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the joy of deliverance
from bondage, they must take care not to offer
apologies for wanting to put an end to their own two
thousand year-old nightmare. Too many Jews indeed so
indulge…
The rebirth of Israel represents the wish to finally
put an end to the horrors of massacres, demonization,
forced conversions, expulsions, ghettoization,
pogroms, dehumanization, inquisitions, dhimmitude,
and such culminating in the Holocaust. Jews finally
became weary of being labeled either killers of G_d
by the Christian West or kilab yahud (“Jew Dog”)
killers of Prophets in the Muslim East and did what
was necessary for their own survival in their quest
for a small slice of relative justice for
themselves…working, with G_d’s timely help, for the
resurrection of the Jewish State.
Now, when discussing the Jews’ sometimes flawed
struggles to rid themselves of their perpetual
scapegoat, victim, and whipping post par exellence
status, there are no shortage of critics pointing
out such imperfections. Yet, Arabs and their
supporters elsewhere offer no confessions and ask no
forgiveness from neither G_d nor man for blowing up
buses, restaurants, schools, and such–nor beheading
infants and slitting the throats of other children
and parents in their sleep. On the contrary, they
are proclaimed heroes for doing such things.
Indeed, the same folks who loudly proclaim Israel’s
“original sin” show no signs of remorse for
deliberately targeting innocents, subjugating,
enslaving, and/or massacring millions of non-Arab
peoples–just in the last half century alone.
Furthermore, too often the world at large has
generally granted them a free pass. Jews, on the
other hand, can honestly say they have repeatedly
tried to reach an honorable and just solution to
their problems with Arabs.
While wanting to put an end to their own perpetual
nakba (as Arabs like to refer to the rebirth of
Israel–“the catastrophe”), Jews nevertheless agreed
to one compromise after another over the past
century so that Arabs could gain their 22nd state (
and second, not first, in “Palestine”). That Arabs
want their new, additional state to exist in place
of Israel, not along side of it, has always been the
problem.
This issue has always involved Arabs not granting
anyone else (not only Jews) but themselves political
rights in the region…with the possible exception of
some of those whom they successfully Arabized and/or
Islamized centuries earlier. While this holds true
for Turks,www.ekurd.netAfghanis,
Pakistanis and Iranians, for example, this is not
the case with Kurds, Black African (Muslim and
non-Muslim) Sudanese, and Imazighen/Berbers. For the
latter peoples, the issue becomes more of a clash of
nationalisms than of religion.
The ongoing forced Arabization process is thus still
under way centuries after Arabs burst out of the
Arabian Peninsula in their imperial conquests of the
region. And while they demand that Jews confess and
address their own alleged transgressions, Arabs see
their own subjugation, enslavement, forced
Arabization, colonization, and/or settlement of
other peoples and lands (including in the Mandate of
Palestine, where most Arabs were newcomers
themselves in the last century) simply in terms of
their own alleged just dues.
So, as Rosh Hashanah, the New Year 5772, begins,
Jews indeed have a lot–both individually and
collectively–to work on and to deal with before G_d
and man. The latter will include continuing to try
to find an honorable solution to problems involving
Arabs. But to do this, they must have true partners
for peace–ones who recognize the rights of Jews as
well as their own, and understand that others
besides Arabs are entitled to a share of justice in
the region.
Unfortunately, this is not how Arabs are used to
dealing with any of their own competitors.
Furthermore, everything that Arabs say, write, teach
and preach to their own people works against this
ever happening. Under such circumstances, no amount
of Israeli concessions will ever be enough.
Until such a day arrives, however, Israel must do
what it must do to thrive, not just survive. And one
of the demands of this requires Israel to stand up
firmly for its own just demands. It was promised,
after the attempt on its life in June 1967, that it
would never have to return to the suicidal armistice
lines imposed upon it in 1949 again…regardless of
what President Obama and a perpetually hostile State
Department now threaten. Before the United Nations
decides to act to create that 22nd Arab state
Mahmoud Abbas recently officially petitioned for,
Israel must insist on the UN honoring its own
earlier Security Council Resolution (242) from 1967
which promised Israel secure and real borders to
replace those fragile lines. A territorial
compromise in the disputed territories is thus a
must–regardless of what the Arabs and their
supporters demand.
This is not to say that all hope must be given up
regarding a peaceful solution to the Arab-Israel
conflict. But it is to say that deceiving ourselves
will only lead to even more serious problems ahead.
Of all of the real sins that Jews must strike their
chests and seek forgiveness for during this Holy
season, they must remind themselves that the rebirth
of the Jewish State and their struggle to survive
and live in dignity are not to be counted amongst
them. As another Jewish leader whose teachings would
later give rise to another religion taught, “let he
who is without sin cast the first stone.”
By any reasonable, objective standard, any fair
comparison of the Jews’ own imperfections in these
regards with those of the very Arabs, Turks, and
Iranians who take them to task on such issues is
nauseatingly laughable, indeed.
May we all be blessed with a New Year in which all
peoples will reach out to find better, more
equitable ways to live with each other…
Gerald A. Honigman is a Florida educator who has
done extensive doctoral studies in Middle Eastern
Affairs. He has created and conducted counter-Arab
propaganda programs for college youth, has lectured
on numerous campuses and other platforms, and has
publicly debated many Arab spokesmen. His articles
and op-eds have been published in dozens of
newspapers, magazines, academic journals and
websites all around the world. Visit his
website at
http://www.geraldahonigman.com/
Gerald A. Honigman, a longtime contributing writer
and columnist
for ekurd.net. Honigman has published a major book,
"The
Quest For Justice In The Middle East--The
Arab-Israeli Conflict In Greater Perspective."
By Gerald A. Honigman for eKurd.net, September 30, 2011. You may reach the
author via email at: honigman6 (at) msn.com.
Copyright © 2011 ekurd.net.
All rights reserved
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