by Dr. Reuven Berko
The violent clash in
the town of Abu Snan in northern Israel last week was painted as an
alleged "fight between ethnic clans over honor." And as always, after
most initial inquiries into hostilities between clans in our part of the
world, we find that the spark was provided by a seemingly random fight
between two kids or over the honor of a female relative. In retrospect,
one might innocently ask: How does a quarrel between two kids sweep such
smart adults into the vortex of violence?
Delving deeper into the
far corners of our memories and the cavernous valleys of our collective
pain in this region, we find countless unfinished stories of murder and
revenge passed down through generations; the defiled but unavenged
honor of a woman who has long since passed; a child who never returned
home; thanklessness or incitement. If we are lucky, responsible leaders
from both sides, and government representatives, arrive on the scene.
They pour some water on the burning coals, compensate the victims in
some way or another, and then shovel yet another layer of dirt over the
roots of the historic conflict, holding it at bay and postponing the
next eruption.
In the case of Abu
Snan, whose original residents were of the Druze and Christian
persuasion, the matter is different. Throughout the state of Israel's
existence, Muslim residents, among them Bedouins and rural villagers,
were warmly welcomed there and lived together in relative good
neighborliness. Over the years, however, the demographic balance changed
due to natural growth and relocation. Recently, in the name of
democracy, the guests of the village, who currently comprise 53 percent
of the residents, sought elections through which to take control as the
majority. The Druze hosts, who have dwindled to 38 percent of the town
(the rest are Christians), struggled to accept the change.
Despite this, long-time
residents of the town claim, it would have still been possible, even
amid the new situation, to come to understandings in good faith and
neighborliness and appease the majority without discriminating against
the entitled minority. The highly pressurized situation, however, was
exacerbated by the Islamic Movement in Israel, which added "pockets of
gas" to the equation.
Residents of the north say that activists of the
Movement, headed by Sheikh Raed Salah, are working to radicalize the
Arab population in Israel in general to thwart the rising trend of
integration into Israeli society.
Indeed, the Islamic
Movement, which has deep pockets (mainly filled by Qatar), is inundating
Arab Israelis with messages of violence and terror from the Muslim
Brotherhood, Hamas and Islamic State school of thought. The incitement
toward hatred of Israel acts as a common denominator with the leadership
of the High Follow-Up Committee for Arab Citizens of Israel. Inspired
by global Islamism, religious hatred of Jews, Druze, Christians and
other minorities in our region has become a central motif of Islamic
terrorism. In this process, claims of discrimination and legitimate
demands for equality have been rendered superfluous, replaced instead by
extremist Islamic falsehoods around Israeli plots to destroy the
Al-Aqsa mosque (which Israel defended from missiles fired in its
direction by Hamas, and is better cared for than synagogues and churches
in the Middle East that are defiled by Islamic zealots).
This incitement mixes
well with the waves of Islamic terror in the region and with the mass
murder of minorities in Syria, Iraq and Lebanon. In the last week alone,
dozens of Druze were killed in Syria by the Nusra Front. These ethnic
and religious tensions have spilled over the border and threaten the
small yet courageous Druze minority in Israel, categorized by Muslims
like Raed Salah and his ilk as "murtad" (apostate Muslims) and as
collaborators with the Jews.
In this thicket of Islamic
incitement, Jews, Druze, Christians and other minorities are threatened
by agents of radical Islam at home and abroad. The inciters of the
Islamic Movement in Israel, who see Druze service in the IDF as an
affront, are seeking to exact a price in casualties from them for their
alliance with Israel. This is not about Facebook posts by some Abu Snan
residents, nor is it about a woman's honor. When the Islamic Movement
and the leadership of the Follow-Up Committee sent those impressionable
students to the school in Abu Snan with their "Palestinian" keffiyehs
(to protest the killing of the terrorist in Kafr Kanna), another
Islamist stone was brazenly thrown into the well of coexistence. To
remove the stone, Salah must be put in prison and his movement needs to
be outlawed. After this is done, we will be able to move on.
Dr. Reuven Berko
Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=10609
Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.
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