The discrimination, said the Arab student, is not the problem. Even if you grant us full equality, the conflict will go on as long as Israel is a Jewish state. This country was our home, and you turned it into a foreign place for us. In a Jewish state we will always feel like foreigners: The Star of David is not our flag, and HaTikva is not our national anthem. It is impossible to replace our Palestinian dream by a Zionist dream.
These words, which were uttered calmly, put an end to the internal Jewish debate at once. Burning issues such as "territories" and "settlements" suddenly became irrelevant. I realized that the Hamas spokesman, who refers to the southern town of Sderot as a "settlement," gives expression to a deep sense felt by all – Hamas, Fatah, Israeli Arabs, and Palestinian Authority residents. I recalled the refusal of our "partner," Mahmoud Abbas, to recognize the Jewishness of the state – a position that was openly backed by Egypt. This shows us that it is possible to sign a "peace treaty" with the State of Israel while at the same time fight against the fact it belongs to the Jewish people.
With the help of the Arab girl, the layers of dishonesty disappeared and I responded to her that we do not need her to "recognize our existence" – if we exist, her recognition won't add a thing, and if we do not exist, her recognition won't help. As recognition is not some kind of merchandise, there is no need to pay for it.
The Left asks the Arab girl to give up Jaffa, and in exchange is willing to give up Hebron. Yet even if she signs such deal a thousand times, it is clear that she would take Jaffa back as well once she is able to do so. And still, even such meaningless signature is incredibly difficult for her and she may even pay with her life for doing that - because a de facto reality is tolerated by the Arabs, in the absence of any other option, while a formal de jure concession is considered treason.
And if an agreement is impossible, there can be no meeting of the minds between side A that does not reconcile itself to the existence of side B, so there is no point in negotiations and a process of give and take – particularly the "give" part of the equation.
The student expressed an authentic Arab position, which the Jewish Left has been ignoring: A complete rejection of the "1967 in exchange for 1948" formula: You will concede what we already occupied and expelled and settled in the 1948 War of Independence and we will concede what we took in the 1967 Six-Day War. An Arab "partner" who pays some lip service to such "deal" is simply deceiving us.
This explains the Arab emphasis on two of the "core issues" – Jerusalem's Old City, because the Jewishness or Arabness of the entire country is determined based on this, and the demand to allow millions of refugees into a Green Line state, which would erase Israel's blue-and-white character.
And that, in a nutshell, is why there will be no peaceful resolution to this conflict until only one people live in this land. I invite anyone to attempt to dispute by showing me your proof that it can be otherwise but I have 60 years of history on my side.
6 comments:
Your hypothesis is slightly flawed, or perhaps just slightly overstated. It isn't that there must be no non-Arabs present in Arab land, it is that the other can't possibly outrank or outshine the Arabs.
There's a few hundred years of history that corroborate this, too, particularly Mameluk and then Ottoman rule. Muslims and Jews lived on the same turf then, with the caveat that the Muslims enjoyed clear superiority in rights and privileges.
The Muslim neighbours of the mediæval Crusader states were not too fond of them either -- but they did have considerable use for Christian settlers a few hundred years later when depopulated Constantinople was made the Ottoman capital.
History suggests to me that the Muslim Arabs are perfectly content to let non-Muslims live in Palestine so long as the Muslims are at the political, economic and legal top of the social order. Anything else invites constant revolt. Whether anyone else is content to live with that arrangement is another thing.
May I ask what your proposed real-word solution is, if, in your view, "only one people can live in this land"?
Don't want to speak for Kateland, and maybe I'm wrong, but "fight it out" seems like the obvious answer.
The so-called peace process will continue to be a dud as long as certain parties feel like they've got a better-than-average fighting chance to take down the other. Until they actually get a chance to scrap they'll be using said process to bide their time and prepare for the right moment.
Balbulican –
Please don't think I was ignoring you but I don't comment from my employer's computer so most things have to wait until I get home.
That said - I am simply at a loss for words how can I say it in plainer English than "only one people can live in this land"? Or perhaps, that really is not the question you want to ask?
But here's a question to you. Here you have a young Israeli Arab young woman, who presumably was raised and benefited from living in one of the freest societies of the Mid-East, and yet, at heart she prefers to destroy the society which gave her so much in order to establish another state for no other reason than to reflect her own ethnicity. And you know what? I even understand her and possess a certain sense of sympathy for her plight.
When she hears the HaTikva and it talks about the longing and hope of a Jewish heart and soul to return to Zion – what does this mean to her? She does not hear hope but only despair. Where is her place?
Let me put it another way. Under the Israeli Law of Return I am eligble for Israeli citizenship, and yet, under the Halakha (Jewish religious law) I am not even Jewish. I am two generations in exile from the Halakha. And yet I, Canadian born, am entitled to a place and have all the same responsiblities of citizenship as our young Israeli Arab woman who is born in Israel. Israel was established as the Jewish homeland. There is simply no point to the continued existence of the Israeli state if it does not act as the homeland for the Jews. I am not saying others cannot live in the Jewish homeland but they will dwell as strangers in the Jewish homeland. Now the real difference between her and I is this. When I hear the HaTikva there is tiny piece of my heart which instinctly longs to rise and turn to Zion. Intellectually, I don’t really understand it and from time to time I do try to rationalize it, but ultimately it is something that has to be felt to be known.
Chris, I wrote my comment before I saw yours. I like your answer better.
"Please don't think I was ignoring you but I don't comment from my employer's computer so most things have to wait until I get home."
I am well aware that some of us have lives out there.
Thanks for the responses, guys. It's a difficult thing for an outsider to understand, but I appreciate your frankness.
Post a Comment