The Israeli election and the Muslim world

Yesterday the Israelis went to a new Parliamentary election for a new rule in the Knesset. The ruling conservative party Likud led by Benyamin Netanyahu is still the largest it seems, but has lost places. It’s now fairly even between the conservative-ultra nationalistic side and the center-left side in the Knesset. The ultra-orthodox party Ha-Bayit Ha-Yehudi, The Jewish House gained strength, which was predicted, but the secular party Yesh ‘Atid, There’s a Future, gained even more. In my eyes that’s a great relief. The Working Party was expected among the center-left parties to become the largest, but now Yesh ‘Atid seems to be a new secular voice to be reckoned with. I can only hope that this will have a stabilizing effect on the peace-process in the region. As I’ve said so many times before there are constructive forces and destructive forces in every people, every nation, every belief system and every individual. Israel is surrounded by enemy-states, but also in the Muslim world there are more moderate forces that long for peace and stability. Many muslims I know are so fed up with all the wars, and also with the negative image of Muslims in the eyes and descriptions of the western world.

Israel’s security policy, the building of the wall, the harrassment of and the patronizing treatment of the Palestinian population has been devestating for the region. Thousands of Palestinian lifes have been destroyed or ended, men, women and children. This however does not make the Palestinians into angels. There are good and bad forces there as well. To feel that self-pride is natural and acceptable, but there’s also an intense hate of the Jews and of Israel. I have seen sketches and cartoons that lead the thoughts to Nazi Germany. Mothers who fuel the hate in their children, and also how extreme forces like the Hamas, al-Harakatu al-Muqawatamu al-Islamiya, use the turbulence for breeding a continued hate against Israel and with the intention to wipe the country off the map. At the same time Palestinian leaders build fancy houses for their own families and go shopping in Israel, while most of the population starve. Most Palestinians and other Arab people are good people. The hatred however between the two cousin people, Jews and Arabs, is ancient but devestating. The Israeli Defence Force, Tsavá Haganah Yisraél, the security services Shin Beyt and Mossad have as all security services in the world commited many autrocities against people, their own and others. To always see the other as an enemy only leads to even more hate, even more deaths, more people who seek revenge. The tones from Morsi’s Egypt worries me. He has now shown that he won’t use wisdom in the diplomacy towards Israel, but has used a very confronting rhetoric. That’s a shame, since the Egyptians otherwise is a good people. Egypt also has a very long history to be proud of and is often used in different media. That greatness could be renewed given democracy for both men and women, equal rights for both men and women, an acceptance of the Egyptian Jews and the ancient Christian Copts. Both Copts and Jews have been harrassed in the aftermath of the Arab Spring. The women of Egypt also have lost ground after the recent two referendums in Egypt where Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood got the upper hand. The liberal and secular forces in Egypt lost this time, and that’s a great pity too, since the rights for women will be neglected in Egypt too as it is now.

In Syria the civil war rages on. The régime continues to kill the Syrian population, Homs, Halab, city after city, village after village. The tragedy here is that oppression isn’t used only in one country, but in many. Most totalitarian regimes use the mentality to “rule and divide”, “divide et impera”, oppressing opponents, using political assassinations, intimidation, torture and beatings. In my eyes this behaviour is barbaric, no matter where it happens. It’s latent in human behaviour and exists in all people irrespective of background. But it is a very destructive force.

Luckily there are good forces too in the various people. When the arabs revolted in 2011 they were so fed up with being neglected and oppressed by their own leaders who many times abused their leadership for nepotism and enrichening themselves and their own clans. The Arabs are proud people and rightly so, and many marvellous singers, writers, scientists etc have come from among their midst. Also among Muslims in other parts of the world as well, Persians, Afghans, Pakistanis. The green movement and the peaceful intentions ought to grow in Iran, Pakistan, India, Egypt and Israel and other countries. I hope that Yesh ‘Atid, There’s a Future, The Workers Party, the movement Shalóm ‘Akhsav, Peace Now or something similar will become a dominant force in Israel. Muslims for Peace, Israel loves Iran are other movements. I hope that more Muslims will accept the existence of the Jews and of Israel as a state. I hope that the Israelis will stop harrassing the Palestinians. The idea that I’ve heard from the mouths of some Muslims, first we’ll take the Saturday people and then the Sunday people, or that they’ll take over Europe is not a constructive way. Those notions do exist, but then again not everyone thinks like that or want to have it that way. That would only fuel a World War III, a war between religions, and that would be a cataclysmic disaster that would destroy so much of the world we live in. Such a war would have many loosers and no winners. Another great war would also be the doom of human kind, considering human madness and all the high-tech weapons in the world.  Furthermore the way to deal with the the increasingly tricky weather will need brains and people from all cultures, not just one. We ought to accept the good, fantastic parts of our belief systems instead. There is love. There is tolerance. There are peaceful innovations. There is acceptance, co-operation and xenofilia. Let us build on that. Let’s be wise.

Anders Moberg, January the 23d 2013