Editor's Letter
Don't Be Deceived
M
y dream of peace between the Israelis and
Palestinians turns nightmarish under the slate
gray skies of the conflict. The hard reality is that
the political and religious leaders of the Palestinian people
aren't crediting themselves with anointing the Jews as the
scum of the earth, but Allah himself. So tactically, there's no
room for debate given the divine order.
The net effect is ominous: It'll take a generation or more
to reverse the psychological damage
done to the youngest, most impres-
sionable minds within the Palestinian
Authority, a ticking time bomb of
human emotion and hatred.
I don't think U.S. Jews realize the
depth of disdain among Palestinians
toward Israeli Jews. By pinning the
directive on Allah, Palestinian lead-
ers elevate its impact on the Muslim
masses within the Gaza Strip, West
Bank and East Jerusalem. Simply,
•
Palestinian kids are raised to hate
Jews. "Palestinian society is very religious and a lot of the
hatred is packaged as God's will;' a Brooklyn-born Jew, now
one of Israel's foremost authorities on Palestinian culture,
told me over our matching bowls of tomato rice soup at Rita
Jerome's Unique Restaurant in Oak Park on Nov. 15.
Itamar Marcus, director of Palestinian Media Watch, a high-
ly respected pro-Israel watchdog for bias and hate emanating
from the Palestinian-controlled news media, added, "The
Jews are said to be descendants of monkeys and pigs. Kids on
Palestinian television use this terminology and they believe it.
It's so difficult to change because it's not the opinion of their
leaders or their teachers: It's Allah's opinion. That's why it is
not going to change very easily."
Change isn't an option until Palestinian role models like
imams say that Allah has changed his mind about the Jews.
These imams would have to say they are inter-
preting Islam differently, that the Jewish people
no longer are the enemy. That's unlikely. So peace
will remain elusive notwithstanding Palestinian
Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' hollow
pleas for renewed talks.
dels. Like it's talking about
doing with Iran, the West
must consider isolating the
Palestinian Authority. Says
Marcus: "The P.A. must be
ostracized. If that would hap-
pen and the society would
begin to crumble, the people
might throw out their leader-
ship and seek others who can
work toward a message of
Itamar Marcus
peace."
I see no hope for lasting
peace right now because that's such a remote possibility. Jews
in America like to fashion Abbas and his Fatah Party as mod-
erate when compared with Hamas, a terrorist organization.
But what Abbas says to Western leaders in English is couched
in Jew-baiting over P.A. television. Distortion, violence and
terror against Jews is still promoted and admired on the air.
Abbas isn't trying to bring reconciliation. At least with Hamas,
Marcus argues, Jews know where they stand at all times.
Double Edged
By not recognizing Israel, Abbas is guilty of the ultimate in
double talk. Take it from Marcus: "It's very dangerous for
Israel when we have Palestinian people in power who repre-
sent themselves as moderate but who are not moderate at all."
The problem is that Western Jews embrace false hope. It's
why we fawned over terror-monger Yasser Arafat amid the
1993 Oslo Accords, and why we somehow thought he'd help a
few years later in the wake of Palestinian Media Watch expos-
ing Palestinian schoolbooks as incitement to violence against
Jews. Israeli leaders at the time helped perpetuate the myth
that Arafat was a peace partner.
Jews the world over couldn't, or didn't want to, grasp the
impact of the lessons in Palestinian schools. And we've paid
I don't think that American Jews realize
the depth of disdain among Palestinians
toward Israeli Jews.
The Backdrop
Marcus, 53, made aliyah in 1974. He served in the Israeli
army from 1975 to 1977; three of his five children served in
Lebanon this summer..
Marcus was in Metro Detroit as a guest of StandWithUs-
Michigan, a pro-Israel education and advocacy group. He
sought to spread his fundamental message: that Palestinian
propagandists and apologists have duped world Jewry.
And he tells it straight: "You might have a temporary
respite, a few years of relative calm like what we had before
2000. But you'll never have peace until the Palestinian leader-
ship re-evaluates exactly how they see the world. And that will
only happen under incredible international pressure."
The international sanctions in place aren't nearly enough.
Because we're civilized, the West continues to support the
Palestinians through aid to programs and to the government.
The U.S. alone gives $200 million a year.
I find it galling that the West talks about isolating Iran
because of the anti-West and anti-Zionist rants of its leader-
ship yet seems to diminish the same propaganda espoused by
Palestinian leaders. In both cases, Jews are portrayed as infi-
the price with the second intifada, now six years running.
Marcus put it bluntly, "If you poison the hearts and minds of
the Palestinian people, you can sign whatever you want; but
it's meaningless."
That's what paralyzed Oslo, a Trojan horse if there ever
was one, because of Arafat's success in undermining the
intended result. "Oslo was an important process:' Marcus said.
"Without Oslo, we could not have had the intifada. Without
Oslo, we could not have had weapons infiltrate through to the
Palestinians. Oslo was a way to prepare for and execute vio-
lence, terror and war."
Without a doubt, Oslo and the Wye River Accordsfive years
later were meant to end the incitement, but the Palestinians
have shown no interest. Itamar Marcus' message must
resound: Peace won't come until Palestinian kids no longer
learn in school, on TV and via music videos that it's an honor
to die as a suicide bomber targeting Israelis.
A signed document without a cultural sea change over a
generation is worthless. You can't have peace unless you teach
peace ... period.
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November 30 2006
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