bneed to retain a Jewish majority” and warn against “too many
bArabs” (one recalls wryly Golda Meir’s attack on me for “offend-
bing the sensibilities” of the Arabs, followed sometime later by
bthe classic speech in which she spoke of the need to give up land
bbecause “I do not want to awaken each morning worrying about
bhow many Arabs were born the previous night”)—then think
bhow “equal” the Arab of Israel feels.
bThe most outrageous offense against Arab sensibilities
bcomes from all the liberals and leftists who grow livid with anger
bif certain people call for the transfer of Israeli Arabs from the
bcountry. But those who call for Arab transfer do so out of respect
bfor the sincerity of the Arab belief that the land was stolen from
bhim and out of knowledge that the Arab cannot feel love and
bempathy for a Jewish state. Because of this, they understand that
bthere can never be peace or coexistence between Jew and Arab.
bThis infuriates the “moralists.” Yet it is these “moralists” who
bthen proceed to warn against annexing land lest, G-d forbid, we
bimport too many Arabs into our midst. What in the world does
ban Israeli Arab think when Israeli leaders, who swear that he is
bequal, proceed to say the following: “Do you want to have . . .
ba Jewish state in the whole of Eretz Yisrael? . . . Do you want to
bhave democracy in that state? How then will it be a Jewish state?
bWe want a Jewish state, even if it is not in the whole of the
bcountry” (David Ben-Gurion, Knesset debate, April 4, 1949).
bDid Ben-Gurion ever think what the “equal” Arabs of the
bJewish Israel who live in the state that is “not in the whole of the
bcountry” felt on hearing those words?
bOr consider the thoughts of Abba Eban, whose ability to
bspeak twelve languages had made him the darling of Jewish
bCenters and Hadassah groups in the Western world. He warns
bagainst annexing Judea-Samaria and the other liberated lands
band asks: “Do we aspire to be a Jewish democracy [sic], or
bdoes our vision include a million Arab noncitizens held in an
bunwanted union with us forever?” (Jerusalem Post, April 23,
b1976).
bEven as the applause of the nonthinkers rises in a crescen-
bdo, the more perceptive may ask: A Jewish democracy? How in
bthe world can the Israeli Arab think of that? Mr. Eban intones:
b“We cannot hold a million Arabs as noncitizens.” In that case,
basks the Israeli Arab, why not make them citizens? The answer that
b