I got some flack from the peanut gallery back in February when I posted that Nearly 53% of Israeli Arabs are proud to be Israeli. Not only did some not believe it… they didn’t WANT to believe it.

There really are idiots out there who want the conflicts in the Middle East to continue.

Well, here’s a little bit of extra support for those statistics. There is a new party forming, of Israeli Arabs who are pro-Israel. This will probably take some votes away from Likud and Kadima, but the idea that there’s a political party in Israel, of Arabs that are pro-Israel…

That is just completely awesome.

God bless you guys!

Israeli Arab to form new pro-Israel party

Founder of party tentatively labeled Israeli-Arab Nationalist Party says other Arab parties serve only Palestinians.

By Gil Hoffman, 04/27/2012 | The Jerusalem Post

Move over Balad, Hadash and the United Arab List-Ta’al.

In the next general election, there will be a new Arab party. But what is tentatively labeled the Israeli-Arab Nationalist Party will be very different from the current Arab factions in the Knesset.

While those factions’ MKs have been criticized for being too extreme and vocal in their criticism of the Jewish state, the new party will be unabashedly pro-Israel and take a very different approach.

“Most Arab citizens are in favor of coexisting, cooperating and living in harmony with Jewish Israelis,” the party’s founder, Sarhan Bader, told The Jerusalem Post. “The other Arab parties place too much emphasis on the Palestinians and external Arabs. But it’s more important to serve the Arabs inside Israel who want to live here in peace with our Jewish cousins. After we solve the problems of internal Arabs, we can help the Palestinians.”

Bader said he would fight for the rights of Israeli Arabs and fair expression for his sector, which he said totaled 22 percent of the population. He said his party would represent its constituency better than the current Arab parties, in part because he intends to join the coalition, which no Arab party has ever done.

“To serve the Arabs properly, it’s important to work together with the ruling party in the coalition,” he said. “The Druse MKs who are part of the coalition [in Likud, Yisrael Beytenu and the Independence Party] help their constituency a hundred times more than every Arab MK in the opposition. I will dramatically improve things for the Arab sector.”

Bader, 36, has been involved in local politics for many years in Nahaf, his Upper Galilee village.

Out of a belief that large ruling parties can be more effective, he was a member of the Likud before deciding that the formation of a pro-Israel Arab party was more urgent.

Asked if backing Likud caused him problems, he admitted that he had encountered hostility but said he always resolutely defended his politics.

Bader’s behavior reached the Prime Minister’s Office, which encouraged him to form the party that may end up acting as an Arab satellite party of Likud.

“Only a strong party like Likud can bring peace,” he said. “It’s true historically.

Read the rest of the article here.

Do you want to see Arabs living free?

You have to come to Israel.

Do you want to see Arabs living in peace and prosperity?

You have to come to Israel.

Do you want to see Christians living in the Middle East without fear of persecution?

You have to come to Israel.

Do you want to see Jews living without fear of persecution?

You have to come to Israel (or the US).

You can find these things nowhere else in the Middle East. And, in some cases, you cannot find this anywhere else in the world.

Israel truly is an amazing place. It truly is what’s right about the Middle East.

You should try it sometime.

The above video is a presentation of jerusalemonlineu.com.

From Aaron Klein.

So, can you name one?

No?

C’mon. Think hard. There’s fifty big ones in it for you.

Here, let me help.

Let’s take freedom of assembly. There’s GOT to be a city in the Middle East with more freedom than…

Okay, so maybe not.

How about freedom of… religion?

Nooooo.

Gay rights?

Oh, sure. Show me a city ANYWHERE in the Middle East (outside of Israel) where there’s even been a Gay Pride march.

Okay, let’s make this REALLY easy. How about freedom to demonstrate against Israel?

Would you believe that you have more freedom in Israel to demonstrate against Israel than you do anywhere else in the Middle East?

(sigh)

How pathetic.

So, I guess that this means that you aren’t getting the money.

No. That’s not good enough, so let me say it again.

I ABSOLUTELY and COMPLETELY love hearing news like this.

Yeah. That’s better.

Do you have any idea what this means?

This is saying that Israel is a COMPLETELY awesome country. It means that Israel really has bent over backwards to welcome Arabs as a part of Israeli society. It means that Arabs PREFER Israel over other Arab countries. It means that Israel has been able to find a way to make Arabs feel accepted – a truly monumental task when your biggest enemies are also Arab.

I do not know of a single country in the world today that has been able to accomplish something like this. Everyone else, including the United States, has treated ethnic minorities with deep hostility when engaging in war with that ethnic’s homeland.

During World War I, the US ostracized German-Americans.

During World War II, the US even put Japanese-Americans in concentration camps.

And, Israel?

While at war with the Arab world, Israel has still been able to make Israeli Arabs feel… well, Israeli. And, that is an incredible testament to a people and a country. It’s just… wow, as in “words fail me wow”.

Am I saying that Israel is perfect?

Unfortunately, no. Israel is NOT perfect, and there is still work to do in her relationship with her minorities. So no, not perfect. Just…

Completely awesome and amazing.

Here’s the article that got me sappy and emotional:

Most Arabs proud to be Israeli

Thursday, February 02, 2012 | Ryan Jones, Israel Today

If one were to listen only to the mainstream media and Israel’s many antagonists, one would be led to believe that the Jewish state is a horrible and oppressive place for Arabs to live, and that said Arabs desire nothing more than to replace Israel with their own “Palestinian” state.

But if one bothers to listen to those Arabs themselves (something the media often does its best no avoid), a completely different picture emerges.

According to the Democracy Index 2011 survey conducted recently by the Israel Democracy Institute, nearly 53 percent of Israeli Arabs are “proud to be Israelis.”

Only 28.3 percent responded that they are “not at all proud” to be Israelis.

Those figures would seem a stark contrast to all those criticisms about Israel being an apartheid state that discriminates against and oppresses its Arab population.

Alexander Yakobson, an op-ed contributor to left-wing Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz, said he asked a group of British journalists whether or not 45 percent (the percentage of Arabs who said they were proud to be Israel in the year Yakobson made his inquiry) of Catholics in Northern Ireland would be ready to say they are “proud to be British.”

Yakobson recounted that one of the journalists told him: “I do not believe that 45 Catholics in Northern Ireland are willing to say it, let alone 45 percent.”

Read the rest of the article here.

Seriously.

It’s been slowly dawning on some of us that democratic ideals can only exist where there is an education system to promote them. If you have an educational system that promotes some OTHER ideal, well… you’ll get something other than democracy.

Hence, the current Palestinian mess.

That’s right. For generations, the Palestinians have taught their children anti-democratic values, and we’ve known this. That’s why it shouldn’t surprise us (but does) when democratic elections bring non-democratic results.

Democracy requires a good educational system. Palestinians do not have one. Ergo, Palestinians cannot be allowed to have a democracy. Otherwise, they become a threat to their neighbors. And frankly, that’s a bad thing for the Palestinians.

It is very, very unhealthy to be a threat to Israel.

Read the following article and see if you draw the same conclusions that I have…

‘Hamas will defeat Fatah in May elections’
By Khaled abu Toameh, 01/20/2012

Former PA minister Nabil Amr warns that his party will be defeated again if new elections are held in Palestinian territories.

A senior Fatah official warned Thursday that Hamas would once again defeat his faction if and when new elections are held in the Palestinian territories.

Nabil Amr, a former Palestinian Authority minister, said that Fatah leaders have sent a letter to President Mahmoud Abbas (who also heads Fatah) calling on him to hold a conference to discuss preparations for the elections, slated for May.

Abbas has announced that he would like to hold elections on May 4. However, many Palestinians are skeptical that he would be able to hold the vote, largely due to the ongoing dispute between Hamas and Fatah.

Fatah has come under criticism for failing to draw conclusions from its defeat to Hamas in the 2006 parliamentary election.

Since the Hamas victory, Fatah has failed to come up with a new list of candidates.

Moreover, internal squabbling between Fatah’s young guard and veteran leaders continues to undermine the faction’s credibility in the eyes of many Palestinians.

Last week, Amr and several Fatah leaders held consultations in Jordan to discuss ways of avoiding another electoral defeat to Hamas, as was the case in the last parliamentary vote.

“Yes, we are concerned,” Amr said in an interview with the London-based Al-Quds Al-Arabi newspaper. “Unless the situation in Fatah changes, what happened in the past could occur once again.”

Read the rest of the article, here.

——–

As an aside. Take a look at the US educational system. That’s the future of ‘American Democracy’ – such as it is.