Sometimes, a marginal episode sheds light on deep-seated faulty perception. Internal documents recently published in the US revealed that the officer the state had appointed to head its unit for gaining public support for its moves in Afghanistan had prepared himself for the job by reading Islam for Dummies.
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Based on the "success" of their policies and advice, it seems that a significant portion of Westerners involved in Islamic societies has based their insights based on such in-depth analysis.
In every aspect – American policy in Afghanistan, integration of immigrants in Europe and Israel's policy in the Gaza Strip and concerning the violence in Arab society – we can see the same shallow and dubious assumptions.
The episode in Afghanistan is most amusing, but the matter is serious. It is convenient to focus on the thousands of footballs in the colors of the Afghan flag that were thrown from helicopters by US troops, with the inscription "Peace and Unite," assuming that the youngsters' tendency to turn to Kalashnikovs can be overcome with games.
In an effort to promote democratic thinking, the American unit also considered distributing a comic book to Afghans about choosing a captain for a football team. The serious issue is the American delusion of contribution and profound improvement of Afghan lives, especially women, in the hope of stabilizing the country and preventing terrorists from seizing leadership.
Despite the public promises of US presidents – from George Bush to Barack Obama – not to engage in building the Afghan nation, turns out Washington has spent $143 billion on such civilian projects, most of which took place in the days of Obama.
Shallow insights have led Europe to opening its doors to millions of immigrants from Afghanistan, the Middle East and North Africa, expecting them to integrate into a democratic society and gradually adopt its values.
Proponents of this short-sighted policy assumed that whoever fled their homeland due to a violent and oppressive culture at home, would not bring that culture along with them to Europe.
It continues to deny the extent of the damage the arrival of these immigrants has caused to the continent's social fabric. It dares not come admit that "multiculturalism" has failed abysmally.
In Israel, the leadership and the public are less naive than in America and less detached from reality than in Europe but are still hung up on the same approach, despite its 100-year history of failures.
Violence, political extremism and refusal on behalf of Palestinians and Arab Israelis are thought to stem from dispossession, poverty, discrimination, and neglect. This is a failing political culture. Arab society in Israel has been violent, tribal, patriarchal and oppressive even before the advent of Zionism, the establishment of the state and the "occupation" of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. It was not the "siege" on the Gazans that led to their barbarism, but their barbarism led to the distress that necessitated the restrictions.
The explanations ignore the cultural essence: Public Security Minister Omer Bar-Lev explained that violence in the Arab society stems from "decades of neglect, disregard, and fear of getting into the thick of the sector's problems" and Israel Police Commissioner Yaakov Shabtai said it was the result of "growing inequality and rifts within the society."
This is mainly the political culture: in Afghanistan, Europe, Jenin, Lod, Acre, and Umm al-Fahm. Many Arabs – perhaps in Israel more than anywhere else – know full well the terrible price paid as a result of such culture. It costs them their loved ones, and yet, they dare not speak out against it publicly.
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