[lit-ideas] Arabs, Israel, and generalizations
- From: Omar Kusturica <omarkusto@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 29 Apr 2004 07:35:34 -0700 (PDT)
--- "Steven G. Cameron" <stevecam@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Similarly,
> the current "face"
> of the Arab world is one the would delight in the
> annihilation of Israel
> and the Jewish people. Undoubtedly, not all Arabs
> are anti-Jewish.
> However, my best guess is that a majority of the
> several million Arabs
> remain seriously hostile to Israel's continued
> existence -- and would be
> happier if there were no Jews as well, yes.
I am not clear how your guesses are supposed to be
more responsible or reliable than Andreas' - is it
because your generalizations are negative ? I tend to
share the impression that many Arabs are in
some form or other hostile to the state of Israel,
though I could not be certain that it is the majority.
(There will be some closet admirers of Israel among
the elitas, I suspect, and probably a fair number who
don't care either way.) However, I believe that this
does not necessarily translate into hatred of the
personal kind, as your "delight in the annihilation of
Israel and the Jewish people" would suggest. I was
visiting Jordan with an Israeli passport, crossing the
border from Israel. (I don't look Arab, either.)
Everyone whom I met was polite, many were manifestly
friendly. Other Israeli travellers to Jordan and Egypt
were also mostly giving positive reports, though the
Israeli government has done all it could to discourage
them from travelling. And even if many ordinary Arabs
don't like Israel and sympathize with the
Palestinians, these feelings do not necessarily
translate into state actions. On that level, despite
some rhetoric to the contrary, the reality is pretty
clearly that most Arab states are tired of supporting
the Palestinian cause and wish to stay away from
conflict. It wasn't for nothing that Palestinians
booed the Egyptian foreign affairs minister at the
Al-Aqsa mosque.
O.K.
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