I'm the Master Here

By Moshe Feiglin

2 Tevet, 5772
Dec. 28, '11

Preface: The incitement against the "violence" of the Right that we witnessed last week was painfully reminiscent of the dark days that preceded Oslo and the Expulsion from Gush Katif. Every time that the Left senses that there is a chance to destroy settlements, they embark on an incitement campaign and witch hunt. Usually, the campaign is the product of some sort of pre-planned provocation. It can be Avishai Raviv or Ehud Barak; all that is needed is an extreme reaction in the Right and the media faithfully does its "job". Naïve rabbis and local leaders are dragged into the limelight where they condemn themselves and their public, not realizing that by doing so, they add fuel to the flames. If an important rabbi condemns the "hilltop youth", what can Fuad Ben Eliezer do to top him, beyond calling for soldiers to shoot settlers?

The good news is that as opposed to our previous experiences, this time the rightist newspapers and many rightist pundits condemned the condemnations. The most important of these was Uri Elitzur, editor of the Makor Rishon newspaper, who saluted the hilltop youth while asserting that whoever throws a rock at an IDF soldier should be jailed. As soon as the media saw that the Right was backing the hilltop youth, the incitement melted away.

As part of the "Incitement Week", I appeared on Israel's Channel 2 opposite Arab MK Ahmad Tibi. The interviewer attempted to present me as the representative of mosque torchers and Tibi as the representative of the downtrodden victims. When I reminded Tibi that he represents the public that has brought us, aided and abetted most of the major terror attacks in Israel, he went ballistic and shouted, "I am the master here!" Click on the picture for the video of the debate:

The following is the article that I wrote for the NRG website following the debate.

"I am the master here!" shouted MK Ahmad Tibi, completely losing his cool. When I heard that sentence I understood that I did not need to say anything more. I did not need to remind the viewers that Tibi was the aide and close advisor of the arch-murderer who killed more Jews than anybody since World War II, Yassir Arafat, may his name and memory be blotted out. There was nothing more to be said. Tibi showed his true face in living color. But I couldn't remain silent after he said that sentence. I put the microphone close up to my mouth – I was afraid that the studio in Tel Aviv may be phasing out my sound – and I said to Tibi, "This is my Land and you will not be here."

Ahmad Tibi precisely defined the line that separates the Arabs who are invited to live with us here with mutual respect and all the human rights that they deserve, and those Arabs who will have to go. "I am the master here," said Tibi. If an Arab living in Israel understands that the Jewish Nation returned to its Land and is "master of the house," here, then he can live here with good neighborly relations and respect. But if he doesn't think so, if he develops hope to establish an Arab state here instead of the Jewish one, we will show him the door out.

The fact that Tibi and his counterpart, former MK Azmi Bashara, who had to flee Israel after he was caught directing incoming Hizballah rockets into Haifa, are the popular leaders of the Arabs in Israel is not good news. I know that the Arab public, like any public, consists of both good and bad people. I believe in the human race and am confident that as a rule, people prefer to be good. I think that the radical trend in the Arab street and the fact that an accomplice to terror and murder like Tibi has become the leader of the Arab public is first and foremost the fault of the Jews, not the Arabs. It is the Jews who have forgotten what they are doing here. Many Israelis believe that the Land of Israel belongs to the "Palestinians". They hope that they can buy some legitimacy for robbing the land in Sheikh Munis (Ramat Aviv) by destroying the settlements in Judea and Samaria. It is the Israelis who turned Arafat into some kind of cult figure, so what can we expect from Tibi?

The Israeli needs the Arab to allow him to forget that he is a Jew. For if it is impossible to be an Israeli Arab, that means that only Jews can be Israeli, leaving us stuck with our old Jewish identity that we have tried so hard to escape.

This inferiority complex is the crack into which Tibi and the chorus of Jewish sycophants infiltrate the Israeli psyche, allowing him to spit in our faces for the past twenty years. When you understand this, you understand why Israel did not arrest Bashara and accuse him of treason, allowing him to simply escape Israel, instead. The last thing that the sycophants wanted was a media-intensive trial of an Arab leader; a trial in which Bashara would have had the opportunity to say, "Gentlemen, you tried to turn me into an Israeli against my will. You gave me rights; you gave me democracy, a seat in the parliament, honor fit for kings and all the perks I could ask for. I am sorry, but I am not an Israeli. I am an Arab and I am proud that I directed the missiles straight into your homes."

Tibi's chutzpah stems from the fact that this sly man fully understands the Jews' identity crisis. He knows that they will always grant him immunity because he holds the key to their imaginary Israeli identity. And then this Feiglin shows up, totally free of the complex, a Jew who is simply a Jew and says to him, "Mr. Ahmad," (that really upset the interviewer) "I am simply a Jew and you are simply an Arab. No Israeli mask and no "Palestinian" mask. Suddenly the entire foundation upon which Tibi has built his career collapsed under his feet, and he went berserk.

Tibi is not my problem at all. When the Israelis will reconnect to their identity, there won't be any more problems; not with the Arabs who live in Israel and not with those who live outside our country. He who is in conflict with himself is in conflict with his neighbors, and vice versa.

Tibi is the problem of the public that he represents. Because when he and his ilk continue to represent the entire Arab public, then the righteous among them - those who truly want to live here in peace, just like the Jews live in peace in all the foreign countries around the world –are also included in those who claim to be the "masters" here. And if you are not a Jew and you say to the Jews in their state that you are the master here – like it or not, you have declared war.