The extremism and madness that took hold of Palestinian society and gave way to the current wave of terrorist attacks are, unfortunately, seeping through into the margins of the Arab public inside Israel. Israeli Arab elected officials are helping to fan the flames and Arab citizens -- a few lone individuals, it must be noted -- have even set out to murder Jews. Incitement is doing its job, and it's not stopping at the Green Line. It is true that the majority of the Arab public wants, as Nazareth Mayor Ali Salem expressed, to put a stop to the deteriorating situation and to return to sanity. After all, this is not Judea and Samaria or Gaza. In those places, Palestinian society warmly embraces terrorists, even if they are children. And yet, now is the test, the critical moment for Israeli Arabs. But this time, it is not about choosing between their people and their country, as it has been in the past, and it is not about making a political choice between opposing Israeli government policies and supporting the Palestinian Authority. The decision facing Israeli Arabs now is whether to fall in line behind the wave of incitement and madness that is gripping not only Palestinian society, but societies throughout the Middle East, or whether to stay firmly planted in the world of sanity and openness. Do not be mistaken. A straight line of mania and incitement links the youngsters seen in the Islamic State group's videos and the Palestinian children who have set out to murder Jewish children their own age and to die in the name of Allah. This fanatical bloodlust will end up harming the Arabs themselves more than it will the Jews, because a 13-year-old boy who murders Jews will grow up to murder his own people. That is what happened during the Arab revolt in the 1930s, which set out to target Jews, but led to the devastation of Arab society in the land of Israel. It is difficult to point out levelheaded, responsible leadership among the Arab Knesset members these days, but hopefully among the local Arab leaders, there will be those who will stop the incitement and radicalization and ensure that the Israeli Arab public comes to its senses before calamity strikes.
