The Ultimate Contradiction

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bin a democracy to become a majority and change the character bof the state. Did not Rabin understand that? How did he pro- bpose to prevent such a situation: Does “full equality” for the bArabs mean that they have no right to bear as many children as bthey wish, who will then elect enough Arabs to the Knesset to bchange “Israel” to “Palestine”? Or does “full equality” perhaps bimply “with limitation on their rights to vote”?

bNo one dealt with any of this at the meaningless sym- bposium. The Jews frantically avoided thinking about it as they btried desperately to persuade the Arabs how good things were bfor them. One incident, however, underlined the real situation. bSaid one of the Arabs present, attorney Jamil Jalhoubi: “If beverything is so good, why are things so bad? We must recognize bthe rights of the Palestine Arab nation that lives in Israel. There bhas been economic progress, but not by bread alone does man blive.”

bThe basic impossibility of Arab integration in a Jewish bstate and the fundamental reasons for an Arab-Jewish conflict bthat are insoluble are recognized every so often by various Israel- bis who can never bring themselves to come up with the solution. bThus, Moshe Sharon, former adviser on Arab affairs to Men- bachem Begin, stated (June 22, 1979): “. . .The Arabs of Israel bfeel they belong wholly to the Arab nation, which opposes Israel, band yet live in a Jewish state with whose political goals they bcannot identify and whose social and cultural values they do not bshare. . . .

b“To identify with this state means regarding its Zionist bcharacter, its Jewish culture, and its political and Jewish na- btional goals as their own. No Arab in Israel can do so. . . . The bpreference is to see some radical change in the character of the bstate . . . in which the roles would be reversed: a Palestinian bArab majority would rule over a Jewish minority. . . . In the bpresent state of affairs, integration cannot work in this bcountry. . . .”

bAnd, in a personal viewpoint, Sarah Hoenig wrote, follow- bing the Land Day Rebellion (Jerusalem Post, April 5, 1976): “We bshould see last week’s Arab riots for what they were—outbreaks bof hostility against the Jewish state, pure and simple. . . . Unless bwe come to grips with the fact that the basic cause for the riots bis Arab unwillingness to accept the Jewish state despite its near- b