The Dream is Dying

By Richard Curtiss

PBS audiences generally learn only that the Middle East is an ancient place from which Jews derived a rich religious heritage, to which Arab slavers took African captives, and where Jewish survivors of Hitler's persecutions went to establish a state. They succeeded, PBS viewers know from black-and-white archival footage, despite British troops and vaguely-defined natives lurking in orange groves inconveniently located right where the Jewish pioneers had come to realize their dream of "making the desert bloom."

This June, however, on Frontline, PBS viewers learned what happened to the dream from the children of those refugees in "Israel: The Price of Victory."

Ofra Bickel, who wrote, produced, and narrated the one-hour film, and the Israelis she presents, say it all: "On the seventh day of the Six-Day War we became a different nation." "With the cycle of wars every eight years, young Jews are not coming to Israel. They are escaping from Israel. This is the beginning of the end."

Bickel shows little of the people she accurately describes as "second-class citizens who are like shadows in the background." But they are present in expressions of hatred and guilt by Jews who eat the fruit of trees their fathers took from the Arabs who planted them: "A good Arab is one who is 20 feet underground." "If they would let me, I would slaughter the Arabs."

The film shows Israelis who understand what could be: "Either we are going to be a non-Jewish country or a non-democratic state." "If I have to give back part of myself, part of my land, in order to restore my homeland, I will do it."

Corrosive effects of dependence and occupation are vividly described: "The Israelis live the life of a modern consumer society...a life fueled by more than $3 billion a year of American aid." "We have taken 3,000,000 Jews and turned them into parasites. The parasites of America."

And it is clear that some Israelis understand the costs: "There is a very heavy price we pay for no war, no peace." "This is not how we brought up our children." "I think, slowly but surely, somebody is killing our dream."

In July, NBC also weighed in with anchorman Tom Brokaw's hour-long "Six Days Plus Twenty Years—A Dream is Dying." Despite minor historical inaccuracies, the impact of film and narration is shocking and fair. Excerpts:

Correspondent Peter Kent: "A roundup of young Arab men begins, an almost weekly ritual...Militant Israelis grab at our camera. They block us from recording face slapping and humiliating treatment ...This is what the occupation is all about...Identity cards are checked, then thrown on the ground. When the soldiers finish, Arabs will have to grovel to collect their own...Jews live under Israeli civilian justice; Arabs are under the thumb of the military, second-class citizens in their own land...On any given day between three and four thousand Palestinians are in Israeli jails...These Palestinians believe they're the lucky ones; that while more than three million Palestinians are scattered around the world, they're still here, maintaining a claim to a land..."

Tom Brokaw: "This is not what was supposed to have happened. When Israel won this territory 20 years ago, almost everyone assumed it would use it as a bargaining chip to win peace."

Correspondent Martin Fletcher: "These Jews have built new settlements on the Arab land Israel conquered in the 1967 war—the West Bank. Their aim: To make sure this land is never given up again, whatever the cost. And there is a cost—800,000 Arabs live here—their numbers are growing fast and so is their hatred. If Israel does keep the West Bank, in 20 years the Jews may be a hated minority in their own state."

Palestinian Sari Nusseibeh: "If you love a city (Jerusalem) so much, if you love anything so much, you should also recognize how much it can be loved by others...Rabbi Hartman, why don't you...stand up and say, 'I recognize the Palestinians...have rights including the right to national self-determination.' I will stand up and say the same of you."

Rabbi David Hartman of Jerusalem: "Until...the Palestinian people feel at home in this country...I'm still wandering in my own land."

Nusseibeh: "Well, let's stop your wandering, with mutual recognition of the two people' right to self-determination..."

The impetus for such superb coverage of Israel by two different US networks comes from the desperation of Israeli peace activists and members of the Labor Coalition, who know that what Israel needs from the US is not more money and arms to maintain the occupation, but restrictions tying US aid to Israeli steps toward peace. It has had little discernible impact, however, on American Jews who direct Israel's lobby and who occupy some key US media positions. For example: The 60-minute NBC news special was shown only once—at exactly the time most Americans were watching a two-hour interview with Democratic presidential hopefuls. Consider also this statement by Leonard Fine, influential former editor of Moment magazine: "You can parade Ariel Sharon in front of me in full battle dress, and I will close my eyes and see the refugees coming off the boats from Europe and kissing the ground. So I can absorb a lot and not be alienated."

Until US Jews like Fine become constructively alienated, however, and put restrictions on US aid in order to turn out the Shamirs and Sharons, the dream will continue to die.