Of Declarations and Independence

59

bMr. Eban would give would be that we do not want them because they bare Arabs and not Jews. But, of course, Mr. Eban detests the ex- btremists who call for emigration of the Arabs. They are clearly bracists.

bAnd will Mr. Eban go to Nazareth tomorrow to repeat to bhis happy, equal Arabs of Israel the following words he once bcoined? “Israel’s nationalism is more than a political movement. bIt is a faith, a religion, a culture, a civilization, a journey togeth- ber of people across generations of martyrdom.”

bDear Mr. Eban, do share those noble thoughts with Israel’s bArabs. What tears of joy and empathy will flow in Nazareth bsquare, or in Umm al-Fahm or Sakhnin or all the equal villages bof equal Arab citizens who presumably commemorated the fast bof Tisha B’Av with us for 2,500 years as they mourned the de- bstruction of the Jewish Holy Temple “across generations of mar- btyrdom.”

bThe Arab of Israel sits in a land in which he was once the bmajority, which he controlled, which was Arab, which was his. The bJew came—from Russia, Poland, Morocco, and Brooklyn—and btook it from him. That is how the Arab sees it. That is his reality. bHow do we expect him to feel and react, this man who feels brobbed and bitter and alienated? That is the source of the prob- blem, and it is insoluble.

bThe points I raise are so brutally plain and painful that bpeople shrink from them. Better, for them, sugary delusions bthan bitter reality. And so, during all the years of the existence bof Israel, and for all the decades of pre-Israel political Zionism, bZionist leaders eagerly, desperately, clung to a myth, which they bfed, as an article of faith, to the Jewish masses. That myth pro- bclaimed: The way to peaceful coexistence between Arab and bJew in the Land of Israel is to raise the standard of living and to bcreate a new generation of educated Arabs—the “head-and-stom- bach” policy of clever Israelis. . . .

bI say it again: All those who say this hold the Israeli Arab bin nothing but contempt.

bIt should be obvious by now, as the result of scores of ex- bamples in other countries, that one does not buy the national baspirations of a people with indoor toilets. The Arabs of Israel, ba minority who possess national aspirations, will not be bought boff with material goods, electricity, or higher education. Indeed, b