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November 24, 2023
There is a great word in Yiddish that sums up the warm and fuzzy feeling you get when you or one of your family does something really great, something noteworthy, something memorable.
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Nakhas. Accent on the first syllable.
It really is a great feeling. It is a sense of pride and accomplishment. You want to call friends, go crazy on social media, and send lots of “selfies.”
Your kid just got into med-school or your grandkid just won an Olympic Gold medal or your recipe book just made it to the Times bestseller list. That’s nakhas.
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You cannot have enough Nakhas. When it comes from your kids or grandkids, it’s known as nakhas foon kinder — pride and joy from children.
There are many jokes about Jews being proud about “my son, the doctor.”
Sadly, in Palestinian Arab society that pride is bestowed on “my son, the martyr,” and now, even, “my son, the murderer.”
Although I have lived and traveled extensively among Arabs, especially the Palestinians, learning several dialects of Arabic, I was astonished by a poll this week about the greatest source of pride for the Palestinians.
Most Palestinian Arabs get that warm and fuzzy feeling — nakhas — from the brutally successful terror attack of October 7, 2023. Ninety-seven percent. Yes, 97%.
Ninety-four percent were very proud. Three percent were “somewhat proud.” About two percent had reservations about their pride.
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That is the finding of the latest poll done by Arab World for Research and Development (AWRAD) in Ramallah.
It is a poll of Palestinian Arabs by Palestinian Arabs, and it asked directly, “Considering the ongoing events, do you feel a sense of pride as a Palestinian?”
In the West Bank, where the PLO has ruled for 30 years, 94.1 percent said they felt pride “to a great extent” in connection to the Hamas attack (which the poll called “resistance”). 4.1 percent said they felt proud “so some extent.” In other words, 98.2% of PLO-governed West Bankers were proud of the Hamas “resistance.”
In Gaza, where Hamas has ruled almost two decades, Palestinians were surer of their pride about murder rape and mayhem. The poll found 94.6% felt proud “to a great extent,” and 3.2% “to some extent” about the Hamas attack.
In other words, 97.8% of Gazans were proud of the attack that murdered 1,200 Israelis, including many babies, women, and elderly — the vast majority unarmed civilians.
The pride question shows what Palestinians feel in their gut about murdering Israelis. Another question asks about supporting the attack itself, letting the respondent deal with the possibility that murdering Israelis may prove counterproductive to Palestinian interests.
When asked if they thought the attack was a good idea, or as the poll expressed it “do you support the military operation carried out by the Palestinian resistance led by Hamas,” the results were therefore more mixed.
In Gaza, 46.6% strongly support the attack and 17% “somewhat” support it. About 35% show various levels of reservation regarding the attack, apparently because of its devastating results in Gaza.
In the West Bank, where Palestinians have not felt anything like the power Israel has used in Gaza, about 83% support “the operation carried out by the Palestinian resistance led by Hamas.”
One clear take-away is that Palestinian Arabs do not love Palestinian Jews, i.e. Israelis. They take pride in the murder, dismemberment, and rape of Israelis.
Another lesson is that tough anti-terror policy sways views about the benefits (istifaada in Arabic) of terror. Sending bombs, not cement, affects even the harsh views of Gaza’s Arabs.
For them, 1948 was the Nakba — the Calamity, the creation of the refugee problem. As they move southward, they know October 7, 2023 sparked the second Nakba.
As the Bible says (Proverbs 16:18), “Pride goes before destruction and haughtiness of spirit before the fall.”
Before the Allies conquered Germany, the Nazis foresaw a 1,000-year reign, but after Germany had been bombed into near-total destruction, Germans were not bragging about being Nazis. Of course, not all Germans were Nazis, but many lied about what they knew or did. That was 1945.
How lucky the Israelis of 2023 have such truthful neighbors as the Palestinians. Palestinian actions and comments show what they feel, and Israelis now know what the Palestinians feel. Let’s stop pretending.
“Proportional response” and “restraint by both parties” are the standard comments by UN officials or U.S. diplomats who do not know the difference between Hamas and hummus.
Jimmy Carter once said Hamas leaders wanted peace. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice pressed Israel to let Hamas run in the Gaza elections of 2006. Such foresight. That worked well. Why not try something similar?
Antony Blinken wants Israel to deliver Gaza to the same PLO, now led by Mahmoud Abbas, that broke all its accords with Israel and still pays bonuses to Hamas terrorists.
We can do better.
Dr. Michael Widlanski is the author of Battle for Our Minds: Western Elites and the Terror Threat (Threshold-Simon and Schuster, 2012), and Can Israel Survive A Palestinian State? (1990). He was strategic affairs advisor in Israel ’s Ministry of Public Security, editing captured PLO documents. Earlier he advised Israeli negotiation teams at the Madrid and Washington talks in 1991-92. Dr. Widlanski was a visiting professor at Washington University in St. Louis in 2007-8 and at the University of California, Irvine in 2014. He taught political communication for two decades at The Hebrew University and Bar Ilan University. Earlier he was a reporter at the New York Times and Cox Newspapers, war correspondent for Israeli Army Radio and Diplomatic Correspondent for Israel Television in English (IBA).
Image: Mary Madigan
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