By Morton A. Klein, ZOA National President
(JANUARY 15, 2022 / JERUSALEM POST) On March 3, 1999, the great then-U.S. senator from Florida, Connie Mack, gave an important speech on the floor of the Senate, describing the Palestinian Authority leadership’s incitement, in schools and media, of hatred, terrorism and annihilation against Jews and Israel.
It’s worthwhile revisiting senator Mack’s speech – because it spelled out the root of the problem that has grown even worse today.
Mack asked the key question: “How is it possible to engage in peace negotiations with people who maintain the right to obliterate you, who are filled with hatred toward you, and who harbor the dream of one day destroying your homeland? Peace is a matter of the heart. But what I saw, which was the outcome of the Palestinian Authority rule, convinced me that their hearts and minds are set on other goals. The Palestinian leadership does not want peace. They want to use their state to eliminate the State of Israel.”
The senator wisely concluded: “[I]f the Palestinian leadership fails to abandon incitement of hatred, persecution, and terrorism, then we are all dreaming, only dreaming [of peace], and our president’s behavior must be labeled foolish appeasement. There will not be peace until hearts and minds are changed, and we must focus our attention on these issues.”
Mack demonstrated how the PA teaches children to hate Jews. For instance, a Mickey Mouse-style program on PA-controlled television showed a young girl of six or seven years old emotionally singing, “When I wander into the entrance of Jerusalem, I’ll turn into a suicide warrior in battledress, in battledress, in battledress.” Mack reminded the Senate “this is a program that was produced by the people [the Palestinian Authority] who are... supposedly negotiating peace... How would you feel if your government was teaching your children to hate? Could you conclude that they were serious about long-term peace with their neighbors?”
Mack also described PA textbooks’ incitement of hatred toward Jews. A third-grade grammar textbook teaches that the “Zionist enemy” attacks “civilians” with aircraft. A seventh-grade textbook says that Jews hate Muslims and cause division among Muslims, and asks students to give examples of the “evil attempts of the Jews” today. Note that these school textbooks specifically talk about Jews – belying the fiction that the PA “only” opposes “Israelis.”
