Op-ed: Why are so many people struck by such incredible blindness when the facts are so obvious? Iran will become more dangerous if an agreement is reached, and the idea that Jews can live as a minority under Arab rule is absurd.
A bipartisan group of experts that includes former senior officials in the US government published a public statement sponsored by the Washington Institute, in which it warned against the emergent agreement with Iran.
Some of the signatories are known as clear supporters of the Obama administration and its attempts to obtain a deal. Others are known for their critical line towards Israel. And despite this, they have not been struck by blindness. The open letter stated that the US government had claimed there would be no concessions on the issue of inspections. But like previous red lines, they feared, the government is about to cross the final red line, which it set itself.
As I write this, reports are conflicting. There is optimism in Vienna. Obama, on the other hand, declared that chances of reaching a deal are less than 50 percent. It’s possible that this was a tactical statement in the context of negotiations.
What’s clear is that the public statement and the fact that the Iranians have already nearly attained everything they wanted raise the inevitable question: Why are so many people struck by such incredible blindness when the facts are so obvious?
The Iranian regime was and remains dark, dangerous, and subversive. It will try to do to the Gulf nations what it has done to Yemen. It is initiating terror and funding terrorist groups. It is repressing any expression of political opposition. It tramples on human rights. This regime deserves a boycott for its subversion, for its encouragement of terror, for its threats to annihilate another state. And it will become much stronger and more dangerous if an agreement is reached.
Blindness has no political color. Part of the Israeli right refuses to understand that the settlement enterprise is leading Israel to become one state, which will be neither Jewish nor democratic. Part of the Israeli and global left refuses to understand that supporting BDS is support for a campaign to destroy Israel. When it’s only a question of political dispute, fervor is tolerable. Sometimes even desirable. But with the Iranian issue, it’s no longer a political dispute. Even pronounced supporters of the government look on in disbelief at Obama and Kerry’s conduct.
This week Le Monde published an interview with Omar Barghouti, one of the leaders of BDS. His theory, in essence, was that there is no problem with the Jews living as a minority under an Arab majority in the exemplary state he aims to create. After all, the Jews, he explained, “did not suffer in Arab countries. There were no pogroms. There was no persecution. And in general, the Jews thrive as minorities in Europe and the United States.” So what’s the problem? Please leave as a minority under Arab democracy, which is known for its protection of minorities, especially if they are Jews.
The man suffers from double blindness. Both to the past and to the present. It’s doubtful whether there is a Jewish community under Muslim rule that did not suffer from persecution, with or without any relation to Zionism. The list is long. And the leader of the Arab Higher Committee, Haj Amin al-Husseini, was actually a well-known fan of Jews. That’s why he apparently led the pogrom against the Jews of Baghdad in 1941, the “Farhud”, and from there traveled to Berlin in order to turn more Muslims into Nazis. He also wrote about his plans to destroy all of the Arab countries’ Jews.
It’s Barghouti’s right to spout nonsense. But when he’s given such an important platform, he should be asked: Excuse me, what are you talking about? And did you forget the pogroms against Jews in Libya in 1945 and 1948, and in Aden in 1948, and in Morocco, in Damascus, and in Aleppo? Hundreds were murdered, merely because they were Jewish. And if we turn to the present, where exactly are minorities living in peace and quiet in Arab nations? It’s possible that Barghouti means the black Muslims of Darfur in Sudan.
How is it that the interviewer did not push him? Well, it turns out that the interviewer is an Israeli, Nirit Ben-Ari. In the past she supported Balad. Towards the last elections she published an article supporting the Joint Arab List. She is also a declared supporter of BDS. She asked to interview Barghouti for Haaretz, but he made it clear that he refused to be interviewed for any Israeli newspaper, because of Zionist hegemony. He should have been informed that supporting the boycott is becoming the central line of Haaretz. Only this week, Amos Shoken stated that he supports a general boycott, not only on settlements, because he “cannot understand the difference between what we do and what the whites in South Africa did”.
He doesn’t understand? Time after time, from the Peel Committee, to the partition plan, to the Clinton Parameters, to the Olmert proposal – the Palestinians refused any proposal that would have given them independence. They do not want a state alongside Israel. Barghouti’s boycott campaign underscores that they want a state instead of Israel. But blindness is a serious problem. Shoken refuses to understand.
As reported by Ynetnews