Opinion

OTHER VIEWS

What Will Our Grandchildren Say?

New York/ITA

I

n January, the Jewish Agency for
Israel renovated some 300 bomb
shelters in the south of Israel. With
the increased range of rockets from
Gaza hitting Ashdod and Beersheva
— the first time these cities came under
rocket attack since the 1948 War of
Independence — it was time for some
renovation.
Visiting these refurbished bomb shel-
ters or watching kids as they practice
taking cover in them gives one a sense of
deja vu. Today, the Jewish Agency is able
to provide color TV and air conditioners
in the shelters, an improvement over a
transistor radio and a fan. But a bomb
shelter is still a bomb shelter and a rocket
still a rocket.
Which makes me wonder: As Israel
celebrates its 61st year of independence
(Yom HaAtzmaut is April 29), what would
my grandfather, Joseph Meyerhoff, think
if he saw Israel now?
As he sat huddled with David Ben-

development towns built by
Gurion in 1950 contemplating
the Jewish Agency during
how to get urgently needed
our grandparents' heyday in
capital into Israel — he subse-
the 1950s and ( 60s, we are
quently started Israel Bonds —
my grandfather wouldn't have
founding young communities
built by college students in
imagined driving today north
of Tel Aviv to Israel's high-tech
socioeconomically challenged
areas of Israel. When they
hub or inside Intel's micro-pro-
aren't studying, members of
cessing factory in Kiryat Gat. He
these young communities are
wouldn't have imagined Israel
Richard
boasting of 4,000 high-tech
mentoring at-risk youth, vol-
Pearlstone
unteering at the local council
companies and more than 100
Special
and participating in projects
venture-capital funds.
Commentary
to improve the area. These
Nor would he have imagined
students call themselves the
that alongside this boom, a
Zionist pioneers of the 21st century.
growing socioeconomic divide and an
unprecedented number of children were
Would our grandparents have imag-
ined that Jews would continue to find a
living in poverty.
haven in Israel in 2009 from countries
It also would have been hard to think
as diverse as Germany, Georgia and
of the Jewish Agency partnering with
Yemen? Would they have imagined the
Cisco to offer a three-year course giving
busloads and planeloads of Jewish youth
high school students in underprivileged
from all over the world coming to Israel
areas a computer technician's certificate,
so they can make their way into technical on Birthright or to study for a year on a
Masa program?
units in the army.
Finally, if they believed Israel were to
Today, instead of kibbutzim and

reach its seventh decade, my grandfa-
ther's generation would have assumed
there would be quiet, if not peace, and
that Israel would not at once be facing
homemade Kassam rockets from Gaza
and a nuclear threat from Iran. I don't
think they would have envisioned us
renovating bomb shelters in 2009.
But the really interesting question is,
what will Israel look like 60 years from
now, when our grandchildren are where
we are today? That's the unwritten part
of the story; that's the part we are writing
today.
It's easy to lose sight of this amidst our
daily lives, personal and communal turbu-
lence, especially during these times of eco-
nomic challenge. But if we keep on course,
especially when it is difficult, come Israel's
120th Independence Day our grandchil-
dren will look back with pride on what we
did just as we look back on the generation
that founded the state. E

Richard Pearlstone is chairman of the board of

governors of the Jewish Agency for Israel.

Apartheid In Israel?

Atlanta/JTA

A

few years ago, I began an ini-
tiative at the Israeli Foreign
Ministry aimed at opening a
dialogue with Muslim communities in
the West. When the first delegations of
European and American Muslims started
to arrive, they were amazed at the coexis-
tence between Arabs and Jews in Israel.
For many outside of Israel, their per-
ception of the country has been framed
by the international media. They have
allowed their opinions to be shaped by a
constant stream of pictures and articles
with one main idea: Between Arabs and
Jews there can be only hatred and vio-
lence.
With this mindset, the delegates trav-
eled to Haifa, one of the most beautiful
cities on Earth, a place where beauty is
about more than geography. In Haifa,
the Muslim delegations visited a major
university with an Arab Muslim vice presi-
dent and many Arab students. They went
to markets and offices and observed Arabs
and Jews peacefully going about their
simple daily lives.
The delegations heard the call to prayer
of the muezzin. They visited the mosque
of the Ahmadi Islamic sect, Muslims

B2

April 23 • 2009

persecuted in many parts of
the world who have flourished
in Israel, and traveled near the
world Baha'i religious center, a
faith persecuted in Iran. They
met some of the more than 100
Islamic family court judges and
talked with the imams who
provide religious services; both
groups are paid by the Israeli
government.
In a regular Israeli parliament
session, there is an average of 15
Arab members, some of whom
are part of self-proclaimed
Zionist parties. Israel has Arab members
of parliament and in the Cabinet; it has
Arab ambassadors and high-ranking Arab
officers in the military.
Yet despite examples of diversity like
these, some critics persist in trying to
apply the terrible adjective of apartheid to
the State of Israel. The facts on the ground,
however, show nothing even remotely
close to a racist system. For while one can
claim that Arabs in Israel do not receive
enough government attention or invest-
ment in their community, or one can
argue that the situation for Israeli Arabs
is sensitive as a minority in a country that
has gone to war with its Arab neighbors,

all of these issues are political
and have nothing to do with
race.
There is no apartheid in
Israel. Nor is there apartheid in
Gaza and the West Bank. The
territories came under Israeli
control in 1967 following the
Six-Day War, and over the next
20 years Israel controlled them
with nearly no security mea-
sures: almost no checkpoints,
no fences and no controlled
roads.
However, during the first
Palestinian uprising in 1987 and again
during the 1990s, Israel was forced to
toughen its security measures. The coun-
try had to protect its citizens because the
terrorists of Hamas made suicide bomb-
ing their tactic of choice and shopping
malls, nightclubs, schools and hotels their
primary targets.
Before the uprising began, more than
120,000 Palestinians worked in Israel. In
every Palestinian household, there was at
least one person who worked in Israel. The
workers entered the country freely and
their standard of living was among the
highest in the Middle East.
Only after 25 years of controlling the

territories and having its citizens targeted
by terror did Israel begin to institute the
security measures that some are trying to
call "apartheid!' That is why it has been
so hard to make the charges stick. Israel,
like any other country, is not perfect. The
country and its diverse population still
admittedly face political and security
issues. But apartheid? You must be joking.
Israel and the international community
are ready for Palestinian freedom and
independence. The question is, are the
Palestinians?
The greatest problem facing the
Palestinians today is not Israel or illusion-
ary "apartheid," but a lack of unified and
visionary leadership. Palestinians need to
understand that violent action will never
yield the results they want and that serv-
ing as a useful distraction for the regime
in Tehran will never bring prosperity.
The Palestinians need to produce their
own Martin Luther King, Jr., Nelson
Mandela or Mahatma Gandhi — a leader
who will demonstrate to them that non-
violence is a much more successful tool
for freedom and coexistence.

Reda Mansour is an Israeli Druze and current

consul general of Israel to the Southeastern

United States.

