Our Fathers’ Children

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btween Jews and Arabs” (Yosef Gorni, “Zionist Socialism and bthe Arab Question,” Middle Eastern Studies, 1978).

bWhat to make of this nonsense? Gorni writes: “The key to btheir subjective approach was the belief that objective necessity bwould sooner or later create a Jewish majority in Palestine bwhich would solve all the political, ethical and socialist aspects bof the problem.” Translated into simple, if cynical terms, the bpolicy was: While we are a minority in the land, let us pay lip bservice to a “common homeland” and “mutual benefits,” all the bwhile working to become a majority so that the embarrassing bpolitical and ethical question of Arab majority rights will fade baway.

bEither the Zionist leaders were fools or, more probably, be- blieved the Arabs were. Ben Zvi could tell the Vaad Leumi (Jew- bish representative committee) in 1922: “Some rights are not de- bpendent on the approval of others. We will employ all possible bmeans of entering the country and since this is historically in- bevitable the Arabs must understand us. And only when they bunderstand can we arrive at reconciliation with our neighbors.” bAnd then the Poale Zion in 1920 could declare that “the in- bterests of the fellahin and the masses of Arab workers will not be baffected by the Jewish influx. For we wish to build this country bnot only for ourselves but for all its inhabitants.” And finally, a bleader of the World Zionist Movement, Nahum Sokolow, could btell the Arabs that the only problem was that of “misunderstand- bing.” The Arabs would have had to be cretins not to give the breply of Arab writer Issat Darwazeh in Al-Karmel (1921): “They b[the Zionists] keep dinning into our ears the word ‘misun- bderstanding.’ Are they trying to tell us that flooding the country bwith an overwhelming Jewish majority is nothing to frighten the bArab nation in Palestine? . . . Won’t Mr. Sokolow tell us which brights the Arabs will not be deprived of by Zionist political fulfill- bment? Let the leaders of the Zionist movement . . . find for their bnation some uninhabited country.”

bPoale Zion spokesman Yosef Aharonovitz, in a 1921 article bcalled “L’Atzmeynu,” could somehow write: “The Arab bmasses, as all uncultured masses, are caught in a net of bintrigue . . . by those who spread and arouse among them a pas- bsion for vengeance and also by the natural passion in their hearts bto plunder and loot. Anyone who tends to see in these intrigues b