Humble Opinions

In Israel’s 60+ year history as a modern-day country, it has continuously bent over backwards regarding its relationship with its neighboring countries, and in how it treats its citizens (Jewish and especially non-Jewish). There are those in the world that believe Israel is an evil, racist, inhumane country, for reasons which I have yet to fully comprehend, but I would press those individuals to describe Israel’s evil agenda. With a very basic scanning of her history, it’s pretty clear (at least to me) that Israel has no aspirations of expanding through Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, Iraq, or Jordan, and has no genocidal plot of exterminating a race or religion; nor does it seek global domination of any market or financial system whatsoever. It simply seeks peace for its citizens, and an equal opportunity to compete in the global markets - the same way many countries on earth do.

I remind my readers that Israel was established as a safe haven for Jews, after the previous 18 centuries had left them brutalized, murdered, and raped in every sense by a shockingly large number of world powers. It’s to everyone’s misfortune that Israel has been on high alert defense from her very first day of existence (literally), and has had a continual existential threat against her ever since, by greatly outnumbering enemies. I also remind my readers that all the land Israel has gained since the 1947 UN Partition Plan has been a result of the Arab world denying Israel’s right to exist, and Israel defending herself in wars waged against her.

Despite all this, Israel continues to bend over backward in the treatment of her non-Jewish citizens (whom make up roughly 20% of her population), and in her relations with her neighboring countries (even during wartimes). Here are a few examples:

1. It is pretty well understood that the relationship between the Jews and Arabs inside of Israel is a hairy one. Yet, Arabs are allowed to travel to & from Israeli neighborhoods and Arab neighborhoods inside of Israel, at worst case needing to stop at a checkpoint to ensure they’re not transporting any kind of explosives or weapons. Arabs are also allowed to work jobs in Israel, legally, as non-Israeli citizens. Israelis, on the other hand, are absolutely not allowed to enter Arab neighborhoods within Israel. This is because it is well known that a Jew walking around Ramallah, for example, will likely be kidnapped or killed fairly quickly. I am not exaggerating in the slightest. Around the very dangerous areas, IDF soldiers are stationed at all borders and forbid Israelis from passing for this very reason.
2. Israel has given its Arab citizens an opportunity to participate in its democratic government. Since the first election in Israel in 1949, Arabs have been allowed to run for seats in the Israeli Knesset. Currently, there are 13 Arab members of the Knesset, and 7 of the 120 seats belong to Arab parties. This fact alone is beyond shocking considering the ideologies of the Arab parties revolve around the creation of a Palestinian state, the nullification of Israel being a Jewish homeland, and pretty much everything that works against the goals and interests of the Israeli government. Yet, they are still allowed to run and be included on all voting ballads. The Arab parties in the Knesset are also allowed to run television ads on Israelis television, which they do in Arabic (without Hebrew sub-titles). I wonder what those ads are about…

   The Arab parties of the Israeli Knesset also constantly boycott everything Israeli, and protest everything in the interest of the security of Israelis. During Operating Cast Lead in the Gaza Strip, the Arab parties in the Knesset were the only ones that boycotted every single Knesset meeting, and unilaterally opposed the operation - yet, made no protests whatsoever when hundreds of rockets were being shot into civilian, Israeli neighborhoods in Israel from Gaza, which was the primary cause for the war.

   Just yesterday, the Arab parties of the Knesset boycotted a senate session because it was “Jerusalem Day” in Israel - the day that commemorates Jerusalem being united under Israeli control in 1967. Sounds like they’re really looking out for the country whose government they are participating in.

3. One more thing regarding Operation Cast Lead… During the war, Israel had hospitalized members of Fatah, the “moderate” Arabs who helped Israel fight against Hamas (their sworn enemy) by way of providing locale intelligence. Let’s be clear about one thing: Fatah opposes Hamas in the inter-Arab struggle to be the leading group of Arabs that fight the “Israeli occupation” - however, Fatah opposes Israel incomparably more. The Fatah logo is a picture of Israel (from a map) with crossed swords over it, and a grenade underneath it. Shortly after the war, Fatah filed a lawsuit at the International Court of Justice against Israel for allegedly committing crimes against humanity. Thanks, Fatah. We hope your men enjoyed their stays in our hospitals.
4. As is well known, the peace that exists between Israel and Egypt is a cold peace - somewhat of a marriage of convenience. That being said, Israelis are free to travel to Egypt and spend as much tourist money as their hearts desire in the Sinai desert, and even in Cairo, Egypt’s capital city. On the contrary, Egyptians are forbidden to travel to Israel by the Egyptian government. Egypt does not want its citizen to in any way spend any money inside of Israel. In fact, Egyptians married to Israelis could even lose their Egyptian citizenship.

So, maybe someone can remind me what good has come to Israel from all this backward bending over? It doesn’t seem like it gets anything in return but animosity, opposition, and the continual desire for it to not exist.

I mean, how many countries that have been members of the UN for 60 years are still not recognized to exist by over 50 countries? The answer: 1. Israel.

Tags: israel

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