The war against Palestinian Hamas terrorists has united Jewish and Arab Israelis as never before, after years of worries that tensions between the two communities might destabilize Israeli society.
In May 2021, as Breitbart News reported at the time, some Arab residents of Israel rioted against their Jewish neighbors when Hamas claimed (falsely, as it often does) that Israel was attacking the Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, the third-holiest site in Islam. In the subsequent war between Israel and Hamas, which was largely confined to the air, there were riots and retaliations between Arabs and Jews, causing great alarm at home and abroad.
But in the current conflict, there have been no incidents between the two communities, aside from rare cases of vandalism. Israel Police Chief Kobi Shabtai praised the Arab community, which forms 20% of the population, as the Times of Israel reported Sunday:
Israel Police chief Kobi Shabtai says that Israel’s Arab citizens have behaved in an exemplary manner since the start of the war with Hamas in Gaza on October 7.
Shabtai tells a meeting of the Knesset National Security Committee that he must praise the “exemplary behavior” of Israel’s Arab minority, noting that there have been “zero incidents” of internal clashes over the past two weeks.
Shabtai had earlier said that he would sent any Arab Israelis who demonstrated on behalf of Hamas to join them in Gaza. Though he was not speaking literally, Israeli authorities have clamped down on pro-Hamas protests, of which there have been a few.
However, the fact that Hamas killed dozens of Arab Israelis, including Muslims, in their massive terror attack on Oct. 7 caused many Arab Israelis to feel that they, too, had been threatened — and many stood alongside the Jewish citizens of Israel.
Prominent social media influencer and commentator Nas Daily, who is an Arab Israeli citizen, tweeted that from now on, he would consider himself “Israeli-Palestinian,” not “Palestinian-Israel”: “Israeli first. Palestinian second.”
Personal Thoughts:
(not for everyone, feel free to skip)For the longest time, I struggled with my identity.
A Palestinian kid born inside Israel. Like…wtf.
Many of my friends refuse to this day to say the word “Israel” and call themselves “Palestinian” only.
But since I…
— Nuseir Yassin (@nasdaily) October 8, 2023
There have also been prominent stories of Arabs who behaved heroically in saving Israelis and others from Hamas terrorists, at great risk to their own lives. Some, like paramedic Awad Darawshe (above), died in the process, and are being celebrated as heroes by the Israeli public.
The fact that Israeli Jews and Arabs have been able to draw closer together holds out hope for the country — and suggests that the regional peace process associated with the Abraham Accords may one day continue.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the new biography, Rhoda: ‘Comrade Kadalie, You Are Out of Order’. He is also the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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