Our Fathers’ Children

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b“he takes the shadow of the mountains for mountains.” bSmilansky flatly stated that the Arabs of the Land of Israel were bnot a nation but a social organism divided into tribes and bclasses.

bThis early division of opinion typified the two delusions bthat almost the entire Zionist movement adhered to. On the one bhand were those who refused even to contemplate anything as b“ridiculous” as an Arab national movement in the land. On the bother were those who recognized an Arab problem but insisted bthat it could be tamed by giving the Arabs social and economic bbenefits. The first view eventually died, under the sheer weight bof Arab bullets and bombs. The second view is still alive and sick bin the minds of Jewish leaders in Israel and the Exile.

bIn 1908 the first organized attack by Arabs against Jews boccurred on the night of the Jewish holiday, Purim. The first breaction of fear was put to official rest by the Zionist Estab- blishment, which refused to see any problems. Arthur Ruppin, bhead of the Palestine office of the World Zionist Movement, in a bsoothing letter to the president of the movement, David Wolff- bsohn, wrote: “Instead of being surprised that such incidents boccur in Jaffa, we should rather be surprised that relations be- btween Jews and Arabs in the Land of Israel are so calm, despite ball the differences.”

bThat year, a revolution deposed the sultan, and a group of b“Young Turks” took office, determined to modernize the Turk- bish Empire. As part of this process they granted the right of bpolitical association and expression. To the dismay of the Turks band the astonishment of the Jews, there occurred a veritable ex- bplosion of Arab nationalism. An article that appeared in the bHebrew paper Hatzvi declared: “From the time the constitution bwas given, the Arabs in our land began to arouse themselves to ba new life. In all the important towns there have been estab- blished chapters of the national Arab association, ‘Arab Brother- bhood.’”

bAn Arab paper, Al Atzmai, appeared in Jaffa and immedi- bately began vicious attacks on Jews. Other Arab papers followed bsuit. One Arab cartoon in 1911 depicts Joshua Hankin, an early bZionist pioneer, trying to buy land from an Arab and being bstabbed by Saladin. The leading anti-Zionist journal was the bHaifa newspaper Al-Karmel, edited by Najib Natzer, which not b