Opinion

Israel’s mixed Jewish-Arab cities are on fire. Here’s how to put out the flames.

The bipartisan consensus on Israel By Nasreen Haddad Haj-Yahya percent of Arabs in Lod and only 43 percent of those broke, and the GOP The horrific violence that erupted in May between Israel’s Jewish and Arab citizens came as a surprise to many. After all, haven’t we heard recently that the in Akko are employed. To make matters worse, less than 20 percent of Arabs in mixed cities have academic degrees, greatly limiting their ability to improve can’t be blamed elected representatives of Arab citizens of Israel in the their lot and gain meaningful employment. By Jonathan Tobin Knesset are the new kingmakers? And that in return To complicate matters even more, in many of these For the past two decades, Jewish Democrats have for their support, the next government was to have cities there are two kinds of “imported” populations: lamented what they considered an assault on the made a serious effort to close the glaring socioeco- The first are families of “collaborators,” Palestinians bipartisan consensus on Israel. According to them, the nomic gaps and address the significant challenges originally from the West Bank, who have collaborated people trying to destroy it were Republicans. They facing the Arab minority? with Israeli intelligence, have been resettled within Is- saw the GOP’s efforts to point out the contrast be-

Unfortunately for those of us who live in mixed rael proper and are shunned by the Arab minority liv- tween the increasing lockstep support for the Jewish communities where Arab and Jewish citizens of Israel ing in Israel. The second are Garinim Toranim, Jewish, state on their side of the aisle with growing divisions live side by side, and who closely follow the latest ideologically-based groups who seek to strengthen the among Democrats as inappropriate. Highlighting disdata, the horrific violence perpetrated by a small local Jewish community, with little focus on truly inte- sent about Israel among Democrats was labeled as an minority in Lod, Akko, and even Jaffa was almost grating into cities such as Lod, where we saw some of attempt to use the problem as a “wedge” issue to get inevitable. A perfect storm has long been brewing. the worst violence. more Jews to vote for Republicans.

Unemployed youths with little prospects on the Against the backdrop of these dismal statistics came If that was the GOP’s goal, they failed. The overhorizon add to rising crime in Arab communities. The the events of May 2021: the dispute around the pend- whelming majority of Jews remain loyal supporters of government and municipalities lavish money on proj- ing expulsions of Palestinians in Jerusalem’s Sheikh the Democratic Party. That has remained true regardects and policies that benefit Jewish residents, often Jarrah neighborhoods, the police action at the Aqsa less of where Democrats stood on Israel because the at the expense of long-time Arab residents. All this Mosque and Temple Mount, and then the fierce Israeli liberal majority prioritizes social-justice issues over created a tinderbox ready to be lit on fire at the end of retaliation in Gaza for the missiles fired by Hamas those connected to the Jewish state. the Ramadan period. in Gaza. All resonated with the unemployed Arab But in May, as Hamas launched thousands of

Lax policing plays a significant role in all this, as youths in the mixed cities, where in a recent survey, 50 missiles at Israel and the Jewish state has decidedly well. An unwillingness to commit resources and personnel has created Roni Ofer/Flash90 percent of the residents reported that they believe that their muresponded, it’s become clear that we are witnessing the end of what is left of that bipartisan consensus. rates of violent crime in these cities nicipalities do not offer the same And far from it being engineered by Republicans, the that are among the highest in Israel. level of services to Jewish and crackup is almost entirely the result of a conflict being In 2020, 21 Arabs were murdered in Arab residents. waged inside the Democratic Party. mixed cities — 20 percent of all Arabs So, where do we go from here? Since the election three years ago of the members of murdered in Israel in 2020 — double The answer lies in the underlying “The Squad” to Congress, including open antisemites their share of the population. conditions that contributed to the such as Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Rashida Tlaib

All this came to a head in 10 days. violence in the first place. While a (D-Mich.), centrist Democrats have insisted that they There can be no excuse for violence, resolution of the Israeli-Palestin- didn’t represent their party’s views. but to better understand the situation ian conflict and the religious and It’s true that most of the Democratic leadership in much of Israel today, it is helpful nationalistic tensions it incites continues to pay lip service to support for Israel. That to take a closer look at these mixed is probably years away, Israel’s includes President Joe Biden, who seems to be trycities. There is a prevalent myth government can make practical ing to keep his word about criticism of the Jewish that these communities are beacons decisions that can narrow the state being uttered in private, rather than in public, as of hope. Travel spreads in leading international publications feature Medics evacuate an injured man during clashes between Arab and Jews in Akko, gaps within our society and provide equal opportunities for all. former President Barack Obama did. Indeed, pro-Israel Democrats could point to the administration’s decision boutique hotels in Acre and Jaffa and northern Israel, May 12 Government Resolution 922, to block U.N. Security Council resolutions that treated that project an overly positive image a five-year, $4.6 billion passed Hamas terrorist attacks as morally equivalent to Israeli of a Middle Eastern success story. in 2015 and extended last year for an additional year, self-defense. It’s also true that nine Democrats spoke

In reality, Arab residents of mixed cities live almost was a giant step forward towards the social and eco- up in defense of Israel on the floor of the House of completely separate lives from the Jewish major- nomic advancement of Israel’s Arabs. It will hopefully Representatives. ity. Neighborhoods, and even city blocks, are clearly narrow the gaps between Arab and Jewish society But the problem goes beyond the fact that those delineated between Jewish and Arab residents, and it in education, housing, employment and many other nine were answered by fiery denunciations of Israel goes without saying that almost all schools are com- areas. Nevertheless, challenges unique to mixed cities and repetitions of Palestinian calumnies about the Jewpletely separate. I myself grew up in Ramla, a mixed were excluded from the resolution. What is needed ish state by 11 leftist House Democrats or the equally city with Arab and Jewish residents. I had no interac- now is a new plan that will focus on these cities, and bitter criticisms of the Jewish state by Sens. Bernie tion with Jewish residents and did not speak Hebrew allocate funding aimed at narrowing the gaps within Sanders (I-Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) There until I turned 18 and got my first job. these municipalities in addition to supporting Arab was also the fact that 28 Senate Democrats, a majority

There are legitimate cultural and national reasons citizens throughout the country. of their caucus, endorsed a demand for an immedifor Israel’s Jewish and Arab communities to seek to The violence within Israel is devastating for those ate ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, even as the protect their own individual identities, but as is often experiencing it firsthand and disheartening for all of latter continued to rain down rockets and missiles on the case, completely separate lives can breed inequali- us who hope for the day in which all citizens of Israel the Jewish state’s people, while Republicans issued ty. On the average, the government invests the equiva- have equal rights and equal opportunities. The im- statements placing the blame for the fighting squarely lent of less than $8,000 in an Arab high school student mediate consequence must be fair but harsh policing where it belongs — on Hamas. in the mixed cities, while committing over $13,000 per against anyone who uses violence, coupled with a Perhaps even more telling was the reaction of Jewish student in these same communities. Approxi- call by religious and communal leaders to instill calm. Democrats who claim to be among Israel’s greatest mately 30 percent of Arab citizens between the ages of Then, we must all get back to work to develop poli- defenders. 18 and 24 are neither employed nor studying. Among cies that will build a better and more just society, and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), their Jewish peers, only 13 percent are not working or ensure that our leaders will implement them towards who has spent his career boasting to Jewish audiences studying. This means, that around 250,000 young Ar- a more hopeful future for Jews and Arabs alike. that he is a shomer (a play upon a Hebrew word for abs are either at home or roaming the streets with little guardian of Israel that is similar to his name). Yet in a to occupy their time. The problem is especially acute Nasreen Haddad Haj-Yahya is the director of the Arab week when 11 Jews were killed by Palestinian terror in some of the cities in the headlines recently: Only 33 Society in Israel program at the Israel Democracy Institute. Continued on next page

Tobin

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attacks, he had nothing to say about it or those in his party who are echoing some of the most despicable lies about the Jewish state. He only broke his silence with another call for an immediate ceasefire and neutral rhetoric that expressed no solidarity with Israel’s plight.

Equally disturbing is the stand of Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), a stalwart friend of Israel who defied Obama in opposing the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. But the days of Menendez standing with Israel are over. He said he was “deeply troubled” by Israeli attacks on terror targets, including an office building in which Al Jazeera and the Associated Press shared space with Hamas operatives and implied that the Jewish state was violating “the rules of war.”

Jeremy Ben-Ami, the head of the leftwing lobby J Street, who has worked for more than a decade to undermine the pro-Israel consensus from the left, had reason to boast to The New York Times that most Democrats now see “reflexive support for Israel’s right to defend itself” as the moral equivalent of “saying our thoughts and prayers go the victims of the latest mass shooting.”

Like him, they see Israel and its right to prevent terrorists from killing its citizens or the defense of Jewish rights in Jerusalem as the problem. They give the Palestinians — who have repeatedly rejected peace and a two-state solution, and do not recognize the legitimacy of a Jewish state no matter where its borders are drawn — a pass because they are perceived as underdogs.

Just as Democrats refused to condemn Omar and Tlaib for their antisemitism in 2019, no one in the Democratic leadership, including “Schumer the shomer,” would criticize the extremist statements of the 11 anti-Israel Democrats that demonized Israel, such as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, who repeated the “apartheid state” libel. To the contrary, after Biden met with Tlaib that week, he praised her as a “fighter” whose “intellect” and “passion” he admired, though in doing so he got her name (he called her “Rashid”) wrong.

That made it appear as if it were the pro-Israel members of the House who were isolated, not the ones who expressed their contempt for the Jewish state.

The Democratic base has shifted its perspective because of the pervasive influence of the Black Lives Matter movement, and attitudes about critical race theory and intersectionality that falsely classify Jews and Israel as beneficiaries of “White privilege” who are oppressing “people of color”—i.e., Palestinians.

The Times summed up the shift succinctly: “As Democratic voters and liberals have become more self-consciously organized around concepts like equity and systemic discrimination, their push for more liberal policy positions…at home has reshaped the way many view the conflict in the Middle East and the violence it has produced.”

This is how attacks on Israeli selfdefense and even the right of a Jewish state to exist which were outliers during the 2014 Gaza war have become legitimized. They have become mainstream talking points among liberals and are endlessly repeated by the Democrats’ popular-culture influencers like comedians Trevor Noah and John Oliver, who accused Israel of “war crimes,” as well as the editorial pages of the Times.

Many Americans who parrot toxic BLM slogans do so because they think they are anodyne expressions of opposition to discrimination, not realizing that these ideas are fundamentally illiberal and reinforce racism. But when applied to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, they are also based on false moral equivalence between the two sides.

Do those who treat Hamas as the representatives of an oppressed people realize that the goal of those shooting at Israel is to eliminate the Jewish state and slaughter its people, rather than support for human rights? Some don’t, and others no longer care.

Even the liberal Jewish groups who are using the current fighting to try and resurrect interest in a two-state solution seem to miss the fact that if Israel were forced out of the West Bank by American pressure, it would likely soon become a larger and more dangerous version of Hamas’s terrorist base in Gaza.

But so deeply ingrained is support for this false narrative of victimization, including the lies about the Jerusalem property dispute that was part of the pretext for the latest flare-up in fighting, that many Democrats accept them without question.

Meanwhile, Republicans who continue their lockstep support of Israel look on as the distance between the two parties on Israel continues to grow.

If, as seems likely, Biden pivots towards more pressure on Israel to make dangerous concessions to the Palestinians rejected by most Israelis in the aftermath of the current fighting, it will be because he knows that’s what most Democrats now want.

Some may pretend that the demise of the pro-Israel consensus is the fault of conservatives who still unreservedly support the Jewish state. The fault for this crackup, however, is solely the fault of liberals who have surrendered to critical race theory myths that give a permission slip to hatred of Israel and the Jews.

Jonathan S. Tobin is editor in chief of Jewish News Syndicate.

I grew up in a mixed Jewish-Arab city. Violence there frightens me more than rockets from Gaza.

By Tomer Persico

When I was growing up in Haifa, the city’s mixed population was a steady background, often overlooked rather than noted with wonder. Jews and Arabs lived, worked and raised children side by side, at times together. As part of a secular family, I remember driving to the Arab neighborhoods to buy pita bread during Passover, when supermarkets in Jewish neighborhoods are forbidden by law to sell it. Winter included heading to the Christian area on Christmas to enjoy the decorations and catch a whiff of cosmopolitanism.

As an Israeli, the events of the last few days in Lod, Jaffa, Akko, and other mixed cities are much more worrying than another round against Hamas, however horrendous. Over the last decade, the conflict with Hamas has taken the shape of a clash between two states, however asymmetrical the balance of power is. It is a war of attrition that no Israeli expects to come to an end when this particular round of violence is through.

What’s happening in Israel’s cities — the Jewish-Arab clashes within the country — is fundamentally different.

Quite beyond the disintegration of public order, with Jewish cars set ablaze by Arab rioters and Arab shops smashed by Jewish extremists, the very fabric of our society is torn. As of now, Lod has borne the brunt of the attacks, with synagogues torched and Jewish families hiding in their own houses for fear of violence from their neighbors.

This catastrophic eruption of aggression could have been foreseen, but was by no means inevitable. It has to do with long-term neglect of the Arab citizenry in Israel by the state, but that’s really only the very broad background. The fire was sparked at Jerusalem. On the one hand it was brewed by the incremental seizure, through technically legal but profoundly inequitable means, of Arab houses by Jewish settlers in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah; on the other, the Al-Aqsa mosque became a battleground. Palestinians amassed rocks and firecrackers to throw on Jewish worshipers at the Western Wall below it, and the Israeli police raided the compound and dispersed the crowds, leaving 21 police and more than 200 Palestinians injured.

These last events brought feelings of resentment and national frustration to their boiling point. Al-Aqsa mosque is not only the third-holiest site for Sunni Islam, but a fundamental element of the Palestinian national identity. After its conquest in the 12th century by Saladin, the Arabs in and around Jerusalem were entrusted with the protection of the holy site. Today the Jerusalem Palestinians, and by extension all Palestinians, see themselves as heirs to that trust.

A perceived affront or infringement to the site by Israel brings tension that, if not abated, breeds violence. The bloody “Al-Aqsa Intifada” of 2000 to 2005 got its name for a reason. For Palestinians, a struggle around the holy compound is much more than a question of hurt religious feelings or national pride. It is a part of their identity, an abuse of which incites a visceral reaction.

The breakdown of coexistence in Israel’s mixed cities, however, pushes similar buttons in the Jewish psyche. When Jewish Israelis hear about Jews locking themselves up in their homes, helpless; about gangs of rioters walking the streets, seeking Jews; about synagogues vandalized and set on fire — layers of centuries-long trauma are exposed.

Among the elements constituting the Jewish identity is, tragically, a sense of vulnerability and the acute fear of violence from one’s neighbors. The reasons for this are clear, and the historical response to it was, among other things, Zionism. In May, Israelis found themselves reliving (vicariously, for most) the same reality that they hoped they would “Never Again” encounter. Once more, we have an intrusion into the deepest sediments of identity, an abuse of which, of course, incites a visceral reaction.

The results are disastrous: a collapse of the social fabric and indeed of law and order. Lynch mobs from both peoples are pursuing victims in the streets, and families who were only a week ago living peacefully side by side are terrified of each other.

Since neither population is going anywhere, Israelis will learn to live together. Life has its ways, and neighbors find theirs to coexist. The collision of identity and historical hurt, however, unavoidably engenders an intense trauma.

Israel’s Jewish and Arab citizens are pressing each other’s deepest points of suffering, deepening the anguish.

The long process of healing requires an honest attempt at a more equitable relationship between the state and its Arab citizens. But each side must learn to recognize and be much more attentive to the others’ identity and sensitivities.

Tomer Persico is the Koret Visiting Assistant Professor at the Helen Diller Institute for Jewish Law and Israel Studies at UC Berkeley, and the Shalom Hartman Institute Bay Area Scholar in Residence.