Of Declarations and Independence |
55 |
bnot those of Nazareth, is it surprising that the Arab feels alien-
bated from the state?
bThe concept “Jewish” is dinned into the Arab’s angry head
bevery day. Well, he is not Jewish, and what perverse madness
bprevents us from understanding his alienation and rage? Has it
bnever occurred to anyone that the very existence of a Jewish
bstate in the land where the Arab was once the majority makes
bhim uncomfortable and that that is unacceptable to him?
bThe State of Israel came into being as the Jewish state, the
bsovereign homeland of the Jewish people. The State of Israel is
bthe goal of Zionism, the movement of Jewish longing for a return
bto their homeland, a longing that began, not with Herzl in 1897,
bbut with his great-great-ancestor, who wept as the Second Tem-
bple was destroyed in the year 70. The State of Israel is that
bhomeland for which Jews pray three times daily, turning their
bfaces, not toward Mecca or Rome, but toward Jerusalem. The
bState of Israel is the dream, vision, hope, tears, yearning of a
bJewish people that suffered humiliation, exile, agony, poverty,
brobbery, rape, burning, drowning, gasing, pogroms, Crusades,
bInquisitions, and Auschwitzes from its varied hosts throughout
bthe world. The State of Israel is the Jewish conviction that “Nev-
ber Again!” is a concept that can be realized only in a land where
bJews control their own destiny, their own police and armed
bforces, their own guns to guarantee the kind of respect the Zhid,
bKike, Yahud, and Yevrei never quite received from the mouths,
bfists, and boots of the majority culture where he resided in ner-
bvous insecurity. The State of Israel is the Jewish demand for a
bland in which Jews can preserve and create their own specific
btradition and way of life free of the spiritual and social assimila-
btion of foreign abrasive culture.
bThe State of Israel is the Jewish demand for what every
bother people sees as its natural right. The State of Israel is not
ba request, a plan, or a petition. It is not a favor sought while
bcrouching like some pauper at the back door of the nobleman’s
bmansion. The State of Israel is the Jewish demand and affirma-
btion of right to the land. What the Arab state of Syria is to the
bSyrians, and the Polish state to the Poles and Burundi to Burun-
bdians and Muslim Pakistan to Muslim Pakistanis and Papua to
bPapuans, so is the Jewish state—at least—to the Jews.
bThere is nothing to be ashamed of. There is no need to grow
b