It's often a bit of a shock, though we should by now expect it, to chat with otherwise intelligent young people whose take on the "Palestinian question" is unquestioningly derived, lock, stock and barrel, from the White Guilt-baiting aristocracy of the Mainstream Media and academy. So what a pleasure to find a link in my email today from Michael directing me to
the blog of Adam Daifallah, a young Palestinian-Canadian student who has just visited Israel with a group of Quebec university students and reports with his own good eyes:
Israel is a fascinating country. Its people are friendly, knowledgeable, westernized -- and most of all, tolerant. They have an amazing sense of purpose and resilience in the face of daily threats to its very existence. That's something no other country really has to grapple with, and I think it takes visiting there to fully understand the feeling of what that's like....
Anyway, my two main thoughts: First, Israel must be supported.
I have no problem saying this as someone who is of partly Palestinian ancestry. Israel is a democratic, pluralistic western outpost in the middle of a cesspool of tyranny and despair. The image you get on TV of Israel as a country full of religious people is wrong. Israel is actually quite a secular country, and its inhabitants come from all different faiths. There are a million or so Arab Israelis inhabiting its lands, many of whom are Muslim. There are Christians, Druze, Zoroastrians -- and lets not forget the bedouins. When we visited a hospital, we met a bedouin woman who, while still living the traditional nomadic life, was being trained as a doctor by Jewish doctors.
As someone who thought he knew a fair bit about Israel before going there, I came away with a sense that I really didn't know the half of it. I think it probably takes a visit there to truly appreciate the nuances and intricacies of this country.
After all the terror and the two intifadas, it was amazing to see and hear so many Israelis still so committed to peace and willing to do just about anything to achieve it.
Anything, Adam? If that's true, it might be amazing in a somewhat delusional way, since you don't get peace with someone who can't stomach your existence by doing anything to placate him. But I quibble...
If the Palestinians and their leadership would truly recognize Israel's right to exist tomorrow, I have little doubt a state would follow very soon. This is not just rhetoric. It is the sense I got from almost every Israeli we talked to, from the leftwingers on the kibbutz to the Likudnik settlers. Everyone wants peace, but it takes two to tango. The peace partner on the other side is simply not there.
Second thought, and this hit me hard when we visited the Holocaust museum at Yad Vashem: the world must never turn a blind eye to evil. Seeing prima facie exhibits and evidence of what happened in Nazi Germany rekindled thoughts of the modern genocides in Yugoslavia, Rwanda, the Sudan and many others. It even made me think of Jack Layton and his insane idea to break bread with the Taliban.
How do we let this happen? How is it that the lessons of history are so often ignored? Why is there such a willingness to appease and placate evil, especially in the West?
Well, because the likes of Jack Layton are what Dag calls Gnostic Death Hippies - see our previous post.
I don't know - I don't understand it and I never will. But if more people visited Israel, I think more people would understand the need for vigilence and to stand up to wrongness and evil.
Ahh, maybe that would be true for ordinary people, or maybe not. Is it ordinary to have the kind of irremovable blinkers we see on too many journalists reporting from Israel who just don't see beyond what Dag calls their left dhimmi fascism?
War is ugly, but there are situations in the world in which no other option exists. Sometimes war is necessary to bring peace. Always has been, always will be.
Always try to remember: freedom isn't free. Too many people don't.
Yes, that is very true indeed; and it's good to know this country still produces young people who can speak such basic truths with the simple honesty that is one of our national traits. Remembering this, see Charles' video, two posts below.
3 comments:
It’s relevant to mention that this fellow is a conservative activist. I got the impression from reading this post that he was just some random Palestinian-Canadian student plucked from the blue. It’s unlikely that Adam’s trip was much of a 'road to Damascus' experience.
You're right, i think; this is the first time I saw his blog and I noted to myself that he was a "Blogging Tory" which suggests to me he was more likely pro-Israel before the trip than a randomly-chosen Blogging Liberal or NDPer, though there are of course conservative antisemites (and, despite Harper, presumably CPC ones - I am not a party man and have little sense of the rank and file, though I volunteered to help my local candidate during the last election, someone whose pre-Canadian national background is often associated with Judeophobia and there was likely some of this among his many supporters originally from that nation). But not knowing much about Adam Daifallah I did not try to describe him beyond the interesting fact he calls himself partly Palestinian.
Anyone following the link can make up his own mind. My point in the post wasn't to suggest that a few days in Israel transformed the guy; I just wanted to point out that some young Canadians can see through the MSM/leftist lens that blinkers so many of their university peers and that others can and should take this guy as a model. Perhaps it is all the more to Adam's credit if (as I agree was likely) he was already pro-Israel before he saw the place. That would suggest he saw the light younger than many of us - and then, did his family background hinder or help?
BTW, I'm sorry to have misled you.
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