From: backon@vms.huji.ac.il
Newsgroups: talk.politics.mideast
Subject: Re: israeli extremism
Date: 14 Dec 92 14:45:39 GMT
Distribution: talk,world
Organization: The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

In article <1992Dec11.1777.20932@channel1>, "wayne mcguire" <wayne.mcguire@channel1.com> writes:
> <knotes>
>
> <o>#clip
>
> <des>
>
>      Labor leader Avraham Burg compares Israeli anti-Arab racism
>      with anti-foreigner attitudes in Germany. Religious Israelis
>      are more racist than secular Israelis. (UPI 12/10/92)
>
> <doctype>newswire article
> <news service>UPI
> <date>December 10, 1992
>
>
> <excerpt>
>
> ISRAEL LEGISLATOR WARNS OF GROWING ANTI-ARAB RACISM; CURFEW ON
> GAZA IN EFFECT
>
> JERUSALEM (DEC. 10) UPI - A leading member of the ruling Labor
> Party enraged parliamentary opponents Thursday by equating
> Israeli attitudes toward Arabs with racism against Jews and
> foreigners in Germany.
>
> Education Committee Chairman Avraham Burg pointed to a survey
> commissioned by his panel

It was commissioned by Avrum Burg, and NOT by the Knesset Education Committee.
The Knesset Secretary categorically denied that the committee commissioned the
report.

Almost every sociologist in Israel attacked the study as being unreliable. Even
Dori Shedmon who carried out the study has disagreed with Burg's
interpretation. And on Sunday, Burg basically retracted his comparison of
Israel's  "racism" to that of Germany.

Except for the lunatic fringe no one hates Arabs on classic racist grounds
(biological or religious). There *is* an animosity due to political reasons. If
you think that I (left-wing liberal) didn't curse the Arabs who last night
had a shoot-out  with the border police 20 feet from my relatives' living room
and who blew up 5 cars in the parking lot,  then you're living in a dream world.
The INTIFADA isn't peaceful demonstrators on a protest march singing "We Shall
Overcome".



> showing a significant minority of
> Israelis espouse anti-Arab views. Many said they would favor
> applying pressure to force Arabs to leave Israel and the occupied
> West Bank and Gaza Strip.

"Force" ????  Nonsense. If the Palestinians here would behave like the
Japanese-Americans during WWII (who were interned for 4 years in 'concentration'
camps in good 'ole democratic Amerika) but whose sons volunteered to serve in
the US Army, there wouldn't be any ^ problem. What's good for the goose is good
for the gander. Up til a few years ago, to get US citizenship you had to:
a) have a 5 year waiting period;
b) be a good, law-abiding 'person' during this interim period;
c) take and pass a citizenship exam;
d) swear an oath of allegiance to uphold the Constitution of the United States
of America.

During the 5 year period although you could not vote you *were* subject to the
military draft (when this was still in force).

Most Israelis would have *no* problem for Palestinians to get Israeli
citizenship provided they followed the American pattern (for getting
citizenship). And that includes serving in the Israeli army.



>
> ''We can no longer avoid the fact that there is a racism and
> hatred of foreigners in Israel similar to what exists in Germany
> and France,'' Burg said.


Burg retracted this statement on Sunday.


>
> Meanwhile, three left-wing members of the Knesset, Israel's
> parliament, traveled to Gaza to meet with Palestinians who have
> been prevented from traveling outside the crowded coastal enclave
> for the past three days.
>
> More than 400,000 Palestinians living in refugee camps and a few
> Gaza towns have been under an army-imposed curfew since Monday
> night, when unknown gunmen shot and killed three Israeli
> soldiers.
>

Guns ? Gee, I thought the Intifada was people chaining themselves to the
Knesset and singing 'WE SHALL OVERCOME'  :-)

> The Knesset-commissioned survey showed that out of a sample of
> 501 people, 40 percent said they favored violence against Arabs
> in response to Arab terrorist attacks on Jews.

Again, this was NOT a Knesset-commissioned study. I *love* the wording of the
question. Reminds me of 'When did you stop beating your wife'. I assure you
Wayne that if residents of Roxbury attacked the Irish residents of South Boston
with ONE-TENTH the  ferocity shown by the Palestinians here, there would
probably be a blood bath.


>
> About 28 percent said they agreed that ''pressure should be
> applied on Arabs so that they leave the country.''
>
> The results were issued 10 days after Prime Minister Yitzhak
> Rabin's government expressed concern over mounting neo-Nazi
> violence and called on the German government to halt the wave of
> attacks on foreigners there.
>
> Burg said that they pointed up the need for a ''shake up'' in
> education methods among religious Israelis, who appeared in the
> survey to be more prone to anti-Arab feelings than their secular
> counterparts.
>
> But Uri Elitzur, a spokesman for the National Religious Party,
> drew different conclusion. ''It is necessary to combat the
> phenomenon of hatred against Arabs, but it is not always
> necessary to combat the desire for revenge,''he said. ''In fact,
> sometimes it should be encouraged.''...
>
> </o>
> ---
>  ~ OLX 3.0 31-2557 ~ pattern matching factory
> --
> Channel 1 (R)   Cambridge, MA
>

Josh
backon@VMS.HUJI.AC.IL
Newsgroups: talk.politics.mideast