Dr. Mordechai Kedar has a deep understanding of the Arab mindset. A senior lecturer on Arabic culture at Bar-Ilan University, he served for 25 years in IDF Military Intelligence, where he specialized in Islamic groups, the political discourse of Arab countries, the Arabic press and mass media, and the Syrian domestic arena. Fluent in Arabic, he is one of the very few Israelis appearing on Arab television, frequently debating Arab thought leaders and imams in their native tongue.

Not about ‘occupation

Dr. Kedar had very clear opinions as to the reasons behind the current multi-front explosion of Arab violence facing Israel today.

“This is not about ‘occupation’,” Dr. Kedar posted in Hebrew. “This was an expected conflict and it was a matter of time before it was going to happen.” 

Dr. Kedar emphasized that previous intifadas were characterized by individual Arabs attacking individual Jews. Even though this was incited and supported by the Arab establishment, the attacks inside Israel were acts of individuals acting alone. 

“They don’t want a country of their own,” Dr. Kedar said. They don’t want even this country as their own. They just want to get rid of the Jews. They believe that if they make enough trouble, the Jews will just run away.”

“When synagogues and yeshivot (a place for religious studies) are burned, it is a religious war,” Dr. Kedar said, using the Arabic word ‘Jihad’. “When desecrating the sanctity of Torah scrolls – this is a religious war. When cars are burned only after they were verified to belong to Jews – this is a religious war. When roadblocks are blocked and only Jewish car passengers are beaten – this is a religious war. When the violence is accompanied by the cries of ‘In the spirit in the blood we redeemed Ya Aqsa’ (Dome of the Rock Mosque)- this is a religious war.”

It is a religious war

“When the struggle is described and labeled as jihad – it is a religious war, Dr. Kedar said. “When the struggle is against a Jewish ‘settlement’ in the Land of Israel, even within the so-called ‘Green Line’, as in Jaffa or Lod – it is a religious war.”

“When the jihadists in Gaza, Jerusalem, Lod, Jaffa, and Acre unite – this is a religious war.”

“This is a religious war when the violence is accompanied by shouts of “Khyber Khyber Ya Yehud, Jish Muhammad Sa-ya-hud” – “Khyber, Khyber, oh Jews, Muhammad’s army will return,” Dr Kedar said, explaining that Khyber was an oasis near Al-Madinah where Jews lived, and Muhammad slaughtered the men and took the women.

“But all kinds of people here, whose way of life and way of thinking are detached from religion, try to convince us that the problem is territorial, national, economic, civil, and/or legal because they are unable to understand, internalize and admit the fact that our problem with our neighbors is Islam,” Dr. Kedar said. “According to Islam, a Jew has no right to a state in any territory because the Jew must live under the wings of Islam as a ‘tent of God’, a ‘protege’, in a state of ‘mercy’. That is to say, miserable, with only limited rights.” 

A “law of cancel”

According to Islam, Judaism (like all other religions) is a “law of cancel” – “a religion of idleness” (non -existence) – while only Islam is a “law of law” (Law of right), a “true religion”, and therefore there is no justification for the establishment and existence of a Jewish state. 

According to the Islamic approach, the Jews are not a people or a nation but communities of people belonging to all the nations of the world, and therefore there are no Jewish people who are entitled to their own state. According to Islam, Palestine in all its territory is an Islamic territory and enclave that there is no way to get out of the rule of Islam and therefore the State of Israel, as a Jewish and democratic state, has no right to exist even if it was in a square inch on Tel Aviv beach.

Factions inspired by religion

The religious war against Israel was led by Haj Amin al-Husseini, and later by the Muslim Brotherhood, in its Palestinian branch – Hamas, and in its Israeli branch – the Islamic Movement. All of these factions are inspired by religion, and not by something else

The acceptance of Israel by Muslims, in Israel and abroad, is only to the extent that it is strong and invincible, and they will continue to accept the reality of Israel only as long as it is strong and invincible. Only a strong, organized, determined and invincible Israel will be able to survive in the shabby and conflicted region called the “Middle East”