Q: Don't Israeli-Arabs, despite all of their problems and anger, at the same time recognize that they have a better deal as second class citizens in Israel than they would as first class citizens elsewhere in the Arab world?
Also, given the fact that this problem has not been addressed for decades, wasn't it predictable that after 2-3 generations of accumulated grievances would not have created this flexing of muscles by the Israeli-Arab community?
A: Yes, Israeli-Arabs do see themselves as Israelis, and they want to stay in Israel. When last year a Labor Party minister suggested that we redraw the green line, and have some Israeli Arab communities join the future Palestinian state, there was an outcry in the Israeli-Arab community. They viewed this as a statement that Israeli Jews didn't want them, didn't see them as equal citizens, and suspected them as a fifth column. It is encouraging that they said they wanted to continue to be Palestinian citizens of Israel, not a Palestinian state. It is fascinating that they compare the way they see their status in the future, to the status of American Jews. They say "we want to be just like American Jews, we want to be citizens of the state, just like Jews in America are citizens of the U.S., but to also identify ourselves in terms of our national aspirations and to see our national homeland as the future Palestine, just as American Jews view Israel.
Some of the current protest was, indeed, inevitable. But it would have been much less intense if steps had been taken to deal with Israeli-Arab problems more constructively through a national dialogue. This might have been difficult for the Jewish majority to digest, but it would have avoided the explosion in October 2001 and the mutual anger that has resulted.
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