During Operation Guardian of the Walls, we were told the Arab (pardon me, the "residents of the mixed cities") took to the streets and rioted over Jerusalem and an affront to Muslim sensitivities. There were those who believed it.
Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter
The truth, however, is sometimes revealed in the mundane, day-to-day moments. Two days ago, my son's summer camp took a field trip to the Superland amusement park, where they encountered a group of Bedouin children from the Negev – also there on a camp trip. It was a wonderful opportunity for a meeting of cultures. For hours, the children from Gush Etzion endured physical and verbal abuse, sexual harassment, pestering, kippas snatched from heads, line cutting and more. A culture of nationalistic violence.
When the camp counsellors turned to Superland employees for assistance, they were told their hands are tied: They couldn't do anything, because several years earlier the park lost a court case after it tried separating Jewish and Arab visitors over similar behavior. They aren't even allowed to kick them out of the park. The police were called. No one came. They were called again. Someone came. The situation was subdued only because the police intervened. The trauma of the experience, however, has not subdued. Nor has the sense of personal and national shame, or the knowledge, with absolute certainty, that the same thing is currently going on in other places and will happen again tomorrow – and the next day.
Why? Why must I be afraid of racist violence when I send my son to Superland? I should be concerned with melanoma, maybe dehydration, but that's it. How can it be that Jewish children are terrorized this way in Israel? Backed by the Israeli l justice system, no less? Who will protect them? Where will this path of disgrace lead?
I'm not some hot-headed extremist. I don't want to beleaguer Arabs. I don't want to harm innocents. I want my kids to be able to go to Superland without fearing they'll be stabbed by a Bedouin, or go camping in the woods without fearing that an Arab will burn me and my children alive.
I don't hate Arabs, I'm afraid of them, and I'm not willing to live in fear in my own country. I don't trust many of them and I don't believe we'll ever be able to live side by side, certainly not in coexistence, if the attitudes harbored by Arab Israelis don't fundamentally change. They are citizens in a Jewish state, there are norms here of law and order, and they cannot behave this way. Whoever is unhappy here is kindly invited to move somewhere else.
My grandfather, in referencing "the wolf shall dwell with the lamb (Isaiah 11:6)," used to say about the conflict with the Arabs is that the only way it can work here is if we are the wolves.
So after 2,000 years of being lambs, conquered and battered and persecuted, we have a state – yet still we bow our heads. We are behaving as the guest. And even if the day comes and we cause the Arab enemy to bow his head, I fear the generation that follows will rise to hound us again.
I pray for the day when it's clear to all that this is our home. And that whoever doubts this truth won't be allowed to stay here. Because we have no other option.
Subscribe to Israel Hayom's daily newsletter and never miss our top stories!
