There never was anything but bitter Arab hostility, resent-
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ment, and hatred of the Jewish stranger who wanted “his”—the
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Arab’s—land. Nothing the Zionist did contributed to this hate,
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except one thing: he existed.
In 1921, in 1929, and in 1936-38 there were no Jewish “oc-
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cupation” troops patrolling “the West Bank.” There was no
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such thing as “occupied Arab lands of 1967.” All the reasons for
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bloodshed, violence, war, and hatred that today’s Arabs and
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confused Jews point to as being at “the heart” of the Arab-Jew-
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ish problem did not exist then. Hebron and Shechem and
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Tulkarm and Ramallah and Bethlehem and Jericho were not
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under Jewish military occupation, and there was no need for
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world organizations and national governments to issue resolu-
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tions calling for withdrawal from and return of the “occupied
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territories to their rightful owners.” In fact, there was not even a
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Jewish state in existence, and by all logic the “Palestinians” should
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have coexisted peacefully and in friendship with the Jews.
They did not. And it is important to recall the reality of the
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Palestinians’ “coexisting” with their Jewish cousins before the
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“Zionist aggression of 1967,” for it appears to me more than
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necessary to teach the past to a foolish generation that insists on
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repeating it. It is essential to rid ourselves of the illusion that if
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only Israel would be more “flexible” and “reasonable” and
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“compromising,” peace can be attained. It is vital that we cease
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babbling about the “obstacles to peace” that are the Jewish set-
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tlements of Kiryat Arba or Kedumim or Tekoa. It is of para-
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