23-Jun-14: Why is it wise, or even acceptable, to ignore those voices of hatred and aggression from our neighbors?

Mr. Maqboul [Image Source]

Here's a quote from an item in the Jerusalem Post today:

Amin Maqboul, member of the Fatah Revolutionary Council, said that the overwhelming majority of Palestinians support the abductions, if the goal is to exchange them for Palestinians held in Israeli prisons...

Source: "Senior Fatah official: Most Palestinians support kidnapping of three teens" | The Jerusalem Post

He's either right or not.

If he's right, are we Israelis who literally rub shoulders with Palestinian Arabs every day entitled (obliged?) to take this into account in our dealings with them? Because you don't have to delve too deeply into the consequences to understand what this means for us and our families' welfare.

If he's wrong, this is a good time to repeat our call for peace-seeking voices in the Arabic-speaking world to make themselves heard. 

Maqboul and others of his stripe are either the legitimate voices of the Palestinian Arabs - and we can (must) decide how to react based on their claims and threats. Or they are hatred-driven, dangerous terrorists and/or advocates of terror who lay illegitimate claim to being the voices of their people.

If they are the latter, we are entitled to expect shouts of outrage and demands that they cease defaming the Palestinian Arabs. And those shouts had best start coming from Mahmoud Abbas' office in Ramallah.

Right now, the Palestinian Arab silence that has greeted Maqboul's immoral and sickening assertion is about the clearest, most articulate, expression possible of Palestinian Arab public opinion.

The only acceptable criticism of this way of looking at things is fierce denunciation of Maqboul in the Arabic-language media. Again, we're not holding our breath.

(A note to readers: We're posting this from a Jerusalem hospital ward where, as anyone who visits such places knows, Arabs and particularly Palestinian Arabs, are naturally as visible and completely welcome as everyone else. Apologies for the incomplete formatting and lack of a photo which we might fix from home later today.)