P6+Rosen.+Section+1

Period 6 Summary of Rosenthal Section 1:

Group 1. Yael, Matt, Daniel, Lindsay, and Michelle Yasser Mansour is a pediatrician in Chaifa and he wants to unify Arab Israelis and Jews. He works at a hospital where Jews and Arabs are treated by both Jewish and Arab doctors. He says that Chaifa is an island sanity. Sometimes he feels unwelcomed when at places like airports and has to present his identity when the Jews around him don’t have to. 1 out of every 5 Israelis are Arab Israelis, and the ratio is predicted to rise to 1 out of every 3 Israelis being Arab Israelis. A lot of the Arabs living in Israel in 1948 decided to stay put during the war of independence, and the 700,000 Arabs that fled Jordan and Egypt were conquered during the war. The 160,000 Arabs who stayed in Israel were disoriented poor and mostly illiterate. Yasser says that he speaks fluent Hebrew, and that it is barely recognizable that he is an Arab Israeli. He also doesn’t dress any differently from the Israelis, and knows a lot more about Jewish customs than some secular Jews. He also mentions that he watches Israeli news shows more than Arab news shows. He feels like he should be treated like the regular Israeli here. Yassar is one of many non observant Israeli Muslims. He doesn’t stick to eating halal (Islamically Permitted) meat, he eats mostly haram (forbidden) food. Some Muslims break the rules of Ramadan observance. Yassar was supportive of Yitzchak Rabin’s plan to close social and economic gaps between Israeli Muslims and Jews.

blargh

obscenites

ALthough it is always disturbing to have a sudden change of outlook on an issue, I really feel like Arabs are stressing a very valid weakness of the Israeli government and society. On the one hand, there is a pretty concentrated group of Arab extremists who desire to kill. But on the other hand, you can see a massive amount of Palestinians (and Arabs??) who go through immense daily struggle...as serious, probably more serious than that of the Jews through history. Without finding any faults, I firmly belive that, in order to solve this problem EFFECTIVELY (as opposed to XANDERs point of killing everyone), one needs to immerse themselves deep in Arab ideology and religious teachings and take apart its morals.

I think that Yasser contrasts Suhad (from section 2). Yasser seems to want to be a part of the Israeli/ Israeli Jewish culture while Suhad wants to be a part of a strictly Palestinian nation. Yasser embraces the Israeli life style and doesn’t let his Arab background hold him back. He is the kind of person that will help bring peace between the arabs and jews in Israel. (Group 2 – lizzy, Lauren, Audrey, Sam k)