The official Israeli treatment of the refugee question needs to accentuate the story of Jewish refugees – totaling nearly 800,000 – who were forced to leave Islamic lands. The population issue should be reformulated with the accent on Arab belligerence and Jewish affliction, thus standing the matter as it is now currently dealt with, presented, and understood on its head.
Arab support for the invading armies of their confreres should be contrasted with the brutal attacks launched throughout the Mohammedan world against an ancient and pacific Jewish population. Indeed, the Jewish presence in some of these areas antedates that of both Arabs (North Africa) and Islam (Yemen), an important argument to use when statements are made regarding “native Arab rights” to Israel.
Mention should be made that all places outside the Arabian Peninsula today under Arab rule were once appropriated by force and are therefore “occupied lands.” The myth of Israeli territorial greed should be compared with the record of Arab territorial expropriation. While Israel gave away the Sinai, the Arabs have yet to give away Syria, Morocco, and Algeria, among many other places in North Africa and the Middle East.
The Jews had a legitimate historical claim to the earth which they plowed and the soil which they nourished with their blood; the Bedouin who swept through the Near East to the borders of France had no claim but that of religious fanaticism and the conquering urge formerly present in most nomadic tribes.
Stress must be laid on probably the most important point of all: failure by any and all governments in the Islamic world to accept the existence of a sovereign Jewish island in an Arab sea. It is this point, rooted in religious and ethnic intolerance, rather than yeshivas in Hebron, kosher butcher shops in eastern Jerusalem, or flower gardens on the Golan, that actuates Arab hatred and must be driven into the public’s collective mind like a pick axe. Pogroms were launched against Jewish civilians as early as the 1920’s, long before any Arabs fled from their homes.
The Israeli-Egyptian peace was triggered not by a change in any one Arab government’s fundamental view but rather by Anwar Sadat’s realization that his country could not conquer Israel via military means. To the end of his life the Egyptian president hoped to destroy Israel from within by a tranquillity that would lead to a gradual de-Judaization and subsequent Arabization of the Jewish state, hence he was not quite the great peacemaker of popular sentiment.
On the flip side, the Israeli government, in conjunction with influential diaspora organizations such as B’nai Brith and the World Jewish Congress, might set up “Israeli-Jewish culture houses” in various parts of the globe which would present a more positive aspect of Israeli life. Educational programs featuring film, music, dance, and food would be regular offerings on the organization’s menu. Cultural interest usually betokens political sympathy or at least develops a wider understanding in those who evince it.
At the moment the above scheme may be utopian in outlook, but this need not always be so. If and when the day comes that an Israeli government arises that recognizes its role as guardian of the Jewish people and has the will to follow this task, what now seems unrealistic shall become everyday fact.