Why Do Israeli Arabs Support Murder of Jews?
In most parts of the world, it’s not easy to find a major issue on which 80% of the population agrees (and that’s just the number that admit to it). An election victory in the United States is considered a “landslide” if the winner receives more than about 60% of the vote. (Such as Richard Nixon winning 65% of the vote against George McGovern in the 1972 presidential race.)
But among Arabs in Judea-Samaria (the West Bank) and Gaza, it turns out there is one issue on which there is more support than any other: randomly murdering Israeli Jews.
The [so-called] “Palestinian Center” for Policy and Survey Research last week asked a sample of 1,270 Arab adults in the territories what they thought of the recent wave of attacks in which Arab Muslims stabbed Israelis or ran them over with their cars. Fully 80% [admitted it and] responded that they support such attacks.
Note that the respondents weren’t talking about theoretical future attacks. They were commenting on recent attacks which they know all about. Here is what they are endorsing:
– Ramming a car into a crowd at a train station in Jerusalem. The fatalities included a three-month old infant.
– Stabbing an unarmed young woman standing at a bus stop in Gush Etzion.
– Axing and machine-gunning four rabbis at prayer in a Jerusalem synagogue.
Could the 80% endorsement be a fluke? A one-time aberration? A momentary lapse in good judgment, spurred by recent tensions?
Hardly. There is a remarkable consistency in Arab Muslim public opinion. The same polling institution surveyed 1,200 Arabs in the territories in late September and found that 80% support resuming the firing of rockets from Gaza into Israel.
Why is it that 80% [the number is actually much higher] of Arabs in Israel embrace the brutal murder and terrorization of Israeli civilians [Jews]?
Three reasons stand out.
First, there is the general brutality of Arab society. Violence by relatives against women suspected of immorality, violence by Muslim terrorists against Christian Arabs, violence by the Fatah/Hamas regime against dissidents–it’s all commonplace in the territories. That makes it easier for the average citizen to see violence as acceptable.
Second, there is a sense that violence works. Kidnapping Israelis led to the release of thousands of Arab terrorists from prison. Decades of bombings and hijackings led to widespread international support for “Palestinian” statehood. The recent attacks in Jerusalem have led to calls to redivide the city (including, most recently, by U.S. Mideast envoy Martin Indyk).
Third, and perhaps most important, is the influence of anti-Israel and anti-Jewish incitement by the Arab leadership. The constant declarations by [Fatah] chairman Mahmoud Abbas and other leaders praising terrorists as heroes and accusing Israel of desecrating Muslim religious places, have created an atmosphere in which support for murdering Jews has become the norm.
[I would like to add that the fourth reason is jealousy and envy of the Jews’ success. When given the green houses [for free] that would have fed their entire population, instead they destroyed them and looted them because they came from the Jews.]
