jspace.com..
December '12..
Mordechai Kedar doesn’t look like a scary guy. But get him behind a microphone, and he can become an interviewer’s worst nightmare.
The Bar-Ilan University lecturer has made a name for himself as the go to personality for Arab media types. Kedar, 60, is trotted out on a near weekly basis to interview at some of the most notoriously anti-Israel publications, with journalists looking for a scapegoat to present arguments on “the occupation” and “Zionist oppression.”
But Kedar isn’t one to back down. The Israeli scholar uses perfect Arabic to present the Jewish state’s case, and he does so in stunning detail. Jspace recently caught up with Kedar to talk about Syria, Iran, and what it’s like to tango with Al Jazeera.
Jspace: How did you get involved with the Arab media?
Mordechai Kedar: I have spoken Arabic for many years. My parents actually came from Poland but I studied Arabic in high school. Back then we based our studies of Arabic on the Arab media. We read newspapers, we were listening to radio in those days. And this is how the teacher taught us Arabic, but in a very interesting way because we were dealing with daily issues through newspapers and radio. We became exposed to Arab media.
Then I went to the army and I spent 25 years in the IDF intelligence corps and there also, not everything, but quite a bit of what we knew about the Arab world was taken from the Arab media. When I started my academic life after I finished the army in 1995 I concentrated on the Syrian media as a test case and my PhD.
Because I read Arabic and speak Arabic, the Arabic mass media actually found me. And today we come to a situation where at least once or twice a week I’m asked to participate in all kinds of interviews.
How do you prepare for an interview that might turn confrontational?
First of all, my knowledge is my preparation. Maybe even then I need a little information about what happened today or yesterday but really my education, what I spent let’s say more than 40 years of my life collecting and internalizing, this is what is behind me.
I’ll tell you to a degree what it comes to. As you might remember right after September 11, 2001, many in the United States of America were talking about the school curricula in the Arab world, which do no promote tolerance and acceptance but on the contrary promote zealousness and parochialism and anti-Westernism, anti-Americanism. In the Arab world or the Islamic world everybody now had to refuse the school curricula in order to make them more acceptable to the American or the Western world.
So there was a big debate. One day the channel Al Arabiya calls me and they invite me to a discussion about the school curricula. I went to the studio and I was listening to the beginning of the program and the anchor was talking about the Israeli school curricula, saying it promotes hatred against Arabs, and against Palestinians, against Muslims, all these things. I was prepared to speak on a totally different program, on the school curricula in the Arab world, and here I am sitting in front of the camera and the anchor is talking about the school curricula in Israel, which actually I had no idea about.
I had to keep a poker face, and discuss for a whole hour about it. So I find myself diverting the subject from Israel to the Arab world. It took me a few minutes, but I raised the issue of, “Why are you talking about the Israeli school curricula when the biggest point in the world is the school curricula in the Islamic world in the Arab world?” They were of course angry about this but this worked. I had to change the subject to somewhere where I feel more comfortable. So for me, it’s about the ability to impose your agenda on the discussion. You need full mastery of the language and confidence within yourself. And you know, chutzpah also doesn’t hurt in these issues.
What is currently the greatest threat to Israel?
Look, there are all kinds of threats. There are military threats made by Iran, which explicitly threatens to erase Israel from the map. No one should try to reduce the severity of this threat because it’s something that could bring us back to what we already witnessed in the 30s and the 40s [the Holocaust]. We won’t let others threaten us into such situations or devastation.
The world is apparently sleep walking. Bibi talks to people who want to engage with Iran, to talk to them, to hear them, to listen to this and that, but it won’t bring any remedy to the situation. On the contrary, it encourages the Iranians to march forward because the world has lost faith in itself. Nobody sees action led by America or Europe, which is sinking in economic problems; the last thing Europe needs today is another war against Iran.
How satisfied are you with Israel’s level of involvement in Syria right now?
A year ago I called upon the Israeli government to send medications with drones and to parachute those medications into Syria. Apparently the government didn’t buy this issue. Today what is happening is the regime is challenged by Islamists, al Qaeda-like terrorists, many of whom hate Israel more than the regime itself. If we support the rebels we might find ourselves with an Islamic problem in Syria, which might be more problematic than Assad himself. However, I expect that the Syrian state will not survive as a state, it will be fragmented into some six states.
Is Egypt still Israel’s greatest ally in the Middle East?
Today the situation is much different from the situation in the [Hosni] Mubarak days. Mubarak was not a good friend of Israel but was definitely a man with whom Israel could sign an agreement. It would be hard for him to implement it, but he had nothing against signing agreements with Israel.
The Muslim Brotherhood cannot fathom themselves in the same frame as an Israeli, not to mention shaking his hand. Israel in their view has no right to exist as a different country, as a country with its own culture and political freedoms. If they didn’t inherit the peace agreement with Israel they definitely would not sign it. But since they inherited it from Mubarak they cannot do anything against this because they would lose world support. But initially they would not have signed a peace deal with Israel.
How dangerous is Palestine’s recent UN status upgrade to peace negotiations with Israel?
We can learn about future relations by watching what is happening in Israel and Gaza. Nobody in the world can prevent a situation like Gaza from happening in the West Bank. This would be an existential threat to Israel because Hamas would be able to reach from the hills in the West Bank to almost every corner in Israel, every inch in Israel. If they have territorial contiguity between Hebron in the south and Janin in the north, it would very soon be the end of the State of Israel.
Israel cannot allow or tolerate this, because a Palestinian state would turn into a Hamas state, no doubt. As you know, Hamas already won the majority of the Palestinian legislative council in January 2006. And they took Gaza over by coup d’état in June 2007. Between elections and coup d’état, Hamas would do the same thing in the West Bank. Nobody in the world can ensure that it would not happen.
What can be done? The only possible solution for the Israeli/Palestinian struggle is to establish eight Palestinian emirates. One already exists alive and kicking in Gaza. Another one should be established in the city of Jericho. Another one in Nabulus, and the Arab part of Hebron. This is the only solution that takes into account the sociology of the Arab population in the West Bank.
Do you think most Israelis support a two-state solution?
Not at all, because most Israelis understand that if there were a Palestinian state, within two years or less the West Bank would turn into another Hamas-stan. We can taste Hamas’ bitterness in the Israeli south. People in the north would not like to repeat it.
What do you think of the criticism Netanyahu is facing over the new settlement extension plan?
Look, here is my view, Israel should remain in the rural areas forever. There is nothing that should prevent Israel from being in the rural areas. And the E1 area is a rural area, nobody lives there.
Does Mahmoud Abbas have any real intention of getting back to the negotiation table?
Mahmoud Abbas actually has nothing to deliver. He cannot deliver Gaza. I highly doubt if he can deliver Hebron because Hebron is a different society. I am waiting to see what will be the future. But definitely Abbas and his friends will not recognize Israel as a state that has the right to exist.
Do you foresee a moment when a Palestinian leader agrees to sit down and talk without preconditions?
They will not agree to speak to Israel about the core issues about Jerusalem and the refugees. These are the open nerves in their body because of various reasons, but definitely they will do anything that they can to divest, to divert from speaking directly to Israel.
Link: http://www.jspace.com/news/articles/jspace-exclusive-interview-mordechai-kedar-israel-s-defender-in-arab-media-video/12162
Also: (Video) Dr. Mordechai Kedar on "Arab Terrorism and the Myth of al-Aqsa and Jerusalem"
Dr. Kedar embarks on a US-Canadian lecture tour in January to take place through February. Some dates are still open, and parties interested in booking Dr. Kedar to speak should email kedar.tour@gmail.com.
Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.
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