“One Wall, One Man, One Vote” – not necessarily
I read with mixed feelings Tom Friedman’s op-Ed “One Wall, One Man, One Vote,” (New York Times, September 14th 2003). I would have agreed with many of his arguments if the Arab-Israeli conflict were similar to the conflicts between the English and the Scots, the Flemings and Walloons in Belgium, the Russians and Ukrainians, or even between the Catholic Irish and the Protestants in Ulster. In current Western culture, warring factions are not mandated by their religion to eradicate their adversaries by the sword. Muslims, on the other hand, are mandated by their religion to kill non-Muslims who refuse to accept Islam or submit to its alleged supremacy. The 1400 year-old Islamic Arab hatred for Jews resurfaced in all its violent ugliness as soon as Jews, who resettled in their ancient homeland, were not ready to live as second-rate citizens under Islamic hegemony. Once their national aspirations have been internationally endorsed (the 1917 Balfour declaration, endorsed by President Wilson, and the 1921 League of Nation British mandate), the Jews in the Land of Israel have defended their sovereignty. The Arabs have been trying even since to reverse history and deny the legitimacy of the Jewish claim. These are the roots of the bloody Arab-Israeli conflict.
Muslims regard Jews as their archenemy. Jews were the first religious minority in Arabia to be assaulted and then eradicated by Mohammad. In the Qur’an Jews are described as subhuman – descendents of pigs and apes, who were cursed by Allah. This blatant anti-Semitic description of the Jews, in addition to other anti-Jewish libels, are being taught to young Muslims all over the Islamic world, indoctrinating them with anti-Jewish hatred. Mr. Friedman ignores this gruesome facet of the conflict.
This ingrained anti-Jewish Islamic precept explains the irrational 100-year old opposition of the entire Arab nation to a peaceful existence of a Jewish state in the Middle East. This opposition has little to do with Israel’s territorial size or number of its inhabitants. In 1947, the Arabs opposed the existence of a small, independent Jewish state with 650,000 Jews, proposed by the UN, not less vehemently than they oppose the current State of Israel with a 10-fold larger population.
The declared objective of the 1948, 1967 and 1973 Arab military assaults on Israel has been the extermination of all Jews in the region, if not worldwide. Egypt, following Mohammad’s premise that “war is deception,” treacherously attacked Israel in 1973, violating numerous international laws. Using local Arabs as proxies, Egypt and other Arab nations have continued to try and destroy the Jewish state. Even after signing a formal peace treaty with Israel in 1979, Egypt has maintained the supply line of war materiel to the Arab terrorists in Gaza and the “West bank.” A similar deceptive policy has been behind Arafat’s violations of the 1992 Oslo Accords and his rejection of the more recent Israeli concessions at Camp David and Taba. Currently, the Arabs are undermining the new US sponsored “Roadmap to Peace” by openly refusing to dismantle the terrorist organizations.
Mr. Friedman’s “One man, one vote” projection is not the only option. To live in a truly multinational democratic state, the Muslims would have to dramatically change their religious supremacist tenets and be ready to separate religion from state politics. Genuine “One man, one vote,” where religious or ethnic minorities have equal political rights does not exist in any country with a Muslim majority. As long as Islam does not change dramatically, which is unlikely in this century, the State Israel will have to maintain a solid Jewish majority.
The Israelis would give up the “One man, one vote” premise long before becoming dhimminis (second class citizens) in their own homeland and be physically abused, possibly even killed by the Arab majority, as has happened to Jews and other minorities in several Arab countries. Survival precedes democratic ideology. Time may not necessarily be on the Arab side, as implied by Mr. Friedman.
Terrorism only hardens Israeli resolve to respond by isolating the local Arabs physically and politically. The suffering of individual local Arabs cannot and will not outweigh Israelis’ need for self-protection against indiscriminate murderers. I hope that Mr. Friedman will agree that indiscriminate murder of innocent Jewish civilians is worse than inconvenience of some Arab villagers.
Contrary to the wishes of some, the West is not likely to impose on Israel any political solution that implies an incipient self-inflicted genocide. However, Israel must be prepared to preempt or repel genocidal attacks from the East.
September 15, 2003