בס״ד that he would not sit in עש"ק פרשת שלח 24 Sivan 5781 NEWS a Lapid-led  June 4, 2021 A collection of the week’s news from Israel government, nor in a government Issue number 1348 reliant upon anti-Zionist Arab From the Bet El Twinning / Israel Action Committee of 7:01 parties, nor in one led by Toronto 8:37 Beth Avraham Yoseph of Toronto Congregation Netanyahu. What remains, therefore, is to decide which promise to fulfill and which one Commentary… to violate. If he goes with the left and the Arab parties, it means he has made a personal, emotional Plenty of Blame To Go Around By Hillel Fendel choice based on hatred and vengeance, instead of an ideological "If this nightmare comes true, and a Bennett-Lapid government is decision. Saar and his colleagues will have shown that they are less formed with all the left-wing and center-left parties, with the passive nationalist than they are small-minded politicians who allow personal support of Mansour Abbas' Arab party and possibly even those of issues to dictate their choices." Ahmed Tibi and Ayman Odeh, it will be primarily the fault of the As an example of the incredibly high stakes involved, Shilo noted nationalist parties' leaders – Binyamin Netanyahu, , and the fact that six new Supreme Court justices are to be chosen in the Gideon Saar." near future. Regarding this, however, Bennett's close ally Ayelet So wrote a few days ago Emanuel Shilo, long-time editor of the Shaked has conditioned her support for the proposed government B'Sheva weekly newspaper – a publication of the Bet El and Petach upon her being appointed a member of the judge-choosing Tikva-based Arutz Sheva group. Since then, the situation has only committee, instead of extreme left-winger Labor party head Merav become more sharply exacerbated. As of early Monday afternoon, Michaeli. (Michaeli does not agree, of course, but she probably does Naftali Bennett (who heads the 7-seat religious-Zionist leaning party not have much say in the matter.) ) and Gideon Saar (who heads the 6-seat right-wing leaning "If Saar and his party members choose to form a government break-off from ) are seeking to join (who heads the with the left," Shilo sharply warns, "a place of honor will be saved 17-seat left-leaning party Yesh Atid), and are ironing out the final for them in the company of Bar Kamtza and his ilk, people who wrinkles on their anti-Bibi, left-center-right government. There is still because they felt personally insulted brought about a national no guarantee that it will ultimately come to fruition, as significant catastrophe." wrinkles still exist, but vociferous fears are being expressed by the Finally, though he has taken the most high-profile position in Likud and others. everything regarding the formation of the new government, Naftali Shilo places Netanyahu first on the blame list: Bennett is only third in line in being apportioned blame by Shilo. "With his problematic personal behavior, he has brought upon Bennett now stands to be Prime Minister for the coming two years himself the situation in which those who are ideologically close to him before being replaced, according to the rotation agreement in refuse to work with him and sit in his government. Their aversion for formation, by Yair Lapid. Shilo writes: him is so great that they prefer even to sit with the furthest-left parties "Bennett has not stopped zig-zagging, sometimes to the left and rather than to serve under him. The list of senior officials who used to sometimes to the right. Instead of committing himself to the right- be his associates but are now his bitter rivals is so long that even those wing bloc, he has been negotiating with both sides, [appearing to] who admire his great accomplishments cannot deny that it is strive for an agreement with whomever offers him the most. But it's Netanyahu himself who brought upon himself this impossible political not only his fault; Netanyahu is not giving him an easy time, making entanglement into which he has fallen." promises and then withdrawing them. He at one point offered Bennett Specifically, it is widely felt that Netanyahu has broken so many to be Prime Minister first in rotation, but he then changed his mind, political promises, and gained his reputation for political mastery at indicating that he would prefer new elections – for a fifth time in just the expense of so many of his former allies, that neither Bennett, over two years! – in which Bennett's party would most likely be (2nd on Bennett's party list), Betzalel Smotrich (head of decimated. But in truth, Bennett must realize that with only seven the 6-seat Religious party), Saar, nor any of the other players mandates, compared to the Likud's 30, he has no genuine in this high-stakes game are willing to stake their futures on right to try to squeeze the Prime Ministership from Netanyahu. Netanyahu's word. Political blackmail is no substitute for the support and trust of the Shilo also faults Netanyahu for being the first to introduce the voters." entire idea of staking an government upon the passive support It should be noted, as well, that though the proposed government of an Arab party: "It was his incessant flirting with the idea of forming is being presented as an example of broad national unity, it does not a government reliant on Mansour Abbas that provided a 'kosher' include any religious party. On the contrary: The proposed Finance certificate to Bennett and Saar to try to form such a government Minister, whose party will apparently also receive the chairmanship themselves – but without the Likud and Netanyahu." of the Knesset Finance Committee, is the avowed anti-hareidi We may be reminded that such a government, comprising purely . the right-wing and religious parties, but with tacit Arab support, could And last but not least: Even some of the strongest Netanyahu still be formed this very day – if it were not for the consistent and supporters do not deny that yet another election campaign is one of strong opposition of Betzalel Smotrich and his the last things Israel needs at this point. They hope that a new party. Probably no one in the political establishment has been as government will be able to pass a national budget or two, restore a unswerving, from the day the election results were announced two measure of normalcy to the country, and not do too much damage to months ago, as Smotrich has been in his position. His principled nationalist interests in the short time that will likely pass before it is opposition to an Arab-backed Jewish government was even endorsed toppled. (IsraelNationalNews.com Jun 1) by Bennett himself, as well as many others who had previously blasted his "stubbornness," during the recent battles with . Shilo, too, agrees with Smotrich: "Relying on the Arab Ra'am Why weren’t More Organized Voices Supporting Israel? party is unacceptable, whether we're talking about a right-wing By Andrew D. Lappin government or Bennett-Saar-Lapid-Meretz. It is the responsibility of The Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA) initiated a Bennett, Saar, and Netanyahu as well to work together to [ensure that yahrzeit last week for George Floyd. While it’s appropriate to this does not happen]." acknowledge and remember the gross injustice of Floyd’s brutal Shilo next blames former Likud MK Gideon Saar, head of the suffocation at the hands of Minneapolis police last year, it struck me party that ran on the banner of replacing Netanyahu: as odd that just coming off 11 days of incessant rocket fire at Israeli "There is no way that Saar can fulfill all his election campaign population centers by the Iranian-backed Hamas terror organization promises, for they have proven to be mutually exclusive. He promised in the Gaza Strip that a plea of similar urgency might not have been made by JFNA, urging to stand with Israel in the right of vigorous self-defense. dependence on the United States and the drift that undermined JFNA, the central address for the organized Jewish community, is Israel’s position in world public opinion, especially among the U.S. an umbrella representing Jewish Federations across the country. It has Democratic Party. a huge constituency and collectively represents endowments and Decision-makers in Israel, as well as politicians, army officers annual campaigns that distribute close to $3 billion. The impact of this and academics, often repeat a statement attributed to the Hezbollah gorilla in focusing collective opinion cannot be understated. Nor leader Hassan Nasrallah. He allegedly said after leaving his bunker would the impact of its relative silence during this current round of following the 2006 Second Lebanon War that had he known that his hostilities. decision to provoke Israel would cause such destruction, he would Comparing the recent muted reaction by major Jewish not have started the war at all. Accordingly, analysts conclude time organizations and the overall community to the barbaric onslaught by and again that Hezbollah’s failure to act stems from Israeli Hamas and Iran to the stunned horror as it was in 1991, as Saddam deterrence. Hussein rained down “Scud” missiles upon Israel is truly astounding. Since 2006, Hezbollah has embarked on an unprecedented Suppressed by a frayed bond of connection between Israel and the reorganization and re-arming effort with Iranian funding and training, Diaspora, that feeling of reactive concern, once gurgling with vitality, while accumulating a rocket arsenal of more than 140,000 missiles, has been lost. We should be mourning that loss. But to do so, we have some of which possess extremely high accuracy. (By contrast, Hamas first to understand that there is something spiritually and sociologically in Gaza had an estimated 15,000 rockets when it launched its war in amiss at our inability to react with horror as our “family members” are May 2014.) Hezbollah analyzed Hamas’s battles against the IDF and subjected to an unprecedented and wholly unconscionable assault by will adopt a doctrine of warfare adapted to the new reality. adversaries who have unceasingly chanted for our destruction. Hezbollah has also publicly announced its plan to capture the While many have cloaked the ribald aggression of our adversaries Galilee by mobilizing its elite units—the Radwan units—for the as a nationalistic struggle of an unjustly colonized people, this construction of a network of underground assault tunnels, command narrative has been conclusively proven defective based on the repeated bunkers, and an extensive maze of fortifications of which only a rejection by the Palestinian Authority of Israel’s multiple offers to fraction was exposed some two years ago on the Lebanese border and address the narrative over the last three decades. subsequently neutralized by the IDF. Hezbollah has developed its What our community, in its muted response to the aggression of drone corps and naval units, that are prepared to attack Israel’s gas Israel’s adversaries, is failing to understand is that the more that we rigs southwest of Lebanon’s coast. In addition, as Iran’s proxy force refuse to acknowledge this virulent outbreak, the more intense it gets. in the region, its combat units have gained valuable operational History has demonstrated that there is no appeasement of anti-Semites. experience in urban warfare fighting in Syria, Iraq and Yemen, where How can there be? Anti-Semitism has no basis in rational thought and it was sent by its commanders in Tehran. will ultimately impact Jews everywhere, whether they reside in All of the above elements have been implemented in the Gaza Jerusalem, London, Los Angeles or Skokie, Ill. Strip by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. It comes as no Rather, anti-Semitism and the global wave of mini-pogroms that it surprise, therefore, to discover that Iran is behind the Palestinian war is stimulating can only be stifled and repulsed by a granite wall of effort. Ramez Halabi, a senior member of PIJ, was interviewed on opposition. The construction of this bulwark, which will include non- Iraqi television on May 8, 2021. He explained that every weapon in Jews, must rest on a footing of Jewish unity. That unity is not his organization’s possession was purchased with Iranian funding and demonstrated when Jews in the Diaspora fail to cry out as Jews in that all his men were trained in Iran. Mocking Israel, he added that Israel succumb to mortal danger. Nor is it demonstrated when in every missile bears the signature of the late Qassem Soleimani, the righteous indignation to the silence, we strike out in stridently visible Quds Force commander killed by the United States in Iraq in January condemnation. Instead, this message of “dis-unity” is broadcast far and 2020. After the fighting subsided, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, who wide, breathing life into the once dormant embers of irrational hatred. resides in Qatar, thanked Iran for the financial assistance and The illusion we have come to believe in this post-Holocaust world weaponry it has extended to Hamas. is that the nature of man, morality and ethics has somehow progressed From the Palestinian perspective, the war proved that the “Israeli in parallel to the skyrocketing advancement of technology. It is as if demon” was not as frightening as it used to be. In fact, Israel’s last the nature of man has also evolved to a state that has been removed military victory was in 1982, which eventually resulted in the from the very world in which the genocide of a people, as occurred 80 withdrawal from southern Lebanon in 2000 under Hezbollah’s years ago, might ever again be possible. If anything, the vast power of military pressure. The 2006 war was seen as a Hezbollah victory over technology in the wrong hands has created dangers far more precarious Israel, while 2014 demonstrated the extent of Israel’s unwillingness than ever before. We need only to look at the message embodied in the to initiate a massive ground entry into the Gaza Strip. launching of more than 4,000 rockets at Israeli population centers to Israel’s policy of divide and rule with regard to Hamas in Gaza awaken us to this dark reality. and the Palestinian Authority has boomeranged. The weakening of It’s time for our communal leaders to stop checking the boxes of the P.A. eventually led to the strengthening of Hamas and its platitudinous statements, and instead, vociferously call out anti- becoming the dominant factor vis-à-vis Israel. Furthermore, Hamas Semitism for what it is. The key to abating anti-Semitism lies not in realized that Israel had wrongly assessed—until the last minute—that the embrace and the elevation of an agenda whose organizers are in Hamas lacked interest in a military confrontation and was deterred. fact instrumental in the rabid demonization of Israel. Social justice This assessment is paired with the constantly reiterated statement that must remain part of our creed. But in a purely spiritual sense, it should Israel has no interest in a ground attack on Gaza in order to bring not continue to be imagined that substituting contemporary social down Hamas. Thanks to the Iron Dome air-defense system, the justice, which falsely demonizes Israel, for an agenda that would assessment goes, Israel will content itself with action against Hamas instead stand irrevocably in Israel’s corner will not carry a price tag far from outside Gaza. in excess of what Jews may be willing to pay: the unabated global The recent confrontation between Israel and Gaza confirmed spread of anti-Semitism. (JNS May 31) Israel’s reluctance to introduce ground forces into Gaza, both for fear of casualties and due to its lack of desire to control another two million Palestinians. These conclusions are chronicled in Tehran and Gaza as a Military Testing Ground for Iran By Jacques Neriah Hezbollah because the parallel to the situation in Lebanon is self- Upon examining the course of the 11-day war between Israel and evident. terrorist groups in the Gaza Strip, one cannot help but understand that It does not bode well for Israel that its weaknesses were apparent it was a rehearsal for what is expected on Israel’s northern front. not only to the Palestinian public but also, and especially, to Gaza was a military testing ground for Iran and Hezbollah. They Hezbollah and Iran, who studied Israel’s behavior during the 11 days were able to measure Israel’s firepower, its interception capability and of fighting. the limitations of its power, as expressed by the almost irrational care The war in Gaza must serve as a very loud wake-up call and taken to avoid harm to population centers. Israel’s concern for cause Israel to rethink its policy toward its enemies in the Arab innocent lives was born out of the fear of the world’s reaction, its world. The rising situation requires a drastic change in Israel’s reactions: no more restraint, which is the source of all evil. civilized society: How does society protect the human rights of a Continuing the same policy of restraint and the hesitation to use civilian population in which rocket-launching terrorists are hiding? force may encourage Iran and Hezbollah to advance their plans to How does one reconcile the right of a country to defend itself with surprise Israel on other fronts. This could happen if they conclude that the wrong of killing women and children when the former entails the Israel will strive to avoid any frontal confrontation with Hezbollah or a latter? What is a legitimate military target?” ground incursion that could result in significant casualties by exposing In 2009, these were new dilemmas that had not surfaced prior to Israel’s homefront to significant attacks. the days of rockets and missiles, and we, the Jewish faculty, ought to (Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs May 30) have pioneered their study. Instead, we allowed Hamas’s sympathizers to frame the academic agenda. How can we face our students from the safety of our offices, I thought, when they deal with How did Hamas Become the Darling of the West? By Judea Pearl anti-Israel abuse on a daily basis—in the cafeteria, the library and the In February 2009, I wrote an essay about a symposium at UCLA classroom—and as alarming reports of mob violence are arriving that marked the beginning of Hamas’s penetration into academic from other campuses? circles. I also described the culture of fear that had overtaken many of Burdened with guilt, I called some colleagues, but quickly my colleagues, who felt it was unsafe to admit to supporting Israel. realized that a few had already made the shift to a strange-sounding Twelve years later, in the wake of the most recent conflict between language, not unlike “Honk, Honk.” Some had entered the debate Israel and Gaza and the ensuing antisemitism on our campuses and in phase, arguing over the rhino way of life versus the human way of our streets, I have revised and updated my original essay, which is just life, and the majority, while still speaking in a familiar English as relevant today as it was when it was first written. vocabulary, were frightened beyond anything I had seen at UCLA in Remember Eugène Ionesco’s “Rhinoceros”? Written in the late the 40 years that I had served on its faculty. 1950s, the play describes the transformation of a quiet, peaceful town Colleagues told me about lecturers whose appointments were into anarchy when one after another of its residents is transformed into terminated, professors whose promotion committees received a lumbering, thick-skinned brute. Only Berenger, a stand-in for the “incriminating” letters, and about the impossibility of revealing one’s playwright, tries to hold out against the collective rush into pro-Israel convictions without losing grants, editorial board rhinocerism. memberships, or invitations to panels and conferences. And all, First, the townspeople notice a stray rhinoceros rumbling down the literally all, swore me into strict secrecy. Together, we entered the era street. No one takes a great deal of notice other than to say that it of “the new Marranos.” “made a lot of dust.’’ It’s a “stupid quadruped not worth talking Exaggeration? Jewish paranoia? Hardly. I invite skeptics to about,’’ although it does trample one woman’s cat. repeat the private experiment that I conducted among Jewish faculty Before long, an ethical debate develops over the rhino way of life in a reception hosted in 2008 by the Center for Jewish Studies at versus the human way of life. “Why not just leave them alone,’’ a UCLA. I asked each of them privately: “Tell me, aren’t you a friend advises Berenger. ‘’You get used to it.’’ The debate is quickly Zionist?” I then counted the number of times my conversant would muted into blind acceptance of the rhino ethic, and the entire town look to the right, then to the left, before whispering: “Yes, but….” I joins the marching herd. Berenger finds himself alone, partly resisting, am sure that anyone who repeats this experiment will be as alarmed partly enjoying the uncontrolled sounds coming out his own throat: as I was about the level of academic terror that has descended on U.S. “Honk, Honk, Honk.” campuses, especially in the humanities and political and social These sounds from Ionesco’s play have echoed in my ears twice. sciences. Our generation of Jewish students are paying dearly for the First in 2009, when Hamas gave its premier performance at UCLA failure of our academic leadership to acknowledge, assess and form a and, second, this past week, when rhinos roamed the streets of Los unified front to combat this academic terror. Angeles shouting, “Honk, Honk, Honk.” And this brings me to 2021 and to the latest war in Gaza. To the Let’s start in January 2009, when an email from a colleague at New York Times front page depicting the victims of Israel’s defense Indiana University queried: “Being at UCLA, you must know about operation, as if they had never heard the word “Hamas” or read this symposium…pretty bad.” Attached to it was Roberta Seid’s report Hamas’s charter. To CNN’s anchor Fareed Zakaria asserting that on the now infamous “Human Rights and Gaza” symposium held a Israel is a military superpower, hence Hamas does not pose an day earlier at UCLA. existential threat to it. To NYT analyst Nicholas Kristof asserting (in To refresh readers’ memory, this symposium, organized by an interview with Bill Maher) that Israel, too, positions its military UCLA’s Center for Near East Studies (CNES), was billed as a headquarters among civilians. To UCLA Department of Asian discussion of human rights in Gaza. Instead, the director of the center, American Studies stating (on its official university website) its Susan Slyomovics, invited four speakers with long histories of “Solidarity with Palestine” and its authoritative understanding that demonizing Israel for a panel that Seid describes as a reenactment of a such “violence and intimidation are but the latest manifestation of “1920 Munich beer hall.” Not only did the panelists portray Hamas as seventy-three years of settler colonialism, racial apartheid, and a guiltless, peace-seeking, unjustly provoked organization, but they occupation.” also bashed Israel, its motives, its character, its birth and conception, To the statement of scholars of Jewish Studies and Israel Studies and led the excited audience into chanting “Zionism is Nazism,” “F—, from various universities who, in the Forward, condemned “the state f— Israel,” in the best tradition of rhino liturgy. violence that the Israeli government and its security forces have been But the primary impact of the event became evident the morning carrying out in Gaza.” To members of If Not Now, saying Kaddish after, when unsuspecting, partially informed students woke up to read for fallen Hamas fighters (among other victims). And, finally, to the an article in the campus newspaper titled, “Scholars Say Attack on mob roaming the streets of Los Angeles and shouting, “Honk, Honk, Gaza an Abuse of Human Rights,” to which the good name of the From the River to the Sea.” University of California was attached, and from which the word Looking back on the past 12 years, there is no question that “terror” and the genocidal agenda of Hamas were conspicuously Hamas has gained a major uplift in status and respectability. It has absent. This mock verdict, presented as an outcome of supposedly become, in fact, the darling of the West. True, seasoned dispassionate scholarship, is where Hamas culture scored its first commentators remember to add the obligatory, “We are not triumph—the first inch of academic respectability, the first inroad into condoning Hamas, of course, but….” Western minds. But what? Naturally, when students complained to me about how abused and Doesn’t Fareed Zakaria imply that it is not the end of the world if frightened they felt during the symposium and how concerned they 300,000 Israeli children continue to bleed sleeplessly for another 20 were about the direction taken by the Center for Near East Studies, I years under Hamas rockets? Didn’t Nicholas Kristof imply that if felt terribly guilty. “We should have anticipated such travesties,” I told those children suffer post-traumatic scars for the rest of their lives myself, “we, the Jewish faculty at UCLA, should have preempted it that it is Israel’s problem because Israel, too, positions its with a true symposium on human rights, one that honestly tackles the headquarters in civilian areas? Western analysts will go to any tough moral and legal dilemmas that the Gaza situation presents to absurd lengths to fabricate symmetry between Israel and Hamas, because symmetry is our new goddess of right and wrong. under a dictatorship or the many Gazans killed by Hamas rockets But let’s not forget that it all started in academia, with a herd of falling inside the Strip. passionate intellectuals who managed to hijack the name of their Their hearts are devoid of any empathy for 5-year-old Ido academic institution, which hardly cared. Do not blame them. After Avigail, killed by rocket shrapnel, or for wheel-chair-bound Gershon all, intellectuals are trained to cheer their peers when the marching Franko, who died, unable to access a bomb shelter. band starts playing, and academic institutions are too slow to In your students’ worldview, lynch victims like Yigal Yehoshua understand what is being done in their names. Sadly, as Ionesco (killed when a rock broke his skull) and Elad Barzilai, who still understood so well, we are all herd-honking organisms. Please take struggles for his life after trying to save his students from the mob, another look at the rhinos roaming the streets of Los Angeles, here, are just collateral damage of Israel’s own persecution of Palestinians. and see for yourself how hard it is to hold back and not join them with: Ever heard of blaming the victim? Honk, Honk! (Jewish Journal Jun 3) Finally, the signatories claim to follow the injunction of Micah The writer is a chancellor professor at UCLA, co-author of “The Book (6:8), “to act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with our of Why” and president of the Daniel Pearl Foundation G-d.” This is a misplaced proclamation for a document dripping with (www.danielpearl.org), named after his son. He and his wife, Ruth, are lack of justice in failing to acknowledge the Jewish narrative in the editors of “I Am Jewish: Personal Reflections Inspired by the Last land of Israel and de facto denying Israel’s right to exist while Words of Daniel Pearl” (Jewish Light, 2004), winner of the National framing it as a people encroaching on a land “full of human beings Jewish Book Award. who didn’t ask for new neighbors.” We, therefore, once again call upon you to remove these students from your institutions and not honor them with rabbinic or cantorial An Open Letter to the Leaders of American Rabbinical Schools ordination. If the integrity of your institutions is dear to your, if By Irving Lebovics Jewish unity is a value you uphold, if the future of our communities As Hamas rockets were pouring down on millions of our brothers matters, these students have no right to leadership. and sisters in Israel, we were dismayed that more than 100 rabbinical American Jewry and our Israeli brothers and sisters deserve students at your institutions chose to issue a statement, “Rabbinical better than that. (JNS Jun 1) and Cantorial Students Appeal to the Heart of the Jewish Community,” The writer is co-chairman of Am Echad. in which they side with terrorists and frame Israel’s self-defensive moves as acts of “racist violence.” We call on you, the heads of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical The Day After Coexistence By Dan Schueftan College, Hebrew College, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of During the latest conflict with Hamas terrorists, Israeli Arabs Religion, Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies, Hadar Advanced Kollel, proved that they have learned nothing from their national Jewish Theological Seminary, ALEPH and the Academy for Jewish movement’s failure. Religion California, to expel the signatories to the statement. They are Obviously, only some Israeli Arabs took part in the attacks on unfit for roles of rabbinic or cantorial leadership. Jews and their property. In fact, the criminal acts were carried out by It goes without saying that the Diaspora Jewish community is a small minority. Likewise, the incitement was also perpetrated by a diverse. We subscribe to various political outlooks and have our handful of them, despite wielding a great deal of influence. But the theological differences. We engage in robust debate about issues responsibility rests on the collective because of the support of the affecting our communities at home and abroad. leaders. And while we all care strongly about Israel, we have distinct The conduct of Israeli Arab leaders and their failure to engage in visions for its future. Such debate is the cornerstone of Jewish soul searching has not been lost on the general Jewish public. The scholarship and tradition. It has kept our nation creative, vibrant and counterreaction to this will adversely impact those who actually do alive for millennia. want to integrate into Israeli society. That is, on the majority of Yet every debate has its boundaries. None of you would tolerate a Israeli Arabs. student invoking a racial slur or violating your code of ethics. Every national security official will now be required to prepare Indeed, your institutions claim to promote an ethos of intellectual, contingencies for a multi-front war in which Israeli Arabs join the spiritual and professional excellence, in light of timeless Jewish values fighting against the Jewish state. of scholarship, commitment and compassion. It is incumbent on you to Even if only 10 percent of the sector is involved, even if most do uphold these values against those students who, by their actions, have not participate in riots or terrorist attacks, we’re still talking about chosen to display prejudice and callousness. tens of thousands. We have seen this already in the October 2000 We call on you not to tolerate what amounts to treason against the riots, and in the latest round of violence, resulting in vital roads and Jewish people at a time of war. We shudder at the thought that in a national infrastructure being targeted. year’s time, 100 congregations and thousands of Jews, looking for The elected leadership and the Arab sector’s organizations that guidance in these turbulent times, will be led by such misguided pretend to stand up for human rights have already joined the political individuals. war that Israel’s enemies are waging. Thus, participation is only In the students’ minds, Israel is a perpetrator of “racist violence” expected to increase. against Palestinians and deserves to be targeted by terror. Without The following two examples reflect what the Israeli Arab mentioning Hamas or Palestinians, the signatories see the “escalation leadership is all about. Joint Arab List leader Ayman Odeh, who of violence” as “a part of the same dehumanizing status quo,” some call a “moderate,” has been showering praise on what he called supposedly committed by Israel. “Arab youth,” but his constituents know full well that this was a Never do they mention the aspirations and goals of Hamas—the codeword for the actual rioters and those who waved flags of Hamas eradication of Israel and the genocide of Jews worldwide, even and the Palestine Liberation Organization. themselves!—as outlined in the Hamas Charter. And then there was his second baffling statement during the riots, By denying the realities of Israeli suffering, the signatories as millions of were seeking refuge in shelters from rockets dehumanize Israelis and afflict pain on the millions of people around and were afraid to go out in mixed cities for fear of being lynched. the world, Jews and non-Jews, who sympathize with Israel’s plight. Displaying unbelievable nerve, Odeh complained about the This amounts to the justification of terrorism and violence. malfunctioning traffic lights that the rioters themselves had In the entire two-page statement, the signatories did not devote a destroyed, lamenting that the authorities were in no rush to fix them. single sentence to acknowledging the plight of millions of Israelis “It is an unfair collective punishment,” he said. showered by 3,500 Hamas rockets, the 5,000 innocent Jews stoned in Such conduct is beyond the pale and makes it hard for the general their cars by Arab rioters, the 700 Jewish homes burned and looted and public to show respect for Israeli Arab society. Especially when its the 10 synagogues torched. leaders fail to stand up to terrorist acts, and wax poetic about rioters. Where is their empathy? While claiming to empathize with the (Israel Hayom Jun 2) Palestinian cause, they have no empathy for 2 million Gazans living