From: davidba@carmel.technion.ac.il (David Ben_Ami)
Subject: Re: Yitzhak Rabin, another the self-hating Jew
Organization: Technion, Israel Inst. of Technology
Date: Sat, 15 Aug 1992 12:00:56 GMT

In article <22196@venera.isi.edu> arens@ISI.EDU (Yigal Arens) writes:
>[Comments in square brackets are mine - Yigal]
>
>From "The OTHER Front", July 29, 1992.  Translation of Ha'aretz article.
>
>Racism in the Knesset
>---------------------
>
>Coalition requirements on one hand, and the presence of progressive MKs
>from _Meretz_ in the coalition on the other, have compelled Rabin and
>his friends to change, to some extent, their attitude towards the Arab
>public and their representatives in the Knesset.  Although he did refuse
>to view them as partners, taking part in the coalition and joining the
>government, he did agree to meet with them and to give them a document
>of intentions which included a commitment to "work towards a decrease in
>the discrimination between Jewish and Arab citizens".  [Decrease WHAT?!?!
>But posters have told us time and again that such discrimination does
>not exist *at* *all*!  Is Rabin, too, a closet self-hater??? - Yigal].

There is no doubt that in some respects Arabs get less budgetary and labor
opprotunities in Israel. This is indeed unfortunate and has many reasons
some of them security-connected which have sound basis (whatever Yigal
and his fellow anti Zionists will say) and many from prejudice and stereotypes
that roam the Jewish public as it roams Whites in the USA and many other
people - this should be eliminated and ALL governments declared that Equality 
is very important. Of course many of these declerations were lip-service
as is the current one by Rabin (IMHO).

This is not racism per se. This is nationalism (as the Arabs are from
the same race, and no one condemns Arab for their racial features).

>However, racism has not disappeared.  When the Knesset sat to consider
>who would staff its various committees, a request was made to put an MK
>from Hadash [the Communist party, one of the "Arab" parties - Yigal] on
>the State Comptroller's Committee.  And oh, did that ever stir up a
>storm -- including in the ranks of Labor -- since many Knesset members
>find it unthinkable that an Arab MK sit on one of the important house
>committees.  "Security secrets" are liable to fall into their hands...
>
>This attitude -- which until recently had not even aroused criticism,
>being so natural and so deeply-embossed upon people's hearts -- holds
>that there are Knesset members who, despite having been elected by tens
>of thousands of votes, are not entitled to be full partners in the body
>which represents the people of Israel.  We are not speaking here of
>political discrimination -- which would be bad enough in itself -- but
>of racial discrimination.  The proof: one of the compromises proposed
>was that MK Mahamid [an Arab - Yigal] should be replaced by Tamar
>Gojanski [a Jew - Yigal] from the same party.  It was not the member's
>party which was considered unfit, but his race...

A VERY interseting fact that might pull the rug out of this righteous
articles is that the SAME Arab MK Mahamid confessed publicly that
he met with Arafat and Naif Hawatme in Tunis. other Arab participators
refrained from doing so (there is stiil a law forbidding it). this guy
was bold enough to do what other Arabs hidden. [The Law being about to
cancel makes him bold].

So who can assure us that secrets were not leaked through him. Can't 
anybody see the obvious dangers. is it no reasonable to questions the
loyalty of a self-proclaimed enemy sypathizer?  
In this case I think that Ms. Guzanski is not much better than her friend 
Mahamid  although she is more unlikely to transmit secrets.

>
>It is worth noting that for the first time since the state's founding, a
>public debate has arisen on this subject, as witness the following
>article:
>
>
>A TEST OF SELF-CONFIDENCE
>
>By Gid'on Levi, Ha'aretz, July 26, 1992
>
>Revelations of discrimination against Arabs have become such an integral
>part of our daily routine that there is not much effort made to deal
>with them.  [Do you hear that, -----?  Please contact this Levi fellow
>and explain to him how little he knows about Israel.  Please! - Yigal].

I never said that Arabs enjoy full equality in Israel - they have formal
equality - much the same as the Blacks have in America. There are many
laws that discrimiante Jews affirmatively, such as the Law of Return.
The raison d'etre of this is: Jews have been denied a State for 2000
years and must be compensated.

Arabs however have all formal rights and enjoy far better conditions
than any other Arabs in the ME. They also have no obligation to serve 
in the army [ much for the same reason as banning Mahamid from the
Knesset committy ].

>Except that sometimes the demon bursts out from behind the government's
>window dressing, and then the phenomenon is seven times more serious.
>
>Last week provided two more such examples: the Israeli Knesset is
>finding it very difficult to allow Arab representation on its more
>important committees; and Israel Television is finding it no less
>difficult to give a platform to Arabs from the territories.  Seemingly
>two entirely different matters, but in fact they are one and the same.
>
>The 13th Knesset proved last week that, even though one third of its
>members are new faces, it has not renewed its own face at all, at least
>on one issue.  Parliamentary traditions may be modernized and
>parliamentary traditions may become obsolete, and only one tradition
>endures forever: no Arab shall set foot in the more important committees
>of the house.  There has never been and never will be an Arab MK on the
>External Affairs and Defense Committee or on the Finance Committee.
>Worlds have been overturned over the question of whether or not "to
>give" Arabs, for the first time, a place on the State Comptroller's
>Committee.
>
>The arguments are old and well-known: In all three of the above
>committees innumerable secrets are revealed -- and woe unto us if an
>Arab should hear them.  One must not make light of such arguments, but
>their significance should also not be exaggerated.  Every Arab MK is not
>spending all his time waiting for the opportune moment to hand over
>information from the Knesset committee room to Black Panther
>headquarters in Jenin; and not all the aforementioned committees are

They prefer to go straight to HQ in Tunisia :-))

>continually occupied in the discussion of top-secret matters, which
>could safely be revealed, for example, to MKs supportive of the Jewish
>Underground, but not to an Arab MK from the Likud, Labor, or even from
>Hadash.

The Jewish Underground was never detrimental to Israel's interest in
any way to the various enemies of Israel.

>The Arabs themselves would probably forego membership in the Subcommittee
>on Secret Service Matters, but what would happen, one may ask, if MK
>Nawaf Masalha were to hear, God forbid, a review of the Foreign Minister
>in an open meeting of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, or even
>a review of the Army Chief of Staff which, in any case, are regularly
>leaked to the next edition of the news.  And what would happen if MK
>Hashem Mahamid were to report on what he had seen with his own eyes at
>al-Najah?
>
>Their non-participation [in important committees] and that of their
>colleagues, creates an intolerable situation, where Arab members of the
>elected house have only semi-positions.  They are good enough for
>addressing plenary sessions, and for voting for or against the
>government and participating in the deliberations of the Immigration and
>Absorption Committee.  But they must not, for example, participate in
>the process of formulating the state budget in the Finance Committee or
>in the allocation of resources to local authorities.  In any case, they
>have little part in that.

Well, I think the dangers are not fictitious as this journalist imply,
I think that if Arabs should be trusted to these commities they should
also serve in the army. Most of them won't hear of the latter not even
in the mildest form (service in Arab municipal and hospitals) so their
complaints seem a little hypoctical.

if you want to be full-fledged Israeli: "Ask first what you should give
Israel, not what Israel should give you" to paraphrase JFK.
 
>Labor's dependence on the support of the Arab parties has brought about
>some improvement: MK Hashem Mahamid, will, it seems, participate in the
>State Comptroller's Committee.  Earlier, there had been a ridiculous
>attempt made to dictate to Hadash who their representative should be,
>and thus to prevent the Arab from entering this dubious holy-of-holies,
>but it soon became clear that there was no legal or constitutional
>backing for such a step.
>
>But not to worry: even now the Jewish mind is contriving devices.  The
>new Committee Chair, Roni Milo, has already announced that he will set up
>subcommittees aplenty for his committee.  Thus he will decide where it
>is permissible for Mahamid to participate and where not.  A solution
>such as this could, by the way, also have been adopted for the rest of
>the committees, thereby completely eliminating the fear of state secrets
>being leaked to the enemy and removing the stain of discrimination from
>the Knesset.
>
>[. . .]
>--
>Yigal Arens   "He seems like an average type of man.  He's not, like, smart.
>USC/ISI        I'm not trying to bag on him or anything, but he has the same
>arens@isi.edu  mentality I have -- and I'm in the eighth grade."     Vanessa
>               Martinez, after VP Quayle's visit to her school-LA Times 5/21

David Ben-Ami.
-- 
=============================================================================
  David Ben-Ami (irc: bigdav)      |   "I can resist anything but Temptation"
  s2780369@Techst02.Technion.Ac.Il |       Oscar Wilde
  davidba@Carmel.Technion.Ac.Il  davidba@Moav.Techniona.Ac.Il
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