The issues between Israel and the Palestinian Arabs as well as the Israeli Arabs are existential. However the various parties have different existentials. The most obvious difference might be those of the Palestinians and Israelis, or is it? Israelis including Israeli Jews, some number of Israeli Arabs (probably most), and probably most or all of the 5% of Israelis who are neither Arabs or Jews share allegiance to the State of Israel as it is. Then there are the Palestinian Arabs and perhaps a minority of Israeli Arabs who say they want to live in an independent State of Palestine (or is that really what they want?).
Now lets look more closely at the Israelis. Lets start
with the Israeli Jews. Most religious Orthodox Jews see Israel as a state for
Jews who share the Jewish religion. There are also non-religious Jews on the
radical right of the political spectrum who include in their existential people
who share their culture and history (but which culture and which history?
Ashkenazic? Mizrachi? Ethiopian?). And what about those Israeli Arabs who are
integrated into Israel and its culture?
Lets look at the Palestinians. Hamas in Gaza says they
want to conquer all of the land of Israel/Palestine and do not recognize an
Israel in which Jews are the majority. For them existential is no Jews or at
most a subjective Jewish minority. Fatah on the West Bank says they want an
independent Arab Palestine in the West Bank and Gaza, but a minority there now
say their existential could be one binational state for Arabs and Jews (with an
Arab majority?).
So, my opinion is that finding a common existential for
most of the inhabitants of the Land of Israel/Palestine would go a long way to
bringing peace to that land and making it an example for all of the Middle East.
This common existential is possible and already exists for many Jewish and Arab
Israelis (I don’t know the numbers or percentages). This common existential
should be nurtured not only in the State of Israel but might eventually
extend to the West Bank and eventually perhaps to Gaza. A first step can be
found in Hand in Hand which has been creating schools where Jewish and Arab
Israeli children study together. What better way can there be to create a
common existential than by starting with children? There are details to be
worked out, but the result can be a stronger and more peaceful Israel/Palestine
or whatever you call the place and one that finally realizes the dream of
Theodore Herzl of a land where Jews can live in peace and feel at home and the
Arabs can have the same.
