Between Jew and Arab: The Lost Voice of Simon Rawidowicz

"Between Jew and Arab"

Editorial note: Rawidowicz’s original footnotes have been retained; editorial comments (in brackets) have been added where necessary. The endnotes are intended to provide relevant bibliographic and historical context to the chapter. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 135| Myers: Between Jew and Arab page 135 “BETWEEN JEW AND ARAB” From Simon Rawidowicz,Bavel vi-Yerushalayim (1957) English translation by David N. Myers and Arnold J. Band The foreign policy of Zionism and the State of Israel; the “Arab question” and the question of the homeland from 1948 on; Israel’s transition from powerlessness to power; improvement in the condition of the Arab in the Hebrew state; a law for the Jew1 and a law for the Arab; the Law of Return; the law declaring the State of Israel;2 the refugee problem in 1948; the moral and practical facets of the refugee problem; the status of the State of Israel in the world and the refugee problem; the claim that “it is not good for the State of Israel to have a large national minority”;3 the refugee problem and the beginning of the “ingathering of the Exiles,” and Israel’s role in building up the state; between Jew and Arab and the education of the coming generation in the State of Israel; what role Israel’s morality? the ethics of Judaism and the ethics of “Exile”; Zionism’s guiding assumption in the matter of Jew and Arab until 1948; religion of labor, people of humanity; “solutions” to the problem of Jew and Arab: transfer, assimilation; the “Arab question” in the world and for Jews; the danger in repatriating the refugees and the danger in not repatriating them, aspirations from within and without; the participation of the U.N. in finding a solution to the refugee problem; “utopia” and reality; the shadow of 1948; responsibility for the existence of the State of Israel, and for the well-being of the sons and daughters of Israel in the days to come. I From the day that I first broached the subject of Israel and Diaspora, I made a vow4 not to discuss publicly two issues: the foreign policy of 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 136 between jew and arab| Myers: Between Jew and Arab page 136 the Zionist movement and [of the State of Israel],5 and the “Arab question” in Erets Yisrahel. The central concern of my work has been the “House of Israel ”6—the status of our “House” resting on its four pillars—with the goal of removing the stumbling blocks from the path of Israel in its home and its soul. I still hold to my vow regarding foreign policy. Those who have discussed this matter, before and after 1948, speak in exaggerated terms of the sovereignty of foreign policy. For the most part, the State of Israel has not the slightest possibility of choosing its own course, as if it is able to make the sun rise and set in its relations with the outside world. Everything is predestined for her in the present, and the present is not brief. And she is not alone in this regard. Several states greater and more powerful than she have lost the ability in recent times to determine affairs outside of their borders, in their foreign policy. But that is not the case regarding the Arab question, about which I shall now break my earlier vow. This is for the simple reason that with the creation of the state, the nature of the battle between Jew and Arab in the Land of Israel has been transformed. This is no longer about “two people holding on to a garment,”7 both of whom claim to the master watching over them that the garment is all theirs. Rather, one has grabbed hold of it, dominates, and leads, while the other is led. The first rules as a decisive majority, as a nation-state. The other is dominated as a minority. And domination is in the hands of “Israel.” Consequently, the “Arab Question,” in its new guise, the guise of 1948, has become a question about the Jewish...