Editor's Letter
The Shocking Truth
I
want to believe in the possibility of Israeli-Palestinian
peace. But I sense that it's a pipe dream. The rhetoric
among Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas,
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and U.S. Secretary of
State Condoleezza Rice is empty.
Palestinian kids continue to be taught through public
school textbooks to terrorize Jews
and seize their ancestral homeland.
Moreover, schools often are named for
so-called martyrs whom I prefer to
call terrorists. That children become
murderers under the aegis of the
Palestinian government is outrageous.
Why should anyone be surprised
by the kiddie killing fields given
that Hamas, a political, service and
military network that has made the
U.S. list of terrorist groups, now leads
the Palestinian people thanks to a
"popular" vote. Fatah, the party of the puppet prime minister,
alarmingly is moving closer to Hamas in ideology — not sur-
prising in the sphere of politics.
Doesn't the civilized world see what's happening with
Palestinian education? Diaspora Jews must wake up; we all
have deep stakes in Israel and its survival and security.
For the truth, I rely on Itamar Marcus, the tenacious
executive director of the Jerusalem-based Palestinian Media
Watch. Every Jew should make the PMW's new report, "From
Nationalist Battle to Religious Conflict," required reading
(palestinianmediawatch.com ). It's mind bending.
Marcus wrote about that report in a Feb. 25 commentary
published in the Jerusalem Post. He said the lat-
est 12th-grade books written by Fatah-appointed
Palestinian educators "are the worst of the textbooks
produced by the Palestinian Authority since 2000."
So much for Abbas' hollow efforts toward peace.
"These newest books deny Israel's right to exist,
anticipate its destruction and define the conflict
with Israel as religious, not merely territorial:' says
Marcus.
mandatory and religious, Marcus stresses.
Marcus deduces that the Palestinians believe the conflict
will end only by coming together, young and old, to destroy
Israel for Islam. It's because of classroom lessons like this that
I fear Israeli-Palestinian peace is at least a generation away.
Consider: Palestinian kids age 8 or younger are brainwashed
to hate and aspire to become shahids,"martyrs" who murder
Jews to satisfy Allah.
Schoolbooks set the stage for a new Middle East order via
maps showing "Palestine" where Israel now is. "And 'Palestine'
is defined as a dawla — the Arabic word for state, not a geo-
graphical region:' says Marcus. Equally shocking, the text jus-
tifies and glorifies the inuqawama, or resistance, as "glorious
heroism and sacrifice!' I see the resistance as a front for all
the Palestinian-led violence and terror waged against Israel.
Palestinian schools also exacerbate Iran's Holocaust denial.
They teach World War II without the Holocaust despite men-
tioning the Nazi "race theory" and "Nazi war criminals!'
Bleak Outlook
So don't think the Palestinians will stop trying to fire rockets
into Israel or sneak suicide bombers through roadblocks and
fence lines. We're talking about a people whose schoolbooks
are guides for embracing, if not inciting, terror against Jews!
As Marcus puts it: "Even the most well-meaning student is
left with no justification or religious option to accept Israel as
a neighbor to live beside in peace."
Given the Palestinian Authority's indoctrinating and hate-
ful lessons against Jews, I applaud Marcus' repudiation of the
American Jewish group Brit Tzedek v'Shalom-Jewish Alliance
for Justice and Peace. In a letter to Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-
We're talking about a people whose
schoolbooks are guides for embracing,
if not inciting, terror against Jews!
Textbook Politics
I stand by my belief that Palestinian leaders, and by extension
their indoctrinated poverty-ridden masses, have all Jews in
their battle sights, not just Zionists. Marcus confirms that sus-
picion. Make no mistake: Not every Muslim is anti-Semitic.
But the narrowed ideology between Hamas and Fatah has
made religion as much a target as Zionism in the Palestinian
war against Israel. At the core of this troubling shift is a claim
for all of Eretz Yisrael as Palestinian land — with Jews dis-
missed as barriers to topple.
Peace will only arise once this conversion of the land
is complete, according to the thinking propounded in
Palestinian classrooms. The P.A. Ministry of Higher
Education-approved text is crystal clear: Jews stole
Palestinian land in biblical Palestine and expelled the
Palestinian people to found the Jewish state of Israel. The
Palestinians call this "The Catastrophe" (Al Nakba) and thus
describe Israel's existence since 1948 as the all-too-familiar
occupation."
Palestinians call this struggle to regain "lost" land ribat. It
is related to jihad, or holy war, for Allah. And it is existential,
"
N.Y., Brit Tzedek said P.A. texts are "unusual in that they
endorse democracy" and endorse a "peaceful resolution" of
the battle flaring between Israelis and Palestinians, reports
the New York-based Jewish Telegraphic Agency. Clinton had
challenged the tainted learning emanating from Palestinian
schools, television and music videos.
Notably, Palestinian texts also teach that the U.S., a strate-
gic ally of Israel, is another public enemy as well as a human
rights abuser and a danger to world peace. Yet according to
the PMW and the World Bank, the U.S. is the largest support-
er of Palestinians, with economic aid topping $1.3 billion!
Shudder if you must, but contemplate the horror in know-
ing that what once was perceived as radical within the
Palestinian culture and the province of terror groups like
llamas is now part of the mainstream.
Israel is further from lasting peace than ever.
O :
W
VI La
I-- fa
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as
In the pursuit of peace, is the diaspora
blinded to Palestinian motives?
Can the civilized world combat hatred
against Zionism?
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FOR
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March 8 a 2007