#272 Musings Beyond the Bunker (Friday February 11)
Good morning,
ARABS AND JEWS LIVING TOGETHER
My timeless, energetic 91 year-old aunt, twice vaccinated, nonetheless caught COVID from unvaccinated friends. She got sick and we were nervous. She went to the hospital and came home healthy. She’s one tough lady (a trait she shares with my mother) and she had great medical care. But that’s not the entire story.
My aunt is a resident of Jerusalem and she utilized the Israeli healthcare system. While in the hospital, she noticed that most of the doctors and nurses in the hospital were Arab Israelis. She said the care was excellent and these Arab Israelis couldn’t have been more diligent, dedicated and kind to her. We often hear about Jewish Israeli doctors caring for Syrian refugees, many of whom were children. This is the flip side—Arab Israelis caring for Jews. I found my aunt’s experience both instructive and hopeful. At least within the context of medical care and human services, Jews and Arabs were working together and sharing their common humanity.
APARTHEID…REALLY?
Beyond her hospital experience, my aunt observed that life in Israel between its Arabs and Jews is far better than we are led to believe in the press. It got me thinking about the notion so common amongst the “progressive” left—that Israel is an apartheid state.
This narrative is untrue. Israel is the only country in which meaningful numbers of members of the Jewish and Arab communities live and work together. I don’t opine here as to the inequities that may exist as such inequities also exist in the United States. Here are just a few ideas worth considering
Israel is a democracy, a form of government structure not particular prevalent in the Arab world.
The two official languages of Israel are Hebrew and Arabic (though there also often is a third language—English employed in signs).
There are approximately 1.9 million Arab citizens in Israel, representing a little over 20% of the total population. They receive the same municipal and state services and have the same civil rights as the Jewish citizens.
While there is a legitimate claim that Arab schools may not be up to the same standards as schools in Jewish neighborhoods, I doubt the situation is much worse than the serious gap in school quality between white and Black neighborhoods in America (or, worse yet, between the Han Chinese and the Uighurs in China!). There are no doubt inequities to be addressed—but it’s hardly apartheid.
Arab Israelis serve in the judicial system in all capacities, including as judges, in the military, in healthcare, and in so many professions.
Arab parties have always been represented in the Knesset (Israel’s parliament). For the first time, the Arab parties are now part of the government.
Compare the numbers of Arabs in Israel to the decimation of formerly flourishing Jewish communities in Arab countries, where are there only 100 Jews identified in Lebanon, 10 identified in Egypt, and none in Jordan, Syria or Saudi Arabia.
AN INSULT TO THE SOUTH AFRICAN EXPERIENCE
There are certain words and phrases that should be reserved for the experiences that they describe. To me, the Holocaust is a singular experience. This is not to suggest that other acts of genocide throughout history aren’t worthy of remembrance and constant repudiation. Another 20th century phenomenon that is pretty much sui generis is the apartheid system in South Africa. The denial of civil rights, the incarceration of dissidents, the limitation on economic opportunities, the segregation, and the destruction of families and communities are diminished by the use of the word “apartheid” to describe situations that, while they may be bad, are not anywhere near the coordinated, state-supported horrors perpetrated in South Africa.
JEWS IN IRAQ
My grandfather was born in Basra, Mesopotamia (now Iraq). His family, absent his father (who was murdered by Arab thieves) migrated to Calcutta, where he was raised. The story of the Jews of Iraq, known as “Baghdadi Jews” is emblematic of the Jewish diaspora from Arab lands where they truly were discriminated against. Here is a short blurb from Wikipedia:
Driven by persecution, which saw many of the leading Jewish families of Baghdad flee for India, and expanding trade with British colonies, the Jews of Iraq established a trading diaspora in Asia, known as the Baghdadi Jews.
In the 20th century, Iraqi Jews played an important role in the early days of Iraq's independence. Between 1950 and 1952, 120,000–130,000 of the Iraqi Jewish community (around 75%) reached Israel in Operation Ezra and Nehemiah. The Jewish community there is now no more.
Notwithstanding the animosities between Arabs and Jews, the murder of his father and the forced migration of his family, my grandfather maintained friendships with Arab friends, always speaking lovingly of them.
BUT MAYBE A REBIRTH OF AN APPRECIATION OF THIS HISTORY
There are some in the Arab world who lament the forced removal of Jews from their societies. For centuries, these cultures existed side-by-side, perhaps not always best of friends, but integral to a functioning society together. There are moves to preserve some great old Jewish sites in Arab lands. Maybe mutual appreciation of the dicey interrelationship of these cultures can emerge: https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/arab-states-showcase-jewish-heritage-and-memory-with-renovation-projects-616929
NOT AN APOLOGY FOR THE WEST BANK
All of this is not to suggest that Israel is always right. To be clear, I am very concerned about the situation in the West Bank. This is too short an essay to address the details, but again, one can condemn the government or long for improvement, but it’s not apartheid. Sadly, this labeling and singling out Israel is just another example of the coordinated effort to focus all attentions on the failures of the Jewish state, without highlighting its positives. I fear there is inequality in the State of Israel among Jews, Arabs, and others, just as there is around the world in democracies, and exercised more brutally by authoritarian regimes. None is right—all need to be addressed.
Have a good day,
Glenn
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