The Poor Arabs in Israel

The Unfortunate Arabs that remained in Israel instead of running away in 1948 make up about 20% of Israel's population. That's about 1.4 million people. Surrounding Arabs are having a fit because Israel has not been driven into the sea since they have brought the practice of democracy into the Middle East. Now other Arabs will see how these people enjoy rights they have never had before. Don't bother explaining all this to the likes of Richard Polak, though. This US Human Rights official only wants to come and convict Israel of treating the Palestinians unfairly, but refuses to check out the Palestinian's treatment of Israel.

83% of the Israeli Arabs are Muslim, and of those most are Sunni. Bedouins living in the Negev make up 10%, Christian Arabs are 8.5% and are mainly in Haifa, Nazareth and Shfar'am. They are Greek Catholic, Greek Orthodox and Roman Catholics. 8.3% are Druze and most live in northern Israel. Circassians are Sunni Muslims but not Arabs and live in northern Israel also. There are only about 3,000 of them, and I had some in my junior high class in Safed.

There were Arabs living in my government building in Safed. Usually they want to live in their own villages and administer their own city and personal affairs. They run their own schools and teach in Arabic, an official language in Israel along with Hebrew. They are being affected by their close proximity to Israelis, though. They watch Israeli TV along with Arabic stations, read Hebrew newspapers, have Arab companies listed and are active on the stock exchange in Israel, and L-rd help us, many are wearing modern Western-style clothing. In Haifa they not only might own restaurants but dine in restaurants along with Israelis, shop in the malls and attend the movie theaters. The only ones who must serve in the army are the Druze and the Circassian men. The others are excused.

Besides all this, Arabs have been in every Knesset since 1948. They make up 10% of the 120 members. There are 3 Arab political parties and 12 Arab politicians including 2 Druze who were voted in. The parties are Hadash-a left-wing party from the Communist Party, Balad, established in 1996, and Ra'am Ta'al, the largest party. Besides having their own parties, there is an Arab member in Kadima and 2 in Labor.

Arabs are found in other Israeli government positions. The Israeli ambassador to Greece is an Arab, Ali Yahya. The deputy consul general is San Francisco is Ismail Khaldi, and Reda Mansour is consul general to the SE USA. A supreme Court Justice is Salim Joubran, appointed in 2004. Majalli Whbee is Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Oscar Abu-Razek is Director General of the Ministry of Interior. The assistant commander of the National Police is Jamal Hakrush, and he is the highest-ranking Israeli-Arab Muslim police officer since 1948.

Arabs are also in Israeli society which includes sports, entertainment and journalism. Rana Raslan was Miss Israel in 1999. She was from Haifa. Walid Abulafia, one of the wealthiest men in Israel, runs his family's 100 year old bakery and is now into real estate and construction. Majd al-Haj, sociology professor at Haifa U, just became dean of research in 2005. Many Arab students attend here where there are other Arabs on the faculty. Asala Shahada won a gold medal in the Maccabiah Soccer Games. He said he was a proud Israeli. Khaled Abu Toameh is one of the best journalists in the country and works for the Jerusalem Post and US News and World Report.

By not attacking Israel with rockets and hatred, these Arabs have integrated into Israeli society very well and are enjoying a good life. Actually, they are a model for other countries. The worry for their fellow Arabs is that they are too contented. This will certainly give ideas to their own people who do not live in a democracy.

People like Richard Polak are so intent on finding fault with a small state that fights back against terrorists and refuses to go under that they refuse to see what is happening to it. They come to the arena with a prejudicial attitude against Israel and refuse to waver.

The surrounding Arab countries are right to get hysterical about a democratic country in their midst. This is going to upset all their future plans. It's going to be much harder to keep their people in the dark now. That must be why they have used religion to get them all excited and demonstrate against Israel.

Reference: The Israel Project