Fateful Triangle

The Palestinian Uprising842all parties, including the PLO.Apart from the last condition, there is nothing here that would beunacceptable to Rabin and the Labor Party, and little that would troubleeven the hawks. “The painful path of clarification” lies far in thedistance.Also interesting is the reason offered for support of Peace Now:“because attempts to rule over the Palestinians or to annex the land inwhich they live jeopardize Israel’s security and threaten Israel’sdemocratic, Jewish character.” Two points bear mention. First, thesuffering of the Palestinians and their rights are not cited as a reason forsupporting peace. Second, consider the phrase “Israel’s democratic,Jewish character.” What does it mean to speak of the “democraticcharacter” of a state that has been determined, by its Supreme Court, tobe “the sovereign State of the Jewish people,” including Jews in thediaspora, but not the state of its citizens? Recall that the “Jewishcharacter” of the state is not merely symbolic. Discrimination againstArab citizens is far-reaching and deeply rooted in legal structure andadministrative practice, including access to land, development funds,and virtually every aspect of social life. It is also regarded here asuncontroversial. Thus in an editorial comment in the New York Timesthat is critical of the settlement policies in the occupied territories, JackRosenthal writes sardonically that if the government subsidies werereally motivated by “economic fulfillment,” as claimed, then they “wouldbe limited to the new development towns in the Negev and Galilee,where there is no dispute as to who owns the land.” 79 It is quite truethat “there is no dispute.” The land is reserved for the use of Jewishcitizens of Israel by laws and regulations that effectively exclude Arabcitizens from over 90% of the country’s land within Israel proper (thepre-June 1967 borders). It is revealing that such arrangements areconsidered quite unremarkable, and consistent with democraticClassics in Politics: The Fateful TriangleNoam Chomsky