Israel 101

Two elections took place recently in the Middle East. In one, Palestinians chose to be led by a terrorist group whose official charter calls for a genocide of Jews. Voting was marred by violence as different factions fought openly in the streets. In the other, Israelis elected a moderate party, and the only violence of the day came in the form of a Palestinian rocket attack against Israeli farms.

Israel is a modern country with liberal laws and a booming economy that is stuck amid medieval theocracies. Yet, on college campuses across America, few other countries are subject to the vitriolic attacks that Israel is. From divestment proposals to the respect given to professors like Noam Chomsky, who authored the preface to a book that denied the existence of the Holocaust, and Edward Said, who took time off from teaching at Columbia to throw rocks at Israeli border guards; many students are presented with a one-sided account of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Few are ever made aware of the reality.

In truth, the preference of Palestinians for anti-Semitic leaders is nothing new. In the 1920s and 30s, the official leader of the Muslims in Palestine was the grand mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini. Using his position of power, Husseini fermented riots and pogroms against the local Jewish population. When Hitler became Chancellor of Germany in 1933, he quickly established an alliance with Husseini in Palestine. As Husseini wrote in his memoirs, "Our fundamental condition for cooperating with Germany was a free hand to eradicate every last Jew from Palestine and the Arab world."

Husseini frequently visited Hitler in Berlin and was taken on a personal tour of Auschwitz by Heinrich Himmler. If Germany won World War II, Husseini planned to construct concentration camps of his own for the Jews of Palestine.

Surely any modern country with historical ties to a Nazi like Husseini ought to be ashamed of it. Yet, Husseini is still so highly regarded in the Arab world that in a 2002 interview Yasser Arafat referred to him as the Palestinians' hero.

Husseini escaped war criminal prosecution by going into hiding in Egypt after 1945. His successors in Palestine and others in the Middle East who idolized him, however, worked to further his genocidal goal. In 1948, Arab armies invaded Israel and attacked its civilian population centers in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem with the expressed intent to "drive the Jews into the sea." They were repulsed in 1948 and again in 1967 and 1973. Each time, the Arab armies specifically targeted Jewish population centers while the Israeli Defense Force fought back, knowing that defeat could result in a second Holocaust.

Continually threatened with extermination, Israel captured additional territory to buffer its population against future attack. Moreover, immediately after fighting ceased, Israel expressed its willingness to comply with Resolution 242 of the U.N. Security Council, which called for the return of captured land upon the Arab states' recognition of Israel's right to "live in security." In response, Arab leaders issued their infamous "three no's statement: No peace with Israel, no negotiations with Israel, no recognition of Israel." As the Arab nations were unwilling to cooperate with Israel and were also uneager to assume responsibility for the 600,000 Palestinians living in the West Bank, Israel "occupied" Palestine until 1995, when power was handed over to the Palestinian Authority.

Against this ever-present possibility of annihilation, Israel has remained a tolerant, democratic country that functions within the rule of law. Though Israeli leaders have made their share of mistakes, they remain accountable both to the people and to the courts. Under Israeli law, all citizens may vote, hold property or run for office, which makes Israel one of the only countries in the Middle East where Arab women have those rights. Compare this to Palestine, where, tellingly, Yasser Arafat was the first leader to congratulate Jiang Zemin on violently suppressing the democratic demonstrations in Tiananmen Square.

Today, Israel deserves not scorn but praise. Even the United States has much to learn from Israel, as questions about the extent of government and military power to combat terrorism have been debated in the Knesset and the Israeli Supreme Court for years. While the Hamas thugs that have been handed control of Palestine pose a threat to Israel, it has dealt successfully with such dangers in the past, and I believe it can continue to do so in the future. Jason Sheltzer is a sophomore from St. Davids, Pa. He can be reached at sheltzer@princeton.edu.