bof having both sides reach “goodwill” and “coexistence.” Nev-
bertheless, although its “program” is politically vague and mean-
bdering, its entire spirit breathes “de-Zionization.” Almost in-
bstinctively, the group seems to understand that a Zionist Jewish
bstate and Arab-Jewish “love” are contradictions. And so, while
bits practical projects are those of “head-and-stomach,” the real
bgoal is the surrender of the exclusively Jewish state in favor of an
b“equal” partnership in which Arabs will love Jews.
bShutafut is one more in a long chain of liberal Jewish efforts
bto give up their own rights in hope of winning the love of others.
bThe inevitable failure of the effort will stem from the fundamen-
btal contempt that the Gentile has for a Jew who, having no self-
brespect, can clearly never respect him.
bAmong the love and coexistence projects that are the first
bsteps toward the de-Zionizing of Israel, Shutafut started a
bshaggy commune of a sort near Latrun, to be known as Neve
bShalom. (Among the leading lights were one Bruno Hassar, an
bEgyptian Jew turned Catholic, described as “the prophet” of the
bcommune, and Reconstructionist rabbi Jack Cohen.) There, in
bAugust 1977, as part of a week-long program to train counselors
bfor joint Jewish-Arab children’s summer camps, a Jewish-Arab
bpoetry reading was held on the theme of “love of homeland.”
bThe Jews, naturally, spoke of love and peace. Fawzi Abdullah,
ban Arab poet, had other things in mind. His love of homeland
bwas sincere—he wanted his land. And so the poem he read was
bcalled “Land Day,” in which he condemned the Jews for taking
bArab land. The Arab poet, he decided, had a national task: the
bwriting of “historical documents.” That meant describing the
b“wounded homeland” in which the Arabs were divided into “a
bminority within it and refugees without.”
bPartnership, indeed.
bShutafut will never bring peace to Israel, but it is doing two
bthings quite successfully. It is helping to weaken and eventually
bwill poison the concepts of Zionism and Jewish nationalism, es-
bpecially in its effect on young Jewish students and liberals in the
bUnited States. Their simplistic and intellectually questionable
bapproach, based on the magic words love, peace, and coexistence,
bfinds fertile soil in the minds of young people, themselves victims
bof rootlessness and intellectual shallowness.
bSecond, Shutafut helps prepare the way for the breaking
b