Policy Paper No. 140, 2002
Executive Summary
For decades, Israeli leadership was
convinced that Israeli Arabs had undergone an Israelization process,
characterized by intensified involvement with Israel and a diminishing
Palestinian identity. Reality has upset their whole frame of reference. In the
past decade, Israeli-Arab identification with Israel has undergone a steep
decline, while their identification as Palestinians and the Palestinian
Authority has soared. In tandem with this process, the demarcation between the
realization of civil rights and the Palestinian national struggle has
gradually blurred, manifesting in an agenda that imperils the continued
existence of the State of Israel.
Another linchpin in Israeli-Arab policy
is the concerted effort to abolish the Jewish-Zionist character of Israel and
transform it into a “state of all its citizens”, thus depriving Jews of their
national rights, including the right for self-determination in a Jewish state.
Concomitantly, they have conveyed their unequivocal demand to be recognized as
a national minority with national rights, including autonomy. These demands
create a zero sum game; capitulation would disenfranchise Jews and dismember
Israel into a bi-national state.
The weapon of choice to achieve these
goals is Democracy. The strategy adopted and implemented by Israeli-Arabs is
to demonize Israel as anti-democratic while they are the true democrats.
Within the framework of this credo, support for terrorist organizations bent
on slaughtering Jews is democratic; the advocacy of the overthrow of the
Israeli government is subsumed under the exercise of free speech; dismembering
Israel and disenfranchising Jews is the realization of the Palestinian’s right
for self-determination.
Standing at the forefront of the war
against Israel’s integrity are the Arab-Israeli Members of Knesset. Abusing
both Israel’s democratic ethos and Israeli laws, they have alienated the
Israeli-Arab population from Israel and from its Jewish population, aligning
them with the Palestinian Authority and its insidious stratagem to destroy the
State of Israel.
Clearly, the Arab-Palestinian conflict
transcends territorial and equalization issues, but rather relates to the core
existence of the State of Israel as a Jewish, Zionist, Western and modern
state in the heart of the Arab world.
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