Soft Predjudices

The other night my wife and I shared a pizza with a lovely couple we had recently met.  The wife of the other couple was from Lebanon.  She had immigrated to this country not that long ago and had a strong middle eastern accent.  Her husband was from New England.  It was the second marriage for both and both seemed very happy.  I should further note that the wife, let's call her Betty, was Lebanese Christian.  The husband, let's call him Jake, was Jewish.

In the course of our conversation, we learned that Betty's father was relatively wealthy.  He owned Lebanese fabric mills and orange orchards.  These assets kept him and his sons anchored to Lebanon.  Betty would visit the family once a year.

Our conversation, not all that surprisingly, drifted to Israel and the Arabs.  Betty mentioned that Sharon had been put on trial.   Her English, not being all that polished, led me to believe she was referring to a trial that Sharon might have been put on for his responsibility in the Sabra and Shatila massacre.   I tried to frame her comments by reminding her that this massacre of Palestinians had been committed by Lebanese Christians in retaliation for the murder of a Christian leader by the Palestinians.

"Oh, no, it wasn't the Christians," replied Betty.  "Christian leaders in Lebanon killed one another.  They kill each other's families.  They didn't kill Palestinians.

She had me stumped.  I only knew what I had read in the newspapers and that was was quite different than what she was now telling me.   But, than again, I had read this quite some time ago.

I pointed out that if the Arabs had accepted Israel in '48, they would have had far more territory than what they where now trying to get.  I also pointed out that Jews absorbed their fellow Jews from the various Islamic nations from which they were forced to flee and I further noted that the numbers of these Jewish refugees was equivalent to the number of Palestinians displaced by the conflict between Israel and the various Arab countries that had attacked Israel.

And then suddenly it came; that old, soft anti-Semitism.  "But, the Jews had money," said Betty.

"Really?  I responded.  "Well, no doubt, some did.  In any population, some will be poor and some wealthy.  Possibly, because of their greater literacy, the Jews might have been better off than the average Arab.  But, of course, when they were forced from their homes, they could take with them nothing but the clothes on their back and whatever they managed to stick in a suitcase.  They were forbidden to take out any money, or gold, or jewelry.  And, even if they managed to sneak out some money, how much could it have been?  Their property and fixed assets which had been accumulated over generations were lost."

"They had money," repeated Betty.

I then brought up those Arabs who enjoyed good relations with the Jews; namely, Druze, Kurds, and Bahai's.   "They Druze, " said Betty, "they are not so nice."

"Really?  What's the matter with them?" I asked.

"They have their secrets," she replied.

I laughed.  "Yes, indeed.  They keep their religion a secret from others.  So?"  I asked.

"They have some strange ideas.  Their spirit comes out ......"  said Betty finding it difficult to explain in English exactly what she wanted to say about the Druze belief system.

"Yes, I know," I said.  "They believe that when they die their spirit flits over to a baby just being born."

"Yes," confirmed Betty, "They believe that."  She was happy that I now showed that I understood just how peculiar the Druze were.

"But the Jews are pretty nasty to the Palestinians," offered Jake.

"Really?  How so?" I asked.

"They destroy Palestinian homes.  The force the people out into the street and then blow up their house," he replied.

"I suppose they will do that on occasion," I said.   "But why do you imagine they'd do that?" I asked.

"They don't like the Palestinians," he replied.

"Wrong," I said.  "They do it when the building was put up illegally.  You can't just put up a building and move in.  You can't do it in New York, you can't do it in Florida, and you can't do it in Israel."

"Well, what about the settlements where they take over Palestinian land," asked Jake.

"Ah, yes, Palestinian land," I replied.  "Help me out.  Do you mean land that belonged to individual Palestinians or to land that had been owned by Jordan?"

"Does it make a difference?" asked Jake.

"Certainly," I replied.  "If it was Jordanian land, Israel had every right to take it.  If it's the land of some Palestinian, Israeli's have to buy it.  They can't just take a Palestinian's property.  They've got to buy it."

"Who's to say the land belonged to Jordan or to some Palestinian?" asked Jake.  "What's to keep Israelis from saying that the land belonged to Jordan, even if it didn't?"

"Good question.  Here's the answer.  Before the English and French cut up the territories, all the land was under the rule of the Ottoman Empire.  All land deeds, even after the French and British took over, continued to be filed in Istanbul," I answered.

"That's right," said Betty.  "My father's land is filed in Istanbul."

What the above conversation told me was that Betty and Jake are fine people.  They're not against Israel, and certainly not against Jews.  But they've been exposed to years and years of Palestinian  propaganda.  What's surprising is that what prejudices they may have are relatively "soft" prejudices. They really don't hate Israel, they're just poorly informed.