Jihadists (illustration)
Jihadists (illustration)iStock

Probably never before has an enemy maligned a country without the attacked nation in return widely spreading the truth about that enemy. Yet that is the case in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. The Palestinians have accused Israel of many evils of which it is not guilty, most recently of spreading the Coronavirus.

Israel is however far from continuously mentioning in its public diplomacy that the Palestinians have a death culture and are glorifiers of genocide and murder. Our enemy’s policy is partly theological and partly nationalist based. This is in line with similar attitudes in other parts of the Muslim world.

A major change in Israeli policy is required. Much emphasis should be given to the Palestinian death culture. This would also necessitate domestic policy changes. People who carry Palestinian Arab flags – the symbol of the enemy – to demonstrations or elsewhere should be fined. If they are repeat perpetrators they should be jailed.

Nor should the Israeli authorities any longer close their eyes toward extreme mischief by some MKs of the Joint Arab list. Its leader, for example, MK Ayman Odeh, attended a press conference in Ramallah held by Fatah and Hamas about Palestinian unity at the beginning of July. Such actions should at least lead to expulsion from the Knesset.

One of the hardest domestic nuts to crack is the far too liberal – and out of touch with Israel’s mainstream -- activist majority of the Israeli Supreme Court. It has never prevented any members of the most extreme Arab party, Balad, to participate in Knesset elections. If the Knesset were to legislate to de facto force the Court to do so, it would be an important step forward.

A coherent stream of publicity about Palestinian Arab atrocities, death promotion statements and actions would help make it clearer to the Western world that Palestinian Arab society is permeated by death wishes and glorification of genocide and murder. New statements and developments in line with this should be used to keep illustrating the dominating criminal Palestinian attitude.

The stressing of the Palestinian Arab ethos of death can also be used to explain that the two state “solution”— let alone the one state “solution” -- is not a key to peace. It may take many decades, if at all, to eliminate the Palestinian death cult.

This will also help to expose the hypocrisy of the Europeans who falsely claim that they want a “just peace.” One can open the discussion by asking; “Do you think that it is just that people in an entity which promotes genocide and murder get an upgrade to a state as a reward?”

That is only the first of many potential embarrassing questions. Those who answer “no” undermine the European position, which is fine. Those who say “yes" can be asked a follow-up question: “Should the Catalonians start murdering Spaniards to create a reality in which it is ‘just’ that they get their own state?”

A standard expression of Palestinians Arab and their allies in the West is "Free Palestine." That translates into more common language as: “Support the desire of people who glorify genocide and murder to do this more effectively.” Another expression of pro-Palestinians is “Palestine from the river to the sea." It could be paraphrased as “The people who promote genocide should succeed in getting a state from the river Jordan to the Mediterranean Sea by mass murdering Israelis.” The movement Students for Justice for Palestine should be referred to as “Students against Justice for Palestine.” Afer all, they want a Palestinian state, which is unjustified.

On the basis of the above-mentioned approach, Israel can confront many Western allies of its enemies. Like most antisemites these people are part-timers. A prominent person in this regard is Jewish masochist U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders. He has said: “It is no longer good enough for us simply to be pro-Israel. I am pro-Israel. But we must treat the Palestinian people as well with the respect and dignity that they deserve.”

Had the non-masochist American Jewish world been organized better, Sanders would have been asked, wherever he went in his primaries campaign. what the dignity is of those who glorify genocide and murder and who have broad support in Palestinian society.

Much attention has been given recently to another Jewish masochist, Peter Beinart. He has developed an approach to further the interests of the Palestinians interested in killing Jews: the one state solution. Beinart can imagine a Jewish Home in an equal state. This non-starter should not have raised much interest were it not that the New York Times published an abbreviated version of it.

Publishing Beinart’s article was a far more significant breakdown of the New York Times editing process. It showed the profound ignorance of the editors who published his article.
In June, that daily underwent a crisis. It published an op-ed by Arkansas Republican Senator Tom Cotton calling for a military response to civic unrest in American cities. The paper’s publisher A.G. Sulzberger called the publication “a significant breakdown in our editing processes.” Subsequently, editorial page editor James Bennet resigned.

Publishing Beinart’s article was a far more significant breakdown of the New York Times editing process. It showed the profound ignorance of the editors who published his article. They should have insisted that he refer to how the Yugoslav state fell apart in murderous wars after different ethnicities had been living together for decades and why a Palestinian-Israeli state would do better.

Yugoslavia had a much better chances to survive in the long run than a Palestinian-Israeli state. Beinart wisely did not title his article ‘Allahu Akbar’ because then even the New York Times’ editors would have understood how absurd his idea was.

There remains one big question. Israel has stuck to its erroneous policy for many years. This has caused huge damage. Is it at all thinkable that Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu could finally change his mind and adopt a more realistic policy or does one have to wait and hope his successor will do so?

Dr. Manfred Gerstenfeld is the emeritus Chairman of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. He has been a strategic advisor for more than thirty years to some of the Western world’s leading corporations. Among the honors he received was the 2019 International Lion of Juda Award of the Canadian Institute for Jewish Research paying tribute to him as the recognized leading international authority on contemporary antisemitism. His main book on the subject is: The War of a Million Cuts The struggle against the delegitimization of Israel and the Jews and the growth of New antisemitism.