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Contributing Editor
Editorial
Old Arab Order
Why the Palestinians haven't
taken to Arab Spring upheaval.
p
alestinians are part of the old Arab order
not only because they routinely align
themselves with the worst dictators of the
Arab world, but also because they, as an inspira-
tion to Hezbollah and Al
Qaida, embrace terror as a
core belief. That explains
why the Palestinians
haven't been part of the
Arab revolutions in Tunisia,
Egypt, Libya and Yemen —
collectively known as the
Arab Spring.
So says an Israeli
researcher in an interesting
analysis.
In his Jan. 5 essay,
Professor Hillel Frisch, a senior research associate
at the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies and
a Middle East political expert, concluded that the
Palestinian governments in the West Bank and the
Gaza Strip are cut from the same cloth as regimes of
the old Arab order — a hardly far-fetched idea. The
Ramat Gan-based nonpartisan, independent center
boasts impeccable credentials as an affiliate of the
Bar-Ilan University political studies department,
where Frisch is senior lecturer.
You don't have to look closely to see that in
the galaxy of this "old order ' the power brokers
maintain the right to self-determination, but deny
it to others, as Frisch relates. The world knew
the Palestinians supported Saddam Hussein's
Iraqi regime against Kurdish self-determination.
Not well known is Palestinian support for the
Moroccan occupation and colonization of Western
Sahara and the Algerian regime's suppression of
the Berber/Amazight language and culture.
;
Troubling Ties
I'd like to think that Fatah, which governs the West
Bank, is light years removed from Hamas' terror-
ist ways in the Gaza Strip. The reality is that Fatah
has terrorist factions that rival the best of Hamas.
Neither Fatah nor Hamas has shown any inclina-
tion to divest itself from the league of one-party
police states where opposing forces and the news
media are controlled — and political prisoners are
jailed.
I always take pains to argue that you can't group
Palestinians on the street with the vilest of their
leaders; the problem with this line of thinking is
that years of propaganda have infected virtually
all Palestinians with intense hatred toward Israel
and the West. I fear the Palestinians are at least a
generation away from even grasping the ideals of
liberty and freedom, let alone enjoying them.
With their corrupt, aimless value system,
Palestinians are "an integral part of the old Arab
order" and, therefore, "unable to participate in
a democratic, tolerant Arab renaissance writes
I fear the Palestinians are
at least a generation away
from even grasping the ideals
of liberty and freedom, let
alone enjoying them.
Frisch, who holds a doctorate from Hebrew
University of Jerusalem.
He could be right.
Tapping Into History
Frisch's historical perspective reinforces that
Palestinians are part of the old Arab order because
they continually extol the Arab leaders who drive
this philosophy. The professor
cites the late Palestine Liberation
Organization (PLO) leader
Yasser Arafat, who, buoyed by
public support, "risked inter-
national isolation and condem-
nation for himself, his people
and his movement to support
Saddam Hussein's occupation of
Professor
Kuwait."
"Saddam," Frisch writes, "was Hillel Frisch
the most brutal leader of the old
Arab ordet" Frisch adds, "This is the same Arafat,
the same PLO and the same Palestinian people
who today rail against Israeli 'occupation!"
Frisch is the author of the just-released
Cambridge University Press book Israel's Security
and its Arab Citizens. In his January essay, he sin-
gles out two influential Palestinians who showed
their crystal-clear "old order" colors:
• Azmi Bishara, then an Israeli Arab Member
of Knesset who defied Israeli law against visit-
ing an enemy state when he went to Damascus in
2001 to eulogize Syrian President Hafez al-Assad.
Al-Assad's son Bashar continues to brutalize
Syrian citizens. "Bishara," Frisch writes, "later fled
Israel and resigned from the Knesset after being
questioned by police on suspicion of aiding and
passing military information to Hezbollah during
wartime!'
•Ahmad Tibi, a current Israeli Arab Member of
Knesset, led an entourage of Israeli Arabs to pay
homage to Muammar Qaddafi just before the 2011
people's revolt that ousted the Libyan dictator.
"In neither case Frisch writes, "were these
Palestinians forced to act as they did. They did it
out of love for the 'old' Arab dictators and their
regimes."
Ponder that for a moment.
Frisch further goes on to argue that Palestinians
Old Arab Order on page 35
34
February 16 2012
iN
Campuses Must Guard
Against Israel Hatred
T
oday, tens of thousands of college students are now
proactively defining their relationship with Israel in
the most meaningful and intimate ways – not merely
embracing a slogan, ideology or myth.
So concludes Wayne Firestone, the head of the national
campus Hillel network.
That's good news.
More than they did five years ago, Jews
on campus seem comfortable promoting
their cultural identity and defending the
Jewish state. What a positive that is. We've
heard stories from not so long ago when
Jewish students felt intimidated and were
no match for the ruthless anti-Israel seg-
Wayne
ments so prevalent on campus.
Firestone
In a February essay posted on the Hillel:
The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life
website, Firestone extols how Hillel students on more than
75 campuses have connected with Israeli peers via "scores of
student Israel initiatives that speak to diverse political, cul-
tural, educational and social interests." Michigan Hillels are
important parts of this encouraging equation.
For the Washington-based Hillel organization, the connective
drivers are MASA/Israel Journey and Israel Fellows. The idea
of Hillels collaborating through networks of entrepreneurial
students to advance common interests that span ethnic, social
and business realms is not new, but neither is it well known.
For too long, promoting such entrepreneurship took the same
back seat as spotlighting Zionist advocacy on campus.
"For the past decade – regardless of the sitting govern-
ment in Israel – we have seen students regularly exploring
Israel personally, emotionally and intellectually in deeper and
more nuanced ways than prior generations, even when they
are confused or have questions about their Jewish identity or
specific Israeli government policies," Firestone writes.
He's right, thanks to stronger branches of the Hillel tree
through programs like "Talk Israel" public discussions for
Jewish and non-Jewish students, and the more than 300,000
Jewish students that Taglit-Birthright has sent to Israel over
the past 12% years.
Worth pondering is Firestone's assertion that "the self-dis-
covery occurring back on campus following the Israel trips is
beginning to influence the larger uninvolved student cohort."
He cited an Israel Project/American-Israeli Cooperative
Enterprise survey that found "Jewish students may know less
about Israel's history and politics than prior generations, but
they seem to know more about its people and are significant-
ly more sympathetic than previously thought."
Still, Hillel as a national organization and our Jewish com-
munal leaders as a collective must keep an even tighter
watch against delegitimizing ideology that tilts from opposing
Israeli politics to demonizing Israel – challenging Israel's right
to exist. Political dissent or discourse is certainly democratic.
But threats of boycotts, divestment, sanctions, legitimacy,
hatred and anti-Semitism under the guise of free speech
can't be ignored. Nor can we stand for campuses suspending
study abroad in Israel and limiting academic ties there simply
in protest of the Netanyahu government.
now all too well the awful moments in history when
J
kept quiet in hopes of the enemy just fading away. The
best defense is speaking up and out – forcefully, but with
facts, confidence and, yes, unremitting purpose. ❑