A Reality Check as Israel Turns 60

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Dr. Ajami is the sole voice of moderation and tolerance in the entire Arab and Muslim world. In the tradition of Khalil Gibran, Lebanon's national poet of love and friendship. Dr. Ajami writes and speaks clearly the truth of the Israeli-Arab conflict. While the Jews were willing to accept the "tablecloth", the Arabs insisted on the whole table. In the end, they got nothing and fled into the desert wilderness of hostile Arab states who "imprisoned" them in refugee camps where they rot to this day. Israel, meanwhile, absorbed millions of Jewish refugees, gave them homes, citizenship, health care, jobs, love and a brilliant future. The Arabs continue to live in darkness. But Dr. Ajami is correct when he points to Israel as the sole light in the region.
Adam Kadmon, Jerusalem, Israel 18 February 2013

Adam Kadmon 11:57PM February 17, 2013

Is there a place in all the vast Arab world where Arab people live with more freedom, more individual potential than do the arab citizens of Israel.
True there is much discrimination from the Jews of Israel who have been threatened and attacked and murdered by their neighbos forvall the nations existence.
By comparison with the kings, dictators and thieves and lunatics of the Arab world Israel is the first paradise the Arab people have found.

Steve flander of CA 6:30PM March 22, 2011

The biggest frauds are Arabs, living in the Americas, on stolen native land, crying fortheir beloved palestine. Their beloved palestine that they so badly treated, allowing locusts and hornets to abound and enjoy the weeds.
What we are seeing now, especially in libya, is how arab muslims treat other muslims. It is not divine. Personally, I cheer it. Not enough arab muslims can be slaughtered to make me happy. I love to see tripoli, bahrain, benghazi, cairo, flowing in blood. Arab muslim blood. Spilt by their fellow arab brethren.
They enjoyed seeing martyrs blowing themselves up killing jews.
Now the tables will turn.
I seeto arab muslims: May fire be your mistress for eternity.
In addition, the money that the USA has given Israel, to secure a permanent presence in the Med, would cost the USA 10x that to have to finance war ships and a naval base.

J Burke of NY 8:31AM February 22, 2011

Ajami is a disingenuous bastard, a turn coat who had shown no loyalty to his people. Perhaps he needs to learn from Kissinger "always with Israel right or wrong" He is an opportunist who sold his soul to the devil and would make a third class intellectual has he stayed in Lebanon. This is a man who denies his roots and worked hard to be a slave and servant for the Orientalist cause and As Mr.Shaz once described him:A leftist in the 1970s, a Shiite nationalist in the 1980s, an apologist for the Saudis in the 1990s, a critic-turned-lover of Israel, a skeptic-turned-enthusiast of American empire, he has observed no consistent principle in his career other than deference to power. His vaunted intellectual independence is a clever fiction. The only thing that makes him worth reading is his prose style, and even that has suffered of late". he would make his mother proud had he chosen a hebrow name.

Saleh Jaser of MA 9:59PM February 05, 2011

ISRAEL’S SUSTAINABLE PARASITISM ON THE AMERICAN PEOPLE
Israel and the American Diaspora notoriously donate thousands of dollars to elect corruptible American presidential and congressional officials, who then repay Israel a thousand fold from precious tax revenues; with millions of dollars worth of technologically advanced military equipment and services, and with the priceless lives of thousands of young patriots. In the case of the un-Constitutional Iraq War, Podhoretz Neo-Con Bush sacrificed over a trillion dollars and the lives of 4,000 young patriots, to sole benefit of Israel.

Jeugenen of MA 1:04PM June 25, 2008

The Islamofascists, in perpetual quest of greater wealth and power, rant to incite the impoverished Islamic peoples to violence against the notorious injustices of the powerful Judeofascist land robbers. The Judeofascists, in perpetual quest for greater wealth and power, wail and lobby to incite the American People into providing military protection against this persecution by outraged Islamofascists. To add credibility to these rantings and wailings, intermittent battles are fought. The result is that these clever Islamofascists and Judeofascists do gain great wealth and power, at the expense of the Arab, Persian, and American peoples.
The continuous illegal sacrifice of the wealth and blood of the American People on behalf Israel is all that perpetuates this destructive symbiotic relationship between the Islamofascists and the Judeofascists. But when, in the normal course of the American Cultural War, the Neo-Cons/Neo-Libs are finally expelled by the Reagan Conservatives and Kennedy Liberals from their positions of power, the economic and military support for the Judeofascists will finally end; and that will end the support for the Islamofascists. The end of the era of Neo-Con/Neo-Lib military intervention in the affairs of the Arab and Persian peoples shall be the start of an era of constructive relations with the American People.
The Judeofascists, who live in a glass house surrounded by Islamofascists, could continue fight for survival politically and militarily, until nuclear armed Israel finally becomes the site of a second great Judeocide, Holocaust II; or, they could offer sincere apologies, and generous economic reparations for the stolen land, damaged infrastructure, and losses of innocent lives; to finally win for themselves by just and peaceful means, what they cannot win by unjust and violent means.
Shall the World be cheering, and the Diaspora wailing; or, shall the World and the Diaspora be cheering?

Jeugenen of MA 9:57AM June 24, 2008

In general the media take a "politically correct" position on Isreal. Criticism of Arab killer assaults is minimized or non existant, but Jewish reaction against these asssults is considered to be shameful, outrageous. Palestinian terrorists routinely shoot killer missiles against Israeli poopulation from Palestinian residential neighborhoods, then when Isreali missiles pinpoint these launchers and happen to kill a civilian who lives 20 feet away. this is carefully photographed by Palestinain media, and released to the Western media, who pick it up as a war crime.

George Griffithj of LA 3:08PM June 17, 2008

The billions of American taxpayer extortion dollars ....for years and years... shoveled into that area.... Politician's bending to the Jewish lobby... demanding rebate....sufficient for their re-election,,,,is on a roll that will continue....until Israel becomes just another Democracy....not an invention for gain....

Hilltop of FL 3:45PM June 15, 2008

<<The only reason why some Jews want to encourage Arabs to leave is because the Arabs in general want to strike Israel down.>>
Sorry, Rabbi, but that's a LIE. The "Jewish state" CANNOT happen without the expulsion or extinction of the larger Arab population. Yes, SOME Arabs want to get rid of all Jews from what they rightfully regard as their homes, but some Jews want to get rid of all Arabs from they dishonestly refer to as the "land of Israel". There were some adherents of Judaism in the ancient Middle East, but these Judeans were NOT Jews. The bible was originally written in Greek. It was TRANSLATED into Hebrew as into hundreds of other languages.
Jews are Europeans. Everyone, except Americans know that Jews converted to Judaism in the 8th century in THEIR homeland of Khazariah. You may well argue that Jews "deserve" a country as an ethnic group, but, CLEARLY, CLEARLY, this has nothing to do with Palestinians on land THEY have occuppied for centuries. Some people make these mistakes honestly, but, you, a rabbi, of all people, surely are versed in ETHNIC Jewish hisory AND the history of the religion of Judaism. This is like the difference between the hisory of Italy and the history of Roman Catholicism. Surely, you are not implying that the two are the same.

eng of CA 3:02AM June 10, 2008

The "Jews" came here by dint of their martial power trained by man like Bobby Wingate - not "steeled" by the Holocaust. That the Arabs were "surprised" by the Israeli superiority in this matter is true: so were the Indian soldiers who mutineed in 1857. Yet, by 1947; the British were out of India - though they knew the British very well, since Clive conquered them around 1750.
The occupation last 200 years.
This analogy however to Israel is not perfect. Israelis prefer instead the more "benign" form - A people without land occupying a land without people - ignoring the truth that the land was not without people. Perhaps the best thing to do is to avoid analogies and look reality. If so Dr Ajami's article simply repeats "popular" prejudices: popular that is, in America's daily press and with Israel's propaganda machine. He certainly can do better. Moreover, should we castigate the other Arabs for their (apparent) failure to clear Israel out of Palestine? Perhaps, as the Indians ( Chinese, Malays, Africans ... ) did, they are building their own strength first. Is the present economic crisis a form of pushing back ? Are they using economic power in conjunction with other ex-3rd world nations to further their goals ? We await Dr Ajami's thoughts on the subject.

V. R. Sonti of IN 3:07AM June 04, 2008