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As genocide is being committed against Christians, Yazidis and even ‘dissident’ Muslims across the Arab world, the international finger of criticism continues to point at Israel.
The latest example is a UN report urging swift action to oppose and end Israeli “apartheid”.[1]
Thankfully, my Christian Friends of Israel colleague David Soakell has produced an ‘ace’ card exposing all this nonsense with a timely series of testimonies from Arabs which I have aptly titled Apartheid Claims Exposed (ACE).[2]
He tells us that Israeli Arabs – both Christian and Muslim – are risking disapproval from their own communities by volunteering for the Israeli Defence Forces in increasing numbers, disproving the lie that Israel is a racist, apartheid state. (Non-Jews are not obligated to serve in the IDF).
One Muslim female soldier said: “I wanted to enlist because it is my duty to serve and protect my country.” And she is even allowed weekly visits to her family during the Ramadan fast, so there is no difficulty with her practicing her religion in the Jewish state.
Ibrahim Bari, an African Muslim refugee, went public with his testimony, saying: “In the army, I made friends for life [and] would do everything to defend Israel.”
Elinor Joseph, an Arab Christian serving in the IDF, says: “This is my country. When I see the [Israeli] flag waving in the wind I get excited.”
Another Arab-Israeli soldier, Monaliza Abdo, adds: “I came to serve my country and my home.”
And Major Ala Wahib, the highest-ranking Muslim in the IDF, asks: “Is Israel inherently racist – an apartheid state? Well, do you think that such a country would tolerate a person like myself getting to the position I am today? Someone who has not only fought alongside Jewish soldiers, but now trains them too? …I do not serve in the army to kill people – I serve in it to save people. When Hamas fires rockets, or Fatah encourages stabbings, we are here to protect the lives of all Israeli citizens, Jewish and non-Jewish.”
Adam Ram has also decided to “break the silence” by standing against the slander and constant defamation of Israeli soldiers. A Bedouin serving as a combat soldier in Hebron, a particularly tense area, he says: “The war is against all Israelis, regardless of who you are, because when a terrorist leaves his home with a knife, planning on murdering a soldier or a civilian, he does not care if his victim is a Jew, a Muslim or a Christian …As long as you hold a blue Israeli ID card, you are a fair target.”
Furthermore, Palestinians he has met on the streets see them as their protector, preferring them to the failure that is the Palestinian Authority which, incidentally, contributes just 10% of the cost of medical care for Palestinians treated in Israel – the rest is paid by the Israeli taxpayer.[3]
“As opposed to Daesh and other Islamic regimes, Israel is democratic and extends rights even to those who are not citizens of the state,” Adam adds.
Contrast this with the blatant discrimination against non-Muslims in much of the surrounding Arab world, where even Muslim women do not share the rights of their menfolk.
Meanwhile a group of North African journalists from Muslim Arab countries, visiting the Jewish state as guests of the Foreign Ministry, have described their first impressions of Israel as “appearing Western and free” and as “an opportunity to see the real Israel without the media acting as a middle man”.[4]
Even if all this criticism of Israel was justified, it is out of all proportion to the reality that exists in the region. The tiny Jewish state has had to suffer wars and rumours of wars on a constant basis since she emerged once more onto the world stage as a new nation in 1948.
The world, particularly in the shape of the United Nations, is largely silent as terror stalks the streets of Jerusalem but at the same time condemns the Jews for stealing land allegedly not their own.
The sabre-rattling of Israel’s enemies involves guns, knives, rockets, missiles and even the threat of nuclear weapons. But more than anything it is a battle for truth in the midst of ferocious spiritual warfare which demands the engagement (in prayer and other ways) of all who love the truth, perfectly revealed in our Messiah Yeshua. And we must stand up for Israel against such shocking bias that is so transparent it demands a rewriting of history.
Accusing Israel of being an ‘apartheid’ state is just the latest in a long line of anti-Semitic attempts to invoke the wrath of a world effectively rebelling against the God of Israel, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Jewish Messiah.
First there was identity theft as Yasser Arafat invented a ‘Palestinian’ nation where Jews were once known as Palestinians; then the Jews were accused of stealing ‘Palestinian’ land they had inhabited for thousands of years, which God himself had given them according to the Scriptures, and to which they even acquired an international legal right through a treaty signed at San Remo on the Italian Riviera in 1920. And now, in raising their protests during the recent Israel Apartheid Week, students have abandoned their inquiring minds in pursuit of a vendetta of lies and propaganda against the only democracy in the Middle East.
Open their eyes, dear Lord!
Produced by the UN’s Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia, according to World Israel News, March 15, 2017 ↩
CFI’s Watching over Zion newsletter, March 9, 2017 ↩
Arabs in Israel maintain a higher quality of life than their brethren in most other places in the Middle East, yet a significant number continue to support the Palestinian-Arab struggle against the Jewish state.
One of the latest incidents occurred in the Arab city of Nazareth, where the municipality, headed by Mayor Ali Salam, held a recent event that ended up glorifying terrorist murderer Baha Alyan, who along with an accomplice murdered three Israelis on a bus in Jerusalem last year.
"Hundreds of elementary and high school students and young men and women of all ages arranged themselves in rows" holding books in their laps, a formation they called a "chain of readers," in the event organized by the Nazareth municipality and the Inma'a Association for Democracy and Capacity Building, the Jerusalem-based Palestinian newspaper Al-Quds reported last month, according to Palestinian Media Watch.
Itamar Marcus, founder and director of Palestinian Media Watch, told jns.org that when Nazareth officials were notified about the report, they insisted that they never knew about the event's intention to glorify terrorism.
"They said that in spite of what the press reported, the municipality only approved the readers chain" and did not have prior knowledge about the praise for Alyan, Marcus said.
Indeed, it appears likely that Mayor Salam had no prior knowledge of the plans to glorify a terrorist, since he has been waging an ongoing public battle against Arab politicians whom he accuses of radicalism.
Many Israeli Arabs strongly back the Palestinian narrative in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but decide not to act on those beliefs, perhaps because they see Israel as too strong; they continue to work and interact with Israeli Jews on a daily basis.
Yet some Arabs, like Member of Knesset (MK) Basel Ghattas (Joint Arab List), have decided to work against the state through political means and even by supporting terrorists. Ghattas is under investigation for allegedly smuggling cellphones and SIM cards to Palestinian Fatah security prisoners in Israel.
Arab Knesset members like Ghattas have been increasing their visits to Palestinian terrorist and security prisoners, a new report by Israel's Shin Bet security agency revealed last week. The report found that in 2016, Arab lawmakers submitted 13 requests to visit arch-terrorist Marwan Barghouti and 14 requests to visit Sheikh Raed Salah, head of the outlawed northern branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel.
At the same time, the Arab community is divided on the issue of relations with the state, with many Druze, Christians, Bedouin and a growing number of Muslims rejecting the violent and non-violent struggle against Israel.
Dr. Mordechai Zaken, head of minority affairs in the Israeli Public Security Ministry, told JNS.org that Israel's Arab public can be divided into various parts and should not be generalized. Arabs can be grouped according to location, religion, sect, professional affiliation and other factors, he said.
For example, in the "triangle"—a cluster of Israeli-Arab towns located near the 1967 lines, including Umm al-Fahm and Kafr Qasem—"there is a greater likelihood of [Arab] support for the Palestinian cause because many families have relatives in the West Bank," said Zaken.
On the other hand, in northern Israel's Galilee region, most local Bedouins do not have family members in the West Bank and are less focused on what is going on in the disputed territories.
Asked about Arab politicians' ability to mobilize Arab citizens against the state, Zaken replied that "they use the land issue because this has been traditionally one of the major unresolved problems of Arabs in Israel, and it has been a cause easier to unite behind. The War of Independence and later acts of land-expropriation throughout the years has roused opposition against the government."
Regarding the Bedouin living in the southern Negev, Zaken explained that they have long rebelled against whatever regime ruled their territory, going as far back as the Ottoman Empire.
"Rebellion is in their nature and the nomad culture still affects them, as they have for generations lived in constant tension with the sedentary communities," Zaken said, adding that "Arab politicians use these feelings to try to get them directed against the state, as if they are not receiving all of their rights."
Arab Christians' quality of life in Israel continues to improve, and Muslims are catching up to the traditionally high Christian levels of income, education and mobility, said the government official.
"The Christians have led in trying to integrate into Israel society, moving out of their towns and into the big cities. Now many Muslim professionals are following in their footsteps," said Zaken, who in 2013 initiated Israel's "Government-Christian Forum," which attempts to address Israeli Christians' concerns with the state.
The actions of MK Ghattas, according to Zaken, have sparked significant criticism among Israeli Arabs, with many acknowledging that the lawmaker crossed a line in his support of Palestinian prisoners. "This sentiment is present even among Arabs that support the establishment of a Palestinian state," Zaken said.
Father Gabriel Naddaf, a Greek Orthodox priest who works to increase Christians' voluntary enlistment in the Israel Defense Forces and their integration into Israeli society, told jns.org that since the so-called "Arab Spring" uprisings began in the region in late 2010, "the killing of Christians in the Middle East was a shock for the Christians in Israel."
Christians living in Arab states, he said, "were not saved from massacres and destruction, and the radicals want to force Christians to change their religion. This is what caused me to talk about the identity of the Christians in Israel."
Naddaf, whose pro-Israel views have been sharply criticized by many Muslims and Christian Arabs who identify with the Palestinian narrative, recalled that when he began speaking about Arab Christians integrating into Israeli society, his approach was not widely accepted. But with time, he has seen progress. In 2014, the first Israeli-Christian children were registered as "Aramean" instead of "Arab" on their national identification cards. Previously, all minorities in Israel were treated as one group—Arabs.
Some Arabs aggressively oppose Israeli Christians' increasing desire to identify as Aramean, seeing it as an effort to divide the Arab community.
MK Ghattas and his Christian supporters "are people (who) don't identify themselves as Christians first, but instead as Arabs first," said Naddaf, describing them as people who value ideologies such as nationalism over religion.
Naddaf said most Arab Christians oppose Ghattas and that "his way is not leading anywhere but to hate. He hurts the security of us all."
"Most of the Christians are moving in my direction" of increasing their integration into Israeli society, asserted Naddaf, adding that many politicians—including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu himself—are showing support for his cause.
"We must help the state and overcome all of the problems," Naddaf said, "and not let its enemies and the terrorists that surround us weaken the country."
This article was originally published at jns.org. Used with permission.
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POLL: More Israeli Arabs Recognize Jewish Claim to Land
Tuesday, January 12, 2016 | Israel Today Staff
A growing number, in fact now a majority, of Israeli Arabs recognize Jewish rights and claims to this land, according to the latest installment of the monthly Peace Index survey conducted by Tel Aviv University and the Israel Democracy Institute.
The poll’s third question asked respondents whether they “agree or disagree with the claim that the Jews’ historical, religious, and cultural bond to the land and the Palestinians’ historical, religious, and cultural bond to the land are equally strong.”
Unsurprisingly, 92.8 percent of Jewish respondents either agreed or insisted that Jewish claims to the land are stronger than those of the Palestinians.
What did some as a shock to many was the fact that 41.3 percent of Israeli Arabs agreed with the statement, while a further 15.9 percent agreed with most Jews that the Jewish claims to the land were stronger than those of the Palestinians.
Again, 57.2 percent of Israeli Arabs said that Jewish claims to this land are equal to or stronger than Palestinian claims.
This revelation comes at a time when several different local Arab movements and public figures, both Christian and Muslim, are encouraging greater integration with the Jewish majority.
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Why Israel? Why not? This little booklet consists of messages previously written in my books, which of themselves contain many various themes. I wanted to devote one book to just Israel and the Jewish people, and so this small booklet was compiled.
As you read the following, consider the truth contained in Scriptures, from Genesis to Revelation, which spell out the commitment of God the Father to choose a people who will be a light to the nations. He chose the Jews, and gave them the Promised Land of Israel. It does not matter what other national governments try to say, do, or accomplish apart from the plans and purposes of the Lord.
They will fail. His Word is true. It is eternal. He is the same, yesterday, today and forever, and thus His commitment in keeping His promises made to the Jewish people will be fulfilled. I hope you stand with them in these last days.
