David Goldman writes a reply to an anti-Jewish item in a Chinese paper. (Has some typos).
Envy and fanaticism inspires hatred of Jews as well as Chinese
David P. Goldman
The Chinese are the world’s largest people and the Jews one of the smallest, yet they have many things in common: thousands of years of history, education based on ancient classics, and a strong commitment to family. Sadly, they also have a common history of persecution. Chinese citizens of Indonesia were the victims of mass violence in 1965 and 1998, as well as Malaysia in 1969, and in 1871 in California, where 19 Chinese immigrants were murdered by a mob.
Sadly, in today’s United States, Asians and Jews are the minorities most exposed to ethnic hatred. 10,371 hate crimes against Asians were reported by an advocacy group in 2021, or 8 incidents per 10,000 Asian-Americans. In the same year, 2.717 hate crimes against Jews were reported, or 5 incidents per 10,000 Jewish Americans.
Jews and Chinese are among the world’s most successful immigrants because they value education and hard work. Envy of their success is at least a partial explanation for the hatred directed against them. Considering this parallel history, I was surprised to find in a distinguished Chinese publication a commentary about the Jews and the Jewish State full of falsehood and distortions(https://user.guancha.cn/main/content?id=879661&s=fwzxhfbt)
The commenter asked, “How did Jews become the ‘Dragon People?’” He was offended by the outrage against rapper Kanye West, whose derogatory remarks caused the German footwear company Adidas to cancel a contract with the recording star. The “Dragon People” comment was posted on November 6. On December 1, Kanye West announced in a live interview, “I like Hitler.” Hitler was the ally of the Japanese Empire that killed 25 million Chinese during World War II while Hitler killed 6 million European Jews. I wonder if the commenter has had second thoughts.
The writer speaks of “captive, slaughtered, and bullied Palestinian” Arabs. There are in fact two groups of Palestinian Arabs. One group is in Gaza and is ruled by Hamas, an ally of the Syrian militia that trained 5,000 Chinese Uyghurs in terror tactics. Hamas took control of Gaza by violence shortly after Israel unilaterally withdrew from the territory in 2005. It plans bombs in school buses and restaurants to murder Israeli civilians. Arab jihadists have killed 2,021 Arabs since the founding of the State of Israel, along with 4,148 Israeli civilians. In May 2021 alone, jihadists fired more than 4,340 rockets at civilian targets in Israel. These rockets killed ten Israelis, but many of them fell back inside Gaza, killing more than 90 Palestinian Arabs. That is, Hamas is willing to kill ten Arab civilians with its primitive rockets in the hope of killing one Israeli civilian.
That is a murderous sort of fanaticism for which I know no precedent. The tactic of the extremist organizations is to deliberately create situations in which Arab civilians are killed, to rally naïve Western liberals in support of Arab human rights. They believe that the human rights issue is the wedge that can break upon the Israeli state.
The per capita GDP in Gaza was only $3,664 in 2021. But in the West Bank provinces of Judea and Samaria, where Israel maintains ultimate control, per capita income is almost twice as high, at $6,245. That compares to $3,019 in Egypt, $4,405 in Jordan, and $4,208 in Tunisia. Outside the oil-producing countries, West Bank residents are the richest, best educated, and healthiest Arabs in the world, with 132,000 university students. In Israel itself, Israeli Arabs are 17% of the university student population, almost the same proportion as Arabs in the general population(21%).
Hamas continues to launch terror attacks from Israel from the West Bank, and Israeli security forces destroy terrorist cells from time to time. But to say that West Bank Arabs are “captive, slaughtered and bullied” is a reprehensible falsehood.
The jihadists of Hamas want to preserve a pre-modern, tribal society. As the descendants of a conqueror nation, they rankle at their humiliation by the Jewish State. They are not simply the enemies of the Jewish State, but of civilization itself. It ill becomes a Chinese commentator to defend such savagery.
The so-called West Bank has been a disputed territory since 1948, when Israel’s Arab neighbors refused to accept a United Nations decision to create a Jewish State in Palestine. Israel was born in a successful fight against British Imperialism, and survived a War of Independence against the armies of British client states led by British officers.
Jews have lived in the territory of Israel for nearly 4,000 years. Jerusalem had a majority Jewish population by early in the 19th century. During the 1948 War of Independence, the Kingdom of Jordan seized Judea and Samaria(the West Bank), which previously was under the British Mandate, the last time this territory of just 5,860 square kilometers had a legitimate status under international law. In 1967, after Jordanian artillery fired on Israel from the West Bank, Israel seized the land. Its status remains undetermined. Twice in the last generation, Israel offered the West Bank Arabs an independent state. In 2000, with the backing of then-President Clinton, Israel offered to sponsor a state on 75% of the land of the West Bank. The offer was refused. Again in 2008, Israel offered the Arabs a state with 94% of the territory of the West Bank. The offer again was refused.
Why has this conflict persisted for nearly a century? Israel today has good relations with its Arab neighbors Egypt and Jordan, and diplomatic relations with four Arab League countries, Morocco, Sudan, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain. An extremist minority of Palestinian Arabs opposes the existence of a Jewish State. But the great majority of Israeli Arabs prefer to live in a Jewish-majority state. Among Arabs in the capital city of Jerusalem, 93% want to live under Israeli administration. But a fanatical minority of fanatics cannot forget that the Arabs once conquered the Middle East, and cannot abide the success of the Jews.
The Nov. 6 comment is full of outrageous errors. He claims that black-skilled Ethiopian Jews were "expelled from Israel." The opposite is true: Israel made extraordinary efforts to bring the Jews of Ethiopia to Israel, where 160,000 now reside. Many have prominent positions in society; one served as a cabinet minister from 2020-2022. This falsehood supports the author's diatribe against Israel's alleged "greed, cruelty, treachery and racism." On the contrary: Israel is an exemplar of a multiracial society.
Perhaps the author dislikes the State of Israel because it is an ally of the United States. That was not always so. Israel could not have been founded without the support of the Soviet Union. Its land was under the mandate of the British Empire, and Russia opposed the Arab monarchies backed by the British. In 1950, Israel was the first country in the Middle East to recognize the People’s Republic of China as the country’s legitimate government. Israel’s alliance with the United States was the inevitable result of Russia’s support for its former Arab enemies during the Cold War. Israel remains an American ally, but an unusual one, with good relations with Russia as well as China.
The present tensions between China and the United States put Israel in a difficult position. As a small country, it needs good relations with all the powers in a multipolar world, but its air force flies F-35’s, not J-20’s or SU-57’s. But Israel is a Middle Eastern country, not an extension of the United States. Of the 3.3 million Jewish immigrants who came to Israel since 1948, less than 5%, or 148,000, came from the US. More than 1 million came from the former Soviet Union. Like the Chinese, the Jews are pragmatic, adaptive and practical, and will find a way to maintain good relations with China.
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The author is Deputy Editor of Asia Times, and a member of the advisory board of SIGNAL(Sino-Israel Government Network and Academic Leadership), an Israeli foundation dedicated to China-Israel relations. The opinions expressed here are his own. |
