On Judging the Israelis

...Where were you when it came to asking the Arabs during all these years to understand the emotional needs of the Jews, and the significance of their religious heritage...

...The Arab people will continue to hate the state of Israel because of the propaganda spread by their authoritarian leaders who continually exploit the issue of Israel as a ready scapegoat for their own failure to develop their backward countries...

...It is a fact that in the next Jerusalem election a larger measure of the population will know what democracy means than ever did under Jordanian rule...

...Local rapprochement often depends on what happens outside the immediate area...

...In the short run it is not the rich countries of the world who suffer when trading markets are severed, but the poor...

...It seems unlikely that Israel is absolutely committed to keep all the presently occupied Arab land...

...Here is the great irony of the situation...

...under Kennedy, for example, who, when alerted to Russian missiles in Cuba, acted immediately in terms of American self-interest—despite setting off thereby a far greater threat to world peace than did the recent Mideast conflict...

...It need not be amplified here how centuries of suffering and persecution serve to brainwash men...

...I shall deal with two topics: a certain style of criticism that has appeared against Israel, and the difficulties of rapprochement...

...As if history overflows with examples of countries that have measured up to the standards of abstract (suprapolitical) Justice...

...And now, after the war, these people invoke their universalist concepts of Justice and Morality—but refuse to compare the present situation with historical precedents...

...Let me supplement the discussion begun in the July-August issue of DISSENT concerning the Arab-Israeli war...

...I do not maintain that such policies are a moral justification for Israeli political actions...

...Jewish Saintliness The New York Times has been flooded with letters from American liberals, requesting that the leaders of Israel display exemplary behavior toward the Arabs now that they have defeated them...

...Some words here about Jerusalem...

...like the U.S...

...What the Israelis now want from the Arabs is words and declarations...

...The greatest tragedy of the war fell upon Jordan, the Titoist stepchild...

...Jeru salem must be returned immediately...

...sometimes the poor pay a high price to learn the lesson...

...they will create a modicum of standards in sanitation...

...Yet, some Jews have waited a long time for an alternate, new imagery...

...if so, let them be condemned...

...If these critics would rest their case for Israel's withdrawal upon the condition that the Arabs accept a non-belligerent state of affairs—that is, accept the fact of Israel—they would at least argue within the context of understandable international relations...

...There is also another very real and disconcerting fact to consider: the Arabs claim that a state of war in the Mideast still exists and will continue as long as there is a state of Israel, The persistence of such a claim makes imperative an openly militaristic foreign policy, which in turn has forced Israel into a schizophrenic public personality— civil and military...

...It is obvious that the Israelis will not endear themselves to Arab hearts by holding on to the land...

...We invite further brief communications expressing other opinions...

...Has anyone heard the like of such a proposal before...

...And they will initiate and institutionalize welfare programs for a people sorely in need of them...

...I am simply saying that, given the inexorable fact or occupation, the Israeli government—a government, not a gathering of saints— has thus far acted rather well...

...For Jordan represented the concrete example that peace and rapprochement among all the countries of the entire area could become a real possibility...

...I do not believe the Arabs in the occupied areas should necessarily "accept" Israeli domination even if its terms are more pleasant for them than was life under Nasser or Hussein...

...Apparently, there have been incidents of bad Israeli conduct...

...Furthermore, Israel's control of several key points strengthens its military position and leaves the country much less vulnerable to the kind of open aggression we have just witnessed...

...I can understand their wish to escape Israeli rule, no matter how mild it may be...

...as far as Israel is concerned, amidst the dogmatic Arab family, Jordan has been the only country to achieve real communication with Israel...

...Control of these strategic points can serve to deter (to an extent yet difficult to measure) future Arab schemes for Israel's liquidation —terms acting as a stabilizing factor in keeping the peace, shaky as it may be...

...The rich know this...

...To ask them to relinquish the land at this point, without the slightest concession from the Arabs, is not to argue politically...

...I think it obvious that some of it is being held for the negotiating table...

...One sees the desire for an ascetic Jew, with yarmolke and tallis, herded to his death—an image which for some Jews completely dominates that of a virile Israeli standing atop a tank...

...instead, they demand actions of self-sacrifice and sainthood...

...in return, they will give back land and people...

...The plan collapsed, but it should be noticed that Russia once again showed its potential for stirring up dangerous crises...

...For the first time all citizens of voting age will have the right to vote —not only males with property rights, or 8 per cent of the total population, as was true under Jordanian jurisdiction...

...The Israelis plan to build more medical facilities, and they will try to wipe out diseases which are no longer rampant in the West, and in Israel (trachoma, tuberculosis, polio...

...If America is willing to halt the bombing of North Vietnam, Russia may very well change its directives and stop its flow of military supplies...

...The logic of this position is that the Israelis have made their point...

...They were not supposed to behave like other nations...

...And so on...

...Certainly, it seems romantic at best to ask Israel to relinquish the lands of a people who for two decades now have openly proclaimed themselves an active enemy...

...I would like to ask all those who are now stressing the need for Jews to understand Arab emotions and the city's religious significance for Arabs: Where were you during the 19 years when no Jewish shrine or holy place in the city of Jerusalem was allowed to be open for worship...

...On the whole, I agree with Howe and Plastrik...

...At the outset of the conflict, th...

...Only with real change in the political regimes of several Arab countries can intransigent attitudes be modified and foreign policies be constructed that will take into account the reality of Israel...

...It is possi ble but highly improbable, as long as Nasser reigns, that a secure and lasting peace can come about between the Arab countries and Israel...

...Thus, Israel is not a defendant in a court of history and fact, but in a court of fantasy and emotion...

...But I shall not discuss the motives of the irrational critics who make these demands...

...The ghetto man's greatest wish becomes to please his masters, to appease them at all costs...

...upon that leadership depend the possibilities for real peace in the Mideast...

...Moreover, and this is the crucial point, if the take-over of Jerusalem is at all representative of Israel's occupation of Arab land in general, then it is clear that Israel is not behaving like a typical vanquishing country— but in fact consistently better...

...The author of the following communication is a young member of the Brandeis English Department...

...Ironically, better-than-reasonable conduct seems to mean little to these "fair-minded" critics...

...But meanwhile, let us be somewhat restrained in the demands we make of a tiny nation which only yesterday was being threatened with extinction by neighbors far larger, and lavishly armed by the Soviet Union...

...I submit that such demands are generally sanctimonious and ahistoric, and that Israel is being condemned while actually behaving, on the whole, better than most countries...

...Arab forces pointed their guns at Israel, and the Israelis were advised and ordered to wait . . . to be patient...

...There will be plenty of time to accuse the Israelis when and if they fail to respond to a sign of Arab concession or initiative with indifference or disdain...

...When speaking here of Arab leadership, I exclude the Jordanians...

...It is a fact, for example, that three weeks after the siege of Jerusalem, the Arabs were already in the process of receiving the same rights and privileges as are enjoyed by Israeli citizens...

...A French observer, in a recent account of political and administrative activities in Jerusalem (The New York Times Magazine, July 29), relates facts about Jewish fairness that can only be described as astonishing when one considers the short time that has elapsed since the war...

...And I share some of their worries, though I shall avoid repeating them here...

...The basic problem lies in the nature of Arab leadership...

...The complicated refugee problem—which has existed for 19 years with little international help and considerable Arab encouragement —is to be resolved by Israel quickly, resolutely, and above all, justly...

...Serious rapprochement in the near future must also be viewed within the perspective of the international political scene (which has too often been ignored in viewing the crisis itself...

...I wonder how many of the now righteous liberals voiced protest against that much more dangerous act of their beloved President...

...But it should be stressed that there is little evidence, given the present Arab leadership, that a return of the land will significantly change prevailing views on Israel's right to exist...

...The exhortations of some American Jews for Israeli saintliness should be seen as the not unexpected product of the ghetto mentality," for which the image of the Jew as anything but the noble victim is psychically unacceptable...

...But defiance and self-confidence are not easy to take after an eternity of acquiescence...

...Nor am I at all justifying an indefinite occupation or formal annexation in which Arabs would be forced to live under Israeli domination...

...I submit that it is a piece of arrogance for outsiders to think that Israel has to be reminded of the special need to renew communication with Hussein...

...The land gives the Israelis elbowroom, maneuverability, positions for bargaining...

...It is a fact, unpleasant as it may be to the ruling Arab elites, that the Israelis are going to build schools and improve educational standards (previously, for example, education was compulsory for males only...

...The ghetto victim is a slumped figure, a victim of a cruel history, but also the perpetrator of his own psychic agony...

...It is a fact that now, with Israeli control of the city, all Moslem and Christian holy places are protected and that access to them is guaranteed...

...For the time being at least, this hope was dealt a severe, if not irreparable, blow and both Israel and Hussein are only too painfully aware of it...

...ers...

...The question of Israeli seizure of Arab land should at least be considered from the Israeli point of view, before it can be dismissed with the cant label, "aggrandizement...

...The Arab lands the Israelis have just occupied must be returned immediately to their rightful owners, and any other decision is unacceptable and immoral...

...What happens in Vietnam in the coming months will probably have a significant effect on events in the Mideast...

...they have saved their lives, headed off their extinction—and any further action is excessive and immoral...

...Especially outrageous is the Jewish take-over of Jerusalem—it will fan the Arabs' eternal hatred...

...It is apparent that Russia fanned the flame in the Mideast as a response to American intransigence in Vietnam, and that all the countries involved in the Mideast conflict were deployed as pawns in an international chess game...

...most of them, you can bet, will come from people who have, for a long time, been forcing themselves to enjoy "pernicious" Western material comforts...

...Rapprochement: It is foolish to believe that Mideast peace will depend primarily on decisions made or not made by Israeli lead...

...Of course, there will be cries against all this Westernizing...