As I often times do with those among my New York Times articles that draw wide attention, in the following post I will try to address some of the questions and the comments I received after the publication of my recent article: Israel’s Irresponsible Arabs. First, here is a paragraph from the article:
Upon witnessing Arab Israeli leaders pit their supporters against the majority, an Israeli Jew cannot help but wonder: What do they want to achieve? What are they aiming for? Their actions are unlikely to bring about a Palestinian state, but they are very likely to ruin Jewish-Arab relations within Israel and lead to a violent backlash that is costly both economically and in human life. If Jews will no longer shop in Arab markets or employ Arab workers, the Arab Israeli community will suffer.
And now – some answers.
Misfortune
A letter from Shelley: “When you write: ‘This is an ugly truth.’ Why would you describe this truth as ugly? Is it not normal to fear terror that is perpetrated daily by your neighbors? Perhaps ‘unfortunate truth’ is more fitting and gives the public a greater idea of how we feel in Israel.”
My response: First, the context. In the article I say that Israeli Jews are “on the edge” because of recent violent events. I then say that because they are on the edge they have “little patience for blunt dissent or provocation, and little patience for nuance”. Then comes the “ugly truth”, as I write: “Too many Israeli Jews, upon encountering an Arab – be he a pharmacist or a supermarket cashier or a cab driver – are thinking: Will he pull a knife? Does he intend to kill me?”
So Shelley asked: why “ugly” and not “unfortunate”? It is a reasonable question. The choice of words in such articles is always tricky, and my decision to use stronger language in this paragraph was intentional. “Ugly” – because I am a little ashamed when I look suspiciously at the cashier at my supermarket. It is more than “unfortunate” – it is saddening, it is almost heartbreaking. You should read the story about Jewish parents in a Jerusalem school having to vote on whether they are going to keep employing the Arab cleaner of the school to understand how complicated it becomes for people to live together in an atmosphere of suspicion and anger. I do not want to question my pharmacist. I do not want anyone to question his Arab neighbor or worker. That this is happening – as Shelly writes – is very “normal” under the current circumstances. But such normalcy is far from mere misfortune. It is devastating.
Second rate
From Twitter: “@rosnersdomain warns the Palestinian citizens of Israel not to forget they are 2nd rate citizens”.
My response: They are not, and this tweet is “vicious misrepresentation”, as my friend @havivrettiggur wrote back. What I try to do is to remind Arab Israelis that as equal partners they have to consider Israel’s future and success as they craft their response to developments in the Israeli-Palestinian arena.
Can’t help it
From Facebook: “They cannot help themselves…”.
My response: This comment goes on to grossly misrepresent both Muslims and Jews, and I deleted it. Because of such reprehensible comments I wrote the following paragraph in my article: “The Jewish majority isn’t blameless in making Arab citizens feel ambivalent about their country. There is discrimination against Arabs. There are Jews who speak and think ill about Arabs”.
Why Arabs?
Another letter, from an Arab reader: “your article blames all the Arabs of Israel when very few participate in the activities you describe. This is collective blame and it is a shame”.
My response: I will begin my response by making my life easy: the writer does not write the headline – including this one, which blames the “Arabs”. In the article itself I was quite insistent in talking about the “political leadership” of the Arab community.
But now I will now make my life less easy, because intellectual consistency demands it. Often times I write critically about the tendency of observers who look critically at Israel’s policies to try and separate Israel’s “government” from Israel’s “people.” It is a convenient way for those who want to love Israel but have difficulties with it to pretend that Israel is not what it seems to be: there is the vicious, backward, government and the good, reasonable people. Public opinion polls assist in such compartmentalization of Israel’s reality; as in most countries, Israeli polls also often prove that the public does not approve of policies of the government.
I do not appreciate such compartmentalization, because it ignores a simple fact: the government of Israel is elected freely by the people. The government in power is the government they want. And what is true for all Israelis, is also true for Arab Israelis. True: in the article I criticize the leadership of the Arab community because I think a leadership should be more responsible. But ignoring the fact that this leadership is the leadership that Arab Israelis choose to elect time and again would be a mistake.
The bottom line: I agree with the writer – a vast majority of Arab Israelis do not engage in incitement, violence, provocation, spreading lies against the Jewish majority. But we cannot run away from the troubling reality that Arab Israelis vote for the leaders that do engage in some of these things.
Shocking reality
From Twitter: “Excellent oped on ‘Israel's Irresponsible Arabs.’ Shocking that @nytopinion allowed it”.
My response: Thank you, but no shock: the NYT runs my articles every month.
If you want to read previous “answering readers’ questions and comments” posts, here are some of them:
Answering readers’ comments on “Who killed the Israeli left”
Answering readers’ comments on “France’s Jews Have No Choice but Israel”
Answering readers’ comments on “Israel’s Fair Weather Fans” (second round)
Answering readers’ comments on “Don’t speak to Congress, Mr. Netanyahu”
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