Hypocrisy in Sheikh Jarrakh

Over the past few weeks, the Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah has been the scene of ever intensifying protests by Arab nationalists, leftists and anarchists against the eviction of a number of Arab families who had been settled in Jewish owned property during the Jordanian occupation (1949-1967). These families had been allowed by the Israeli courts to stay in these buildings so long as they paid rent to the owners. In recent years they have stopped doing so and were, as a result, evicted.

The protests, which can be seen on You Tube, have grown in numbers and intensity. In addition, the protesters have experienced the 'gentle treatment' of the Israel Police (whose viciousness I personally experienced when protresting from the other side, and which I condemn no less vociferously when visited upon my ideological opponents).

I find their message hypocritical, pathological and delusional.

1) Hypocritical because many of them live on, or study in, land abandoned by Arabs in 1948/9. As long as it's not their homes and businesses that are involved, they are perectly willing to protest.

2) Pathological because the only rights they care about are those of the Palestinians. Jewish lives and rights are of no interest to them. In the present case, Sheikh Jarrah had a significant Jewish population until the Arab riots of 1929 and 1936-7, when the British moved them out for their own protection. The motivations of many of the protesters are tinged by a deep, and abiding Judische selbst-hass. The way that they chanted against 'Settlers' reminded me of Der Ewige Jude. In other words, they have demonized their opponents in a manner that is extremely disappointing.

3) Delusional because none of this will make any difference in the Arab-Israeli conflict. On the contrary, because the Arab/Muslim/Palestinian position sees the conflict as a zero sum game, all that the protesters are achieving (if anything) is to aid and abet those who would throw them out of the country along with the 'settlers' they so despise. Indeed, they are the useful idiots who would sell the Arabs the rope to hang us all.