Bankruptcy and Mud

by Bassam Tawil • November 14, 2015 at 5:00 am

"If only we Arabs," they wrote, "who kill people cruelly and wholesale, cared as much about people as the Jews care about animals." We often hear Arabs privately saying, "the Zionists have never done to us what we do to ourselves."
Every Palestinian youth knows that the weekly riots at the "traditional friction points" serve as social events, later used by Palestinians operatives for propaganda.
As our elders have said for years: "Falastin ['Palestine' in Arabic] begins with falas [bankruptcy] and ends with teen [mud]."

The pictures of an armed Israeli soldier who did not strike back when he was viciously attacked by Palestinian women and children, amazed many Arab bloggers.

Palestinian bloggers were amazed when Israelis protested the cruel slaughter of chickens in poultry-packing plants, and during epidemics. "If only we Arabs," they wrote, "who kill people cruelly and wholesale, cared as much about people as the Jews care about animals."

Civilian cameras often record events of startling cruelty carried out in Arab countries, in areas of conflict. We often hear Arabs privately saying, "The Zionists have never done to us what we do to ourselves." This is usually said by Syrians, who have hated the Jews for generations, when they give their thanks for the medical treatment they receive in Israel. Despite the hatred fostered by Hamas, after the most recent military operation, many Gazans admitted that the IDF did in fact warn civilians before attacking terrorist targets protected by "human shields."