Israelis learn Arabic like Americans learn Spanish, so there's a good non-political explanation for it. :)
Ah, reminds me how we had to learn russian back in the commie days (I'm from Bulgaria). Nothing against russian, or it's people, but the regime required it.
It's in their own interest to find better ways to teach/learn it.
But it might also be in their interest to make it seem inferior ..
Nothing wrong with that, but someone would take it politically :)