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32 Inside the Arab Mind!

Goldstein was an immigrant from America and was described by all who knew him as “a
quiet, kind, gentle man.” Goldstein attended to a number of Kiryat Arba’s victims of Arab terror.
And his friend, Mordechai Lapid, a father of 14 and a former Russian “Prisoner of Zion,” together
with one of Lapid’s sons, died in the doctor’s arms from a terrorist attack a few weeks before he
committed the Hebron massacre. The evening prior to the massacre, Goldstein left the Cave without
completing his prayers because “a large group of Arabs inside the Cave of Patriarchs were chanting
‘Slaughter the Jews’...’Death to the Jews,’ and no one responsible among the Arab community
found anything wrong with such pronouncements and conduct” (”To Our People of Israel,” Jerusa-
lem Post International Edition, March 19, 1994). The next day Goldstein came to the Cave dressed
in his IDF uniform and carrying his IDF-issue automatic rifle. He gained access to the Cave by con-
vincing the guards that he was on duty, and while the Moslems were kneeling in prayer, he opened
fire.

There was universal shock and outrage in Israel. The Prime Minister, Yitzak Rabin, spoke
of his absolute disgust at the massacre as did all of Israel’s leaders. The President of Israel, Ezer
Weizeman, spoke of the shame the massacre had brought upon the Jewish people and visited Heb-
ron to bring Israel’s condolences to the families of the victims. Nearly 80 percent of all Israelis
loudly condemned the massacre, and the Israeli government paid NIS 40 million (U.S.$13.3 mil-
lion) in compensation to the families of the dead and injured. The Hebron massacre was a rare, iso-
lated incident, and both the reactions of the public and the actions of the government were those of
shock, repulsion, sorrow and shame. This is in stark contrast to Arab reactions to news of the mur-
ders of Israelis.

Sex

Unlike the western world, sexual restraints upon Arab women are strictly enforced.
Throughout almost the whole of the Arab world, death follows a girl’s loss of virginity except to her
new husband. And adultery brings death for married women. But a married man is not expected to
refrain from extramarital sexual activity, he is guilty of sexual offense “only if the woman with
whom he has sexual relations commits thereby an act of sexual dishonor” (Patai, The Arab Mind,p.
124). It is the female’s duty to protect both her honor and her life.

Men are usually circumcised without anesthesia at age 13, primarily as a means to increase
virility but also as a test of their “manliness, bravery, and courage” (ibid., p. 123). Female circumci-
sion is also very widespread among the Arab peoples, but in the case of clitoridectomy, it is per-
formed to prevent the girl from desiring premarital sex. And in the case of infibulation (either
affixing a device to the vulva, or operating so that only an opening the size of a matchstick is left for
the passing of urine and the menses), to make it altogether impossible, until her genitals are either
cut or forced open (ibid.). During the traditional wedding night, “the husband is sometimes obliged
to cut open hardened scar tissue with a knife.”

The traditional unavailability of willing girls with which to satisfy a young Arab’s high sex-
ual urge accounts for the extremely high rate of homosexuality among Arab males. The active ho-
mosexual act is considered to be an “assertion of one’s aggressive masculine superiority” (Patai,
The Arab Mind, p. 134), with the result that male homosexuality continues after marriage, with
sheiks and the “well-to-do men lending their sons to each other” (ibid., p. 135).

The Berean Voice November-December 2002