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American Dream
(Continued from page 16)
in fact,
and not just by analogy,
inherited the blessing that the pa–
triarch Israel bestowed on bis
grandson, Manasseh.
Now if that is true (it is-but
you need to prove it for yourself),
it makes the prophecies of the
Bible suddenly very reaL Many of
those prophecies, in fact, were not
directed at
ancient
Israel, but to
descendants of Israel in " latter
days"-the "time of the end."
When the prophet Isaiah speaks,
it is not to a people
like
us-he
speaks
to
us. Jeremiah did not
thunder about a situation similar to
our
own-he foresaw
the condition
of this
end-time
generation, even as
he saw the problems of his own.
Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea and the
other prophets were given a mes–
sage-a message that would be
preserved through time, and then
delivered to a people that needed
the same stern warning
as their
forefathers so many centuries ago.
This year America and her
friends will celebrate the lOOth
birthday of the restored Statue of
Liber ty. She needed help, and the
American people saved her to hold
a gleaming new torch out to the
world. But while they were at it,
perhaps they should have turned
her round, so she could focus her
steady gaze on her own people, and
on a nation that still looks good,
but whose strength is rotting away.
Unfortunately, it's easier to rebuild
a statue than to restore a people.
As de Tocqueville observed, the
only enemy is man himself. But
what a formidable enemy man is.
lt
will be a sad day for the world
when the prophecies are fulfilled,
and America suffers the greatest
national tragedy that has ever be–
fallen any people, anywhere. But it
looks as
if
that is the only way the
lessons can be learned.
When the lessons have been
learned- and they will be-God
promises to once more restore the
fortunes of bis people, to give them
a new heart, and another oppor–
tunity to be a light to the world.
1 don't know if the Statue of
Liberty will last for the coming
thóusand years. But thank God the
nation she represents will. o
26
Jews
and Israel
(Continued from page
13)
no legal sense be considered Jorda–
nian territory.
As for the Palestinian Arabs, a
whole body of myths has grown up
around the question: Who are the
Palestinians, and what is their iden–
tity?
The Palestinian Arabs never
had a specific sociopolitical or
cultural identification witbin the
area. Even as late as the outbreak
of World War 1, or as of the
moment of the Balfour Declara–
tion in 1917, or of the distribu–
tion of the territories of the de–
feated Ottoman Empire, the
Arabs of Palestine did not consti–
tute a distinctive national group.
No such distinctive entity ex–
isted, or recognized itself, or was
recognized by other Arabs or by
the rest of the world. They thought
of themselves as Syrians, or as in–
habitants of towns and villages of
southern Syria.
The absence of a
Palestinian
Arab national consciousness until
just a few decades ago .. . helps ac–
count for the ease and swiftness
with which hal f a million Arabs
abandoned their bornes in 1948-49:
A deeply rooted peasantry does not
readily give up its land .
lndeed, prior to the British as–
sumption of the mandate- prior to
the extensive Jewi.sh development
of the land- the Arabs had actu–
ally been leaving the country in
droves, because of the wretched–
ness, misery and poverty of their
lives there. lt was Jewish settle–
ment and development, ironically
enough, that was responsible for
the reversa! of this trend.
As Jewish agricultura}, indus–
trial, technological and commercial
enterprises thrived, the economic
absorptive capacity of the country
increased rapidly-and from 1922
onward, huge numbers of poor
Arabs began pouring in, from
drought-stricken Syria, from Sinai,
and from Iraq, Lebanon, Transjor–
dan and Egypt.
They sought to reap the benefits
of Jewish development, and they
got them: vastly higher standards
of health, income, housing, educa–
tion, literacy and human rights–
vastly more than those enjoyed by
the population of any Arab country
then or now.
The influx was so great that it
has become difficult if not impossi–
ble to ascertain what proportion of
the present Arab population of the
land- Israel plus Judea, Samaria
and Gaza- is native Palestinian,
and what foreign . ... Palestinian
Arabs may well have felt a pro–
found kinship and tie to their na–
tive town or village, or to the piece
of land they lived on and culti–
vated. But never did they conceive
of ..Palestine" as their ' 'home–
land"- which it never was.
One of the basest canards of
anti-Zionist propaganda has been
that, whatever else the Jews may
have accomplished in Palestine,
they ignored or were indifferent to
the existence of an Arab population
there. . ..
Nothing could be further from
the truth. Over the decades, Zion–
ist leaders frequently enunciated
the principie of Arab-Jewish coop–
eration, and made countless, sys–
temat ic- and futile-efforts to
seek oegotiation , uoderstanding,
reconci liation, peace. From the
very beginning of Jewish settle–
ment in Palestine in the latter part
of the 19th century, Jews consis–
tently sought out Arabs for friend–
ship, cooperation and mutual bene–
fit.
Jihad - rejection
and
war- was the consistent response,
a refusal to reconcile themselves to
the legitimate existence of Israel.
This is precisely what is " psy–
chological," as the late President
Sadat put it many times, about the
Middle East problem, and it was
from this psychological iroo cage
that he succeeded heroically in
breaking out into the open spaces
of rationality and sanity. This led
him to accept that legitimacy and
permanence of the Jewish State, its
independence, sovereignty, equality
and natural rights of nationhood.
It
is only on the basis of such
recognition in the Arab world, an
acceptance of historical sense and
sensibility, that peace can come.
Without those qualities, there can
only be the pain and despair of per–
petual conflict. Israel has demon–
strated, time and again, its readiness
to compromise and make conces–
sions for peace. We are waiting for
the Arabs to do likewise. o
The PLAIN TRUTH