Israeli-born and not a personal witness to the shattering trauma br

of defeat and fear of the Jews—led to a vicarious deep sense of br

shame and anger directed against the older generation of Arabs. br

The Arab who survived the 1948 debacle that permanently af- br

fected his thinking and drove him to collaborate with the Jews br

was now looked upon by his Israeli-born son as a traitor and br

boot-licking lackey. Born free, taking his citizenship and general br

rights for granted, educated, and open to radical ideas, he br

looked with contempt on his own father for kowtowing to the br

Israelis.

Thus, in February 1978, Israeli radio interviewer Edna br

Peer offered a live exchange between an Israeli Arab university br

student and his father. The son, a budding actor who told of br

having broken with his Jewish girl friend because she called br

Arafat a “murderer,” was bitter toward his father. The latter is br

a quiet Arab, the kind of whom Israelis are fond. His local br

village’s Histadrut (Israeli trade union) chairman, he is typi- br

cally trotted out by all the Israelis who refuse to see the Arab br

reality. He is presented as “proof” of Arab loyalty. The son, br

knowing this and knowing, too, that his father’s father was br

killed in Acre during the 1948 war, bitterly asked the father: br

“Do you know what I would have done if the Jews had br

murdered you the way your father was killed?” The son, not the br

father, is the representative of today’s Israeli Arab. Every Arab br

school which Rabin and Begin and all the rest boast Israel has br

established will produce hundreds and thousands of such haters br

of Jews. The hamulla patriarch is an anachronism; the Israeli br

government saw him as a dam to stop the waters of Arab na- br

tionalism, but the dam has already burst. The Israelis might br

have gained twenty years had they attempted to preserve the br

Arab feudal structure. But since they chose to bring education br

and progress to the Arabs, they guaranteed the creation of an br

immediate generation of those dedicated to the active destruc- br

tion of the Jewish state.

Of course, education is only part of the total revolution that br

has taken place in the Israeli Arab community. The Israeli gov- br

ernment, which at first really believed that a well-fed Arab is a br

quiet, happy Arab, and which was also determined to show the br

world how liberal it was, consciously set about to raise the Arab br

standard of living. Two five-year plans, designed to develop the br