The Ultimate Contradiction

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bentire infrastructure, including roads, water, and sewerage bpipelines, street paving, and lighting.” This, he hopes, will b“increase the feeling of Jerusalem Arabs that they are part of the city.”

bKollek, himself, in San Francisco in June 1980, ruled out, bnaturally, any Arab control of even part of the city, as well as bjoint rule of the city by Jews and Arabs. How, then, does the bformer Viennese, now Jerusalem, burgomaster propose to make bthe Arabs happy in a city that will never be theirs? The answer: b“boroughs.” “Large cities must be divided up into smaller dis- btricts to give people more feelings of identity and responsibility. bThis would give the Arabs the feeling of running their own affairs.”

bIs it possible Kollek actually believes this plan?

bThe Arabs will not have sovereignty; they will never be ballowed even joint rule with Jews—but he will give them “the bfeeling of running their own affairs.” What can one say concern- bing such contempt for the Arab mentality?

bThe Arabs deserve better. They deserve our recognition as ba people who cannot be bought with sewerage lines or “feel- bings.” At a celebration of Jerusalem writers commemorating the beleventh anniversary of “Unified Jerusalem,” an Arab writer bspoiled the evening for Teddy Kollek by deviating from the bscript. Said Muhmad Abu Shalabay: “This will be another Bel- bfast. We must divide the city into two parts and have the eastern bcity be the capital of the Palestinian state.”

bThe Arabs and their leftist Jewish comrades know better. bDr. Ismail Sabri Abdullah, an Egyptian university professor, bwrote a book in 1969 called Fi Muwajahat Isra’il [Confronting bIsrael] in which he pointed to the fact that there was not an bIsraeli nationality but a Jewish one, and this was the cornerstone bof the state: “The main obstacle in the way of forming a distinct bIsraeli nation is the Zionist [read: Jewish] link. For Israel can- bnot become a nation unless she finally ceases to consider herself bthe homeland of the Jews. The concept of an Israeli nationality binevitably negates Jewish nationalism.”

bWhat the Arab was saying was that the Jewish foundation band character of Israel prevented the Israelis—the Arabs of the bstate and the Jews—from creating a common, equal Israeli na- btionality. That, of course, is true. For the Arab of Israel to feel bequal, the state, as the first and basic step, would have to give up bits specific Jewish character. Is that what Jews want?