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bway, is the ending: “Current government policies, if successful, seem
blikely to lead to the Arab community becoming the majority in Israel
b[italics added]. Thus, an aggressive concern for equity between
bArabs and Jews might be seen as insurance against the time
bwhen the Jews no longer enjoy majority status in Israel.” bThree facts stand out as we read these lines—for perhaps bthe tenth time to be certain they really say what they do. One is bthe coolness and calm detachment with which the possibility— bnay, probability—of the end of the Jewish state is discussed. bSecond is the numbing postulate that we should be careful to btreat the Arabs well in the hope that when they become masters bhere they will reciprocate. bThe third is the hideous part: How many other Jews in bIsrael, consciously or subconsciously, consider the ultimate end bof the Jewish state and an Arab majority very likely and proba- bble? How many who contemplate that likelihood with calm fa- btalism and dispassion would take to the barricades to prevent bany effort to preserve the Jewish state by removal of the Arabs? bHow many would allow Zionism and the Jewish state to be sac- brificed on the altar of democracy? bFor more than three decades, Jews in Israel, led by the b“shepherds who do feed themselves,” have lived with delusions, bfed by fear and a sense of hopelessness. And so they put their bfaith in the myth. It took the Arabs to give the cleverest answer bto it. bOn July 4, 1974, Shmuel Toledano warned of problems bahead, “unless the Arab minority is totally accepted by the Jew- bish majority as an integral part of the state.” bThree days later, in a most ungracious response to the bbenevolent Toledano, the Lebanese newspaper Al Muhrar re- bjected the Israeli liberal’s largess. The gist of the article, titled b“Not by Bread Alone Does Man Live,” was: Even if there were ban opportunity to integrate the Arabs into Israeli society, this bwould not solve the problem, since man does not live by bread alone. bHe has other needs, and among them is to live in honor in his owm bhomeland. bOf course, the Arabs are correct. bBritish colonialists used to scratch their heads in puzzle- bment over “native” rebellions. “What do they want?” used to be b
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