The Real Obstacle to Peace in Israel

• Published in: Wall Street journal. Europe
• Main Author: By David Yerushalmi
• Format: Newspaper Article
• Language: English
• Published: Brussels Dow Jones & Company Inc 22.08.1995
• Edition: Europe
• Subjects: Arab people; Birth rate; Citizenship; Immigration; Jewish people; Militancy; Noncitizens; Peace negotiations; Population; Suicide bombings; Voting rights
• ISSN: 0921-9986

Yet another suicide bomber hit his target in Israel yesterday, blowing up a Jerusalem bus during the morning's rush hour, killing six people and wounding over 100. The attack came just one day after Israel reopened its border with the Palestinian ruled Gaza, which had been closed for 10 days due to fear of just such an attack. In response, Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin suspended peace talks with the PLO (over 150 Palestinian and Israeli negotiators were gathered to finalize negotiations on Israeli withdrawal from cities in the West Bank) while PLO leader Yassar Arafat denounced the bombing "strongly and completely." The fact is that Israel's Palestinian population -- both in Israel and in Israeli controlled territory -- remains fertile ground for militant activity. This applies to both the Palestinian Arabs of the territories who rejected Israeli citizenship in 1947 and the Palestinian Israeli Arabs who did accept citizenship and who now live within what is called the Green Line (Israel's pre-1967 borders). During the Gulf War, Palestinians in and out of Israel cheered from rooftops as Saddam's Scud missiles landed. And just last month an Israeli Arab living in the Negev was found plotting to plant a truck bomb in Beer Sheva. Israeli Jews responded by demanding that the government build security fences to keep Israeli Arabs out. In short, as long as Israel's Arabs are at odds with its Jewish population, there is every likelihood that extremism will continue to grow within Israel, as well as from outside Israel proper. The Law of the Right of Return in Israel allows, with few exceptions, any Jew from anywhere in the world to immigrate and become an Israeli citizen immediately. In addition, as a new immigrant, the Jew receives financial and tax benefits that are not otherwise available. Non-Jews are given no such right. The vast majority of the non-Jewish citizens of Israel are those individuals and their family members who lived in Israel prior to Israel's independence in l948 and who did not leave the country during the War of Independence. The right to vote granted to Israeli Arabs is, as a class, a very restricted right. Thus Arabs have turned to other ways in which their influence might be felt: violence and birth.