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essay

Transformative Moment?

Without sweeping change, Palestinian culture
won’t permit making peace with Israel.

I

would seem unlikely to bear
t’s stereotypical and wrong
political fruit.
to suggest all Palestinians
A peace treaty, were the U.S.
are morally bankrupt.
to succeed in helping broker
Still, legions of ordinary
one, wouldn’t matter without
Palestinians have been poi-
the Palestinians also embrac-
soned by a raging culture of
ing a new lens through which
anti-Zionist venom spewed by
they view anyone or anything
many in positions of power.
Zionist. It’s hard to see a way
In a compelling commen-
Robert Sklar
out of the anti-Zionist abyss
tary released by Jewish News
Contributing Editor
that is Palestinian culture.
Syndicate, Stephen Flatow,
Ultimately, hope, because
father of Alisa Flatow, mur-
new leadership in Ramallah
dered in an Iran-sponsored
and Gaza City is always possi-
Palestinian terrorist attack in
ble, must remain the way forward for
Israel in 1995, suggests the top White
those who believe in a two-state solu-
House adviser on
tion to the Israeli-Palestinian con-
Mideast affairs, Jared
Kushner, subscribes to flict. Coexistence, however, requires
the patience of Job. The prospective
the myth “that aver-
peace partners are battling dark poli-
age Palestinians are
tics not only within, but also across
really just like us.”
In an interview with the border.
Moderate Palestinians, if they can
the Jerusalem-based
stay alive in a society that decries
Palestinian newspa-
dissent, somehow must muster trac-
per Al Quds, Kushner
Stephen Flatow
tion among supportive Arabs and
said: “I believe that
the Palestinian people Jews to begin the essential task of
unearthing common ground.
are less invested in
the politicians’ talking
points than they are in TARNISHED DREAM
seeing how a deal will
In his Al Quds interview on June 25,
give them and their
Kushner said his “dream is for the
future generations
Israeli and Palestinian people to be
new opportunities,
the closest of allies’’ in combating ter-
Jared Kushner
more and better-pay-
ror, spurring economic achievement,
ing jobs and prospects advancing science and technology,
for a better life.”
and “sharing a lifestyle of brother-
Flatow, a New Jersey attorney and
hood, peace and prosperity.”
the Religious Zionists of America
The next day, via his commentary,
vice president, believes the average
Flatow reminded how, worthy as it is,
Palestinian, because of governmental
that dream isn’t practical given it’s the
indoctrination, “really does hate Jews.”
Palestinians “who perpetrate, glorify
“The political culture of their soci-
and financially reward terror.”
ety,” he says, “is not the same as the
It’s easy to pin terror emanating
democratic political culture of the
from the Gaza Strip on Hamas, the
United States or Israel. Better-paying
terrorist organization ruling the
jobs are not their highest goal.”
coastal enclave. In the West Bank,
the P.A., long considered by the U.S. a
viable peace partner for Israel, boasts
HATE-FILLED ROOTS
In his commentary, Flatow blamed
textbooks so spurious the British
that thinking on Palestinian class-
government just mandated a rigorous
rooms grounded in anti-Jewish
review for violent incitement before
propaganda and values rooted in
re-upping British funding support.
extreme elements of Arab national-
In a House of Commons debate on
ism.
July 4, British lawmaker Joan Ryan,
Yes, the Palestinian Authority
chair of the Labour Friends of Israel,
(P.A.), the semiofficial government
quoted a damning 2017 report about
in the West Bank and self-anointed
P.A. curriculum changes. Those
overseer of any future Palestinian
changes radicalized the curriculum
state, has inculcated Palestinians
“to a greater extent than before,”
with such acrimony toward Jews
according to a report by the Israel-
and Israel that renewed peace talks
based Institute for Monitoring Peace

8

July 26 • 2018

jn

and Cultural Tolerance in School
Education.
Flatow discredits Kushner’s belief
that the Palestinians, so “industrious”
as a people, would benefit from Israel’s
prosperity were peace to come.
“Does he think the Palestinians
don’t know that?” rails Flatow. “Does
he think that they are simpletons who
have never noticed, throughout the
past century, how Jewish development
of the country has benefited them and
could benefit them a lot more if they
made peace?”
If the Palestinians seek economic
prosperity, why, Flatow asks, did they
gleefully burn fully intact greenhouses
when Israel withdrew all settlers and
soldiers from Gaza in 2005? Clearly,
the fiery response was an act of glee
toward the retreat of “occupying”
Jews. No thought was given to how the
greenhouses could uplift their lives.

STEPPING OUT

In suggesting Gazans “freely elected
Hamas in a democratic election, and
freely marched to the Gaza fence to
throw Molotov cocktails at Israelis and
sail flaming kites to burn down their
fields,” Flatow overlooks that rising up
against Hamas, dedicated by charter
to destroying Israel, would require a
degree of sophisticated dissent foreign
to such an inhibited culture.
Kushner concluded by assert-
ing “humankind’s ability to love”
— seemingly undeterred that
better-paying jobs won’t move the
Palestinian soul from warmongering
toward peacemaking.
Surely, Kushner, named by U.S.
President Donald Trump, his father-
in-law, to shepherd the new U.S. plan
for bringing peace between Israelis
and Palestinians, must tap into
something more than “humankind’s
ability to love.”
The Palestinians can start by truly
recognizing Israel as the Jewish state
with a legitimate claim to the land and
by avowing to cleanse their ingrained
hatred of and violence toward Zionism.
For its part, Israel can recommit to
direct, bilateral peace talks through yet
another demonstrated gesture of good
will — like again curtailing settlement
expansion. In a region fraught with
terror, Israel cannot compromise on
checkpoint or border security.
Then there’s the overarching evil
disrupting the Palestinians’ path to
progress.
As Stephen Flatow put it: “It would
take a complete overhaul of the P.A.’s
media and school system, followed by
generations of enlightened leadership
and education, to change their values
and attitudes.”
It’s an overhaul the civilized world
must demand — relentlessly. •

letters

Refusing To
Embrace Whiteness

Emma Share, in the July 5 issue of the Jewish
News, writes about a workshop inviting
white people “to practice talking about
race and whiteness.” At the workshop,
she learned that in order to talk honestly
about race, those of us who qualify have to
accept “feeling confident as a white person
in the world.” According to Share, we have
to overcome the temptation of “rejecting
our whiteness” or “dissociat[ing] from our
whiteness.” Doing this, she assures us, will
help us overcome racism.
Well, I do not want to accept my white-
ness.
Whether I qualify as white depends
entirely on the opinions of bigots. The
category of racial whiteness has no objec-
tive reality; some people qualify as white
because bigots accept them as white. Some
people do not qualify as white because big-
ots define them as not white.
I do not participate in a special “white”
culture. I do not engage in distinctive activi-
ties to express my whiteness. I do not feel a
special kinship with white people.
Yes, I know that I have benefited from
white privilege. When I encounter a police
officer, I might feel threatened, but nothing
like the threat perceived by non-white civil-
ians.
Yes, when I meet people, I do notice
whether they qualify as white or not. I can-
not reliably tell what color eyes my acquain-
tances have or whether they have attached
earlobes, but I can tell you whether they
appear to qualify as white. That just means
I must have internalized the teachings of
the Klan. I wish I could not notice. Since I
do notice, I rejoice at the successes of non-
whites.
My own whiteness has a contingent
aspect, and it never depends on me. As long
as the bigot who makes the decision con-
siders me white, I qualify for all the rights
and privileges that the bigot has to offer.
When the bigot focuses on my status as a
Jew, that might override my pale skin color
or it might not. Whether I qualify as white,
and for how long I qualify as white, depends
entirely on the bigot’s judgment.
As a pale-skinned Jew, I might qualify as
white according to some broad-minded big-
ots. Other Jews look brown or black or Asian
or Hispanic or Native American or Arab or
East Indian, according to a widely accepted
and largely illogical classification “system.”
Since I notice, I applaud the successes of
non-white Jews.
As for Emma Share’s invitation to con-
front racism by accepting my status as
white, I politely decline.

— Eliezer Finkelman
Oak Park