Jerusalem Post

Jul. 30, 2002

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For peace to be possible, the Arab world has to develop a totally different mind-set. It has to accept fully the concept of living side-by-side with a Jewish State of Israel. Just how great a sea change is necessary is illustrated by a troubling story by a close observer of the battle of Jenin.

The story is written by Dan Gordon, a former sergeant in the IDF, an author of five books and a screenwriter. It is called "A Question of Blood" (Los Angeles Jewish Journal, May 24).
Gordon was in Jenin on April 16 and was told a story by Dr. David Zangen, chief medical officer of the Israeli paratroops unit that bore the brunt of the fighting in Jenin. Zangen said that the IDF not only worked to keep the Palestinian hospitals open, but offered the Palestinians blood for their wounded.

The Palestinians refused because it was Jewish blood. The Israelis could not have been faulted for saying "You don't like it, do without...." Instead they flew in 2,000 units of blood from Jordan by helicopter. In addition they saw to it that 40 units of blood from the Mokassed Hospital in east Jerusalem went to the hospital in Ramallah and that 70 units got to the hospital in Tulkarm. On top of that they facilitated the delivery of 1,800 units of anti-coagulants that had come from Morocco.

This information was later confirmed by Col. (res.) Arik Gordon of the IDF Spokesman's Office who supplied the exact number of units and the names of the hospitals to which they were delivered.

Gordon concludes thus, "So the question to ponder... is how do you negotiate with a hatred so great that it will refuse to accept your blood, even to save its own people's lives? How does an international community vilify a nation that offers its own blood to its enemies while its own soldiers lie dying, and that, when faced with a race hatred that brands their blood unfit, diverts military flights to bring blood more suitable to the taste of those who would destroy them?"

What does this story mean for the so-called peace process? Can any offer of land or economic stability possibly overcome this unappeasable hatred which is implanted into schoolchildren's minds from their first day at school by teachers and school textbooks?

A song from the musical South Pacific, which includes a love story between a white young lady and a colored gentleman, has the lines "At the age of seven or eight / you are taught to love or to hate." The Arabs begin the education of their children to hate at a much earlier age than seven or eight. Their textbooks are suffused with text and illustrations in which Jews are depicted as the lowest of creatures, in which children are taught that the greatest act to which a child can aspire is to slay Jews and thus earn martyrdom in the eyes of his people and rewards in the world hereafter.

In such a context, any pretext to violence suffices. A visit to the Temple Mount by Ariel Sharon, the opening of an archaeological tunnel that offended the sensibilities of the Palestinians, the construction of residences on land owned by Jews but claimed by Arabs as an encroachment on their property.

In reality no pretext is needed. Terror is committed out of sheer hatred for Jews and the desire to kill as many as possible. And that is the nub of the problem. Only the most naive can believe that the Palestinian Arabs (or the rest of the Arab-Muslim world) can be placated by the Israelis bringing "sacrifices for peace." Even if Israel were prepared to hand over the entire land of Israel to the Arabs and only retain perhaps the enclave of Tel Aviv, it would not suffice. The presence of Jews in the Middle East is an unacceptable thorn in the aide of the Arabs, an insult that must be avenged and eliminated.

No peace can ensue until there is a change in that attitude and that mind-set.

What can bring about such a change? Wiser and more astute minds than mine are grappling with this fundamental question. When the Israelites rebelled against many of the privations after leaving Egypt the Almighty decreed 40 years of wandering until a new generation arose who would not remember the "fleshpots of Egypt."

Much ink has been spilled advocating reform in the current Palestinian leadership. How to achieve this is in itself a major problem but even if the plan to reform achieves some measure of success and Yasser Arafat is eliminated, no peaceful solution will be of lasting value unless a major effort is made to supplant the current perfidious education with one that will ensure that generations of future Palestinians have an understanding of peaceful coexistence.


* The writer is a governor and honorary fellow of the Hebrew University and former chairman of the South African Zionist Federation.

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[By courtesy of Estella Pe, IsraelInformatie : israelinformatie.tripod.com/news.html]