It is arguably the case that wars are catalysts for change. A country like Israel whose very history is basically a chronicle of wars and their impact, provides us the examples. It shows how right this is, though it may sound as yet another trivial conventional cliché. With the realization that changes are here comes another realization and this one deals with the beliefs, hopes and expectations which are proven unrealistic. Altogether, some of the mirrors through which we looked at ourselves are broken and new mirrors are needed.
While the fighting is on, there is no way to exactly describe where we are heading to. It is too early for that, so this article confines itself to acknowledge things that are happening and changing reality.
One of the most important of them is the issue of the living together of Jews and Arabs in a state which is and should always be the nation state of the Jewish people. Let us be brutally and painfully honest about what happened in Israel between Arabs and Jews. It was a national struggle, not a full-fledged civil war, but definitely something which could and can still develop into one. Not all Arabs participated in the mayhem, far from it. Only a minority did, but the silent majority almost completely refrained from showing in actions and words its disagreement with the rioters. All this is happening at a time when it seems that the outside Arab world as well as one important Arab Israeli party, that of Mansour Abbas , are moving towards a historic reconciliation with Israel.
It has to do with the notion that the relationships between Jews and Arabs in Israel can be conducted separate from the national struggle still in place between many Arabs in the Middle East and the Palestinians in Gaza, Judea and Samaria and the state of the Jewish people. With Arab-Israelis, the problems are on the civic level only – or mostly. This is a belief which played well with most Jews, because if that is where the problem is, then we can easily solve it, for example, by including Arabs in a future coalition in the Knesset, even more so in the government itself. Here is the lesson which dawns on me personally. It is not going to work.
The changes should include the inclusion of more Arabs in the public service, and in the legal system, as well as relaxing the restrictions on their inclusion in industries which somehow are connected with the security of the state, and also changes in the status of the ownership of lands.
This is just a short list of examples of what can be done, simply because Israel is a real democracy, and as such is ready and willing to accept the participation of a minority in its everyday life.
But it has to be made very clear: there will not be changes which will allow the minority to have a collective status equal to that of the Jewish majority, and this is where the Arabs are the ones who have to make the painful decision from their perspective. They are the ones who have to decide whether they want to accept this situation or go against it.
Going against it with parliamentarians who praise the enemy in the Knesset is, for me, tolerable, though reprehensible. Being players in the Israel national soccer team and not singing Hatikva is acceptable, though not nice to watch, and I can go on with so many more examples like that. Being parliamentarians however who actively agitate for acts of violence against the very existence of the state is something else altogether. This is the red line, the one which separates a democracy which defends itself from deteriorating into anarchy.
The State of Israel must wake up to a new reality. The old mirror is broken, so what about the new one? It is imperative to reassert law and order everywhere in the country, and to do it effectively, not just to talk about it. It is necessary to apply law and order in Arab as well as Jewish neighborhoods, so that agitators from both sides, whether from the Joint List or Otzma Yehudit such as Itamar Ben-Gvir will not be permitted to sell hatred and get away with it.
Now is the time to include Abbas’s Ra’am party in a future government, whether led by Netanyahu or Lapid, if Abbas is still capable of taking this step in face of internal opposition in his own community. The reason is, that even if he represents a minority among Arab-Israelis, then this minority should be included, not excluded, in order to demonstrate, that the criterion for inclusion is acceptance of the fundamentals of the state, rather than ethnicity or religion.
Then, of course, the new government should embark on a wide-ranging program of reforms designed to make it easier for those Arabs who want to integrate into Israel as the nation state of the Jewish people. At the same time, the government should deal harshly against those who do not accept this.
I, for one, can see a situation in which Arabs who live in Israel, and should not be deported under any circumstances, should be given the right to get Palestinian citizenship now – or if and when a Palestinian state is established as part of a final peace agreement. Living in a state while being citizens of another state is not unusual. It may seem harsh, perhaps even extreme, but the actual situation on the ground is harsh and extreme.
These are thoughts, in a way very painful and sad to contemplate. How great it was to believe that all was OK, all was moving in the right direction. How difficult it is to accept that it is not, and yet how necessary it is to face up to reality and change the mirror.