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OTC YEWS
SILENCE
Biting The Hand That Feeds Them
Philadelphia
igr
hen reports began to circu-
late last fall that some
high-ranking Israeli offi-
cials and some prominent
folks in the United Jewish Communities
(UJC) were considering raising funds for
Israel's Arab citizens, many Jews reacted
with shock and consternation.
They shouldn't have been surprised.
The issue of the anomalous status of
Israeli Arabs has been festering for
decades.
Israel's 1.2-million Arab citizens
make up 18 percent of the population
of the state. Though they have full
civil rights under Israeli law, their
position as a national minority inside
the Jewish state is a difficult one. Do
we really expect Arabs to feel comfort-
able about swearing allegiance to a
country whose flag and national
anthem are clearly Jewish?
"They are a minority in a Jewish
state that is surrounded by an Arab
majority," said Professor Moti Zakem
of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem
in a recent interview. Zakem's expertise
on this issue stems from the two years
he served (1997-99) as former Israeli
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's
official advisor on Arab affairs.
Zakem was the prime minister's
point man in efforts to foster peaceful
coexistence, as well as to head off
explosions, such as the riots that took
place last October during the term of
Netanyahu's successor, Ehud Barak.
During those riots, which spread
across the mostly Arab-inhabited
Galilee, "peaceful protests" in sympa-
thy with the Palestinian intifada in
Judea and Samaria soon turned vio-
lent. According to wire service and
eyewitness reports, mobs vandalized
banks and government buildings
inside Arab towns, chanting "Kill the
Jews" and "With blood and fire, we
will redeem Palestine."
The rioters also set forest fires and
sought to block traffic on highways, in
some cases pulling Jewish drivers out
of their cars and beating them up.
Israeli policemen killed 13 Arabs
while they were attempting to put
down the violence.
A Radicalized Population
The violence horrified Israelis, espe-
cially those who were most sympathet-
ic to Israeli Arab claims of discrimina-
tion and unequal funding for Arab
Jonathan S. Tobin is executive editor
of the Jewish Exponent in Philadelphia.
He can be reached via e-mail at
jtobin@jewishexponent.com
54,
3/16
2001
34
municipalities.
Those who
hoped that the
peace process
would help fur-
ther coexistence
between Israel's
Jewish and Arab
citizens are now
JONATHAN S. facing the fact
that Israel's Arab
TOBIN
population is
Special
becoming more
Commentary
and more radical-
ized.
Israeli Arabs were so angry about
the 13 fatalities that they punished
Barak at the polls in January. The
Arab boycott, combined with Ariel
Sharon's landslide victory over Barak
among Jewish voters, resulted in
Israel's most one-sided election in the
nation's history.
The loyalty, or at least the quies-
cence of Israeli Arabs, was once a given.
But not anymore. The fact that most
Arab citizens of Israelis now call them-
selves "Palestinians with Israeli citizen-
ship," rather than "Arab Israelis,"
speaks volumes about this problem.
Indeed, with Arab birthrates far out-
stripping those of Jews, some fear that
within a few generations, Israeli Arabs
will outnumber Jews in Israel.
That Israeli Arab members of the
Knesset openly support Palestinian
Authority leader Yasser Arafat, and -
that Israeli Arab parties openly call for
the end of the Jewish state as we know
it, should serve to remind us that
Arabs born on the right side of the
"green line" are no more likely to be
Zionists than those living in Hebron
or Nablus.
The twin forces of what Zakem
calls "Palestinization" and Islamism are
making Israeli Arabs look more and
more like a fifth column within Israel,
rather than an aggrieved minority.
Zakem believes it is possible for
another force, "Israelization," to coun-
teract these influences. But, he admits,
"assimilation" of Israeli Arabs into
society is "not working."
Throwing Money?
In the wake of last year's riots, many
in Israel believed that redressing Arab
complaints about inequality in Israeli
society could help calm things down.
That will take money.
And, as always, whenever Israelis find
a financial need, they turn to their
American cousins for cash to throw at
the problem. This was the origin of the
plan for the UJC, the New York City-
based umbrella for the North American
federated community, to start directly
funding some Israeli Arab projects. But
UJC is not the first American Jewish
group to suggest this. In fact, left-wing
Jewish organizations such as the New
Israel Fund, Givat Haviva and the Abra-
ham Fund have long been aiding Israeli
Arabs.
Many Jews seem comfortable express-
ing their Jewish identity by aiding non-
Jewish causes. Though I have yet to read
of any Arab group funding Jewish caus-
es, this phenomenon can best be under-
stood by writer Edward Alexander's
immortal quip that "universalism is the
parochialism of the Jews."
But how realistic is the hope that
Jewish funding of Arab projects will
help create internal peace between
Israeli Arabs and Jews?
According to Zakem, after 52 years,
Arab citizens have significantly "nar-
rowed the gap" between their living
standards and those of Jewish Israelis.
Indeed, much of the controversy over
unequal funding of municipalities
stems, he says, from corruption and
mismanagement on the part of Israeli
Arab political elites who run Arab
town halls. He hopes that as living
standards and education levels
improve, Arabs will value the benefits
of being part of Israeli society.
Strategic Aid
Zakem agrees that Israel must do even
more for its Arab citizens, but he
points out that such efforts, along
with any American Jewish aid pro-
jects, must be carried out strategically.
For instance, rather than sending
aid to Arabs who have already demon-
strated fanatical hatred for Israel, if
American Jews really want to give
money to this cause, he thinks they
should earmark their aid for those
Arabs "who support Israel." Those
groups include Druze and Bedouin
minorities who are loyal to Israel and
whose young men are drafted into the
Israel Defense Forces along with their
Jewish counterparts.
The desire of American Jews to help
Israeli Arabs is laudable. But it is
doubtful that this is the best use of
scarce Jewish resources. At a time when
there isn't enough money raised to help
pay for the absorption of Jews into
Israel or to fund Jewish day school edu-
cation in the United States, the diver-
sion of funds to Israel's Arab sector
seems a mad, if altruistic, decision.
Nor, I imagine, will it win much
gratitude from the recipients of our
largesse. Such an allocation may be
characteristically Jewish, but not very
smart.
❑
from page 33
selves before recognizing our people
and our right to live.
Now that Israel needs us, we turn
our backs. We send money and half-
felt thoughts from our soft couches
while yelling at CNN (Cable News
Network). Yet, we do recognize all
that they do for us.
By canceling trips to Israel and
keeping our children from visiting, we
not only hurt the Israeli economy, but
far worse, destroy the Israeli spirit. We
slap Israelis in the face and say we do
not trust them with our children or
our lives. We expect them to die for
Israel and shelter Jews around the
world, but the irony is that we do not
trust them with our safety.
Now that Israel
needs us, we turn
our backs.
At breakfast on our last day in
Israel, I listened to a Christian group
leader, sitting at a table next to me,
explain how Palestinians throw little
rocks and Jews respond with cannon-
balls. I did as all Diaspora Jews do; I
remained silent.
We are silent when the news says
Ariel Sharon, now the prime minister,
started the latest uprising, though we
know Israelis were killed in the days
before he visited the Temple Mount
on Sept. 28. We are silent when an
Arab appears on television's "Night-
line" to talk about Iraq and instead
bashes Israel. We are silent when the
media report the wounded Palestini-
ans of the day, but do not mention
the attacks on the civilian Jewish
towns of Gilo and others.
We were silent when the Babyloni-
ans expelled us from our land and
when the Spanish exterminated us —
silent when the English, French and
Portuguese expelled us from their
countriess. Now, we have a saying,
"Never forget." And we build museums
and make movies, and remain silent.
A woman said to our group that in
1948, the Jews faced a question of
survival. Her response was to make
aliyah and help build a kibbutz.
Today, we Jews face other questions of
survival: How will we deal with it?
What is our response? What will we
do? I haven't quite found my answers
yet. I do know what I will do. I will
not remain silent any longer.
❑