Our Fathers’ Children

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b1900 or 1930, certainly believe they are that today. Our refusal bto recognize them as such is valid and justified. But that refusal bmust be accompanied by the realization of the implications. To bdeny “Palestinian” rights to all or any part of Eretz Yisrael, one bmust cease deluding himself that somehow and sometime they bwill accept that. They never will. No national group can ever or bwill ever reconcile itself to the loss of a major part of its land to banother people, especially when the latter appears to be weak, bisolated, confused, and unsure of its own rights. Let the Jews bknow that there is no “Palestine” or “Palestinians,” but let bthem not expect the Arabs to accept that.

bBen-Gurion presented his delusion, of Zionism and the bArab national movement not being in conflict because the Arabs bhad so much land and the poor Jews had only one country, in b1936 to George Antonius. Antonius, a Christian Palestine lead- ber, met with Ben-Gurion three times and in his description of btheir discussion, the future Israeli prime minister painted a rosy bpicture in which he sought to portray only a narrow gulf separat- bing himself and Antonius. Just a cursory look at Antonius’s re- bplies reveal how shocking was the Zionist leadership’s desire to bdeceive itself. Antonius saw the very idea of a Jewish state as dangerous bto Arab aspirations. Ben-Gurion heard nothing. He did not want bto. We suffer from deafness of the political ear to this day.

bThere was one small section of the Zionist movement that brealized that the Arabs would never accept a Jewish state and bthat war would be a permanent threat to it. They were not de- bluded. Instead, they proposed to give up the idea of a Jewish state.

bThis pitiful alternative to Zionist delusions was mainly the bBrit Shalom (“Alliance of Peace”) group, founded in 1925 by bintellectuals of mainly German origin. They included philoso- bpher Martin Buber, Hebrew University President Judah bMagnes, Dr. Hugo Bergmann, and others. These people, sensing bthe essential flaws in the official Zionist argument, called for a bbinational state, with both Arabs and Jews enjoying absolute bequality and parity, regardless of numbers. Bergmann, rising to bmetaphysics, discovered that by “divine grace,” no less, the land bwas intended for both peoples. Others, more political, avowed bthat the noble Jewish gesture of giving up its right to an ex- bclusive homeland in the Land of Israel would move the Arabs to bdo the same.