The soft bigotry of low expectations
You will recall that Yaron London wrote a piece in What’s clear is why London does not suggest shrinking the number of Arabs as well. Such proposal would of course be racist, not politically correct, and illogical. Apparently, in the view of liberals of London’s type the Arabs are inferior and dumb, and therefore we cannot have any qualms with them in face of police data showing that although Arabs make up only 20% of the population, they are involved in 41% of murder and arson cases, 52% of robberies and 80% of shooting incidents.In other words, like most of Israel's Left, London suffers from the soft bigotry of low expectations from Israel's Arab population.
However, London and his ilk apparently believe that the Jews are a wiser creed, and therefore the inferior part of this creed, the haredim, can be slammed and asked to “shrink.”
Labels: Haredim, Israeli Arab, Israeli Left
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 6:48 PM
1 Comments:
London's article was solely about the Haredi population. He did not address the Arab population one way or another. I do not think it is right to draw your conclusion.
And my opinion is that BOTH the Arab and Haredi communities need to have a shift in their culture if Israel is to thrive as a first world country. Short of a culture shift, then yes, it would be good for Arabs and Haredim to have less kids.
London's article stank because he did not explain what he meant by "less kids," but there are many ways this can be accomplished, including through cutting subsidies to Yeshivas and recquiring a universal draft. Most importantly, I would like to see universal standards for the Israeli school system. It is outrageous that Israeli Arabs learn a Nakba education, and outrageous that Haredim do not receive a firm foundation in math, science, social studies, and the arts. Finally, if Arab Israeli women learn about family planning - that simple fact alone will result in them having less kids. This has been shown to be the case around the world. None of this involves forced birth control or steralization, which of course decent people of the world should be opposed to - period.
The Chiloni and Dati Israelis form the backbone of the Israeli economy. How can a shrinking population of such people continue to support a first world economy?
I have yet to see any answer from you on this, Carl.
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