Neighbourly Pluralism
Interesting new demographic figures have been released, rather surprising in the tale they tell. It would appear that within Israel there are currently six million Jewish citizens and 1.4 million Arab citizens. The West Bank holds 1.5 million, and Gaza 1.1 million Palestinian Arabs. Which, any way you look at it, gives the Jewish population a slight advantage in sheer numbers.Jews appear to represent a majority population within that little sliver of the Middle East, incorporating the State of Israel and the Palestinian Territories.
Of those Arabs who hold Israeli citizenship, living within the State of Israel with all the rights of citizenship guaranteed them, including the right to elect official representation in the Knesset, there exists, doubtless, a sizeable majority who enjoy those privileges and respect them. For respect is accorded them in that Arabic is a recognized official language, with all official documents available in both Hebrew and Arabic.
An Arab judge sits on the Supreme Court, an Arab MK holds a minor cabinet position. Arab Israelis hold senior posts in the Israeli army; a good portion of the staff at Israeli hospitals are Arabs, and Arabs enjoy full and equal access to Israeli universities. Shariah law is recognized alongside Christian cannon law, Druze law and Jewish Talmudic law. Sounds pretty ideal, doesn't it?
Added to all of this is the fact that talks are once again ongoing between representatives of Israel and those of the Palestinian Authority, with the encouragement of the Arab League and the international community, to arrive at a peace deal between the two to put to rest the viciously adversarial disagreements that have so long marked relations between them.
The first order of business would be for the sides to bargain in the kind of good faith that would see each side respecting the other's right to existence. Which would mean the halting of all attacks one upon the other. Unfortunately, the PA's Fatah administration does not appear to be able to control individual members of their PA militia, let alone their irregular militias, no more than they can those of Hamas.
In attempts to halt attacks on Israelis by Palestinians, Israel must mount road blocks, a situation deplored by the international community. Mere hours after Israel announced the opening of a military checkpoint recently, a Fatah terror cell attempted to kidnap a young Israeli. PA attacks on Israeli civilians and its military continue apace, despite assurances from the Palestinian Authority that they have the matter well in hand.
Arab Knesset Members are often outspoken in parliament in bitter criticism of the State's activities. A former MK, Azmi Bishara, now a fugitive abroad, was discovered to have been providing aid to Hezbollah, and is now suspected of being actively engaged as a recruiting agent for that terror group. Israeli security officials have affirmed that this Arab MK delivered intelligence to Hezbollah during the Lebanon war, handing over information about strategic military emplacements.
He is also suspected of stealing millions from Arab aid organizations. In exchange for tens of thousands in cash, the former MK used his insider knowledge and connections abroad to betray the country where he sat as a parliamentarian. He defiantly and openly met with Syrian President Bashir Assad, himself busy with a violent anti-Israel agenda, through his country's proxy Hezbollah militia.
But there's a much wider story of bitter resentment and violent reaction toward Jewish civilians at the hands of Israeli Arabs. One incident after another of random and vicious attacks by Arabs against Jews is reported, time and again, and the numbers of Arab Israelis involved in these attacks continues to grow at an alarming rate. In mixed Arab-Jewish populations such as Haifa, Lod and Yafo, Jewish women are molested, farmers are terrorized, police and firemen attacked.
Little wonder, then, that Jews have become increasingly fearful of their Arab neighbours. There was a time when Arab and Jew did get along well, as neighbours. Some might still wish to, but the prevailing zeitgeist among the Arab population, whether in the Territories or within Israel appears to be a waiting game. Waiting for a new shift in geographic politics where a state of their own might grow larger than merely one to live alongside the current State of Israel.
There appears to be no signals to the Arab population from their leadership emanating good will, patience and moderation. Responsible leadership eschewing violence, encouraging good citizenship appears to be fully absent from the proceedings. Instead, through subterfuge, cloaked in a language understood by the collective aggrieved, an agenda of resurgence and recapture haunts the background of "peace" deliberations.
How can a country possibly be expected to absorb the undeniable reality that they harbour a demographic inimical to their existence? It's more than slightly likely that a hefty preponderance of Arab Israelis prefer to remain within Israel as law-abiding citizens, but fear a backlash from those fewer among them who are actively working to subvert the state, and who spread hate through traditional tribal vengefulness.
Hardly surprising, on the evidence, where cars travelling along highways within the country are regularly stoned by hostile Arab youth, where those same youth can feel free to enter the home of elderly Jews and intimidate and abuse them, where Israeli Jews never know when they may be attacked in the public arena, or within the confines of a Yeshiva, that fear and suspicion is growing.
As evidenced by responses received through a recent poll, whereby a survey conducted by the Panels Research Institute found over 75% of Israelis feel a partial or total transfer of Israeli Arabs out of Israel might be a solution to the ongoing violent hostilities, once a final-status agreement is concluded with a Palestinian state becoming a reality. Almost 30% of respondents felt no reservations in concurring with the transfer out of Israel of all Arabs.
A mere 28% took a more moderate stance, feeling transfer might be justified only of those Arabs not willing to express loyalty to Israel merited expulsion. None of this bodes particularly well for the future. If Israeli Arabs, clinging to the comfort of their position within the State of Israel as fully entitled citizens, still chafe against the existence of the state, preferring it to be relinquished to the control of the Palestinian Authority, they may very well be better off within the new Palestinian state.
And even if they were then removed, with due compensation, to reside in a new Palestinian state alongside that of Israel, that same attitude augers ill for the future neighbourliness of the two solitudes. Israel, in a very practical and real sense, having no guarantees coming out of the concessions she will have to consider to produce a working agreement, that her new neighbour will not then become a state source of aggression.
One can only hope that such bleak extrapolations out of the current dynamics are more worry than potential reality.
Labels: Israel, Troublespots
posted by Pieface @ Wednesday, April 02, 2008
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