Question

Hi Michi,
God willing, in a few months I’ll be celebrating reaching eighty. It occurred to me that this is a fitting opportunity to “drill some ideas into my descendants’ heads” about matters of my faith and worldview.
These are things I usually avoid bringing up in regular family gatherings.
A. was the first to ask me what I want to do at this gathering, and afterward R. asked me too, separately.
I told them that the main targets of the planned “brainwashing” would not be my children, but my grandchildren.
Because my children’s paths are already set, each to a greater or lesser degree; whatever I haven’t managed to do until now, there’s no chance I’ll improve in a one-time event with grown adults… So I’m looking for “fun” ways to get my message across, so that my grandchildren won’t be busy stifling their yawns.
Then R. asked me whether I’d also want to invite you to the event, since you play an important role in my thinking.
I explained to her that you’re in touch with many other people too, so you can’t devote your time to private events of people whose questions you answer. Afterward it occurred to me that at long last I have an opportunity to show off my command of the treasures of the Hebrew language: what luck that the eightieth-birthday gathering is planned for one of the Sabbaths. You could have claimed “the excuse of the mouth of the excuse,” and therefore you wouldn’t have been able to accept the invitation.
Now I want to share with you a new insight of my own regarding the display of hostility toward the State of Israel on the part of some of its Arab citizens.
I allow myself to be a “two-cent psychologist”:
My impression is that educated Arabs find it hard to come to terms with the existence of the State of Israel precisely against the backdrop of the violence of the “Arab Spring.” If I put myself in their place, then so long as they identify as Arabs, despite the shame and anger they feel toward the corrupt leaderships of the Arab regimes, they are unable to disown them. Because this is their very identity—their ethnic belonging to the Arab world.
It seems to me that the greater their sorrow, frustration, and shame become, the more they prefer to unload it onto the State of Israel.
The sorrow, shame, and frustration stem not only from seeing their brothers in Syria, but also from the more enlightened among them understanding the failures of Arab society here in the State of Israel.
Of course one must not forget that the State of Israel did indeed expropriate their lands, dispossess here, and discriminate there. And there is no point settling accounts with them because of the folly of their grandfathers. [I assume you know that Ben-Gurion agreed to the San Remo plan because he was sure the Arabs would reject it!] Even so, I prefer to remain a naive old man and dream that it may be possible to offer them a partial alternative identity.
Indeed, some of them are building themselves up economically, and a few have even attained leading academic status.
To restless Arabs who are looking for something beyond economic and professional establishment [senior physicians, for example], I want to propose partnership in building a new society.
Precisely because I believe in the universal mission of Judaism, I think we need to show determination combined with empathy toward the situation of Israel’s Arabs.
Stage one: we need to tell them that we are here not only because religious Jews are commanded to live in the Land of Israel, but also because there are secular Jews who believe, as I do [I avoid using the word “commanded” because of its religious connotation], that there is value in our sovereign residence in the Land of Israel, and that the central social values on which the State of Israel ought to be founded are partly written in the Declaration of Independence, while some are still under dispute—but these are central values in Israeli discourse.
Stage two: to offer them participation in shaping society in Israel in all its variety of aspects and faces.
At the basis of the discourse with the Arabs, we need to tell them that without their presence in the Land of Israel, there is no value to talk about our commitment to being a chosen people. Because we will be judged by our ability to realize our values. I am aware that talk of this kind may come across as very patronizing, and therefore every word has to be weighed very carefully, and no less so the tone.
Of course it will be impossible to speak with Arabs about vision so long as no real effort is made to compensate them, at least partially, for the expropriation of the lands—but this while securing their commitment to more responsible use of the land.
And now for a surprise: as usual, I started writing these things a week ago, and every day I add something [or delete something], and then one day in the opinion section of Haaretz, Abd L. Azab wrote an op-ed under the headline: “In Arab Society They Aren’t Really Fighting Illegal Weapons.”
In my estimation, this problem exists in all Arab towns that are physically built according to the clan structure—and this reflects the lands on which the houses were built.
The clan provides support in various senses, and demands political loyalty. I’m not telling you anything new, but the State of Israel will have to find ways to deal with the problem of the clan as the source of authority in Arab society. The clan/tribal structure may indeed make it easier for the state to control the Arabs, but it keeps them stuck in social backwardness, with all that implies.
There are many obstacles. The question is whether because of that we should just throw up our hands. As you already know, Michi—I see our very life here as a means for upgrading Arab society.
These things are being written while watching the news…
So, good evening, and have a good week.