Skeptic
10th May 2006, 03:34 AM
For research on an unrelated matter, I have been reading the jewish press in Palestine in the 1930s.
Guess what? The news, in most cases, were about murderous Arab attacks on jews. This was, of course, long before any "occupation" or "Nakba" or any other "root cause"--apart from the very existence of the jews where the Arabs don't want them--that the apologists for Arab terror usually give.
The victims, mind you, were not jewish soldiers or those who attacked Arabs; but rather children, doctors, nurses, students, teachers, herders, farmers, and, essentially, anybody the Arabs could reach; reading the list of victims from those years, it seems that the Arabs "specialized" in attacking schools, as many teachers and students were killed for the crime of being jewish.
Needless to say, there were no corresponding attacks by jews terror against Arabs, or very few; the only case I could find was that of a jewish cop (in the british mandatory police) that killed his co-worker, an Arab cop, under unclear circumstances. One doubtful case--compared to hundreds of Arab attacks--seems the proportion between jewish and Arab attacks. The Arab dead were almost 100% those killed in self-defense by British or (sometimes) jewish armed forces during attacks on jews or on British soldiers.
Of course, there was often some excuse for the murderous violence. In one case, an Arab--arrested by the British--complained in the Arab press that in the British prison he was "mistreated" by jewish nurses. This, of course, was enough to incite a murderous attack on jewish nurses in Jaffa, killing two and wounding more. (After all, that a believer is rudely treated by an infidel jew, and a woman at that, is surely deserving of death.) Later on, interestingly, the same person who complained, injured in a fight, preferred to get treated... in a jewish hospital.
This violence, of course, was not random. It was a holy war, incited and directed by the leaders of the Arab, in particular Haj Amin al-Husseini (who later was Hitler's ally) and others. Its goal, openly and repeatedly stated, was a genocide, or at least an expulsion, of all jews from "the holy Arab land of Palestine".
Did this cause hatered of all Arabs in the jewish community? No. Surprisingly, perhaps, attempts to meet and cooperate with Arabs--especially, in the socialist parties in the jewish community, with Arab workers--continued. "Davar", for example, published an Arabic edition aimed particularly at them, dealing exclusively with problems (e.g., low wages, etc.) jewish and Arab workers can cooperate on.
The jewish view, at least officially, was that the hatered against the jews is mostly fanned by a fanatical leadership; whether true or not, the view certainly wasn't that Arabs by their nature hate jews. Indeed, many cases of jews helping Arabs (e.g., jewish farmers rescuing a barn in an Arab village from a fire) were in the press.
The Arab press, on the other hand, made no such distinctions or attempts at reconciliation. It had in effect become an antisemitic propaganda tool, publishing nothing except for "proofs" of the latest jewish "conspiracy" (which, needless to say, were almost invariably false, and distorted when not completely wrong) and/or articles by religious and political leaders permitting, in fact demanding, that all the good Arab readers join the Jihad.
Some things never change.
Guess what? The news, in most cases, were about murderous Arab attacks on jews. This was, of course, long before any "occupation" or "Nakba" or any other "root cause"--apart from the very existence of the jews where the Arabs don't want them--that the apologists for Arab terror usually give.
The victims, mind you, were not jewish soldiers or those who attacked Arabs; but rather children, doctors, nurses, students, teachers, herders, farmers, and, essentially, anybody the Arabs could reach; reading the list of victims from those years, it seems that the Arabs "specialized" in attacking schools, as many teachers and students were killed for the crime of being jewish.
Needless to say, there were no corresponding attacks by jews terror against Arabs, or very few; the only case I could find was that of a jewish cop (in the british mandatory police) that killed his co-worker, an Arab cop, under unclear circumstances. One doubtful case--compared to hundreds of Arab attacks--seems the proportion between jewish and Arab attacks. The Arab dead were almost 100% those killed in self-defense by British or (sometimes) jewish armed forces during attacks on jews or on British soldiers.
Of course, there was often some excuse for the murderous violence. In one case, an Arab--arrested by the British--complained in the Arab press that in the British prison he was "mistreated" by jewish nurses. This, of course, was enough to incite a murderous attack on jewish nurses in Jaffa, killing two and wounding more. (After all, that a believer is rudely treated by an infidel jew, and a woman at that, is surely deserving of death.) Later on, interestingly, the same person who complained, injured in a fight, preferred to get treated... in a jewish hospital.
This violence, of course, was not random. It was a holy war, incited and directed by the leaders of the Arab, in particular Haj Amin al-Husseini (who later was Hitler's ally) and others. Its goal, openly and repeatedly stated, was a genocide, or at least an expulsion, of all jews from "the holy Arab land of Palestine".
Did this cause hatered of all Arabs in the jewish community? No. Surprisingly, perhaps, attempts to meet and cooperate with Arabs--especially, in the socialist parties in the jewish community, with Arab workers--continued. "Davar", for example, published an Arabic edition aimed particularly at them, dealing exclusively with problems (e.g., low wages, etc.) jewish and Arab workers can cooperate on.
The jewish view, at least officially, was that the hatered against the jews is mostly fanned by a fanatical leadership; whether true or not, the view certainly wasn't that Arabs by their nature hate jews. Indeed, many cases of jews helping Arabs (e.g., jewish farmers rescuing a barn in an Arab village from a fire) were in the press.
The Arab press, on the other hand, made no such distinctions or attempts at reconciliation. It had in effect become an antisemitic propaganda tool, publishing nothing except for "proofs" of the latest jewish "conspiracy" (which, needless to say, were almost invariably false, and distorted when not completely wrong) and/or articles by religious and political leaders permitting, in fact demanding, that all the good Arab readers join the Jihad.
Some things never change.