JERUSALEM — Forecast Highs, written by the news editor of the Jerusalem Post, notes the results of a recent poll on racism towards Jews:
In the predominantly Muslim nations surveyed, views of Jews were overwhelmingly unfavorable. Nearly all in Jordan (97 percent), the Palestinian territories (97%) and Egypt (95%) held an unfavorable view. Similarly, 98% of Lebanese expressed an unfavorable opinion of Jews, including 98% among both Sunni and Shi’ite Muslims, as well as 97% of Lebanese Christians.
By contrast, only 35% of Israeli Arabs expressed a negative opinion of Jews, while 56% voiced a favorable opinion.
I am not surprised at the results — this is human nature. If a person has little or no direct contact with people of ethnicity X, then his entire perception of X will be based on outside influences — the media, popular culture, and comments by friends and family members. If a Muslim or Arab does not know any Jews personally, then his entire opinion of them will be based on what the media reports. (And media outlets in most Muslim or Arab countries are not exactly free, to say the least.) However, nearly all Arabs in Israel interact with Jews on a daily basis — and they see that they are merely people as well.
I see this in the inverse as well. As I observed when I hired an twenty-something, Arab man to clean my apartment when I lived in Rishon Lezion, the reactions from most of my Israeli friends was fairly unanimous: “What, are you crazy? Why don’t you hire a Jew? He might be dangerous! He might steal from you!”
And then, I discovered that he was an average guy, pretty much like me. It was a pleasure to know him when I lived in that part of the country. In Jerusalem, many taxi-drivers are Arabs, and I always make it a point to talk to them when I am going somewhere. If I am returning home at night, I’ll always thank them and wish them a good evening in Arabic. It always elicits a friendly smile and laugh.
Most Israeli Jews live in a world that, for the most part, is completely separate from Israeli Arabs. In Jerusalem, there are city buses that most Jews take and different ones that Arabs take when they are going to locations in the West Bank. The only place where Jews and Arabs even consider becoming friends is in secular, cosmopolitan places like Tel Aviv. It is something like two countries placed on the same piece of land.
Since most Israeli Jews only see Arabs as blue-collar laborers, opponents on the battlefield, and potential terrorists on the news rather than in their normal, day-to-day lives, the vast majority hold the same views about Arabs that Arabs in countries without many Jews hold about them.
When I lived in Boston, one of my favorite, local charities was Seeds of Peace, an organization that brings Jewish and Arab teenagers from the Middle East together to learn leadership and peacemaking skills while making friends and learning about each other. As the poll cited by Forecast Highs reveals, this is the only way to bring long-term peace and co-existence.
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