Israel's Christian Arabs
Until now the Israelis have kept the Christian Arabs at arm’s length. It is time they cultivate their good will.
By Maj. Gen. Jerry R. Curry
(Ret'd)
NewsWire.net
Cultivating good will.
Until only recently the Israelis have kept the
Christian Arabs at arm’s length, but that may no
longer be wise. A war to the death has been
initiated against Israel by Muslim groups like ISIS,
Hamas and Iran, and it is clear that Israel can only
expect meager help and lip service from the U.S.,
NATO and the United Nations.
With the exception of the Kurds who mostly live in
northern Iraq and who are determined to one day gain
their independence from the other Islamic nations;
Muslims are by nature tribal and have little sense
of nationhood. They tend to gravitate toward
whichever tribe is most successful in brutalizing
and terrorizing the other tribes.
Though the Kurds are Sunni Muslims, ethnically they
are different from Sunni and Shiite Arabs. All three
of these groups: Sunni Arabs, Shi’a Arabs, and Sunni
Kurds fear and hate each other, and are advancing
their own agendas. The Jews and Christian Arabs have
more interests in common than do other
middle-eastern ethnic groups.
Egypt’s Arab Spring has brought home to the
Christian Arabs, with great force, that as far as
the Palestinians, the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas,
ISIS and other extremist Islamic groups are
concerned, they hate Christian Arabs almost as much
as they hate Jews. As a result Christian Arabs, who
more closely resemble Israelis than Muslims in their
cultural life style and educational accomplishments,
have stated their desire to draw closer to Israeli
society, including a few hundred of them
volunteering to serve in the Israeli Defense Force,
even though there is a possibility of Palestinian
reprisals against those who do.
For Muslim Palestinians such enlistments are
anathema. But for the Arab Christians who are hated
by other Muslims, it may be their only way of
survival since because of their Christianity they
are now being hunted down and murdered throughout
the Muslim world.
It is clear that the Israelis need more help than
they are getting from the United States. So now
would be a most propitious time for Israel to
initiate a full scale program to woo Arab
Christians, though they are only the tiniest of
groups, to their side. This strategy is essentially
one of divide-and-rule, but for Christian Arabs that
is much preferable to one of don’t divide and die.
Muslims say this is nonsense; but the facts don’t
support them.
For example, Coptic churches and congregations all
over Egypt are being attacked and destroyed and Arab
Christians murdered. Throughout the middle-east,
especially in Iraq and Syria, Christian
congregations are being bombed and Muslim
governments are doing nothing to protect them.
Instead, they encourage and support the adoption and
enforcement of Sharia Law, and the systematic purge
of Christian Arabs who are given the choice of
fleeing the countries they have lived in for nearly
two thousand years with only the clothes on their
backs, or of facing execution and extinction.
This violent persecution of Christian Arabs by
Muslims is a crime against humanity, one that
the US, NATO, and the UN should find
reprehensible and do all in their power to prevent.
Any nation that insists on allowing this genocide
should be expelled from the UN’s ranks. To have the
freedom to practice one’s faith and religious
beliefs is a fundamental right that all peoples and
cultures should be able to enjoy under the auspices
and protection of the UN.
ISIS, the Muslim Brotherhood, al-Qaeda and other
Muslim extremist organizations are trying to purge
all signs of Christianity from the Middle-East, even
though Christian Arabs have lived in countries like
Iraq, Iran and Egypt for nearly two thousand years,
where they have freely practiced their Christian
religion. But history has little meaning to Muslims
who consider Arab Christianity an intolerant
ideology which they intend to totally eradicate.
Supposedly there is such a thing as moderate Muslims
who can be relied upon to stand up for their
Christian Arab brothers. But since these so-called
moderates don’t oppose the actions and
pronouncements of radical Muslims, their moderation
is irrelevant. Beliefs without implementing actions
are empty tokens. So, for most practical purposes,
all Muslims are radical.
More and more it is becoming clear that Islam and
democracy are not and can never be compatible. For
example, Iraq’s latest constitution says that,
“Islam is the official religion of the state and is
a basic source of legislation: No laws can be passed
that contradict the undisputed rule of Islam.” So in
case of conflict between the secular and religious,
the religious side wins. However, Christian Arabs
believe just the opposite. Like the Jews in Israel,
they believe that secular government should prevail.
Where Arab nationalism and secular culture exist in
the Middle-East, they owe their existence to the
presence of Christian Arabs.
Unfortunately Israel has done little to make its
Christian Arab population feel wanted, or to feel
that the state of Israel is their homeland. For
their part, some Christian Arabs are trying to
become a part of the Jewish state. And some have
even volunteered to serve in the Israeli Defense
Force, though this is a death warrant pitting them
against their radical Muslim relatives.
Christian Arabs have been the most reliable and
trustworthy of Israel’s Arab neighbors though the
Israelis have in many ways been indifferent toward
them and have cavalierly brushed their overtures
aside. It is past time for the Israelis to bury
their pride, or whatever else is bothering them, and
start to seriously cultivate the good will of their
Christian Arab neighbors.
About Jerry R Curry
I am a retired Major General having enlisted in the
U.S. Army as a Private to fight in the Korean War
who worked his way up through the enlisted and
officer ranks. I was Military Assistant Secretary of
Defense in the Carter Administration, Acting Press
Secretary to the Secretary of Defense in the Reagan
Administration, and Administrator of the National
Highway Traffic Safety in the Bush senior
Administration. I am the recipient of too many
awards and decorations to list, including the
"Secret Service Honor Award."
Jerry R Curry
P.O. Box 407
Haymarket, VIrginia United States 20168
jralphcurry@gmail.com