Expulsion Drive Slows Somewhat

By Israel Shahak

The Israeli Knesset is split almost evenly over proposals to convene an international peace conference on the Middle East, a deadlock which accurately reflects the present divisions in Israeli Jewish society. However, Israeli Jewish society—like most societies, including America's—usually does not pay much attention to foreign affairs which do not directly affect it. For Israeli Jewish society, the occupied West Bank and Gaza, because they are essentially colonies, are regarded as "foreign affairs" so long as the situation is manageable from the Israeli point of view. That is, as long as the number of Israelis injured or killed there remains small or negligible.

Except for a small left-wing minority in Israel, protests against government policies result almost exclusively from the loss of Israeli lives. This was clearly shown with Israel's occupation of Lebanon. After the Israeli government reduced its presence in south Lebanon in June 1985, which led to a sharp reduction in the number of Israeli soldiers killed or wounded there, protests against the occupation all but disappeared. Although Israel still maintains a presence in south Lebanon, and continues to train and support the unpopular South Lebanon Army, more manageable "human costs" have blunted Israeli protests.

Similarly, with the exception of the small left-wing groups, there is no significant popular sympathy for the Palestinians in the occupied territories. In recent years, relatively few Israeli Jews have been killed by Palestinians in either the occupied territories or in Israel. In fact, the majority were actually killed inside Israel. In 1986, five Israeli Jews were killed by Palestinians, in 1985 the number was nine, and in 1984 Palestinians killed six Jewish Israelis. As a result, Israeli Jews think that the situation, while occasionally unpleasant, can continue more or less unchanged.

In much the same way, two recent polls provide important information on the attitude of Jewish Israelis on Palestinians, both within Israel proper and in the occupied West Bank and Gaza.

In June, Jewish Israelis carried out a pogrom against Arabs in the Tel Aviv suburb of Ramat Gan. Arabs were beaten and property was destroyed. One week later, a poll which I regard as accurate was conducted by Hadashot, a popular daily paper of progressive leanings. Respondents were asked:

"Which of the two following opinions do you support? Every Israeli citizen, whether Jewish or Arab, should be allowed to live anywhere in Israel under any condition. Or, Arabs should not be allowed to live in a Jewish neighborhood, or the reverse, when the majority of the people here oppose it."

Roughly 49 percent of those polled supported the first proposition and 44 percent supported the second. Seven percent had no opinion.

There was a second poll, taken in August, shortly after General Rehavam Ze'evi proposed that the Palestinians of the occupied territories be "transferred" to Jordan. This poll, coming on the heels of a statement that agitated all of Israel, is significant, even though the misleading and tendentious questions described Ze'evi's proposal as "an exchange of the population," and noted that "Israel has already absorbed more than a million Jews from Arab countries."

Fifty percent of those surveyed agreed with Ze'evi's proposal to "transfer" the Palestinians from the occupied territories to Jordan. Thirty-five percent rejected Ze'evi's proposal, and roughly 12 percent had no opinion.

A follow-up question asked: "Aside from your agreement or disagreement, do you think Ze'evi's proposal is possible or impossible, that is, can it be accomplished or not?"

Fourteen percent answered that Ze'evi's proposal was feasible, 76 percent said it was not feasible, and roughly 10 percent had no opinion.

I believe these polls, and others like them, show the Israelis as they really are, and not as the gullible and sentimental American press would like them to be. The great difference between those who would like all the Palestinians expelled from the occupied territories and those who realize—regretfully, I suppose—that this cannot be accomplished, is especially significant.

However bleak these polls may seem to Americans, this degree of polarization, which began around 1974-75, is an enormous improvement on what Israel had been before: A society that was totalitarian in its attitudes towards the Palestinians. Discussion of the Palestinians is now much more open in Israel than it was in 1967-68, when the Prime Minister Levy Eshkol sought to "induce the inhabitants" to leave, i.e., expel them. In fact, Levy Eshkol, who is wrongly considered to be a "moderate," was so keen on expelling the Palestinians that he insisted on receiving each morning with his breakfast a report on how many Palestinians had "left" the previous day.

The present situation inside Israel is certainly grim, but it is a considerable improvement over what prevailed 20 years ago.

Israel Shahak, an Israeli survivor of several Nazi concentration camps, writes from Israel on Israeli affairs and publishes translations from Israel's Hebrew press.