LIFE IN ISRAEL I Wall Street can wait a year. Law School can wait a year. The Rat Race can wait a year. BUT ISRAEL CAN'T WAIT! Israeli TV Tackles Issue Of Co-Existence CARL ALPERT Special to The Jewish News A CLASSIFIEDS GET RESULTS! rchie Bunker is alive and well, and living in Israel. For those who are not familiar with the American television program, Archie, a character in a highly popular comedy series, gave open ex- pression to his dislike of blacks, Jews and anyone who was not like him. He was the leading figure in the program and also the butt of the jokes, as his prejudices were held up to ridicule. Israel television is now run- ning a domestic series entitl- ed "Neighbors," which seeks to give a light and popular touch to a serious element of life in Israel. But first, a word about the nature of the problem: A team of crack journalists from the daily Ha'aretz decid- ed to do an in-depth story of neighborhoods in Jaffa, Acre and Ramleh, where Jews and Arabs live together, to show that, when in close proximity, the two peoples do get along very well. Their findings did not agree with their initial hypothesis. While there were indeed, idyllic cases of close neighborliness, there were ex- ceptions to the rule. Jews and Arabs, they found, had dif- ferent conceptions of what the ideal situation was. For Jews, co-existence meant only peace and quiet — with as little con- tact as possible: "You go your way, we'll go ours, and we'll leave each other alone." For the Arabs, on the other hand, co-existence meant un- qualified demand for com- plete and full acceptance in- to Israel life — social economic, political. Even the very word co-existence was re- jected, according to the journalists. Against this background, and after much hesitation, Israel television decided to air its program. The Jew, Itzik Haruv, is a narrow-minded Archie Bunker who is shocked to discover, upon moving into a new condominium, that his neighbor across the hall is an Arab. He is all for co-existence — in theory, of course — but "why did this have to happen to me?" The neighbor, Bassam Medawa, has an equally low 354.6060 Carl Alpert is a former Technion vice-president, living in Haifa. OTZMA (Now in its fifth year) •It's a 10-month fellowship program in Israel for only $1,000.* •It's travel, study, work and exploration. •It's hard. It's fun. It's the best adventure you'll ever have. -It's for outstanding young men and women, age 19-24. •It's easy to find out more. For information, call one of these Otzma graduates: Alysa Goldberg EMU, 485-2495 Lisa Kruman U-M, 994-3979 Wendy Littky MSU, (517) 332-2765 or call Yefet Ozery, Israel Program Center 6600 W. 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Of the two, Itzik is the least likeable and he is more often held up to ridicule. Thus, despite his vaunted superiori- ty, he displays his cultural ig- norance, for example: "Beethoven, Mozart, they're all the same to me." The disparity in treatment of the two may make the program more popular among Israeli Arabs, especially since the series is aired during that period of TV time which is normally slotted for Arabic programs. The two wives, on the other hand, get along as model neighbors, and laugh at their husbands' antics. Itzik's mother-in-law takes a liking to the fat, good-natured Arab and, using the Yiddish affec- tionate diminutive, calls him Bassamele. The plot development is very simple and is often a series of camera flashes, first in one apartment and then in the other, as each family is portrayed facing similar domestic problems, with more or less the same reactions. The children on both sides, speaking Hebrew and Arabic respectively, bid their parents farewell with what has become almost a new word in Hebrew: "Bye!" The Jewish boy is made to be more of a brat than the Arab youngster. Comic situations abound, as when the local religious functionary comes around to affix mezuzahs. After the program had been running for a few weeks, the producers apparently chang- ed their approach. Further in- stallments began to play down clashes between the neighbors based on their dif- ferences, and instead em- phasized that both suffered from the same human weaknesses. Both men are equally stupid, self-centered and narrow-minded. "Neighbors" has now degenerated into a heavy- handed, slapstick comedy which evades, rather than confronts, the issues. ❑ K ,Y\