Opuscula I was wrong, Arabs not ready For government

I CONFESS TO BEING, in this one instance, a Pollyanna. I’m over that now.

I had at one time considered that including the Arab parties in Israel’s government — giving them cabinet positions, they already have seats in the Knesset — that inclusion would temper their rhetoric and anti-Israel behavior.

But then I read comments from present and former Arab MKs and realized that ‐ for now — there is no place for the current crop of Arab MKs in the government’s operation.

In the U.S. it is unlikely that a Communist would (a) be elected to Congress or (b) be appointed to a cabinet position.

Granted, the U.S. House of Reprehensibles is on a witch hunt to find something, anything with which to pillory a president. (That it is unlikely any president would be removed from office following a trial in the U.S. Senate is another matter. The House voted impeachment for two Democrats — Andrew Johnson and Wm. Jefferson Clinton — but the Senate failed to muster enough votes to remove the incumbent president.)

Israel has had Arabs in its Knesset from 1949 when Amin-Salim Jarjora of the Democratic List of Nazareth (a Mapai-sponsored party) served in the first Knesset.^{2, 3, 4}. There have been many Muslims in the Knesset since, many from Arab-specific parties and others from left-wing, primarily Jewish, parties (e.g., Labor, Meretz). Several Druze won election on right-wing parties, including the Likud. At the last Knesset, there were 14 Arab MKs, of which three were Druze, two Christians, four Sunni Muslims, one Bedouin, one who claims to be “non-religious,” and three who don’t self-identify with a religion.⁵

There HAVE been Arabs in the Cabinet. Mohammad Barakeh, of the left-wing Hadash party⁶ was once deputy Knesset speaker.

The problem for Israel is that the leading Muslim party, the combined “Joint List”⁷ is composed of people such as Ahmad Tibi⁸. Tibi was a political advisor to Yasser Arafat who self-describes as Arab-Palestinian in nationality, and Israeli in citizenship. A OB-GYN, he was educated at Hebrew University.

In September, 2011⁹, he made headlines when he served as a member of the Palestinian Authority's UN delegation, headed by Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas, as it submitted its request for UN acceptance of "Palestine" as a full member state.

Haneen Zoabi was ejected from the Knesset for repeated anti-Israel activities.

Leftists Foreign Policy.com reported that Asked once by an Israeli TV interviewer whether she could say anything good about Israel, she laughed lightly and replied, "No, I can’t."¹⁰

The same source partially reported that on May 31, 2010, (Zoabi) as an Israel Arab activist aboard the Mavi Marmara, a ship chartered by a Turkish Muslim aid organization to lead the flotilla challenging Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip. After unarmed Israeli naval commandos rappelled onto the ship and were attacked with wooden clubs and metal rods. What Foreign Policy.com failed to report was that the Israelis several times tried to peacefully board and inspect the vessels contents for contraband war-making supplies.

According to Ynetnews.com¹¹, MKs (Azmi) Bishara, (Jamal) Zahalka, (Wasil) Taha visit Lebanon after controversial talks with President Bashar Assad of Syria; delegation members express solidarity with 'victims of war'; attorney General orders probe upon their return.

It is unfortunate

It is unfortunate that too many Arabs elected to Israel’s Knesset work against the state rather than work to improve their constitutent’s lives.

Why Zoabi was aboard a TURKISH vessel bound for GAZA — where war materiels are used against Israeli civilians — is proof to this scrivener that she was part of a provocation as much as Egypt’s massing troops at the Canal just before the “Six Day War” was sufficient for Israel’s pre-emptive attack to prevent its annihilation.¹²

There ARE Israeli Arabs — Muslim, Christian, whatever — who are in every respect loyal to Israel. These people need to be treated as Israeli citizens as equally as any Jewish citizen, haridi, heloni, and somewhere in between.

When the Arab parties send Muslims to the Knesset who put the good of their people and the State first, then they should be welcomed into the government (cabinet).

MKs don’t need to be of the same mind, but they need to have the same goals. What’s good for Israel should be good for ALL Israelis without any distinction.

Sources

1. Pollyanna: https://tinyurl.com/qlmevhj

2. Amin-Salim Jarjora: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amin-Salim_Jarjora

3. Democratic List of Nazareth: https://tinyurl.com/rvfem8y

4. Mapai: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mapai

5. Arab MKs: https://tinyurl.com/zsts3qh

6. Hadash: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadash

7. Joint List: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joint_List

8. Ahmad Tibi bio: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmad_Tibi

9. Tibi at UN: https://tinyurl.com/qsfy574

10. Foreign Policy: https://tinyurl.com/ubthscn

11. Visits: https://tinyurl.com/rfq7j7h

12. Pre-emptive strike: https://tinyurl.com/suj8jew

עינים להם ולא יראו * אזנים להם ולא יאזנו

PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

Web sites (URLs) beginning https://tinyurl.com/ are generated by the free Tiny URL utility and reduce lengthy URLs to manageable size.

 

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Opuscula Savlanut, Things might be Good for Israel

I’M NORMALLY NOT A “Pollyanna,” but nether am I “Chicken Little” proclaiming “The sky is falling.”

Israelis who immigrated from Muslim-dominated countries are aghast that the Arab list, or at least some of it, might be included in an Israeli “unity” government.

“UNITY” AND “ISRAELI GOVERNMENT” USUALLY IS AN OXYMORON.

Typically, the best that can be achieved is a truce among suspicious coalition partners.

As this is keyed, ex-IDF general Benny Gantz has a very slim lead over the man who would be kind for life, Bibi Netanyahu. Israel’s supposedly non-political president will decide which of the two men will be asked to lead the country as prime minister until the next elections.

Despite Gantz’ lead, if Netanyahu can prove to the president that he can line up enough votes from other parties, of which there are many, the president probably will ask Netanyahu to try to form the next government.

Likewise, if Gantz can get the support he needs to form a coalition government, the president will be more or less obliged to offer him an opportunity to form Israel’s next government.

Unless, of course, the Israeli Supreme Court decides to intervene — or interfere, take your choice.

The Sefardim and Mizrahim have reason to be suspicious of Arab (read Muslim) candidates. They know the Arabs from the counties they left — some in the dark of night to escape abuse from their Muslim neighbors.

On the other hand — and there always is “an other hand” — many polls have indicated that many (most?) Israeli Arabs prefer Israel to life anywhere else.

Granted, there are a few Arabs who take every chance to destroy Israel — from the Knesset no less — but I suspect — I hope — that any Arab Members of Knesset (MKs) will consider the alternatives before doing anything detrimental to the state.

Could an Arab MK be any worse than a far left Jewish MK?

I would prefer an Arab MK who wants to improve his (or her) people’s condition to a leftist MK who wants to destroy Israel from the inside.

I am convinced that not all Arabs as stupid as former MK Hanin Zoabi who, educated in Israeli schools to an MA in Communications and Media at Hebrew U, continually bit the hand that fed her.

According to YNet News¹ Many members of the Israeli-Arab community have expressed their disgust of MK Hanin Zoabi (Joint Arab List) after she called the soldiers who took over the Mavi Marmara "murderers" during a Knesset plenum. While she was not the only Arab MK, she was the loudest and most vitriolic in her attacks on Israel.

When I was on my way to Israel for the first time I sat next to a retired social worker.

The woman told me there was one word I needed to know (and practice) in Israel. The word:

סבלנות
PATIENCE.

(I already knew “gledah.”)

IF Arab parties form part of a center-left coalition, I hope that the Arab MKs will work FOR the betterment of their fellow Arabs — Muslim and non-Muslim alike — and not for the destruction of the state.

These are people who live in Israel by choice. They could go to Gaza. They could go to PLO-areas. They could go to Jordan or Syria or Egypt or any other Muslim-dominated country.

But they elected to live in Israel. They elected to participate in Israel’s political life.

They know what life is like in a neighboring Muslim-dominated country. They know the benefits of life in the only democracy in the Middle East.

I hope that they will not follow the antics of the stupid, now former, MK from the Arab List.

How they participate in the Knesset, the laws they sponsor, and their general demeanor can go a long way to making life in Israel easier, or harder, for their fellow Arabs.

Sources
1. Hanin Zoabi http://tinyurl.com/y2mfme3n

עינים להם ולא יראו * אזנים להם ולא יאזנו

PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

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