This is tough to write, and some people are going to take it badly, no matter how carefully I phrase it. So I won’t be unduly careful.
It’s tough to be an Arab American today. This is not an attack on an ethnic group. It is an attack on a mindset.
Because, when it comes to the Mideast, Arab Americans are rooting for the wrong side.
The Arab side. The side that has no use for, does not understand, and does not practice true democracy. The side that oppresses women. The side that is homicidal about homosexuality. The side that worships death and suicide bombers. The side that hates Jews.
The Arab world is almost 500 million people. Not all of them — such as the more modern Gulf states like the United Arab Emirates and Qatar — share the backward mindset, but the overwhelming majority do.
You know it. Or you should. It is bad enough that they are there. Unfortunately, a growing number of them are here, and a key focus of their hate is Israel. And, yes, American Jews.
Israel is guilty of none of the anti-Western, anti-woman, anti-gay behaviors listed above. Arabs who are citizens of Israel — 20% of Israel’s population — are the most free Arabs in the Mideast. They can, and do, criticize their government. They are in the government, as members of Knesset, Israel’s parliament. They attend Jewish universities and are treated in Jewish hospitals.
As for Christians, Israel is the only nation in the Mideast where they are protected, not persecuted. Like Israeli Muslims, they are free to worship as they please. Israel hosts churches, mosques, and synagogues.
Are Arabs treated completely equally in Israel? By law, yes. In practice, not always. Just as with Blacks in the U.S. — the law can outlaw discrimination, but it can’t eradicate it. It is sorry, but those are facts.
In the current conflagration in the Mideast, the one started by Arabs on Oct. 7, 2023, most American Arabs are on the wrong side. The terror group Hamas is composed of Arabs.
The 10/7 massacre was an attack by very illiberal, anti-democratic, anti-Western, genocidal Arabs against a liberal, democratic Western nation.
Because of the huge number of deaths, it was rightfully called Israel’s 9/11, only more so. Aside from the deaths, there was the savagery of torture, arson, rapes.
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Yes, there is a long history of Arab-Jewish conflict, but nothing can justify the greatest slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust. It was entirely predictable, it was inevitable, that Israel would strike back with terrible, unforgiving ferocity. Hamas wanted that. With that said, the number of deaths brought Israel criticism from many quarters, including me.
In the first year of the Gaza war, Israeli forces killed more than 40,000 people. For perspective, the U.S. killed 100,000 Japanese during a one-night raid on Tokyo in 1945.
While blood-chilling today, few complained about that raid during a time of war. Israel is at war.
Arab-Americans (and other Americans) who fault Israel are the equivalent to the few German-Americans who criticized Poland in 1939.
The Germans were the aggressors. Most German-Americans understood that. The same for Japanese-Americans.
The parallel is quite close. The U.S. was itself fighting an existential threat in World War II, as is Israel today. We support Israel with arms and funds, as we should. As we do with NATO, and Ukraine. Democracies have a stake in democracies.
The U.S. has a stake in Israel, which has been under constant threat by the Arab world since its re-founding 75 years ago. It is a tiny island of democracy surrounded by a sea of mostly hostile Arab neighbors, all of whom are Muslim, although not all Muslims are Arab, although they are part of the same bloc.
We have interests in the Arab world.
Jews gave us the polio vaccine, psychiatry, and Hollywood. Arabs gave us the concept of zero and the suicide vest.
OK, let’s be fair. During Europe’s Dark Ages, the Arab World shone, but what has it contributed for the last eight centuries? Answer, aside from Steve Jobs, not much.
Jewish contributions? Start around the 13th Century BCE with the concept of a single God, or as late as the invention of Waze.
The best-known Palestinian-American is Sirhan Sirhan, who assassinated Robert F. Kennedy.
The best-known American Jew? Albert Einstein? Ruth Bader Ginsburg? Sammy Davis Jr.? As for world Jews, don’t get me started.
Here’s where it gets harsh.
We ought to be a damn sight more careful about who we let into this country.
And here I am not talking about the illegal border-jumpers, and visa over-stayers.
As a grandson of immigrants — and I treasure their memory for giving me the great gift of American citizenship — I have always valued immigrants, but lately I have to qualify that.
I welcome those who came here the right way, as my grandparents did, by waiting their turn.
I also welcome those who appreciate our liberal, Western values and who plan to assimilate, to “become” American. Yes, assimilate. The melting pot thing that has worked for generations. “E pluribus unum.” Out of many, one.
No, that doesn’t mean abandoning your native tongue, but it does mean learning English.
You can keep the customs that do not conflict with ours.
In America, you get only one wife at a time. And that wife has to be an adult by our standards. Sorry, no forced marriages, and no honor codes. Women are equal.
It’s not a lot to ask of immigrants. If you find it burdensome, don’t come here.
It is our country, our culture, and if you don’t like our way of getting things done, why do you want to come here?
Americans are remarkably tolerant and open. We are pretty straight-forward, not devious.
I know you can find exceptions to that. I know there are bad people among us, but I believe them to be heavily outweighed by the good people among us, the people of good will.
But good will does not mean accepting what is loathsome to us, and our culture.
So I get back to Arab Americans and ask them which culture they want to live under — ours, or the one they or their parents escaped? No one will stop them from leaving.
If they — or any other ethnic or religious group — can’t side with democracies, they don’t belong here.
Wow, you ARE going to get a lot of grief from those whose decision-making process begins and ends with their feelings.
Someone needs to say what you said, and the more of us who boldly proclaim these truths, the sooner we may end the constant nonsense that goes on in the Middle East and now, in our own country.
Bravo!
Thank you. So far, on this blog, from Right and Left, no complaints.
So far. ☺️
As an immigration lawyer, a Christian, a woman, a friend of Arabs and Muslims (not the same thing) a woman who dated an Israeli Arab (who loved Israel) a conservative, a person who went to the Philly airport to protest Trump’s Muslim Ban, an unapologetic supporter of Israel and a supporter of human rights…..I totally agree with everything you’ve said
Agree and Agree and Agree. I DO NOT however, criticize Israel (except for not paying enough attention to the hits of a coming 10/7) because I do not live there and it’s a Democracy and a modern, innovative society.
The thing that is not mentioned in this piece is how often Israel is held to a very different and harsher standard e.g. in the UN, the ICC and it’s ability without criticism, to protect the land and citizenry that was won by rivers of blood, and oceans of sweat and tears. So many countries – including the US – try to stymie their efforts at staving off the enemies around and within. Was there a paragraph you forgot about the actual land? How many countries have been been attacked from all sides without instigation, pieces of land ‘won’ on the bodies of young and vibrant men and women, only to be TOLD that if you want peace you have to give the land (that you won by protecting yourself against annihilation) back to the oppressor? Or that you have to make sure your enemy is provided for? The IDF is the most humanitarian force who have spend their young generations in being nice while at war. They have a tough job and I hold my head higher and prouder than ever to be a member of The Tribe.
As the daughter, granddaughter of concentration camp survivors and the wife of an immigrant who came here legally, I’ll round back and say I agree, once more.
The issue of a double standard against Israel is a VERY real concern, and worthy of its own column.
How does one get into the minds of people whose maps of the Middle East refuse to show Israel as a country? How does one fathom a religion that worships a (lower-case) god who rewards the murders of non-Muslims with paradise? And why do we let these whack jobs come into our country to try to destroy it from within? If some very small percentage of the illegal aliens who Joe Biden let into this country during his disastrous open-border insanity are terrorists, we are due a coordinated attack on our nation similar to 9/11, only squared or cubed in intensity.
Stu, I agree with everything you said. Having said that, this also doesn’t stop me from feeling badly for the 40,000 Palestinian innocents who were killed. But you are correct, war is war, and innocents will always be harmed, especially when the perpetrators are cowards hiding behind them in hospitals and schools.
Like you, I express sympathy for the Palestinian people. They need, and never had, a George Washington, or Thomas Jefferson, or Benjamin Franklin, or ANY leader who would put THEIR peace and security above his own selfish ambition.
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They’re *targeted*, despite being women and children. I have seen more than enough horrific videos over the past 14 months, videos often filmed *by* the zionist “soldiers” bragging of their crimes. Now they’re running scared bc its being used as evidence against them by the ICC of the Hague as war criminals.
Stu, I am so proud to be called a friend of yours. You are so spot on in your observations. What I can’t understand, is the Muslim friends that I have are assimilated. We can talk about everything and anything. I am very nervous about being Jewish these days. With the holiday coming up, I won’t display the Menorah in the window. Never know who might throw a rock. Did you read that the city of Montreal is one of the most anti Semitic in the free world. The population of Jews is only 1.4 percent. Yet the percentage of hate crimes went up 600 odd against the Jews. The rabbis were asked not to wear the kippahs in public. Unbelievable. Also while you mentioned Einstein etc., some of the greatest artists in the world were Jewish ..Horowitz. Rubenstein, Heifitz, Persian, Mahler. Did you know because of anti Semitism Felix Mendelson at times changed his last name to Bartholdy. My own father a musician at times changed his name to Golumbush and my brother changed his name to Green. Whenever I made a new friend of a different culture, i always made it my business to learn something about it. This way, I understood them better.
I do know anti-Semitism is spreading, often with Israel as an excuse.
Antisemitic? Or just antizionist? Because there’s a lot of antizionist Jews, like the ultra-Orthodox Satmar Chasidim.
And btw Felix Mendelssohn was a Christian of Jewish ancestry.
Would love to see if you could get this published in a mainstream press outlet. Of course we would have to provide you with protection from abuse. Hope you had a nice holiday.
Thanks. I did, hope same for you.
This piece is a gem. Thank you!
This is a great piece. A couple hundred million Americans really should read it.
Thank you so much, Stu, for writing this factual and excellent article. This is what our politicians need to say.
Stu, I gotta say, from all accounts, this appears to be the most “agreed-upon” post you’ve ever made. And let me add to the chorus with a resounding “hear, hear.”
Thanks, and I am a little surprised.
Your generation is almost gone. You are the Exodus generation, brainwashed on the Uris film. I’m of that generation too but I woke up to zionist lies from the past 50 years.
The younger generation has awakened too, and all your hasbara doesn’t work on them anymore.
I expected pushback from those cheering for the wrong side. Thanks for not disappointing me. And “Zionist lies” has as much impact as “systemic racism.” Just Leftist agitprop.
I’m a conservative libertarian. Like Judge Andrew Napolitano, who is also critical of zionism btw.
Zionism is the belief that the Jewish people are entitled to a homeland and self-determination within it. Most American and European Christians, including the Pope, thus are Zionists. In a large, diverse nation there are always outliers, such as yourself, who typically are anti-Semites.
Note! I did NOT call you an anti-Semite. But I might, depending on your arguments.