I have heard on many occasions over the years deep concern about the danger to Israel from its Arab minority. Israel faces many dangers, but this is not one of them.

True, most Israelis are upset with the nasty militancy of some of the Arab Knesset members who have been using their parliamentary immunity to promote a seditious agenda. Some of those MKs, who seem to take their orders from Arafat and Assad, openly support Arab anti-Jewish terrorism and advocate the eradication of the State of Israel. Israelis also remember the riots instigated by the PLO at the start of the current Intifada in several Arab towns, which resulted in the death of quite a few violent demonstrators. Those riots left a bitter taste in both Israeli Arab and Jewish communities, with an impression that Arafat also controls the Israeli Arabs.

Then there is the well-known "demographic bomb" scare, namely that the Israeli Arabs will soon outnumber the Israeli Jews and convert the Jewish homeland into another Arab country (Arafat's infamous dream). Taking a closer look at these concerns we will see that those fears are unjustified. They remind us of Pharaoh's "The people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we?" (Exodus 1:9). While being ethically and politically objectionable, these fears only add unneeded fuel to the conflict.

Let us take a closer look at the Israeli Arab population. For one, Israeli Arabs are not a monolithic group - they include the Bedouin community, which suffered proportionally more IDF war casualties than the Jewish community; the large Druze community, whose sons serve in the IDF like the Bedouins; and like members of the small Circassian community. Then there is the large Christian Arabs community (Greek Orthodox and Catholics) in addition to the Arab Muslim community, mostly Sunni Muslims, who constitute about 75% of the Israeli ethnic Arab minority. Most Israeli Arabs, including many of the Sunnis, prefer to live in democratic Israel rather than under oppressive despotic Islamic rule, which often persecutes non-Muslim Arab minorities. Three years ago there was a rumor that Israel would transfer the town of Umm el-Fahm to the PA as part of the modified Oslo agreement and we heard a strong objection from the Israeli Muslim Arabs, some of whom were vocal PLO sympathizers.

Surprisingly, the Israeli government has been exempting Israeli Arab, including Arab Christians, from military or other national service duties, because of concerns about their loyalty to the state, while trusting Yasser Arafat, an avowed terrorist leader. After the Oslo agreement, Israel permitted the return of known PLO terrorist leaders and it armed and trained members of Fatah ("conquest" in Arabic), a brazen, Muslim terrorist organization, which has declared the conquest of the Jewish state as its main political goal. In brief, the Oslo accords have been a major political blunder.

It is also noteworthy that just a handful of ideologically motivated Israeli Muslim Arabs have been apprehended as accomplices of extramural Muslim terrorists. Their number is, however, comparable to the number of ideologically motivated Israeli Jews apprehended for terrorist activities against Arabs. In addition, a handful of profit-motivated Arab and Jewish arms dealers and smugglers were apprehended. In brief, to the chagrin of the Islamists and Arab nationalists, the overwhelming majority of Israeli Arab citizens have been found to be loyal to the state they live in.

In view of this, how can one explain the militancy of the Arab MKs who are supposed to represent the Israeli Arab minority? The answer is simple. Just like the political leaders in the rest of the Arab world, most Israeli Arab politicians are corrupt and do not represent the political will of their constituents. On the other side of the fence, corrupt Jewish politicians have also been trying to undermine the democratic structure of Israel and even delegitimize their own homeland, endangering the very existence of their own nation.

Why do we have this problem and what can be done about it?

Israel does not have a constitution. A constitution would forbid and severely punish or even expel citizens who try to deny or undermine the very existence of the Jewish state. When Israel was established on May 15, 1948, it was immediately attacked militarily by seven Arab countries that tried to eradicate it. Writing and adopting a national constitution was far from being a high priority in those critical days. Later on, this task was deferred because of the likely political squabble about the extent of inclusion of Jewish religious laws in the constitution without interfering with religious freedom of all the citizens (an intrinsic feature of Western democracy, like other personal freedoms). Without a constitution, Israel has a representative government that lacks the necessary legal tools to guarantee the integrity and loyalty of its political leaders, Jews and non-Jews alike. This omission or neglect is now coming to bite. The State of Israel must have a constitution - a set of premises that cannot be altered by the legislature, and therefore immune from expedient political constellations.

Israel's constitution must state that:

1. The Land of Israel is the ancient homeland of the Jewish people (not just a Jewish state); 2. Hebrew is its official language;
3. The Zionist flag is its national flag; and
4. Hatikva, the 119-year-old Zionist anthem that expresses the link between the Jewish people and their homeland, is Israel's national anthem.

Israel's constitution should also state that because the State of Israel is the only sovereign state of the Jewish nation (unlike the 22 Arab nations), any member of this nation who wishes to immigrate to Israel is potentially a refugee from ethnic and/or religious persecution and has, therefore, the right to be admitted as an immigrant (unless proven to be a fugitive felon). This preference of Jews over non-Jews is be utterly justified in view of the centuries-old persecution of Jews in different parts of the world. This would not be different from American immigration law concerning political or religious refugees. The absorption of more than 700,000 Jewish refugees from Arab countries by Israel after 1948 fully justifies this constitutional premise. Obviously, just like the U.S., Israel is going to deny entry to people, Jews or non-Jews, bound on the destruction of the Jewish state or just deny its legitimacy. All other potential immigrants to Israel would be treated equally by a set of objective criteria.

Anyone, Jew or non-Jew, who refuses to accept these principles and swear allegiance to Israel's constitution, could not become its citizen and be allowed to participate in its democratic political processes. Jews or Arabs who refuse for any reason to agree to these premises could live in Israel as alien residents without voting rights, as long as they do not violate the civil laws of the land. Citizens who try to undermine the constitution and what it stands for, or join forces with enemies of the state in time of war, should, after due process, lose their citizenship and be expelled from the country for good. This might eliminate, or at least minimize, gross political corruption, which is rampant today.

On the other hand, all citizens of the State of Israel, irrespective of their temporary or permanent residence, should have voting rights. In other words, Israel, like most democracies, must institute absentee voting for citizens who happen to be out of the country on Election Day for whatever reason. Israel could require each Israeli citizen in good standing who resides abroad to visit the homeland at least once in 10 years; this could also help the Israeli economy. Similar laws, which allow limited dual citizenship exist in the U.S., Canada, Italy and Switzerland, among other Western countries.

These changes would allow the State of Israel to maintain a Western democratic regime, like that in the UK, Sweden, Denmark, Austria, Spain, Italy, France, multi-religious Germany, and even in multiethnic-multilingual Switzerland or Belgium, or in the multicultural United States of America and Canada. Each of these countries has ethnic and religious minorities with unmitigated political rights. However, each of these countries maintains its traditional cultural identity and political structure in face of internal demographic changes.

The Muslim minority in Israel comprises today less than 15% of the citizenry. Since the Arab population in Israel doubled in the last 50 years its growth rate (including illegal immigration) has been 1.4% per year. This is exactly equal to the current average natural growth rate of the whole population of the State of Israel (CIA World Factbook 2003). This percentage would remain therefore remain constant for the foreseeable future. However, even if the natural birthrate of the Israeli Muslims would increase miraculously to 3.3% (the natural growth rate in the West Bank territory), their percentage in the Israeli population would increase from 15% to 20% in 20 years; this would be still far from becoming a demographic threat to the Jewish majority. However, in view of current world politics, it is very likely that the West will defeat militant Islamism within the next 20 years and Islam will be reformed to become tolerant of Western culture. Then the size of the Muslim minority in Israel would become politically insignificant. Since the social status of Israeli Muslims is rapidly changing, as reflected by the large number of Arab students in Israeli universities, and if extramural Islamistic religious incitement will be curbed, if not eliminated, there is also no reason to believe that all Israeli Muslims will form a militant Islamic, or Arab nationalistic, anti-Jewish political bloc.

In summary, the worry about the potential danger to Israel from its Arab citizens is unfounded. On the contrary, demonstrating that a sizable Arab minority, with a variety of religious persuasions, can be fully integrated - socially, economically and politically -- in the Jewish democratic state, could become a model. It could be a model for Muslim countries with sizable ethnic and religious minorities, as Iraq is expected to become in the foreseeable future. It could also serve as a model for European countries with large Muslim minorities.

Views expressed by the author do not necessarily reflect those of israelinsider.

Talk Back! Respond to this view

Click on the blue headline to read a Talkback comment and respond to it. Click on the icon to send a private email to the talkback writer. The icon appears only if the writer has decided to be contacted. If no popup window appears, please make sure your popup blocker allows israelinsider.com.