006? Did you not see how Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip with bombs, fire and kalashnikovs in June of 2007? Will you send a military force to get rid of Hamas after this terror organization also takes over - by means of elections or revolution - the new Palestinian state as well? Or perhaps you will leave us bleeding as a result of the problem that you have created?

We in Israel are very touched by the fact that you, as an Arab collective, not as individual states that have made a peace agreement with us, finally agree to accept us as an existing state in the Middle East. Indeed, it has taken you 65 years to understand that we are here, on the land of our fathers, that we have come back to stay in our land forever and ever until eternity. But why do you call to displant Jerusalem,  the historical capital of the Jewish people, from the Jewish state? Was Jerusalem ever a capital of something connected to the Arab world or Islam? Throughout all of history, did an Emir, Sultan Caliph or Arab or Islamic King rule in it even for one day? Do you not remember that since the Islamic conquest in 637, the capital of "Jund Filastin" (the region of Palestine) was called Ramle? Then why has Jerusalem suddenly emerged as a candidate for capital of the second Palestinian state? Just because it is our capital?

Just to remind you: Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria were under Jordanian occupation for 7000 days, from May of 1948 until June of 1967. You had 7000 golden opportunities to establish a Palestinian state on this territory with Jerusalem as its capital. Why didn't you do it? Why did you think of it only after the Jewish people liberated the territory from the Jordanian occupation whose legality even you, the Arab League, never recognized? What did you know all those years about "the rights of the Palestinian people" that you don't know today? And why is Israeli "occupation" worse than Jordanian occupation?

Just imagine that we had made a peace agreement with Asad's Syria. Would the Saudi Arabian jihadists, followers of al-Qaida who want to eliminate Asad, honor the peace agreement that he signed with the Zionists? And what about the Palestinians in Jordan -  if they will also rise up and overthrow the royal house that the British imported from Saudi Arabia, are you sure that they would honor the agreement that that royal house signed with us over the Palestinians' objections? Are you willing to assure us that the Muslim Brotherhood, which has taken over Egypt, will always honor the peace agreement with Israel after all the years that they said that they would cancel it when they could? Just to remind you, Israel has had agreements of mutual recognition on different levels with Qatar, the United Emirates and Tunisia. Why did they cancel these agreements and close the Israeli diplomatic missions? Is this what your signature is worth?

And in general, why should we, the citizens of Israel, believe you? Is your promise worth anything? Does the Arab League indeed function as a relevant and effective body? In the covenant of the Arab League, which all of the Arab states have signed, there are articles that state principles of behavior among yourselves, but you behave in the totally opposite way!! Article 5 prohibits your states from using force against each other. Were there not wars between Egypt and Libya? Between Egypt and Sudan? Between Saudi Arabia and Yemen? Between Iraq and Kuwait? Between Syria and Iraq? And while we're on the subject of Syria and Iraq, Article 6 of the League's covenant states that if a foreign state attacks an Arab state, the League must take measures against this attacker. What did you do when your brother, Saddam Hussein, was attacked in 2003 by foreign states? Not only did you not help him but you joined the attackers!!! So can anyone trust you?

And when Syria occupied Lebanon what did you do? And in August 1976, when Syria slaughtered Palestinians in the Tel al-Za'atar refugee camp in Lebanon, what did you do? and when Kuwait eliminated many thousands of Palestinians after it was liberated from Iraqi occupation, what did you do to your Palestinian brothers? And what did you do in order to solve - not perpetuate - the problem of your brothers,  the "Palestinian refugees" since 1948? Why have you not allowed those "refugees", who originally came to Israel from your countries before 1948, to return to their homes in your countries after they fled the wars that you started? And when Qadhaffi slaughtered 50,000 of his citizens, what did you do as an Arab collective besides calling on Europe to do your work for you, to rescue Arabs from the knife of the Arab butcher!!! When 'Ali abdAlla Salah, the former dictator of Yemen, slaughtered his citizens what did you do? And during the past two years, while your brother Bashar Asad, has been slaughtering 80,000 of his citizens until today, where have you been? If this is the way you behave, allowing so very many thousands of Arabs, your brothers, to suffer and be killed in vain, only because they want to live the normative lifestyle of a human being, then why should we, citizens of Israel, think that you would care at all about us? Would you come to our aid if one of your countries decided to attack us?

The way you relate to one another is so terrible that we are not sure that we want anything to do with you. Can an Arab travel to another Arab state without a visa? How does any Arab state treat foreign workers who come from other Arab states? And why do the Egyptians kill Sudanese living in Egypt when they demonstrate against the humiliating way they are treated by their Egyptian brothers? And what did the Iraqis do to the Palestinians who were in Iraq until 2003? Did they not persecute them and chase them with knives into refugee camps of Rawishad on the Iraqi-Jordanian border and al-Kaaam on the border of Iraq and Syria? And why have Arab citizens of Lebanon been slaughtering Arab citizens of Syria for the past year? Only because the killers are Shi'ites and the victims are Sunnis? And why does Saudi Arabia send criminals to Syria in order to slaughter Asad's soldiers, who only wanted to slaughter Syrian citizens? And why does the Sudanese government slaughter its citizens in Darfur? Is this any way for a nation that proposes peace to the citizens of Israel to behave? And what has the Arab League ever done in order to bring a little calm to the Arab nation? Why do people say that the Arab League is like a frozen body in a morgue, that no one has the courage to declare as dead?

And even if we assume that there will be peace between us and all of the Arab states, what will that give us? Will you be able to buy our products? Do you think that we will allow tourists from your countries to visit us freely? We tried this in the nineties, when hordes of tourists came from Jordan, and more than a hundred thousand of them "disappeared" into Israel. We have learned the lesson, and many years will pass until we'll want to see your tourists in Israel again.

But the most important thing is the fact that despite the terrible holocaust, in which  the Palestinian Mufti - your brother, Hajj Amin al-Husseini - took an active part, and despite the wars and the terror between the wars that you have imposed upon us, we have established a democratic and developed country, and we have proven to the whole world that we need you, our dear neighbors, about as much as we need a headache. We have managed very well without you, and according to all the signs, we will continue to manage not at all poorly without you. You have nothing to offer us besides the poverty, unemployment, corruption, backwardness, violence and neglect that characterizes your societies and countries. Believe us, nothing, absolutely nothing, makes us want to connect ourselves with you. Do you want peace with us? We're willing - but what do you offer us in return? What will you give to us in exchange for our agreement to get into the same picture frame with you and to sit  around the same table with you?

Peace with you will come only after we see that you really want peace. As long as you encourage and arm terror organizations who act against us, incite against us in your media, erase the state of Israel from the geography books in your schools and act against us in international arenas, why should we believe that you indeed want peace? A peace agreement should be a recognition of actual peace in the field, for one important reason: when we see how you behave with yourselves, no one in Israel believes even one word of yours, because you have no idea what peace is. If you want peace with us, show us please that you have some concept of the term "peace". Begin with making peace within your countries, continue with peace between your countries and then perhaps we will believe that you know what peace is.

And if anyone thinks that our requirement is absurd, because there will never be peace in the Arab world, this is the proof that we are right. There is a saying in Arabic "Faqd a-Shay la y'atiha" - "He who has nothing, cannot give to someone else." How can a nation that has no notion of peace, give peace to others?

In conclusion, dear neighbors, we - citizens of Israel - want very much to live in Peace, in a region of peace where you and we enjoy it together. But we do not think that there is any point in signing an agreement with someone who today is here and tomorrow is in a grave, and his successors won't honor his signature. When the Middle East becomes a region of peace, give us a call, perhaps we will join the peace that you will begin in the Middle East. until then please leave us alone.

Signed: Mordechai Kedar, and many, many more citizens of Israel.

===============

Dr. Kedar is available for lectures

Dr. Mordechai Kedar (Mordechai.Kedar@biu.ac.il) is an Israeli scholar of Arabic and Islam, a lecturer at Bar-Ilan University and the director of the Center for the Study of the Middle East and Islam (under formation), Bar Ilan University, Israel. He specializes in Islamic ideology and movements, the political discourse of Arab countries, the Arabic mass media, and the Syrian domestic arena.

Translated from Hebrew by Sally Zahav with permission from the author.

Additional articles by Dr. Kedar

Source: The article is published in the framework of the Center for the Study of the Middle East and Islam (under formation), Bar Ilan University, Israel. Also published in Makor Rishon, a Hebrew weekly newspaper.

  

Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the author.

http://mordechaikedarinenglish.blogspot.co.il/2013/05/an-open-letter-to-arab-league.html?q=arabs+and+Israel