OTHER, VIEWS
Seeds Of The Next War
Jerusalem
ne of the most meaningful
gauges of the integrity of a peace
process and its likelihood for
success is the degree to which the "peace
partners" educate towards peace.
It is for this reason that the entire
Palestinian Authority (PA) education
apparatus, both formal and informal,
has been such a tragic disappointment.
Instead of seizing the opportunity to
educate future generations to live with
Israel in peace, the P.A. has done every-
thing in its power to teach hatred to
young minds.
Compounding the problem is that
ever since the hatred in the Palestinian
textbooks has been exposed and world
pressure has been mounting to eliminate
the hatred, various defenders of the P.A.
0
Itamar Marcus is director of Palestinian
Media Watch and was Israeli representa-
tive to the Tri-Lateral Anti Incitement
Committee established under the Wye
accords. His e-mail address is
pmw@pmw.org.il
curriculum have surfaced, trying to
legitimize this problematic educational
system.
The truth is that the P.A. school-
books, both old and new, incite to
hatred, violence and anti-Semitism. It's
tragic that their defenders are enabling
the P.A. to avoid necessary peace educa-
tion.
Anti-Semitism in presented openly in
P.A. education. In the new sixth grade
book Reading the Koran, children read
about Allah's warning to the Jews that
because of their evil Allah will kill them:
"... Oh you who are Jews, if you think
that you are favored of Allah ... Then
long for death if you are truthful ... for
the death from which you flee, that will
surely overtake you ..."
In other sections, children learn of
Jews being expelled from their homes by
Allah, and in another Jews are said to be
like donkeys: "Those [Jews] who were
charged with the Torah, but did not
observe it, are like a donkey carrying
books ..."
And while the Koran and Islam are
Israel's land is called the
"stolen homeland," Israel's cre-
ation the "catastrophe" and an
encyclopedia is cited that was
written for "... Palestinians, so
that they would remember
their stolen homeland and
work for its salvation ..."
This teaching to not recog-
ITAMAR
nize Israel's existence is cement-
MARCUS
ed through dozens of maps in
Special
Commentary the schoolbooks in which
"Palestine" encompasses all of
Israel.
Phantom Statehood
The argument that the map is not
modem "Palestine" but "Mandatory
In the new textbooks, Israel is delegit-
Palestine" is an insult to our intelligence.
imized as a state. Israel is portrayed as a
Children reading these schoolbooks
foreign colonial occupier:
believe they are looking at maps that
"Colonialism: Palestine faced the
reflect the current situation, not maps
British occupation after the First World
and pictures of British territory more
War in 1917, and the Israeli occupation
than half a century ago.
in 1948 ..."
Completing the dangerous messages
Once Israel is an "occupation," it is a
of the new books is the teaching that it
logical step to define all of Israel's cities,
is a religious obligation for Israel to be
regions and natural resources as being
destroyed:
part of "Palestine," including Beersheba,
"Islam encourages this [love of home-
the Negev, the Sea of Galilee.
certainly not under scrutiny
here, it is tragic that although
the Koran and Islam have posi-
tive traditions regarding Jews,
the P.A. educators have chosen
to incorporate only hateful reli-
gious traditions.
P.A. children are left with the
impression that the Koran sees
the Jews as an enemy of God,
and consequently their enemy as
well.
Deciphering Mahmoud Abbas
Philadelphia
here's some puzzlement about
Mahmoud Abbas, the new
chairman of the Palestinian
Authority. Does he accept Israel's exis-
tence or want to destroy it?
Matthew Kalman of Canada's Globe
and Mail discerns "an apparent cam-
paign flip-flop" in this regard. A
Philadelphia Jewish Exponent story is
tided "He Wants It Both Ways:
Palestinian front-runner: Anti-terror,
but pro-'return'." An Australia
Broadcast Corporation title acknowl-
edges its mystification, writing that
"Abbas's election tactics confuse ana-
lysts."
The news media dwell on the same
apparent contradiction: one moment,
Abbas demands that Palestinian terror-
ists stop their attacks on Israel and the
next he (literally) embraces them, call-
ing them "heroes fighting for free-
dom." Also, he talks of both stopping
the violence and of the "right of
T
return" for over 4 million Palestinians
to Israel, a well-known way of calling
indirectly for the elimination of the
Jewish state. What gives?
Actually, there is no contradiction.
By insisting on a "right of return,"
Abbas signals that he, like Yasser
Arafat and most Palestinians, intends
to undo the events of 1948; that he
rejects the very legitimacy of a Jewish
state and will strive for its disappear-
ance. But he differs from Arafat in
being able to imagine more than one
way of achieving this goal.
No matter what the circumstances,
Arafat persisted from 1965 to 2004 to
rely on terrorism. He never took seri-
ously his many agreements with Israel,
seeing these rather as a means to
enhance his ability to murder Israelis.
Arafat's diplomacy culminated in
September 2000 with the unleashing
of his terror war against Israel; then,
no matter how evident its failure, it
went on until his death in November
2004.
Daniel Pipes is director of the Middle
Ski
1/20
2005
40
East Forum and author of "Miniatures"
(Transaction Publishers). His e-mail
address is Pipes@MEForum.org
Abbas' Take
In contrast, Abbas publicly recognized
As he announced after his
in September 2002 that ter-
electoral victory last week,
ror had come to harm
"the lesser jihad [holy war] is
Palestinians more than Israel.
over and the greater jihad is
Intended to prompt demoral-
ahead." The form of jihad
ization and flight from Israel,
must change from violent to
this tactic in fact brought
non-violent, but the jihad
together a hitherto fractured
continues.
body politic, while nearly
And count the many ways
destroying the Palestinian
D ANIEL
to undo the Jewish state:
Authority and prostrating its
PI PES
nuclear weaponry, invading
population. Abbas correctly
Sp ecial
concluded that "it was a mis-
Com mental), armies, mega-terrorism, plain
old terrorism, Palestinian
take to use arms during the
demographic fertility, the
intifada and to carry out
"right of return," or confusing
attacks inside Israel."
Israelis to the point that post-Zionist
Abbas shows tactical flexibility.
leftists cause the population unilater-
Unlike Arafat, who could never let
ally to crumple and accept a dhimmi
go of the terrorist tool that had
(subservient) status within
brought him wealth, power, and
"Palestine."
glory, Abbas sees the situation more
cogently. If stopping the violence
against Israel best serves his goal of
Stalin's Parallel
eliminating the sovereign Jewish
For an instructive parallel to Abbas
state, that is his program.
having concluded that violence is
He no more accepts what he so
inappropriate, consider Stalin in the
charmingly the other day called the
decade before World War II. Aware
"Zionist enemy" any more than
of his weakness, he announced in
Arafat did (or Hamas or Palestinian
1930 an intent for the Soviet Union
Islamic Jihad), but he is open to a
to be a good international citizen:
multiplicity of means to destroy it.