Cute article. I agree that Arabic should be a second language for Jewish Israelis. You mention the Hand in Hand schools but I know kids coming out of grade 6 not able to speak Arabic. Something is wrong.
I think one of the issues is that Hebrew is still the dominant language in the playground, which hinders spoken fluency, although my daughter's best friend's brother goes to Hand in Hand and is around that age and speaks Arabic excellently.
Check out my latest post: “Israel’s Gaza conundrum”
Imagine this regret by a Hamas commander and read the rest
“The most regrettable thing in this situation is not that the attack was large, but rather that the attack was not large enough to capture 3,500 prisoners [hostages] instead of the number of prisoners, which is approximately 250-350.” [p. 23]
— Ahmed Abu Suhayb
Senior commander in Hamas’s missile force in Gaza”
It's so preposterous that Israel never created strong institutions to promote Arabic learning, when it was gifted literally hundreds of thousands first-language Arabic speakers, many of whom were looking for any work they could get. I remember once seeing a clip of Shimon Peres meeting the mayor of Bethlehem, trying to boost moderate anti-PLO forces before municipal elections. They spoke to each other in broken English. A real facepalm moment.
Normally I'd agree with you. But your anti-Zionist agenda is consistent. So I think you're only saying this to say "fuck you" to Israel, a country you obviously despise and should leave. Jews are safe in Indiana. Move there.
My husband's parents were Iraqi Jews. I'm so grateful his mom required Arabic to spoken in the home when my husband and 3 brothers were growing up. She wanted to preserve the language for her children because of heritage (Iraqi Jews go way back as we know) and also because she felt it was important for life in Israel. She was right!
Let's get out of the "criticism only" mode and look from the outside a little.
There is an education system. There is a school curriculum. There is a system of private courses.
Are you complaining about the results and looking for someone to blame? Look at countries where there is a second language and how it is studied. You will see approximately the same picture.
The problem is not in the education system, but in popularization and demand.
There is a system of teaching higher mathematics and organic chemistry, but only those who need it for further development know these subjects well.
I believe that the study of Spanish by English-speaking students in California or, for example, the study of Tatar in Tatarstan are not at a higher level.
Those who are interested, study, and teach well, and those who are not interested should in no way be forced or given stupid motivations.
A low result is not always an indicator of a bad system, and studying Arabic is exactly such a case.
Sure, but as I specified clearly in the article, one of the reasons Israelis speak poor Arabic is because of the way it is taught, rather than simply problems of language instruction that are more common globally.
I don't think it's about the way it's taught. It's about demand. If 95% of Hebrew-speaking Israelis will speak Arabic only in very special cases, very rarely, and it won't be an urgent need for them, then they will know it at the level they need. If you want the average Israeli to improve their Arabic, you don't need to change the way it's taught, you need to popularize Arabic in society.
You need to understand the shit your enemies write to each other about you and how they plan to finish you off, and you definitely need to be able to communicate with your future captors. OK, so that’s really dark but given how hogtied Israel has been over the hostages in this current war, we can expect much more hostage taking in the future.
"Improved Israeli Arabic would naturally have an impact on our relations with Palestinians."
What impact? To know the bitter truth about how Palestinians and Arabs in general really feel about Israel - that it's a fake society, usurpers, a European colonial implant? How would hearing about this in the original be better than filtered through Haaretz?
Lots of Jews in pre-state Palestine spoke it fluently, not to mention "Mizrachi" Jews whose native language was an Arabic dialect.
And that really did a lot to bring peace - not.
Knowing Arabic will only tell Hebrew-speaking Israelis how much they're hated and not wanted in the region.
BTW nice little double entendre with "the only language they understand." We both know what that means.
Knowing Arabic makes it less easy to believe either in simplistic Left of Right wing narratives. It would also be beneficial for dispraising Palestinians of the false beliefs that pervade their society, and finally it would make the day to day job of running a military occupation immeasurably easier.
Cute article. I agree that Arabic should be a second language for Jewish Israelis. You mention the Hand in Hand schools but I know kids coming out of grade 6 not able to speak Arabic. Something is wrong.
I think one of the issues is that Hebrew is still the dominant language in the playground, which hinders spoken fluency, although my daughter's best friend's brother goes to Hand in Hand and is around that age and speaks Arabic excellently.
You might like post in which I thank you!
Check out my latest post: “Israel’s Gaza conundrum”
Imagine this regret by a Hamas commander and read the rest
“The most regrettable thing in this situation is not that the attack was large, but rather that the attack was not large enough to capture 3,500 prisoners [hostages] instead of the number of prisoners, which is approximately 250-350.” [p. 23]
— Ahmed Abu Suhayb
Senior commander in Hamas’s missile force in Gaza”
https://khaledsalih.substack.com/p/israels-gaza-conundrum
Thanks for the mention Khaled! I've subscribed to your substack.
It's so preposterous that Israel never created strong institutions to promote Arabic learning, when it was gifted literally hundreds of thousands first-language Arabic speakers, many of whom were looking for any work they could get. I remember once seeing a clip of Shimon Peres meeting the mayor of Bethlehem, trying to boost moderate anti-PLO forces before municipal elections. They spoke to each other in broken English. A real facepalm moment.
It’s very funny that Ben Gurion spoke Polish (and I think Russian), Yiddish, Hebrew, Turkish, English, Latin, and Ancient Greek but gave up on Arabic.
Very interesting point. I didn’t know this.
Normally I'd agree with you. But your anti-Zionist agenda is consistent. So I think you're only saying this to say "fuck you" to Israel, a country you obviously despise and should leave. Jews are safe in Indiana. Move there.
It would be an easy way to solve problems: small tax break if you can prove you speak both languages.
It will never work in schools.
My husband's parents were Iraqi Jews. I'm so grateful his mom required Arabic to spoken in the home when my husband and 3 brothers were growing up. She wanted to preserve the language for her children because of heritage (Iraqi Jews go way back as we know) and also because she felt it was important for life in Israel. She was right!
Definitely!
Let's get out of the "criticism only" mode and look from the outside a little.
There is an education system. There is a school curriculum. There is a system of private courses.
Are you complaining about the results and looking for someone to blame? Look at countries where there is a second language and how it is studied. You will see approximately the same picture.
The problem is not in the education system, but in popularization and demand.
There is a system of teaching higher mathematics and organic chemistry, but only those who need it for further development know these subjects well.
I believe that the study of Spanish by English-speaking students in California or, for example, the study of Tatar in Tatarstan are not at a higher level.
Those who are interested, study, and teach well, and those who are not interested should in no way be forced or given stupid motivations.
A low result is not always an indicator of a bad system, and studying Arabic is exactly such a case.
Sure, but as I specified clearly in the article, one of the reasons Israelis speak poor Arabic is because of the way it is taught, rather than simply problems of language instruction that are more common globally.
I don't think it's about the way it's taught. It's about demand. If 95% of Hebrew-speaking Israelis will speak Arabic only in very special cases, very rarely, and it won't be an urgent need for them, then they will know it at the level they need. If you want the average Israeli to improve their Arabic, you don't need to change the way it's taught, you need to popularize Arabic in society.
I think you both need to popularize it and make sure that you teach people to actually speak it.
You need to understand the shit your enemies write to each other about you and how they plan to finish you off, and you definitely need to be able to communicate with your future captors. OK, so that’s really dark but given how hogtied Israel has been over the hostages in this current war, we can expect much more hostage taking in the future.
"Improved Israeli Arabic would naturally have an impact on our relations with Palestinians."
What impact? To know the bitter truth about how Palestinians and Arabs in general really feel about Israel - that it's a fake society, usurpers, a European colonial implant? How would hearing about this in the original be better than filtered through Haaretz?
Lots of Jews in pre-state Palestine spoke it fluently, not to mention "Mizrachi" Jews whose native language was an Arabic dialect.
And that really did a lot to bring peace - not.
Knowing Arabic will only tell Hebrew-speaking Israelis how much they're hated and not wanted in the region.
BTW nice little double entendre with "the only language they understand." We both know what that means.
Knowing Arabic makes it less easy to believe either in simplistic Left of Right wing narratives. It would also be beneficial for dispraising Palestinians of the false beliefs that pervade their society, and finally it would make the day to day job of running a military occupation immeasurably easier.