Jason Feld

Couldn’t have said it better. Like Israel is fighting a war for its survival, the Arabs have to wage a war of introspection. Many Arabs I know, from the elite Western-educated with good jobs, and many who live in the West, feel happy watching Hamas take an 85 year old Israeli woman hostage or dragging dead Jewish bodies in the street. There is a serious ethical and moral problem here. This is not a Hamas war, this is a tribal raid reminiscent of Medieval times. Arabs should not be worried about Israel, but what would happen if Israel ceased to exist. The enormous Arab failure will continue, this time without the excuse of blaming Israel. This is why Arab Israeli peace is the best way forward. When Arabs give up their obsession with blaming their failure on Israel, they’re making their peace with the idea that their failure is their own, they’re taking agency and upgrading their Medieval social code and view of the world. Most importantly, peace allows Arabs to understand that pride should be incumbent on knowledge and a better life, not land and war. The Arab civilization is extremely sick, judging by its non existent intellectualism and absence from the global effort to advance sciences. At this point, Arab contribution to improving human civilization is close to nil, with Arabs being mainly consumers. All these issues should top the list of Arab priorities and end the obsession with antisemitism and anti anything that is not Arab and Muslim. Not only Jews have suffered when living with Arabs and Muslims, but everybody who is not Arab (Kurds, Amazigh, etc) and not Muslim (Christian, Baha’i, Assyrian, Copt, Druze, Alawite). We need a serious discussion to make many Arab countries understand liberty and tolerance, without which, these Arab countries will remain failing, lawless and off the civilization grid, not only those living in proximity to Israel, like Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Palestinian Territories, but also far away ones like Yemen, Somalia, Libya. Enough is enough. Drop the obsession with antisemitism and look inward. The Greek wisdom that best applies here is Know Thyself.