Galal Dowidar, writing in Egypt?s al-Akhbar, has a friendly warning for America?s Jews: Americans will not ?long tolerate to have the Jewish lobby's loyalty divided between Israel, their spiritual homeland, and the US where they live and thrive.? Indeed, Dowidar writes, ?at one point in the future, Israel will become America's albatross, weighing heavily on its chest.?
The way to avoid that eventuality is, according to the al-Akhbar article, for ?the Jewish lobby in the US to understand that their job should not be that of supporting Israel whether right or wrong. They should be inclined more to justice, seeking to check Israeli extremism, i.e. if they ever want to see the Israelis accepted as members of the Middle East community.?
The London-based, Saudi-owned and operated newspaper, al-Sharq al-Awsat, further ridiculed American Jews for attempting to seek a dialogue with moderate Moslems in the United States. The author of the piece, Fawzi Turki, considers the ?foredoomed? debate between American Jews and Moslems to be ?over the nature of terrorism and the role played by Israeli policies in generating resentment throughout the Arab and Muslim worlds against the United States.?
?American Jews, you see,? writes Turki, ?will not brook any criticism of Israel.? Quoting a statement made by Malcolm Hoenlin of New York, the executive vice-chairman of the influential Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations, to the effect that ?Jewish groups need to carefully scrutinize which groups they join with, in order not to support those that are anti-Israel,? al-Sharq al-Awsat interprets, ?We'll talk only to those docile Muslims who agree with us.? The author writes in exasperation, ?How can American Jews be so naive as to imagine that they can carry on a dialogue only with American Muslims who are not ?anti-Israel???
In more friendly Arab advice to American Jews, Turki insists that ?American Jews have to come to grips with one brutal reality: three generations of Israelis in Palestine, that is, in that part of it they call ?Israel,? have come of age in a miasma of lies and hatreds archetypically carried over from Europe. Socialized under the pressure of fanciful potions about ?Eretz Israel,? of history re-written, as it were, Israelis have developed a peculiar kind of nationalistic jargon and vituperative jingoism, namely, that Jews have merely ?returned to their ancient homeland,? and those Palestinians who had lived there all along were squatters whose expulsion or subjugation is perfectly acceptable.? Therefore, ?[i]f American Jews want to broach these facts in
dialogue with American Muslims, the latter will be happy to sit down and talk. Otherwise, there is no point in carrying on a dialogue with those who seek a total avoidance of human commitment to truth and an abdication from the claims and realities of history.
?Meanwhile, one wishes these Jewish groups the best of luck in their search
for Muslims who are not ?anti-Israel? to talk to. They should call now, operators are standing by.?
The way to avoid that eventuality is, according to the al-Akhbar article, for ?the Jewish lobby in the US to understand that their job should not be that of supporting Israel whether right or wrong. They should be inclined more to justice, seeking to check Israeli extremism, i.e. if they ever want to see the Israelis accepted as members of the Middle East community.?
The London-based, Saudi-owned and operated newspaper, al-Sharq al-Awsat, further ridiculed American Jews for attempting to seek a dialogue with moderate Moslems in the United States. The author of the piece, Fawzi Turki, considers the ?foredoomed? debate between American Jews and Moslems to be ?over the nature of terrorism and the role played by Israeli policies in generating resentment throughout the Arab and Muslim worlds against the United States.?
?American Jews, you see,? writes Turki, ?will not brook any criticism of Israel.? Quoting a statement made by Malcolm Hoenlin of New York, the executive vice-chairman of the influential Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations, to the effect that ?Jewish groups need to carefully scrutinize which groups they join with, in order not to support those that are anti-Israel,? al-Sharq al-Awsat interprets, ?We'll talk only to those docile Muslims who agree with us.? The author writes in exasperation, ?How can American Jews be so naive as to imagine that they can carry on a dialogue only with American Muslims who are not ?anti-Israel???
In more friendly Arab advice to American Jews, Turki insists that ?American Jews have to come to grips with one brutal reality: three generations of Israelis in Palestine, that is, in that part of it they call ?Israel,? have come of age in a miasma of lies and hatreds archetypically carried over from Europe. Socialized under the pressure of fanciful potions about ?Eretz Israel,? of history re-written, as it were, Israelis have developed a peculiar kind of nationalistic jargon and vituperative jingoism, namely, that Jews have merely ?returned to their ancient homeland,? and those Palestinians who had lived there all along were squatters whose expulsion or subjugation is perfectly acceptable.? Therefore, ?[i]f American Jews want to broach these facts in
dialogue with American Muslims, the latter will be happy to sit down and talk. Otherwise, there is no point in carrying on a dialogue with those who seek a total avoidance of human commitment to truth and an abdication from the claims and realities of history.
?Meanwhile, one wishes these Jewish groups the best of luck in their search
for Muslims who are not ?anti-Israel? to talk to. They should call now, operators are standing by.?