Arab who found phone offered to return it to its owner in exchange for 1000 shekels. But when he discovered its owner is the daughter of Baruch Marzel, his tone changed:
"Marzel is the head of your clan, I don't want problems," he said. "This phone will bring me only bad things."
...
The incident demonstrates the value of his tough approach, Marzel said. "Our neighbors understand the language we speak with them," he explained. "I'm glad that I have such good public relations with the Arabs here that they returned the phone of their own accord,” he added.
When you stand up for yourself and have self-confidence - unlike the Israeli political leadership, which is afflicted with Stockholm's Syndrome - others will respect you as well. If we want others to respect us, we must respect ourselves.
Of course, one crucial aspect of this self-respect is teaching Judaism - authentic Judaism - in the Israeli public schools, as Moshe Feiglin has called for; others cannot respect Israel if Israel does not respect its own history and culture.
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3 comments:
Fear and respect are not the same thing. I fear the Mafia, and would have returned Meadow Soprano's phone with no desire for reward (or any further contact whatsoever with the mishpacha). Marzel's 'good relations' with Arabs are of a similar nature.
I happen to agree with Michael here, but even if it is as you say, sometimes fear is the only thing certain cultures of people understand and the only thing they are willing to civilize themselves for the sake of. Without elaborating further, I think you know who and what I'm referring to. Ever been to the middle east? Interacted?
Whether it's fear or fear-induced respect or our-self-assurance - induced respect that drives this phenomenon (or some combination), I see the immense value in it.
I agree with Rejewvenator that respect is much to be preferred over fear. I would much rather that the Arabs respect us for being G-dly, humane, decent, loving people, than fear us for being vengeful.
But I agree with Anonymous that sometimes, fear is all that other people understand. Imagine someone is abusing your relative; assuming there are no police, perhaps your only option is to terrorize the abuser and show him that it is in his own best material interests to stop. Is this ideal? No. Ideally, the abuser would realize on moral grounds that he should stop. But sometimes, the best you can do is show him that his own material safety depends on his ceasing his abuse.
I would prefer that the Arabs realize on moral grounds that their attacks on innocent Jewish civilians are criminal, and that they would realize on moral grounds that Israel is a legitimate Jewish country. But if they cannot realize this morally, at least let them realize it viscerally. If they won't respect the Jews, at least let them fear the Jews.
After the bulldozer attack in Jerusalem, Shmuel Sackett relates what he read in one newspaper: the reporter asked some Arabs in the shuk why they (meaning Arabs in general) weren't scared to perpetrate such an attack. The Arabs replied that a few years ago, they would have been afraid to perpetrate terrorist attacks, as they knew Israel's reprisal would be merciless. But today, they said, they realize that Israel won't do anything to stop terrorism, and that therefore, they can attack innocent Jewish civilians with impunity, knowing the Israeli government will do nothing to stop them.
Is this to be considered to be in Israel's honor? Imagine a man said he could abuse his wife because he knew the community would do nothing to stop him. Obviously, I'd prefer that he stop abusing her of his own moral accord, but if not, shouldn't he know that to abuse his wife is to put himself in danger at the hands of an angry mob? I should wish that every man on earth were mortally afraid of abusing his own wife, for the sake of his own skin!
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