oints of view

>> Send letters to: letters@thejewishnews.com

Essay

Dark Doctrine

Palestinian culture of hate boasts centuries-old roots.

these official Israeli actions has quelled the
Palestinian thirst for murdering Israelis
even as the P.A. cooperates with Israel on
security measures.

rab/Muslim terrorists in general
often while hoping for renewed Israeli-
and Palestinian terrorists specifi-
Palestinian peace talks, diaspora Jews and
cally don't wake up one day hating the West imagine Fatah shifting course and
Israel or Jews. They're infused
embracing the idea of negotiating
by an intolerant ideology dat-
a real and lasting peace. That's
ing to Islam's seventh-century
a pipedream given the Islamic
emergence. At the core is an
commandment of jihad, of armed
educational, cultural and reli-
resistance, that fuels terrorism
gious dogma of indoctrination
against all "infidels" — all non-
and incitement.
Muslims.
So writes Yoram Ettinger, a
As Ettinger explains: "Arab/
thoughtful Israel-based ana-
Muslim terrorists are not driven
lyst of Middle East affairs and
by social, economic and human
Robert Sklar
a former congressional affairs
rights grievances, but by an
Contrib uting
minister at the Israel Embassy
intense, fanatical worldview,
Ed Ito
in Washington.
which loathes civil liberties and
In a telling Nov. 14 dispatch
considers freedom of religion,
he wrote for the Israel Hayom
press, association and move-
newspaper website, Ettinger reminds how
ment, including equal rights for women, an
such dogma is openly and systematically
abomination."
spread by Palestinian teachers, imams and
Terrorists find resolve in the bestowed
news outlets.
title of shaheed — a "martyr" on the altar
Fatah is the Mahmoud Abbas-led party
of Islam. Ettinger underscores how "mar-
governing the Palestinian Authority (P.A.)-
tyrdom" fulfills a Muslim mission, although
controlled areas of the West Bank. Too
that mission clearly took a dramatic turn

Every Jew should read this excerpt that
Ettinger spotlighted from the P.A. seventh-
grade text "Our Beautiful Language": "We
shall sow Palestine with [martyrs'] skel-
etons and skulls; we shall paint the face
of Palestine with blood:' And this passage
from the eighth-grade text "Islamic Studies":
"Jihad reserves a key role for youngsters, just
like those who sought martyrdom during
the days of the Prophet Muhammad:"
Whatever Abbas' apologies or excuses
for Palestinian terror, know his presidential
decisions foment a culture of hate: awarding
monthly payments to relatives of suicide
bombers; naming streets, squares, summer
camps and sports tournaments for "mar-
tyred" terrorists; broadcasting anti-Jewish
music videos and children's shows on P.A.
TV.
Such propaganda, Ettinger writes,
"entices Palestinian youth to idolize sha-
heeds, jihad, bloodshed and families of
suicide bombers, while delegitimizing the
Jewish state as an immoral entity deserv-

A

toward Jews with the founding of the State
of Israel in 1948.

Indoctrinated Early

The expectation of eternal glory as "mar-
tyrs" has proven a seductive welcome mat
into the world of suicide bombings for
young, impressionable Palestinian men
wowed by the promise of paradise in the
afterlife.
As Ettinger observes, many graduates of
the P.A. school system are already "poten-
tial terrorists." They're primed to "target
civilians deliberately and systematically,
aiming to erode the confidence of Israelis in
the homeland security capabilities of their
government, frightening them into reckless
concessions."
Compromise is central to negotiation,
making concessions inevitable. But Ettinger
reminds that just the threat of Palestinian
terror has spurred Israel into some unpro-
ductive concessions. Leaving Gaza, eas-
ing checkpoints, not pressing for Jewish
worship on the Temple Mount — none of

Hatred Pulsates

Editorial

Examples Show Jews And Arabs Co-Existing

T

alk about a study in contrasts:
• When Israeli soldier Chen
Schwartz, a 19-year-old Jew, was
shot at close range on Aug. 5 and taken
to Hadassah Hospital on Mount Scopus,
Dr. Ahmed Eid, head of surgery and an
Arab, performed surgery to control mas-
sive bleeding. "We were very gratified to
be able to save him," Eid told Hadassah
Magazine in the fall issue. "At Hadassah,
you know that you will never give up until
you find a way to save him:'
• Before opening fire on Rabbi Yehuda
Glick outside a Jerusalem conference cen-
ter on Oct. 29, would-be assassin Muataz
Hijazi, a Palestinian Islamic Jihad opera-
tive who worked in the center's kitchen,
told the Temple Mount activist: "I'm very
sorry; you are the enemy of Al-Aqsa." The
reference was to Al-Aqsa Mosque, consid-
ered Islam's third holiest site. The mosque
is located on the Temple Mount, which
was home to the Second Jewish Temple
before the Romans destroyed it in 70 CE.
Glick, since released from Shaare Zedek
Medical Center, is part of an Israeli group
seeking increased access to the Temple
Mount for Jewish worshippers, something
Muslims vehemently oppose and which

56

December 11 • 2014

DI

is restricted by a 1967 Israeli-Jordanian
agreement.
Amid roiling religious tension in
Jerusalem, a holy city for Jews, Muslims
and Christians, Jews and Arabs can get
along. Examples may not be boundless,
but they still are heartening.

So Different

Dr. Eid, 64, a native of the Jezreel Valley
in Israel's Central Galilee, Detroit Jewry's
partner region, is one of many Arab physi-
cians and nurses on the staff at Hadassah
Medical Center. Israeli Arabs as well as
Palestinians from the disputed territories
come to the hospital system in search of
first-class medical care.
Family members of operatives of
Hamas, the Gaza Strip-ruling terrorist
organization, have been known to seek
treatment there. No one in need of lifesav-
ing services is turned away. For Jews, sav-
ing a life supersedes everything, including
things normally prohibited on Shabbat.
Israeli police killed Hijazi in a shootout
outside his home hours after Glick was
attacked. Hijazi, 32, lived in the heavily
Arab eastern sector of Jerusalem, an area
teeming with anti-Israel sentiment.

Amid roiling religious
tension in Jerusalem,
Jews and Arabs can
get along.

A convicted terrorist released from an
Israeli prison in 2012, Hijazi returned to
a life influenced by Jew-haters. It would
have been improbable were he to become
law abiding.
In a statement, Islamic Jihad, a
Palestinian terrorist organization, claimed
responsibility for the attack on Glick. The
attack came in retaliation for actions in
Jerusalem by Israeli police and politicians
that Arabs deemed inciting.

City On Edge

Jerusalem — the biblical city of King
David that sits defiantly atop a visually
stunning hilltop where politics, cultures
and beliefs collide — is a largely Jewish
city of 800,000 people. More than a third
of the population consists of Arabs, who

are concentrated in the eastern sector.
Sure, Palestinians in their schools, music
videos, mosques, TV shows and newspa-
pers are taught, in deference to Allah, to
hate all "infidels," all non-Muslims — and
to imagine no Jews in the desired future
independent state of "Palestine:' And yes,
some hard-line Jews imagine only Jews
living in the biblical Land of Israel, which
includes present-day Israel as well as Judea
and Samaria, together known commonly
as the West Bank.
Then there's the Max Rayne Hand in
Hand Jerusalem School, Israel's larg-
est joint Arab-Jewish school though the
only such primary and high school in
Jerusalem. A JTA story highlights some
successes and plenty of challenges (includ-
ing a Nov. 29 anti-Arab arson incident) at
the school, the biggest and most intensive
of the coexistence initiatives in the city.
The Jerusalem YMCA also brings Jews
and Arabs together.
Against the backdrop of the Old City,
Jews and Arabs in united yet tumultuous
Jerusalem ultimately must get along if the
religiously pluralistic city, home to more
and more Arabs, is to survive, grow and
prosper.

❑

