The right-wing paradox
The Isreali right wing thinks Arabs hate Israel and want to destroy us. The left wing would rather ignore this.
What the right wing doesn't understand, though, is that we should not only defend ourselves from those who hate us: we must also fight the hatered itself.
הטעות של מדינת ישראל היא שאנחנו נלחמים רק בשונאינו - במקום להילחם גם בשינאה עצמה
The paradox is that by fighting those who hate us, we increase the hatered.
4 comments:
If the mere fact of your existence is whats causing the hatred, then it seems nothing short of accepting your own destruction will alleviate it. If you read mahers comment its obvious that what Israel actually does plays a very small role compared to existing prejudices.
@Abe: it's not our existence - it's the way our existence is perceived by the other side. We need to fight the prejudices.
@Mohamed Maher: What the Israeli authorities are doing near elAqsa is terribly stupid. But the Arab belief that our intention is to destroy elAqsa is a direct result of your misunderstanding of Israel.
There is definitely a power struggle around that area, and there are probably some crazy fanatics who would love to destroy elAqsa - but such people are considered criminals here. Any person plotting to destroy elAqsa would be arrested by the Israeli police. The Israeli government, as incompetent as it is, cannot possibly intend for elAqsa to be destroyed.
I'll write more about this in my next post.
dear israeli blogger,
all sides should fight prejudice. i need to be persuaded that the jewish connection to the temple mount and all of jerusalem is as respected by muslims as muslims believe their connection should be.
you also wrote:
"..it's not our existence - it's the way our existence is perceived by the other side..."
i don't understand the difference
Dear Abe,
I totally agree with you. Both sides should fight prejudice, and the Arabs should respect the Jewish connection to the Temple Mount as much as the Jews should respect the Muslim connection to Al-Aqsa.
As for your question regarding "how our existence is perceived" - I have dedicated this post to an answer. I hope this time I have done a better job explaining - please let me know.
Thanks,
-I.B.
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