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34 Inside the Arab Mind!

months prior to the outbreak of war Rabin wrote: “There is no need to call up our forces even when
the enemy makes threats and deploys its forces along the cease fire-line” (”A Misplacing of Confi-
dence,” Jerusalem Post, May 10, 1994).

But the Arabs had a sufficiently powerful motivation.
On October 6, 1973, they attacked Israel on its most holy day
of the year and almost succeeded in destroying it. An ava-
lanche of over 1.2 million men and a formidable array of
equipment came against an unprepared Israel. It took three
days to mobilize its small army that reached only 300,000
men with all the reserves mobilized. Believing that Arabs al-
ways substitute words for actions almost cost Israel its life.

Another case in point is Saddam Hussein’s Decem-
ber 1990 statement that if the United States and her coalition
partners launched a “first strike” against Iraq for her invasion
of Kuwait in August of the same year, “Israel will suffer the
second (blow) in Tel Aviv” (Associated Press report pub-
lished in Bangkok Post, Dec. 28, 1990). The coalition forces,
of whom Israel was not a part, delivered their “first strike” at
Iraqi targets in the Gulf War on January 16, 1991. That day
saw the first of the 39 Iraqi missile strikes on the civilian pop-
ulation centers of Israel which destroyed or damaged some 5,000 Israeli homes. Believing that
Arabs now want to make peace and not war with Israel is equally as naive and dangerous as believ-
ing that they always substitute words for actions.

The motivation to destroy Israel has increased, not decreased. Only the tactics have
changed. Arab honor must be restored, and only the annihilation of Israel can restore it. The estab-
lishment of the State of Israel and the defeat of the Arab armies is described by the leaders of the
Arab world as “the disaster” or “the great defeat;” “the day of the greatest shame in the modern his-
tory of the Arabs;” and, “a smear on the entire Arab Nation. No one can forget the shame brought by
the battle of 1948” (speech by President Nasser on Aug. 11, 1963). According to the Arabs that
“smear,” that “shame,” can only be removed from the Arab nation’s face by “Israel’s total and abso-
lute annihilation” (Al-Ahram editorial, Feb. 25, 1971). Five further wars against Israel since 1948,
each more devastating than the last, should be ample proof that the greatest of motivations to restore
Arab honor courses through the veins of the entire Arab world. It should be carefully noted that the
Arab’s preoccupation with revenge against Israel is all that restrains them from unleashing all their
violence upon the West.

Arab?

At this point the question should be asked, “Who is an Arab?” It is generally believed that
the Arab world has its roots in the union of Abraham and Hagar, the Egyptian maid of Sarah, Abra-
ham’s wife. This is only true to a point. There are numbers of nations described today as “Arab” that
are not really Arab at all. The word “Arab” means “Bedouin” or “nomad,” and the name was given
to those who inhabited the Arabian peninsula and the Syrian Desert.

The Berean Voice November-December 2002