Israel is an illegitimate, racist apartheid state! (Wrong)

Many Palestinian supporters claim that she is.

A couple of videos I found both interesting and inspiring (tip of the hat to Israelycool) are embedded below. First, here is an explanation of why I found them so.

The first video was supported and the second produced by the Israel Defense Force (IDF), apparently as public relations efforts. The IDF

differs from most armed forces in the world in many ways. Differences include the conscription of women and its structure, which emphasizes close relations between the army, navy, and air force. Since its founding, the IDF has been specifically designed to match Israel’s unique security situation. The IDF is one of Israeli society’s most prominent institutions, influencing the country’s economy, culture and political scene

The videos appear to have been professionally and skillfully made, featuring IDF members rather than actors and actress. The prominently featured young lady is a non-commissioned officer in “one of Israel’s elite anti-terror units.” An Arab Christian, she was not subject to conscription and asked to enlist.

Why the IDF would support or produce such videos?

♦ To help with recruitment, particularly from within the Arab community? Probably.

♦ To counter “apartheid” slanders coming from multiple external sources? Probably.

♦ To counter statements of Arabs who live in, but despise, Israel? Probably, and

♦ To disabuse Israelis and others of erroneous notions that they accurately express the anti-Israel views of all or even most Israeli Arabs? Probably. That, standing alone, would make the efforts worthwhile.

Israeli Arabs who claim to despise Israel exist. There are twelve Arab members of the Knesset, some of whom frequently disparage Israel as “racist” and otherwise illegitimate. Inconsistently, they object strenuously to having parts of Israel where they live become parts of a Palestinian state. 

As noted in a Gatestone Institute article titled Israeli Arabs: We Do Not Want to Live in Palestinian State,

Renewed talk of land swaps between Israel and a future Palestinian state has left many Israeli Arabs worried about losing their status as citizens of Israel.

According to the Israeli daily Ma’ariv, Israel has proposed to the Americans transferring Israeli Arab communities to the Palestinian Authority as part of a land swap that would place Jewish settlements in the West Bank under Israeli sovereignty. [Emphasis added.]

The proposal means that some 300,000 Israeli Arabs would be allowed to stay in their villages in the “triangle” area along the border with the West Bank. However, these citizens would find themselves living under the jurisdiction of a Palestinian state.[Emphasis added.]

The new-old proposal has been strongly rejected by leaders of the Israeli Arabs, who expressed outrage over the idea.

It was hard this week to find even one Israeli Arab who publicly supported the proposal.

“This is an imaginary proposal that relates to the Arabs as if they were chess pieces that could be moved around according to the wish of the players,” said Ahmed Tibi, an Arab member of the Knesset.

Another Arab Knesset member, Afu Ighbarriyeh, said, “Citizens of a democratic state are not tools or hostages in the hands of their government.” [Emphasis added.]

His reference to Israel as a “democratic state” is illuminating.

Both Tibi and Ighbarriyeh are from towns in the triangle area; Taybeh and Umm al-Fahm.

But what the Arab Knesset members are not saying openly is that they do not want to wake up in the morning and discover that they are citizens of a Palestinian state. It is much easier for them to accuse Israel of racism than to admit that they do not want to be part of a Palestinian state. [Emphasis added.]

. . . .

Professor Smooha said that Israeli Arabs are interested in receiving the benefits that the state provides them – stability, democracy, services and so on. The Arab leadership is more critical of Israel than the Arab public, which is “much more pragmatic than their leaders,” he explained. [Emphasis added.]

The Knesset has 120 members, 12 of whom are Arabs. Some of the Arab parliamentarians have over the past two decades acted and spoken in a way that has caused damage to the interests of the 1.5 million Arab citizens of Israel.

They are first and foremost responsible for radicalizing a large number of Israeli Arabs and turning them against the state. [Emphasis added.]

These parliamentarians have, in fact, spent more time defending the interests of the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip than those of their voters.

A Knesset member who openly identifies with Fatah or Hamas or Hezbollah is responsible for the situation that many Israeli Jews today see Israeli Arabs as a “fifth column” and an “enemy from within.” [Emphasis added.]

These Knesset members are fully aware that they would lose most of their privileges under most Arab regimes — the real reason why they are strongly opposed to the latest proposal. [Emphasis added.]

The Palestinians have their own parliament in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. But this parliament, known as the Palestinian Legislative Council, has been paralyzed since Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip in 2007. [Emphasis added.]

In most Arab countries, parliament members who dare to criticize their rulers often find themselves sitting at home or behind bars. [Emphasis added.]

If the Arab Knesset members are so worried about becoming citizens of a Palestinian state, they should be working toward integration into, and not separation from, Israel. The Arab parliamentarians need to listen more to what their constituents are telling them and not to the voices of Fatah and Hamas. [Emphasis added.]

Assuming a modicum of sanity, why should Israeli Arabs want to live in a Palestinian state instead of in the only prosperous, reasonably free and democratic state in the region? Why, for that matter, should any reasonably sane human neither infected with the Islamic Jihad disease nor coveting the power associated with generous financial support from Islamist states want to live in a Palestinian state?

With that background, here are the videos.

According to an article about Monalisa at Front Page Magazine,

Monalisa Abdo is a nineteen year old combat soldier in the Israeli Defense Forces.  She serves in one of Israel’s elite anti-terror units.  Moreover she wears the legendary red army boots that only Israel’s most elite fighting units wear, the Israeli equivalents of the American SEALS and green berets. . . . [Emphasis added.]

Monalisa grew up in Haifa.  Most Israeli Arabs are not conscripted into the Israeli military, but they may volunteer to serve if they wish.  Some do so out of patriotism and loyalty to the state, and some do so because of the career benefits and training that will help them later in the workplace.  Monalisa is clearly among the former.  Her story and an interview with her appear in the December 2, 2011 issue of Israel’s Yediot Ahronot newspaper. [Emphasis added.]

She describes the nasty comments some Arabs made to her and her family members when she signed up.  She dismisses them.  And her parents are squarely behind her.  “Israeli Arabs need to serve in the Israeli military,” she insists in the interview, “to give to the country and not just take.”  Israel is our country and we need to serve it, she believes.  And military service is beneficial for those who serve, she adds, teaching them discipline and responsibility.  Monalisa’s older sister Michelin, age 21, has also decided to enlist and will start her service in a few days.  In the same unit as Mona.

Monalisa not only asked to enlist in the Israeli Defense Forces but signed up for an elite combat unit named “Karkel,” in which both men and women serve side by side on the front lines.  Karkel is the name of a wild desert cat that lives in Israel’s south.  The unit is station in the Arava desert close to the border with Egypt.  Hunting down terrorist infiltrators is its specialty.

Monalisa provides an interesting, even compelling, contrast to Arab members of the Knesset and other Palestinian supporters who disparage Israel as a “racist,” apartheid and otherwise illegitimate state. Of greater importance, perhaps the videos featuring her will help to convince Israelis and others who accept their words as accurate and as reflecting the views of most if not all Israeli Arabs that they are neither.