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26 Inside the Arab Mind!

Violence

One needs only to read the Bible to gain some understanding of the savage and cruel nature
of the people who inhabit the Middle East. With the exception of around 40 percent of today’s Israe-
lis, the inhabitants of the Middle East have had their roots firmly fixed there for thousands of years
-- they are the descendants of men who have fought each other for thousands of years, and who still
threaten war in the same sun-scorched desert sands. Approximately 60 percent of Israeli Jews were
either born in Arab lands or were born to those who came from Arab lands. Hundreds of thousands
of Jews lived among the Arabs during their almost 2,000 years of exile from the Promised Land.

While the contemporary Israeli is in no way barbarous like the inhabitants of the modern
Arab nations (particularly Iraq and Syria), there is a definite tendency among many of the Jews of
Eastern origin to exhibit rather violent behavior with very little provocation. This has been most ev-
ident in recent days when Israeli policemen from this background disburse those demonstrating
against the government’s agreements with
the PLO. Wife beating is also prevalent
among Israelis of Eastern origin. Some
200,000 women -- five percent of Israel’s
Jewish population -- are victims of domestic
violence. And the “shame” culture is very
much in evidence. Many Israelis will readily
tell a lie rather than lose face. All these be-
havior patterns are the result of exposure to
centuries of Arab culture. But Israelis in gen-
eral are both shocked and outraged by violent
or brutal acts, and brutality is neither con-
doned nor acceptable in Israeli society.

The Arab propensity for barbarity,
however, is as old as the Arab people them-
selves. The LORD said of Ishmael, Abra-
ham’s son by Hagar: “He will be a wild
donkey of a man; his hand will be against ev-
eryone and everyone’s hand against him, and
he will live in hostility toward all his broth-
ers” (Genesis 16:12 NIV). The truth of those
words are contained in an widespread,
oft-quoted Arab proverb today: “I against my Arab youth parade through streets of Beirut
brothers; I and my brothers against my cous-
ins; I and my cousins against the world” (cited in Patai, The Arab Mind, p. 42). And an Arab writing
of his people said, “all our people are armed, all fight, and all kill for the least thing. We are very
jealous of our rights...If in this village two houses should suddenly engage in a fight, the entire pop-
ulation would split into two parties and join in the fight. War could break out in the village. When it
subsides, and only then, would the people ask what the cause of the fighting was. They fight first,
and then inquire as to the cause of the fight. This is our way of life” (Ameen Faris Rihani, quoted in
ibid., p. 219).

The Berean Voice November-December 2002