Monday, December 19, 2005

Israellycool and the Cartoon Villains

My good friend Dave of Israely Cool didn't like what I had to say about Speilberg's latest:
While Dov suggests that us Zionists have a proclivity towards stereotyping Arabs as cartoon villains, it is Dov who is guilty of stereotyping Zionists as people who think Israel can do no wrong, and Arabs can do no right. And this is simply not true.
Unfortunately, in many cases it is true. And though I am pleased to acknowledge that Dave of IC, himself, might be different, there are others who have great difficulty making the distinction between ordinary Arabs and the terrorists who live among them. For an example, take the very self-aware David Trepenwitz: "When I moved here a couple of years ago I couldn't help but see each of these villages as malevolent snake pits and potential ambush sites. And while I only had one relatively minor incident, I still saw the morning crowds not as individuals, but simply as an enemy mob. "

Over time, Trep's perspective has changed (the change is recounted magnificently on this post) but the fact remains that he once (understandably, perhaps) had trouble seeing Arabs as individuals. And Dave IC's protestations aside, there are many more Jews who have the same, lamentable, blindspot.