Conflicts and Contradictions

By Meron Benvenisti. New York, N.Y.: Villard Books, 1986. 210 pp. $15.95.

Reviewed by Robert G. Hazo

A recurring theme in Middle East affairs is that the complexity of the region's problems has not been matched by a comparable sophistication in the policies adopted to address them. Indeed, those who contend with the region's problems have demonstrated that there is a normally large gap between their understanding of what is going on and the reality with which they are dealing. Small wonder, then, that modern Middle Eastern history is littered with frustration and failure.

Meron Benvenisti, in a kind of personal-political memoir, has made a singular contribution to closing the gap between the perceptions of Middle East policymakers, and what actually goes on in Israel. Unhurried by any need to judge or act, Benvenisti set himself the task of recording disinterested observations resulting from his personal experiences. That experience includes the entire history of Israel as well as some of the struggles for Palestine that preceded it. Benvenisti considers himself one of the few "authentic sabras" (3 percent of the population) who were born in the area now designated as Israel before 1940, nearly a decade before the formation of the state of Israel. He has been perfectly positioned, therefore, to understand the evolution of the Zionist ideal into what it has become today. As the son of a Sephardic father and an Ashkenazi mother, he also understands the alienation between the 70 percent of Israelis who are oriental and the better-situated 30 percent who trace their origins to Europe and the West. As deputy mayor of Jerusalem when the Arab sector was occupied by Israel in 1967, he had a very close look at the relationship between Israeli Jews and Israeli Arabs. As a scholar who has focused on the Israeli-Palestinian relationship and paid special attention to the West Bank, he knows as much about the Arab perspective and the feelings that underlie it as any non-Arab can.

The Devil's Advocate

Though not a logically-oriented and rigorously-reasoned monograph, Benvenisti, again and again, uses notions of antinomies, contraries and opposites in his analyses, as his title "Conflicts and Contradictions" suggests. This gambit of presenting dichotomies, though perhaps overdone throughout the book, yields startling and valuable perspectives. Since he is genuinely indifferent to whether Arab or Israeli comes off looking worse, his attitude, if not every one of his conclusions, is objective. That, of course, is why he is considered controversial. If truth is the first casualty of war, then interest in and reverence for truth is diminished with it. Benvenisti's accomplishment is that in an atmosphere of hostility between Jews and Arabs, both within Israel and between Israel and its neighbors, he tries to see things as they are, even to the point of suspecting and analyzing his own motives as an Israeli. In the kind of chauvinistic atmosphere in which he lives, playing the devil's advocate is rare and noteworthy, even if the effort sometimes fails.

Recently on television Benvenisti was asked about Meir-Kahane's claim that Israel cannot be both a Jewish and a democratic state. He replied, candidly, that Kahane was correct. He added, however, that he was not willing to expel Arabs from Israel or disenfranchise them, thereby making Israel a "majority tyranny," nor was he willing to abandon the idea of a distinctively Jewish state. He would prefer to go on living with the contradiction or, more precisely, struggling with it.

Living With Contradictions

The central dilemma with which he struggles is, of course, the relationship between Israelis and Arabs, particularly Palestinians. As he sees it, the barriers are such that two peoples, even though they are in the same state, in fact, live in "different worlds." He did have hope after the 1967 war, when Jerusalem was taken by the Israelis, that the unified city could provide a model for Israeli-Arab integration. But, as the visible barriers were removed, the invisible ones became stronger. After Moshe Dayan—the one Israeli leader Benvenisti claims made a real attempt to reach out to the Arabs—was discredited in 1973, all efforts at reconciliation were abandoned and negative stereotypes took over. For the Arabs, the Israelis remained alien conquerors. For the Israelis, the Arabs continued to be perceived as dangerous and subversive. The two nationalisms, one feeding on suspicion, the other on resentment, and both mutually reinforcing, smothered all other feelings.

Benvenisti's poignant accounts of the depth of Israeli-Arab hostility, the evolution of early, idealistic Zionist dreams into militant Israeli real politik, the emergence of aggressive religious fundamentalism in Israel, and other seminal themes are woven into an artistic texture of personal reminiscences. His reflections do not include any guidelines for actions and surely offer no grounds for optimism about the future. However, Benvenisti's analysis without prescription does provide a deeper understanding of the dilemmas and paradoxes of the Middle East, a substantial accomplishment that, in itself, justifies the author's endeavor.

Robert G. Hazo is Chairman of the Middle East Policy Association and a Senior Public Affairs Consultant with the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee.