|
|
December 26, 2003/Tevet 1 5764, Vol. 56, No. 14
Arabs present 'demographic threat'
GIL SEDAN
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
JERUSALEM - There's not much on which right and left see eye to eye in Israeli politics.
But one point they agree on is that Arabs represent a demographic threat to the Jewish state. The debate centers around whether that threat comes from within Israel or in the West Bank and Gaza Strip - and how to overcome the threat, with each side using the demographic issue to promote its own agenda.
The left, led by such figures as the chairman of the Labor Party, Shimon Peres, argue that Israel's continued presence in the West Bank and Gaza distorts the balance of Jews and Arabs in the Jewish state, and Israel should therefore withdraw.
But when it comes to Israel's own Arab citizens, the left often is silent. And when a right-wing politician speaks out on the matter, it often gets him in politically incorrect hot water.
Last week, Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu created an uproar when he referred to Israel's one million-plus Arab citizens as a "demographic bomb" threatening the Jewish state.
Was the difference between Peres and Netanyahu a matter of double standards? Yes and no.
Yes, because left wingers use demographic arguments when it suits their agenda but publicly criticize such arguments when they don't. And no, because there is a difference in the consequences of policy vis-a-vis the Palestinian Arabs versus Israel's own Arab citizens.
The left wants to resolve the demographic problem in the West Bank and Gaza Strip by withdrawing Israelis from those areas.
Critics say the message of Netanyahu was that if Israel wants to preserve its Jewish identity, Arab citizens should be encouraged to leave Israel proper.
Netanyahu suggested that Israel needs a policy to balance two unattractive options: Either Israel's Arabs will "beautifully integrate" and become 35 to 40 percent of Israel's population, with Israel's becoming a binational state, or Arabs will remain 20 percent of Israel's population and relations between Arabs and Jews will become "harsh and violent."
Paradoxically, this is exactly what outspoken advocates of Arab integration into Israeli society have been saying for years: Arab leaders often use the term "time bomb" to refer to their own grievances.
Everyone agrees that there is a demographic bomb; the question is what should be done to ensure that it does not harm the Jewish state.
By systematically neglecting the basic needs of Israel's Arab population, particularly with regard to housing, work opportunities and education, Israel has fostered Arab resentment against the Jewish state, explained Netanyahu.
Therefore, he said, Israel needs to develop a policy that will give Israel's Arab citizens a true sense of belonging to the state.
Following the October 2000 riots by Israel's Arabs, the government launched a four-year plan called the Four Billion Shekel Plan to narrow the gaps between Israel's Jewish and Arab sectors in such fields as infrastructure development and job creation.
|
