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bIt is a devoutly desired illusion that every Israeli leader and bofficial spreads. It is a persistent delusion that grows louder and bmore frantic, the more obvious its patent falsehood. Together bwith oranges and diamonds, it ranks as one of Israel’s major bexports, this myth of the loyal, loving Arab of Israel. It is bshouted forth—to the accompaniment of loud and happy Ameri- bcan Jewish applause—at breakfasts, brunches, lunches, teas, bdinners, suppers, and other stomach frameworks for fund-rais- bing. The soothing legend of “our good Arabs who are equal and bfree and who appreciate and love Israel” is fed, along with liver, bchicken, and stuffed derma, to the Hadassah’s portly and byounger suburban matrons, Long Island Jewish Centers, UJA band Israel Bond donors, and the ever-aging and ever-fewer “Zi- bonists” who compose the ranks of the Zionist Organization of bAmerica. It is adopted by Reform and Conservative rabbis bwhose ignorance of the Israeli scene complements similar lack of bknowledge of Judaism. It ranks among the hoariest of the leg- bends and myths of world Jewry. To look at reality and to think other- bwise is simply too unbearably painful. bAnd yet, even the Jerusalem Post was forced to see what was bbefore its very eyes. In an article titled “Shattered Illusions” b(April 2, 1976), the Post’s Yosef Goell wrote: “Part of the Israeli bArab community hates Israel with barely veiled, intense ha- btred.” True. And one could also add: The greatest part of the bIsraeli Arab community is hostile to and alienated from the state band would dearly love to exchange it for a “Palestine.” bWhat happened? What occurred to “change” the Israeli bArabs? What has caused an eruption of sheer hatred against the bState of Israel by its own Arab citizens? After the Land Day brevolt, almost everyone asked those questions. Gallons of ink band reams of paper and countless words, words, and more bwords were produced in an effort to understand. One could balmost hear the shattering of the urgently held illusions of nearly bthree decades. Pity. For had people only wished to see, the signs bwere there, and had been there for many years, clear and ob- bvious. The Arab revolt of 1976 and all the future greater and bloodier bones are immutable and inevitable. bThere is hatred and hostility on the part of the vast majority bof Israeli Arabs for the state in which they live. And it is neither ba recent development nor a limited phenomenon of Land Day, b
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