250,000 [sic]—that it will become rapidly assimilated to the br

prevailing Jewish culture. . . . In Israel the Arab has little br

chance of maintaining his identity.”

It seems incredible that Israelis once really believed that.

By 1967 it was clear that the Arab was not going to fade br

away, but he was still not a “problem” to the average Israeli. br

Nor, for that matter, was he a problem to the “nonaverage” one, br

the intellectual who always has so much to say on subjects br

whether they are within his field of expertise or not. Not only br

was the myth of the quiescent Arab still prevalent, but Israelis br

were certain that Ishmael was content.

A few months after the Six-Day War, Midstream magazine, br

a house organ for the Jewish Agency in New York, carried a br

symposium on “Prospects for Peace.” Among the participants br

was Professor Ephraim Urbach, Talmudic researcher and arch- br

dove, once nominated by the National Religious Party to be its br

candidate for president of Israel. His comments prove that a br

candidate for the presidency of Israel can be just as obtuse as br

mere mortals. Said Urbach: “I am referring to the question of br

the Arabs in Israel—an area where we have already done a great br

deal. . . . What we have managed to accomplish for the Arab br

minority in terms of human rights and social, cultural, and eco- br

nomic conditions—what we have done has never been done be- br

fore in the world. This has been a human and cultural enterprise br

of the first magnitude. Without any desire to assimilate this mi- br

nority we have given it economic, social, and cultural conditions br

enabling it to prosper, conditions which the Arabs in neighbor- br

ing lands still do not enjoy. . . . But for some reason this great br

human enterprise has been played down.

“Ultimately one has to admit that the Arabs in Israel have to a degree br

become reconciled to their situation.”

Professor Urbach notwithstanding, the Arabs began to br

show disturbing evidence of nonreconciliation. By 1971 there br

was a troublesome rise in the number of Israeli Arabs who were br

found to be participating in terrorist groups and in terrorist ac- br

tivities. (Until the Six-Day War there had not been a single re- br

corded instance of an Israeli Arab joining a terrorist group.) br

After a booby-trapped hand grenade exploded in Tel Aviv and br

the perpetrators were traced to the Israeli Arab village of Tira, br

Israelis grew upset. “Not to worry,” said Shmuel Toledano. br