To the Editor:

Try as Hillel Halkin might—he proposes various budget-stretching policies that Israel should adopt in order fully to integrate its Arab citizens into mainstream society—he cannot resolve the fundamental problem of modern Zionism [“The Jewish State & Its Arabs,” January]. Israel professes to be a democratic state, and yet it grants preferential treatment to a portion of its citizens—Jews—in numerous ways. The Jewish National Fund and the West Bank settlements administration preserve the choicest land in Israel for exclusively Jewish use. Only Jewish immigrants are eligible for automatic citizenship under Israel’s Law of Return. The rabbinic monopoly on marriage prevents Arabs and Jews from intermarrying. The list goes on. Given these realities, it is naïve at best to suppose that, say, an affirmative-action program to hire more Arab civil servants is even the beginning of justice for Israel’s Arab minority.

Peter Angus
Glasgow, Scotland

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To the Editor:

Hillel Halkin’s article is a brave attempt to address the dilemma that Israel and its Arab minority are facing. But I fear that his hoped-for solution—improved education and, as a consequence, a higher standard of living for the Arabs—will not lead to Israeli Arabs identifying themselves as loyal citizens of a Jewish democratic state.

Mr. Halkin does not mention the grave inroads that the radical Islamic fundamentalist movement has made among Israeli Arabs or the fact that many of the latter openly identify with Palestinian irredentism. The Israeli Arab community is also hostage to a tribal loyalty that at this point precludes integration into the modern state of Israel. By and large, the Arabs are looking less for a Western-style accommodation of their identity than for justice as is understood in Arab culture, which means the subjugation or elimination of Israel.

In any case, the vast cultural differences between Jews and Arabs suggest that they comprise two separate nations. As Mr. Halkin reminds us, even the white and predominantly Christian Belgians are still having difficulty integrating their French and Dutch elements. And it took the Irish nearly 600 years to arrive at a peace agreement that has made integration between Protestants and Catholics more likely but not certain.

I agree with Mr. Halkin that Israel’s Arabs should not be discriminated against; indeed, Israel’s laws ensure as much. But discrimination and prejudice are a part of the human condition, and legislation will not provide the relief that democratic societies search for. This is especially true with respect to Israel, where the unresolved conflict with the greater Arab world looms large.

Malcolm Dash
Institute for Zionist Strategies
Zichron Yaakov, Israel

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To the Editor:

Ultimately, Hillel Halkin’s article is a futile effort to resolve the Gordian knot that binds Israel’s claim to a geographical sliver of historically Jewish land to the demographic swamping that Israeli Jews will experience at the hand of a larger Arab population.

To the problem of Israeli Arabs’ alienation from Israel, Mr. Halkin offers no solution other than Israeli policy and coin. But nothing in Israeli law or customs prohibits Arabs from being employed according to their abilities, purchasing and owning their own homes, developing the infrastructure of their towns and cities, owning their own businesses, competing for a greater share of the government budget, winning greater political representation, and seeking increased integration into Israeli culture—nothing, that is, apart from the Arabs’ own will. What escapes Mr. Halkin’s analysis is that culturally, such issues are not Arab priorities, as is demonstrated by the way society in all other Arab countries is organized.

Still, Mr. Halkin is indeed correct that something must be done or the end result will be civil war. What is common in the examples he gives of other countries suffering from relentless ethnic conflict is that few people seek to live in such an environment. In time, I suspect that Jews will leave Israel, if they are not already doing so.

And why not? Jewish achievement is not tied to geography. It is time to seek that geographical alternative—that island, that place of political/geographical isolation that would welcome the Jews to realize their individual and national identities without fear of an anti-Semitic backlash.
Centuries from now, when radical Islam will have been proven to be an absurdity and the world will have come to its senses, the Jews may be able to return to Jerusalem and live there in peace and spiritual gratification.

Elliott Alhadeff
Seattle, Washington

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Hillel Halkin writes:

Judging by their letters, the impracticality of my opinions is the only thing that Peter Angus, Malcolm Dash, and Elliott Alhadeff could possibly agree on when it comes to Israel. Mr. Angus thinks that Israel is incapable of integrating its Arab citizens. Mr. Dash thinks that Israel’s Arab citizens are incapable of being integrated. Mr. Alhadeff thinks that both men are right and that, Israeli Arabs being as incorrigible as Mr. Dash believes they are, Israeli Jews should forget about a Jewish state as Mr. Angus believes in any case they should, and move to Pago Pago or Rum Cay. Although I devoutly hope that all three are wrong, I am gratified that my article has brought them together.

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