[Part one of this series can be read at http://www.israelnn.com/article.php3?id=3370.]
Thoughts of killing and being killed, which for decades have been drummed into the heads of Palestinian Arabs by the likes of the PLO, Fatah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad, have become so engraved in the fabric of society, that even in a hypothetical situation when all Palestinian national aspirations are met, many are unable to stop wishing for the murder. A poll conducted among Palestinian and Israeli Arabs in late September, 2003 by two polling firms, Public Opinion Research of Israel and the PCPO, revealed that 59% of poll respondents want Hamas and Islamic Jihad to "continue their armed struggle against Israel even if Israel leaves all of the West Bank and Gaza, including east Jerusalem, and a Palestinian state is created[!]"(8)
The propaganda of hatred in the Palestinian society is not limited to Israel and Jews only. Although, since the beginning of the Oslo process, America has donated more than a billion dollars in aid to the Palestinian Authority, and Bill Clinton was the most outspoken world leader in promoting the idea of an independent Palestinian state, hatred towards America has also been drummed non-stop into the heads of Palestinian Arabs.
Even after President Bush's trip to Aqaba in June 2003, in an attempt to revive stalled Palestinian-Israeli negotiations, Shaykh Ibrahim Al-Mudayris, in a sermon from the Shaykh Ijlin Mosque, the main mosque of Gaza, broadcast live by Palestinian radio and TV stations on June 13, prayed, "O God, punish our enemies. O God, destroy those who have harmed us. O God, destroy those who harm Muslims. ...O God, destroy the United States and its allies."
The surrealism of the situation is complete and unbelievable. On June 3, 2003, at a time when all major American television networks were transmitting George W. Bush's pledges of unequivocal support for a "Palestinian state", Internet news groups were distributing Meg Bortin's article "Poll: Muslims Lament Israel's Existence", published in International Herald Tribune. The article talked about a poll conducted by the Pew Global Attitudes Project, which, between April 28 and May 15, surveyed almost 68,000 people across 20 countries and in the territory under the Palestinian Authority, including 15,494 people in the Middle East.
The survey demonstrated that today the highest anti-Americanism exists in Jordan (a majority of its population are Palestinian Arabs), where 99% of the people have a "somewhat or very unfavorable opinion of the United States" and in the Palestinian Authority, where hostility towards America is at 98%. Or, put another way, virtually all Palestinian Arabs express open and widespread hatred towards America, at a time when the American President promises to reward the very people who hate him and his country with another state.
The situation is not encouraging. An optimist might hope that things change for the better in the future, but there is not much to support that idea, either. Brainwashed by frenzied anti-Israeli and anti-American propaganda, Palestinian Arabs strive to continue fostering a culture of hatred among their children as well, ensuring the continuity of violence for the next generation. The respondents of one of the polls were told to assume that "a peace agreement is reached between the Palestinian side and Israel and a Palestinian state is established that is recognized by Israel." After that they were asked if they would agree to "adopt a school curriculum in the Palestinian state that recognizes Israel and teaches school children not to demand the return of all of Palestine to the Palestinians." The results cannot be more revealing: 42.5% opposed and another 45.1% strongly opposed adopting such curriculum.
These numbers should not surprise anyone. If a culture of anti-Semitism is flourishing in both Egypt and Jordan at a time when both countries have peace treaties with the Jewish state, why should a future PLO pseudo-state be different? And it does not matter whether or not Arafat departs from the scene. Terrorist groups will still dominate the surrogate entity-state. The December PCPO poll shows that Arafat's murderous Fatah, which is currently supported by 25.3% of those polled, loses ground to a combined coalition of more radical terrorist groups: Hamas ? 20.1%, Islamic Jihad ? 4.5%, PFLP ? 2.5%. The ideological grip of terrorist groups on the Palestinian society is so strong that even the CIA recognized the complete lack of readiness to compromise among the Palestinian Arab leaders. It "recently reached the conclusion that it is highly unlikely to see before 2020 a Palestinian leadership ready to make the necessary concessions for reaching a comprehensive agreement with Israel."(9)
It is hard to guess what criteria the CIA used in evaluating the status of Palestinian society, but one thing is clear ? it completely missed the link between the time it expects terrorist groups to continue dominating this society and the damage that they will inflict on it during this time. Twenty more years of hatred and incitement cannot possibly result in a leadership "ready to make concessions." Somehow the causal relationships between the preceding ten years and their violent consequences have passed unnoticed on the CIA's radar screen.
Nevertheless, these ten years have left irreparable damage on the mentality of the Palestinian Arabs. One hundred and twenty months of blatantly criminal rule have transformed a generation of Palestinian Arabs into a generation of brainwashed suicidal machines. Dr. Shafiq Massalha, a Palestinian Arab psychologist, conducted a study that led him to the conclusion that "in about ten years, a very murderous generation will come of age, full of hatred and ready to die in suicide missions."(10) He claimed that "half of Palestinian children age 6 to 11 dream of becoming suicide bombers."(10)
What can be worse than allowing the fate of already psychologically damaged children to remain in the hands of terrorist groups? And yet, this is exactly what will happen if an Arab state is established in the West Bank and Gaza. Can any objective observer question the outcome of this "nation building?" The only thing that can perhaps be questioned is Dr. Massalha's estimate of the time when a generation filled with murderous hatred will come of age. This age group, younger than 14 years of age, which makes up 49.4% of the Arab population in Gaza and 44.1% in the West Bank, has seen nothing but evil indoctrination, which will certainly continue unabated inside the planned pseudo-state.
This indoctrination is simply part of the glorification of Jihad that is so prevalent in radical Islamic culture across the Arab world. And there is already a clear preference for an Islamic character for this planned surrogate state. In late fall of 2003, given the choice between religious, democratic, socialist, or Arab Nationalist as the main characteristic "fundamental in the future Palestinian State", 56.2% of those polled by the PCPO preferred it to be "religious." A month later, in another poll, in answer to the question "What type of legal marriage arrangement would you prefer there to be in the Palestinian state?" 27.8% had chosen religious polygamy, 50.8% religious monogamy, and 11.4% favored civil with mixed religion marriages. To dispel any doubts regarding the nature of the future "Palestinian state" it is enough to read Article 6 of the recently developed "Palestinian Constitution," that states: "Islam shall be the official religion of the state."
Certainly, the Islamic nature of the state does not bode well for any hope of conciliation. As Cardinal Roberto Tucci commented in Rome at the beginning of November 2003: "Throughout the Islamic world ? on their radios, their televisions, in the media, in the schools ? there is an education toward rabid and malicious anti-Semitism. It is the worst anti-Semitism imaginable, except for the Nazis ? or even equal to that of the Nazis."(11)
Taking into account this long list of troubling signs, which all point to a deeply damaged society, it is quite easy to predict what will happen to the Palestinian Arabs if the world community forces the establishment of an "independent Palestinian state" in the West Bank and Gaza under the rule of the PLO (which is exactly who will end up ruling, in spite of pretenses to the contrary by major world powers). The culture of hatred will flourish among them as never before. Condemned to the enduring rule of terrorist murderers, the Palestinian Arabs will be unable to avoid complete moral destruction. The fertile ground prepared by the last ten years will bear only murderously suicidal behavior as its fruit.
The Palestinians will be trapped within their self-destructive ideology and the demise of their society will be inevitable.
[Part 2 of 3]
Footnotes
8) Poll: Palestinians Back Terror Even With State. By Janine Zacharia. The Jerusalem Post. 10/24/03
9) Play For Time. Efraim Inbar. The Jerusalem Post 12/27/03 "Letter of the People", PA TV, June 9, 2002
10) http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=35411
11) http://www.cwnews.com/news/viewstory.cfm?recnum=25769
Thoughts of killing and being killed, which for decades have been drummed into the heads of Palestinian Arabs by the likes of the PLO, Fatah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad, have become so engraved in the fabric of society, that even in a hypothetical situation when all Palestinian national aspirations are met, many are unable to stop wishing for the murder. A poll conducted among Palestinian and Israeli Arabs in late September, 2003 by two polling firms, Public Opinion Research of Israel and the PCPO, revealed that 59% of poll respondents want Hamas and Islamic Jihad to "continue their armed struggle against Israel even if Israel leaves all of the West Bank and Gaza, including east Jerusalem, and a Palestinian state is created[!]"(8)
The propaganda of hatred in the Palestinian society is not limited to Israel and Jews only. Although, since the beginning of the Oslo process, America has donated more than a billion dollars in aid to the Palestinian Authority, and Bill Clinton was the most outspoken world leader in promoting the idea of an independent Palestinian state, hatred towards America has also been drummed non-stop into the heads of Palestinian Arabs.
Even after President Bush's trip to Aqaba in June 2003, in an attempt to revive stalled Palestinian-Israeli negotiations, Shaykh Ibrahim Al-Mudayris, in a sermon from the Shaykh Ijlin Mosque, the main mosque of Gaza, broadcast live by Palestinian radio and TV stations on June 13, prayed, "O God, punish our enemies. O God, destroy those who have harmed us. O God, destroy those who harm Muslims. ...O God, destroy the United States and its allies."
The surrealism of the situation is complete and unbelievable. On June 3, 2003, at a time when all major American television networks were transmitting George W. Bush's pledges of unequivocal support for a "Palestinian state", Internet news groups were distributing Meg Bortin's article "Poll: Muslims Lament Israel's Existence", published in International Herald Tribune. The article talked about a poll conducted by the Pew Global Attitudes Project, which, between April 28 and May 15, surveyed almost 68,000 people across 20 countries and in the territory under the Palestinian Authority, including 15,494 people in the Middle East.
The survey demonstrated that today the highest anti-Americanism exists in Jordan (a majority of its population are Palestinian Arabs), where 99% of the people have a "somewhat or very unfavorable opinion of the United States" and in the Palestinian Authority, where hostility towards America is at 98%. Or, put another way, virtually all Palestinian Arabs express open and widespread hatred towards America, at a time when the American President promises to reward the very people who hate him and his country with another state.
The situation is not encouraging. An optimist might hope that things change for the better in the future, but there is not much to support that idea, either. Brainwashed by frenzied anti-Israeli and anti-American propaganda, Palestinian Arabs strive to continue fostering a culture of hatred among their children as well, ensuring the continuity of violence for the next generation. The respondents of one of the polls were told to assume that "a peace agreement is reached between the Palestinian side and Israel and a Palestinian state is established that is recognized by Israel." After that they were asked if they would agree to "adopt a school curriculum in the Palestinian state that recognizes Israel and teaches school children not to demand the return of all of Palestine to the Palestinians." The results cannot be more revealing: 42.5% opposed and another 45.1% strongly opposed adopting such curriculum.
These numbers should not surprise anyone. If a culture of anti-Semitism is flourishing in both Egypt and Jordan at a time when both countries have peace treaties with the Jewish state, why should a future PLO pseudo-state be different? And it does not matter whether or not Arafat departs from the scene. Terrorist groups will still dominate the surrogate entity-state. The December PCPO poll shows that Arafat's murderous Fatah, which is currently supported by 25.3% of those polled, loses ground to a combined coalition of more radical terrorist groups: Hamas ? 20.1%, Islamic Jihad ? 4.5%, PFLP ? 2.5%. The ideological grip of terrorist groups on the Palestinian society is so strong that even the CIA recognized the complete lack of readiness to compromise among the Palestinian Arab leaders. It "recently reached the conclusion that it is highly unlikely to see before 2020 a Palestinian leadership ready to make the necessary concessions for reaching a comprehensive agreement with Israel."(9)
It is hard to guess what criteria the CIA used in evaluating the status of Palestinian society, but one thing is clear ? it completely missed the link between the time it expects terrorist groups to continue dominating this society and the damage that they will inflict on it during this time. Twenty more years of hatred and incitement cannot possibly result in a leadership "ready to make concessions." Somehow the causal relationships between the preceding ten years and their violent consequences have passed unnoticed on the CIA's radar screen.
Nevertheless, these ten years have left irreparable damage on the mentality of the Palestinian Arabs. One hundred and twenty months of blatantly criminal rule have transformed a generation of Palestinian Arabs into a generation of brainwashed suicidal machines. Dr. Shafiq Massalha, a Palestinian Arab psychologist, conducted a study that led him to the conclusion that "in about ten years, a very murderous generation will come of age, full of hatred and ready to die in suicide missions."(10) He claimed that "half of Palestinian children age 6 to 11 dream of becoming suicide bombers."(10)
What can be worse than allowing the fate of already psychologically damaged children to remain in the hands of terrorist groups? And yet, this is exactly what will happen if an Arab state is established in the West Bank and Gaza. Can any objective observer question the outcome of this "nation building?" The only thing that can perhaps be questioned is Dr. Massalha's estimate of the time when a generation filled with murderous hatred will come of age. This age group, younger than 14 years of age, which makes up 49.4% of the Arab population in Gaza and 44.1% in the West Bank, has seen nothing but evil indoctrination, which will certainly continue unabated inside the planned pseudo-state.
This indoctrination is simply part of the glorification of Jihad that is so prevalent in radical Islamic culture across the Arab world. And there is already a clear preference for an Islamic character for this planned surrogate state. In late fall of 2003, given the choice between religious, democratic, socialist, or Arab Nationalist as the main characteristic "fundamental in the future Palestinian State", 56.2% of those polled by the PCPO preferred it to be "religious." A month later, in another poll, in answer to the question "What type of legal marriage arrangement would you prefer there to be in the Palestinian state?" 27.8% had chosen religious polygamy, 50.8% religious monogamy, and 11.4% favored civil with mixed religion marriages. To dispel any doubts regarding the nature of the future "Palestinian state" it is enough to read Article 6 of the recently developed "Palestinian Constitution," that states: "Islam shall be the official religion of the state."
Certainly, the Islamic nature of the state does not bode well for any hope of conciliation. As Cardinal Roberto Tucci commented in Rome at the beginning of November 2003: "Throughout the Islamic world ? on their radios, their televisions, in the media, in the schools ? there is an education toward rabid and malicious anti-Semitism. It is the worst anti-Semitism imaginable, except for the Nazis ? or even equal to that of the Nazis."(11)
Taking into account this long list of troubling signs, which all point to a deeply damaged society, it is quite easy to predict what will happen to the Palestinian Arabs if the world community forces the establishment of an "independent Palestinian state" in the West Bank and Gaza under the rule of the PLO (which is exactly who will end up ruling, in spite of pretenses to the contrary by major world powers). The culture of hatred will flourish among them as never before. Condemned to the enduring rule of terrorist murderers, the Palestinian Arabs will be unable to avoid complete moral destruction. The fertile ground prepared by the last ten years will bear only murderously suicidal behavior as its fruit.
The Palestinians will be trapped within their self-destructive ideology and the demise of their society will be inevitable.
[Part 2 of 3]
Footnotes
8) Poll: Palestinians Back Terror Even With State. By Janine Zacharia. The Jerusalem Post. 10/24/03
9) Play For Time. Efraim Inbar. The Jerusalem Post 12/27/03 "Letter of the People", PA TV, June 9, 2002
10) http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=35411
11) http://www.cwnews.com/news/viewstory.cfm?recnum=25769