Letter to The Washington Post

From: mberenhaus@comcast.net
To: letters@washpost.com
Sent: Thursday, February 19, 2009 1:39:49 AM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern
Subject: letter to the editor

Dear Editor,

Fareed Zakaria, in Israel's Arabs Within, (Feb. 16, 2009), joins other 'pundits' in claiming that Israel discriminates against Israeli Arabs, even though they are probably the best treated minority in the Middle East. They have full voting rights, freedom of religion, free press, free speech – obviously, more rights than in any Arab country in the Middle East - despite the fact that they supported Israel's adversary Hezbollah in Israel's recent war in the north. They are lucky they don't live in Kuwait. After the 1991 Persian Gulf War, the Kuwaitis expelled 300,000 Palestinians who sided with Saddam's Iraq.

Zakaria says that "the 1.3 million Arab Israelis are descendants of roughly 160,000 Arabs who stayed in the lands that became Israel in 1948." Increasing in size nearly ten-fold doesn't reek of the discrimination against minority groups that is common in that part of the world. Compare this to the more than 800,000 Jews in Arab countries in 1948 who were almost all kicked out. Only a fraction exists today, but this story is never told.

A double standard is often used in describing Israel's so-called mistreatment of its Arab minority. When taken into context, it becomes clear how well Arabs are treated, despite their consistent support of those that wish to bring Israel harm. Ironically, mistreatment of minorities is common place throughout the Arab lands of the Middle East, yet little is written about it. Why is that?

Michael Berenhaus