PMW issued a report, “From Nationalist Battle to Religious Conflict: New 12th Grade Palestinian Textbooks Present a World Without Israel,” was written by PMW director Itamar Marcus and associate director Barbara Crook, and analyzes eight textbooks released at the end of 2006.
The new Palestinian Authority (PA) textbooks for Grade 12 encourage students to see Israel, the US and the West as enemies, and portray the PA’s territorial disputes with Israel as an existential religious conflict for Islam, according to a report released today by Palestinian Media Watch and Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton.
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[..] “I believe that education is one of the keys to lasting peace in the Middle East and for this reason I am very concerned with these findings. Ever since we first raised this issue some years ago there still has not been an adequate repudiation of incitement by the Palestinian Authority. It is even more disturbing that the problem appears to have gotten worse. These textbooks don’t give Palestinian children an education, they give them an indoctrination,”
Senator Clinton said.
[We have known this forever. It is the sine qua non that not only will there be no peace but that the US State Department is not serious about peace. Add this to the fact that the State Department is arming and financing the terrorists in the name of peace completes the story. Until such time as the “Palestinians comply with their obligations to end indoctrination and the “resistance” there will be no peace.]
According to the report, the new books create for students an image, both textual and visual, of a world without Israel. They reject Israel’s right to exist, while describing its founding as a “catastrophe that is unprecedented in history.” According to the report, the books encourage students to see themselves as victims of Israel’s existence, and actively prevent these young people from seeing Israel as a neighbor to live beside in peace. The history books barely acknowledge the peace process. This is compounded by the presentation of the conflict as a religious conflict to defend Islamic land, and leaves no latitude or religious option for students to have positive — or even neutral — attitudes towards Israel.
The textbooks likewise portray the US and the West in negative terms, describing the relationship as a “clash of civilizations.” The books teach that the US is a human rights abuser and a violator of international humanitarian law. The texts assert that the US is an economic supporter of Israel, while completely ignoring the US aid to the PA and to Palestinian humanitarian projects.
Hilary is of questionable character, a transparent opportunist, and she embraces all that reeks of statism. That said, it is incredibly refreshing to find a Washington power player who actually acknowledges the relentless Palestinian indoctrination toward Jew-hatred and incitement to violence. If she ultimately gets to wear the CIC hat (I’m still supporting Rudi or Mitt), we can only pray that she doesn’t follow in the footsteps of GWB and her husband on matters of the Middle East. Those Saudi contributions are difficult to resist, however.