In their wake, Arab community leaders called for a rare one-day strike. Perhaps, for these confrontations are all signs of the anger simmering beneath the surface - an anger that is growing and threatens to shake the very foundations of Israeli independence. Clearly, Israel's predicament and its morally brutal attempt to address it are the same today as in 1976, and it is the same whether the focus is on Israel proper or on 1967-occupied territory. In trying to implement its dream, Israel clearly has had to adopt a discriminatory policy against this non-Jewish population. It has also been successfully used by consecutive Israeli governments since the country's creation.
Demographic facts loom threateningly behind Israel's frenzied development.
Meanwhile, a people, having been robbed of land and identity and now apparently at the height of their defeat and capitulation, seems, nonetheless, deeply ensconsed and rooted, containing within itself the seeds for a rejuvenation. Simply, neither has Israel succeeded in becoming the purely Jewish state it set out to be, nor has the Palestinian people vanished into thin air or thick desert sands. Thus the less chance there is for negotiating a successful partition, and the more chance there is that what will emerge is a greater Israel, that is even less Jewish than it already is today. All of which leaves Israel at the end with very few and very difficult choices to make. To reach this end peacefully, mutually acceptable forms of transitional partitions between Israelis and Palestinians can, and perhaps must, be worked out as interim steps.