In a bad spot, Arab Americans make wrong choice

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.