“Getting to know you, getting to know all about you”
I like Brian John Thomas‘ (h/t) take on this:
You know what would happen if all Israelis learned Arabic? Israelis would notice how much they really hate us on their official media channels and they’ll notice that they rarely hate Zionists and often hate Yehud. Do remember that a sizeable number of Jews do come from homes that used to speak Arabic, I know the children of current generations of Sephardic and Misrachi Jews have declining Arabic but some still learn it (or learn to understand it). And these are often the right leaning voters the left are scared of. Be careful what you wish for, happy clappy co-existers.
NOTE: Reminds me of an old Swedish study done by the (former state) Lutheran Church on anti-Islam attitudes of its parishioners ( I no longer have the link to that). The study found that the Assyrian community had the sharpest of views towards Muslims. They know what the Muslims think and say about the rest of us.
Ministers approve mandatory Arabic studies from first grade
“When the Jewish population will understand Arabic, the way the Arab public understands Hebrew, we will see better days,” says Likud MK Oren Hazan.
A bill approved on Sunday by the Ministerial Committee for Legislation would make it mandatory for schools to teach Arabic from the first grade.
The measure was introduced by MK Oren Hazan (Likud), who said that in supporting the legislation in the middle of a wave of terrorism, the government was signaling that it seeks coexistence and calm.
Education Minister Naftali Bennett was also among the bill’s supporters.
Hazan encouraged lawmakers from the coalition and opposition to put politics aside and vote in favor of the measure when it is put to a preliminary Knesset vote on Wednesday. He saw Arabic studies from an early age as providing a bridge between different parts of Israel’s population.
“In these days, when terror is on the rise and coexistence is undermined, it’s important to lower the flames among the nation’s citizens, and there is no better way to do that than by understanding each other’s language, to understand the culture and mentality of 1.5 million Arab citizens of Israel and hundreds of millions of Arabic- speakers in the Middle East,” Hazan said.
