Israel's Success Fuels Arab Hatred

(National Review Online)  This column was written by Victor Davis Hanson

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These are strange times.

Perennially beleaguered Israel, for instance, was hit all summer long with rockets from Lebanon and Gaza, as the world watched and kept score in an absurd new game of proportionality: Israel was to be blamed because its hundreds of air strikes against combatants were lethal, while Hezbollah was to be excused for shooting off thousands of rockets aimed at civilians because of its relative incompetence.

This week Iran hosted an international conference on Holocaust denial. The gathering was as bizarre as a bar out of Star Wars, a collection of every crackpot anti-Semite the world over, all there for a scripted, tightly controlled hatefest advertised as a "free" exchange of ideas unknown in Europe.

Jimmy Carter, silent about Iran's latest promotion for its planned holocaust, is hawking his latest book — in typical fashion, sorta, kinda alleging that the Israelis are like the South Africans in perpetuating an apartheid state, that they are cruel to many Christians, and, as occupiers, are understandably the targets of suicide bombers and other terrorist killers. Sadly, all that shields this wrinkled-browed, lip-biting moralist from complete infamy is sympathy for a man bewildered in his dotage.

Meanwhile, some members of the Iraqi Study Group apparently think that since Israel's neocon surrogates got us into Iraq, their puppet master must pay the price for getting us out. Thus, Israel must give up the Golan Heights, or perhaps the West Bank, since that would make the Islamic nations so collectively happy that they would join us in ridding Iraq of the terrorists whom many of these nations have subsidized, trained, and sheltered.

The surprise is no longer that the cretin Mahmoud Ahmadinejad calls for the destruction of Israel, but only that his serial threats have still not become banal. In any language, there can be only so many synonyms and idioms for "wipe-out" and "vanish," yet Ahmadinejad always finds some fresh way to express his fundamental desire.

In Washington, realists are back, and they have a point: Israel really does remain at the heart of the furor of the Middle East — just not in the way they suppose.

It is not "stolen" land, or "Zionist" killings, or Jewish "aggression" that gnaws at the Arab Street. And the solution is therefore not to be found in short-term Israeli land-concessions, but only in the now caricatured and apparently waning policy of supporting democratic reform inside the Middle East.

Why?

The real problem is that Israeli success, and the resulting sense of failure in the surrounding Arab world, fuels much of the rabid hatred. Many of us have been writing exactly that for years and have been dubbed novices — and worse — who don't understand the complex undercurrents of the Middle East. In January 2004, for example, I suggested in passing the following on these pages:

Instead, [Israel] stoked the fury arising from Arabs' sense of weakness and self-contempt. In the world of the Palestinian lobster bucket, Israel's great sin is not bellicosity or aggression, but succeeding beyond the wildest dreams of its neighbors. How humiliating it must be to be incapable of even muttering the word "Israel" (hence the need for "Zionist entity"), but nevertheless preferring an Israeli to a Palestinian ID card.

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[feelfree1]

DRinUK,

Your comment is definitely worthy of repetition.

[feelfree1]

honestSam,

Re: "Unfortunately, you will be consumed by your hateful instincts against Israel."

I don't waste much time or energy on hatred. Hatred and fear are the primary tools of those whom I oppose. Ignorance is a close runner-up.

Re: 'Someone who calls for the destruction another sovereign state can never feel free.'

Please review my comments. I have not called for anything similar to what you are asserting.

[drinuk]

I have stated it on the Jimmy Carter column and I will repeat it. The slaughter of British Peace Keepers in 1948 by Jews lead by the likes of Mayer and Begin was terrorism, nothing more or less. They stole a country by the Gun ! acts similar to which Bush and Blair used as an excuse to go to war. The sooner the Jewish people understand that we were ALL chosen by God the better this world will be.

Contrary to Jewish myth and belief, distorted history and propaganda, the day of the real truth will be with sooner rather than later, the lies and nonsense will then be a true revelation. They would be well advised to get Their House in order.

[grumpas]

Give me a break leochel!!!! The nonsense you are spouting comes from a book written by Jews for Jews! I would hardly call that proof of anything! At least Carter is smart enough not to entertwine religion and politic's! He still knows what the constitution is and a Separation of Church and State that is more than I can say for most of you! The Separation of Church and State is what has made this country great! We haven't had (up until George Bush came along) any of the blood-letting that goes with religion getting to deeply into politic's! I hate to see this country go that direction where we are a state sponsored religion.

[honestsam]

The author was absolutely right, mediocrity or absolute failure breeds hate and this is very evident in the Arab world.

[honestsam]

To 'feelfree1' welcome back from Iran. Unfortunately, you will be consumed by your hateful instincts against Israel. Someone who calls for the destruction another sovereign state can never feel free.You see people like you who sees Israel as a stumbling block has always ended up crushing their feet against it.

[ronniehm]

"Israel's Success Fuels Arab Hatred"

Aardvarks fuel arab hatred.
Accordions fuel arab hatred.
Acorns fuel arab hatred.
Adhesive fuels arab hatred.
Adjectives fuel arab hatred...

Forget it. Get your own dictionary.

[on_alert247]

I agree with you crazyivan32. You made a point that despite the efforts of several others posting here cannot be comprehended by FeelFree. FeelFree either is a Muslim or far-left social democratic. Both are anti-Semitic and cannot distinguish the difference between an Imam, President of a country or militant leader calling for the extermination of Jews and non-believers from our President. There is a blind hatred at work in both groups readily apparent in their verbiage. The first can be explained by Islam, the latter I don't know. I've only personally known one person like FeelFree. He was extremely cynical and preferred reading to socializing. He never really got out into the world to confront the demons he so convincingly created in his mind. Too bad FeelFree cannot sit in on policy decisions made in Congress or the Knesset where he is forced to confront reality and would be held to account for his words.

[crazyivan32]

feelfree - You say: "I am inspired by the ideals as outlined in our fundamental documents and framework, such as the U.S. Constitution."

How can this be when you deny the same rule of law, plurality, and equal rights that is present in Israel? I see America and Israel as VERY similar in their forms of government, something that is at the root of Arab hatred for both countries. How can you deny that Israel has flourished, much like the US, under very difficult circumstances, and has made itself a center of science, medicine, arts, culture, mathematics, etc...while the Arab world is utterly stagnated. And that that stagnation is due in large part to theocracy, autocracy, self-loathing, lack of opportunity, and blind hatred, and the absence of the very things that Israel (and the US) have embraced: the rule of law, plurality, freedom of religion, and empowerment of women?

[kkilmer]

I really was impressed with your column. The posts above don't sound like they actually read your column. Emotions run deep!

How do you convince a culture to change to our culture with its accompanying hard work, (maybe too hard) and commitment to the individual. In the middle east, family and tribe are more important than the individual.

Also, how do you convince a culture that letting women have more freedom is good for that culture, when in the short term, there will be lots of men that do not think their lives getting better at all and probably worse, at least by the standards they value now. And even more, how do you undo generations of learned hatred?