Israeli think tank: Muslim anti-Semitism is strategic danger for Israel

[Behind the Aegis]

The study also found that Arab countries such as Egypt, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon and Jordan "enable (and some even encourage) anti-Israeli and anti-Semitic incitement for a variety of internal reasons: they can use the struggle against Israel and the image of support for the Palestinians as a way of letting opposition groups let off steam (especially when Israel-Palestinian confrontations escalate), for increasing their identification with Islamist groups and for increasing support for their own regimes."

Paradoxically, both Israel-Arab military escalation and progress toward Israeli-Arab peace act to increase anti-Semitism in the Muslim world, the research showed.

Among the central themes in contemporary Arab and Muslim anti-Semitism are Holocaust denial coupled with claims that Israel is carrying out a holocaust against the Palestinians, as well as the drawing of parallels between Israel and Nazi Germany, the study found.

"The motifs used in anti-Semitic propaganda are often taken from Western neo-Nazi literature, media and rhetoric and there are clearly reciprocal relations between Holocaust denial in the West and denying it or trying to minimize it in the Arab-Muslim world," it said.

more...

[Ian David]

1. I thought the Arab media was Fair and Ballanced. n/t

[PDJane]

2. More propaganda.

[pegleg]

3. We do know that hatred and demonizing of Jews is taught in palestinian schools

thus raising a new generation of Jihadists.

[PDJane]

4. And israel teaches their kids to hate,

Thus raising another generation of oppressors.

Propaganda.

[henank]

5. I challenge you to show me

one Israeli schoolbook which shows how Israelis teach their children to hate. I challenge you to show me one Israeli school program which shows how Israelis teach their children to hate.

You repeat these lies time after time despite all the evidence shoved in your face to the contrary.

If Palestinian children were only taught in the same way as Israeli children, we would be well on the way to peace breaking out.

[azurnoir]

6. Challenge answered again

The credit here goes to Douglas Carpenter, who gives an answer to your challenge with several links, and also raises some questions about what Israeli Jewish kids are being taught about Arabs if not at school perhaps at home?

What are these children being taught?

Is this kind of pathology an obstacle to peace?

This was poll was actually based on 1600 students at 22 high schools within Israel.

""The data was presented at a bi-lingual conference held in Haifa. The study, titled "Perception of 'the Other' among Jewish and Arab Youth in Israel" included 1,600 students studying in 22 high schools around the country. "

"The poll showed that 75 percent of Jewish students believe that Arabs are uneducated people, are uncivilized and are unclean.
On the other hand 25 percent of the Arab youth believe that Jews are the uneducated ones, while 57 percent of the Arab's believe Jews are unclean."

link: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3350467,00.ht...

Remembering this poll refers to Palestinians who live inside Israel and hold Israeli citizenship -- people commonly refereed to as "Israeli-Arabs". A people who have certainly not been in a state of rebellion for most of the past 60 years.

------------

and... The Myth of Insightment in Palestinian Textbooks - link:

http://www.miftah.org/Display.cfm?DocId=8797&CategoryId...

"The claim that the new Palestinian textbooks incite students against Israel has been widely accepted as truth in the United States and Israel. The report on which such claims were based was issued by CMIP, a Jewish-American organization with known links to the Israeli settlement movement in the West Bank. Yet none of the American politicians who repeated the allegations or the Western donors who hastened to cut off funding for Palestinian textbook development bothered to have the report's claims checked against the actual texts. If they had, it would immediately have been clear that the report was based on innuendo, exaggeration, and downright lies. Indeed, the real message of CMIP's campaign against the textbooks is that peace with the Palestinians is impossible, that Israeli settlement in the occupied territories must go on, that force is the only language that Palestinians can understand.

In fact, the new Palestinian school textbooks make a special effort to promote tolerance, openness, and democratic values. The PA Ministry of Education, despite the extraordinary conditions of siege and violence under which it is operating, introduced new textbooks for two more grades in September 2001. The new textbooks, according to those who have seen them, demonstrate the same concern for promoting tolerance, openness, and democratic values. But even if all the grades in Palestinian schools carried absolutely exemplary textbooks, and even if all the teachers preached amity and concord, it is doubtful that such values could take hold in the ever deteriorating conditions of recent years. For ultimately, the Israeli occupation, with its daily cruelty and humiliation, is a far more powerful text than any schoolbooks could possible be. As Sami Adwan remarked, "How can a Palestinian write in a textbook that Israelis or Jews should be loved, while what he is experiencing is death, land expropriation, demolition of homes, and daily degradation? Give us a chance to teach loving."

In a forthcoming study, Nadim Rouhana argues that conflict reconciliation, as opposed to conflict resolution or conflict settlement, seeks to achieve a kind of relationship between the parties founded on mutual legitimacy. For this to occur, issues of justice, truth, and historical responsibility as well as the restructuring of social and political relations need to be addressed."

related articles:

Statement on Palestinian Schoolbooks
by Council of the European Union 15 May 2002

link:

http://www.pcdc.edu.ps/eu_on_palestinian_schoolbooks.ht...

----

Israel or Palestine: Who teaches what history? A textbook case
by Elisa Morena in Le Monde Diplomatique, July 2001

link:

http://mondediplo.com/2001/07/11textbook

----

Democracy, History and the Contest over the Palestinian Curriculum
by Nathan J. Brown November 2001

link:

http://www.geocities.com/nathanbrown1/Adam_Institute_Pa...

------

What Do Palestinian Textbooks Really Say?
by Nathan J. Brown, 2002

link:

http://www.geocities.com/nathanbrown1/CAJE.htm

-----

The International controversy regarding Palestinian textbooks
by Nathan J. Brown, 9 December 2002

link:

http://www.geocities.com/nathanbrown1/Georg_Eckert.htm

-------

Israelis' textbooks fare little better than Palestinians'
by Akiva Eldar in Ha'aretz, 9 December 2004

link:

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=5...

-----

Palestinian textbooks: Where is all that 'incitement'?
by Roger Avenstrup in International Herald Tribune, 18 December 2004

link:

http://www.iht.com/articles/2004/12/18/edavenstrup_ed3_...


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=124&topic_id=201898#201991

[Shaktimaan]

7. you sure about that?

The challenge was to produce a single Israeli textbook that teaches hate. Instead you produced a poll that seems to suggest that racism exists amongst Israeli teenagers, then implied the cause was Israeli parents, but the link was dead so the context and details of the poll along with any data supporting your conclusion is anyone's guess. I can assume that since the link doesn't work you didn't bother to read the article before concluding that Israeli parents were to blame for the poll's results?

The rest of the links are also dead, with one or two exceptions, none of which give any evidence of Israeli textbooks teaching hate. Seriously, I don't get this response. Nothing you posted answers henank's challenge, even obliquely.

[azurnoir]

8. most of the post was about Palestimnian text books

The poster I was answering called the previous poster a liar both on Israeli and Palestinian text books, there are lies repeatedly posted on and I am being polite both sides. Are you now going to claim the Israeli polls were false? BTW I reached no "conclusion" as you choose to claim, I asked a question as to where Israeli children might get this attitude, do such questions aways arouse such a response from you? When similar questions are concerning American children's attitudes in some issues do you become so accusatory? Or is there a double standard when it comes to Israel.

[Vegasaurus]

9. The claim was that there are Palestinian textbooks teaching hate

this is well documented.

Find a single case of an Israeli textbook inciting hate against the Palestinians.

While you are at it, find a single anti-Palestinian or anti-Muslim cartoon in an Israeli newspaper.

I can find you hundreds and hundreds of anti-semitic cartoons in the Arab press.

It is a daily occurance in those papers.

[azurnoir]

10. Sharon's claim about Palestinian textbooks has been

debunked more than once, yet the lie is repeated

These are a couple of the "dead" links, and one that is a treasure in it self

http://www.iht.com/articles/2004/12/18/edavenstrup_ed3_.php

http://www.pcdc.edu.ps/Myth_of_Palestinian_textbook_incitement.pdf

http://www.pcdc.edu.ps/textbooks_in_media.htm

on edit all tested and working

[Vegasaurus]

11. Oh

"Palestine's war ended with a catastrophe that is unprecedented in history, when the Zionist gangs stole Palestine and expelled its people from their cities, their villages, their lands, and their houses, and established the state of Israel."

The IRIN translation of the "Islamic Education" textbook also contains the lines:

"The Ribat for Allah is one of the actions related to Jihad for Allah, it means: Being found in areas where there is a struggle between Muslims and their enemies … the endurance of Palestine's people on their land … is one of the greatest of the Ribat and they are worthy of a great reward from Allah."

The media watch group also accuses the Palestinian textbook authors of denying the existence of Israel in the "Physical Geography and Human Geography" book. The group's report says: "The size of the 'state' of 'Palestine' is said to be more than 10,000 square kilometers, which is the figure one gets only if Israel did not exist, as the full West Bank and Gaza Strip total only 6,220 square kilometers.

"Maps of the region likewise teach children to visualize a world without Israel, as Israel does not exist on any map and its area is marked as 'Palestine'.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,263666,00.html

[azurnoir]

12. Fox news says so

well that means it must be so, do you always agree with Fox News or just when it comes to Israel?

[idontwantaname]

13. actually

i dont know if youve ever seen a palestinian childs text book; i have. they arent antisemitic pro allah jihad bibles, but are actually standard books published by Macmillan. the palestinians really dont have the means or finances to be picky about what their children study, and honestly about 1/3 of the palestinian population is christian.

one thing which may be is the pre-1940s map of the region. true there was no israel back then. all the same, every palestinian knows exactly where the borders are, so perhaps if anything the map is to remind them of land they use to occupy. i wonder if the native americans have such a map to reminisce about...

[Shaktimaan]

18. what?!

honestly about 1/3 of the palestinian population is christian.

Where are you getting these figures from? In the territories, only around one or two percent are Christian. Even in Israel proper they are only around 9% of the non-Jewish population.

true there was no israel back then. all the same, every palestinian knows exactly where the borders are, so perhaps if anything the map is to remind them of land they use to occupy.

I don't understand this. Every Palestinian knows the exact borders of what, pre-Israel Palestine? Or modern day Israel?

Regardless, the issue is not that the textbooks are teaching the history of the region, showing what the political boundaries were before Israel. It is that they are using maps depicting the current day that don't mention Israel, listing the entire area as "Palestine."

[idontwantaname]

28. the numbers

youre correct, all internet signs point to way less than 1/3 of the population.
not sure about the map thing. next time im in the area ill ask about it.

[Shaktimaan]

14. haha.

I asked a question as to where Israeli children might get this attitude, do such questions aways arouse such a response from you? When similar questions are concerning American children's attitudes in some issues do you become so accusatory? Or is there a double standard when it comes to Israel.

That was funny.

Now, back in the real world, I found this example of Palestinian children's programming that I thought you might find telling, or at least interesting. Let me know if you can find a similar example being aired in Israel. Just don't hold your breath while doing it.

http://switch3.castup.net/cunet/gm.asp?ai=214&ar=1532wmv&ak=null

I realize the bee is learning a lesson, but did they have to show him literally abusing cats? Can't mis-translate that.

[idontwantaname]

15. dude, seriously

this isnt the first time MEMRI or other groups like Ynet have features "propaganda" videos which were fakes. the last i remember is a website where palestinian kids were suppose to play a video game where you would kill israelis or something. turns out the website was a fraud, some westerner (probably some arab hating racist). anyway, this video is also a fraud. id get into the details with you, but honestly if you cant figure it out, im not going to try.

ps- dont ever use a hate group like MEMRI when trying to make your point.

[msmcghee]

16. I realize this will not get an answer . .

. . you have stated that MEMRI is a hate site that publishes anti-Palestinain / anti-Arab propoganda. Care to back that up with some evidence or links?

If you want to see some fake videos, Hisb'allah and Hamas have production studios and specially authorized "news photographers" who's full time jobs are to produce such things. They admit it. Let's see your MEMRI evidence.

[azurnoir]

19. Excuse me however

your last link from MEMRI when clicked generated not only Firefox errors and a viral alert it knocked me off the net completely.

[msmcghee]

22. I guess I don't understand why . .

. . people who can't even even open up the MEMRI site because it screws up their computer would be so certain that MEMRI produces propaganda.

It seems to me that it would be pretty hard to fake an interview with a well known Hamas spokesman. The Arabic is on the sound track for anyone to dispute the translation. I have never heard of a case where MEMRI was found to have faked any of their videos. I asked someone else here to produce some evidence and like many of the claims here - there was no response.

Do you have some evidence or are you looking for free computer advice? PS - if I ever publish any link that causes a problem for you, please PM me as soon as possible so I can check it out. I try to test all my links but sometimes a bad one gets through.

[azurnoir]

25. Evidence?

How? this happened Friday or Saturday, I figured that maybe it was Firefox, and if memory serves I got to thee site it was when I clicked on the video that the problem occurred.

Perhaps it was just my "leftist" computer, in the future I will let you know if problems happen

[idontwantaname]

27. sorry, not much time here

too many replies, not enough time. i will try to post a proper response later, but heres one website for now:

http://rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/1511.html

from

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x2568456

[Shaktimaan]

17. MEMRI a hate group?

Well, if MEMRI is good enough for Thomas Friedman (you know, the long time mid-east correspondent for the NYTimes) to quote then I think it is probably OK for me to use. Where in the world did you come up with the idea that they are a "hate group?" And ynet... they're just a newspaper, and a fairly liberal one at that. They regularly run op-eds that are extremely critical of Israel and pro-Palestinian editorials. It's hardly an Israeli propaganda mill.

I've never heard of the example you're citing. Was it featured in either Ynet or MEMRI?

As for this video, what do you mean by "it's a fraud?" Do you mean that the translation is fraudulent? Or that the entire thing was filmed by anti-Palestinians and put out to discredit them? Do you actually know for a fact that it is a fraud, or are you just assuming it is because both the video and the translation are totally horrific?

edit: I looked into that video game about killing Zionists and I found it. It turns out it was created by the Hezbollah Central Internet Bureau and it not only exists but it has a popular sequel! There's also a popular series of games put out by a Syrian software company where you play a Palestinian fighting Israelis.

Short teaser videos for UnderSiege have the air of a brutal documentary. In one, after a child is gunned down in the street, an Israeli soldier jumps from his tank, apparently to rescue him. When he arrives by the child's side, the soldier appears to finish him off by pounding him with a cement block. In another teaser, a Palestinian religious service is interrupted by an Orthodox Jewish gunman, who mows down the congregation with a machine gun. The latter scenario appears to depict the 1994 attack on a Hebron mosque by Baruch Goldstein, which killed 29 and wounded 125 and has historical distinction as the bloodiest attack on Palestinians by a lone Jewish extremist.

http://www.1up.com/do/feature?cId=3153332

So, this wasn't a fraud at all, it turns out. The irony is that I don't think these games are such a big deal. Are they really very different than the plots in the games made by American software companies? Regardless, I'm kind of curious as to where you are learning all this stuff because it seems like you aren't getting very reliable information. I'm not being a dick, I mean this seriously. All of your facts and figures are really pretty out there... where'd you get all this from?

[idontwantaname]

29. i dont take the games seriously either

do you have link for the hezbollah central internet bureau game?

dont have time to dig up previous post. basically it was touted as a extreme islamic website but ended up having a bunch of weird anime chicks and other weird messages further in it. the game was a shell and didnt work either.

[Shaktimaan]

30. Nope. I've never seen it.

I did find the site for the UnderSiege game though. Not only is this game about fighting Zionists, not only does it totally exist, but it looks like it's awesome! It looks like you even get to fight Baruch Goldberg. (Maybe he's one of the bosses?) Check it out.

http://www.underash.net/download/undersiege.WMV

[oberliner]

31. Link to the Hezbollah Central Internet Bureau Game

http://www.specialforce2.org/

It's in Arabic.

[azurnoir]

20. Maybe you missed post #10

you know those "dead" links? Not so dead after all, what is even stranger they worked when I posted them. As for your "video" it much like a MEMRI link generated errors this time in another program, tried another viewer- no sound no video so we'll have to take your word for it
haha

[Shaktimaan]

21. No, I saw post ten. What about it?

As for the dead links, are you certain they work? Not the ones you re-listed in post 10, I knew those worked and looked at them. In fact I even mentioned that a few of the links were fine... pulling them out and reposting them all together as you did makes more sense. But the other links still seem dead as a doornail to me. Did they really all work when you posted them? I guess we'll have to take your word for it.

The MEMRI video required a download to play on my mac, it was a pain. I assumed it would play normally on a windows machine, but I guess not. In any case, here is a better link to the same clip via youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2W2fdenXp8M

Now you can watch it for yourself. Hurray! Again, let me know if you manage to find anything similar on Israeli children's programming.

[azurnoir]

24. The 2 I reposted were among the dead ones

In fact the EU was reposted in PDF format for that reason, as to why I did not repost the rest the 3rd link contained enough information to cover things IMHO, although for you "proving" it's true for one Palestinian proves it for all apparently, were as I would have to "prove" the "innocence" of each and every Palestinian, the only time that some would choose to regard Palestinians as individuals.

[Shaktimaan]

23. Here's another good one.

The rabbit explains to the creepy girl that he will eat up the Danes because they insulted Mohammed. The girl agrees that they will pay with their lives if they do it again and then says why the Danes made the drawings to begin with. It seems that they knew that Arabs had drifted from Allah and so they made the cartoons because they did not know of the mercy in Allah's heart. So now they will pay for it with their blood. Also they are boycotting Danish products. (Good for them!)

Then they insist that they are not terrorists and that the Zionists call them that just because they want all of their land back. (aka: Israel.) It's kind of like Sesame Street but with way more calls for the blood of various people.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AF6HOx6TGr8&feature=related

[Violet_Crumble]

32. Here's an example of Israeli textbooks teaching hate...

I don't know why that link wouldn't have worked for you...

'Though the CMIP’s Yohanan Manor considers that Israeli textbooks are incomparably more conducive to coexistence than those of the Palestinians, he concedes that they are not perfect: "It’s true that the textbooks generally used in ultra-orthodox schools sometimes contain shocking and racist passages about the Arabs" (5). He says that he has told the Israeli education minister about it. The remarks have, however, escaped general notice.'

http://mondediplo.com/2001/07/11textbook

[Vegasaurus]

33. The ultra Orthodox are not the secular Israelis

you won't find hate in the Israeli general curriculum, whereas there is hate being taught in the Palestinian general curriculum, not just in the curriculum of the ultra religiously conservative.

No acceptance of hate, either in textbooks, children's television, or even cartoons, is acceptable.

[Violet_Crumble]

34. The 'challenge' was to find one Israeli textbook...

The challenge was met. I don't recall you or anyone else specifying exactly where in Israeli schools they were. Also, seeing yr now talking about the Palestinian general curriculum, could you post a link to the curriculum for public schools in the Occupied Territories so I can take a look for myself? Or is that just more 'facts' you've read at Fauxnews?

No acceptance of hate, either in textbooks, children's television, or even cartoons, is acceptable.

You know this shouldn't just apply to hate towards Israelis? It should apply also to hate towards Palestinians, even when it gets down to the stage of posts on internet discussion forums...

[ProgressiveMuslim]

26. Nonsense. Murder, Theft, restriction of movement, home demolition, settlement expansion,

interruption of education, mass jailing...

If some Palestinians hate Israel, there is plenty of real reason for them to do so... no textbooks required. All one need do is open the front door!

Israel's 40+ year tyranny over Palestine is evil. Period. It warrants hatred.