The 'Palestinian' double standard
From a comment by Daoud Kuttab in Monday's Washington Post:Calling Israel a Jewish state goes directly against the general U.S. principle of separating politics from religion and counters the democratic values that the U.S. is trying to export to the rest of the world, including the Arab region.Two comments: If a 'Palestinian' state is not going to be the end of demands against Israel, why should Israel agree to one?
After seeing such support from the U.S., Israeli ideological leaders from hawks to doves have raised the level of their public propaganda, pushing for the ethnic cleansing of Palestinian Arabs who are citizens of the state of Israel. It started with the foreign minister Tizpi Livni, who said in a talk to high school students that once the Palestinian conflict was resolved, citizens of Israel would not be allowed to talk about their national aspirations. She later backpedaled from those racist-sounding remarks, but right-wing candidate Avigdor Lieberman did not. His election campaign, which came as the Gaza assault was taking place, included a call for Palestinian citizens of Israel to take a loyalty oath to Israel as a Jewish state and to serve in the army or complete some type of public service.
...
The new Obama administration, as it weighs its position on the upcoming Durban II conference on racism, will also be forced to take a position on the rights of the Arab minority in Israel and the undemocratic demands that are being forced upon them as part of the package of a two-state solution. Palestinians living in Israel support the possibility of the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside the state of Israel. But they feel that this should not negate their decision to stay living where they are and to continue demanding rights equal to those their fellow citizens of Israel enjoy, be they Jews or followers of any religion or even non-followers of religion.
And if after the formation of a 'Palestinian' state, Arabs are to have the right to remain in what is left of Israel and advocate for expanding the 'Palestinian' state to include them, should not Jews be allowed to stay in Judea and Samaria and advocate for expanding the Jewish state to include them? Why is it always assume that part of the formation of a 'Palestinian' state will include the expulsion of all Jews from Judea and Samaria but not the expulsion of all Arabs from what is left of Israel?
Sounds like a double standard to me.
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 8:44 PM
1 Comments:
There's also the double standard where the Arabs have the right to have an Islamic state but the demand is made of Jews to separate their country's faith from politics.
The worst practitioners of racism, brutality and apartheid towards minority are the Arabs and no one is allowed to hold it against them. Yet those terms along with "Nazi" are applied to Israel every day.
So why should Israel assume the Palestinians want peace with Israel when they continue to vilify the Jewish State and when it is clear to all and sundry that a Palestinian reichlet would not mean the end of their demands upon it? As long as this double standard exists, talk of peace will die aborning.
Post a Comment
<< Home