Thank you, Bishara

The public does not yet know the exact nature of Knesset Member Azmi Bishara's entanglement with the law. Yet everyone knows how he got mixed up with his dual and triple identity, being an Arab, Israeli, and Palestinian. Besides, he is also a communist and radical nationalist, and also a big mouth who talks before he thinks, and also loves provocations and living on the edge of the abyss. All in all, it comes as no surprise that someone who has been walking on the edge of the abyss for years eventually trips and falls down.

To some extent we should be thanking him, because Bishara's big mouth sheds light on questions we insist on sweeping under the rug and pushing to dark corners. "The State of Israel's establishment is the 20th Century greatest robbery. I am an Arab and therefore Syria is not my enemy." Do most Arab Israelis think like him? We can assume that the answer is both yes and no. We can assume that Bishara expresses the Arab, anti-Israeli identity in a radical manner, and that the majority is more moderate than him.

It is indeed possible that the soul of the average Israeli Arab comprises a small Bishara as well as some kind of an Israeli urge and identification with the country, and both forces are pulling in different directions.

But there is a small Bishara there, deep in the heart of virtually all of them. And it is not good for Israel to sweep this under the rug. The real Bishara's big moth and his various entanglements help us not to forget and not to ignore.

I am not jealous of Israel's Arabs and I do not condemn them. It is true that in terms of their economic situation and the level of human rights they enjoy their condition is better than any other Arab in the region, yet it is still better to be an Arab in Damascus than an Arab in Israel, because of the impossible clash of identities.

In the 1960s, Knesset Member Hamad Abu Rabia said: "Oy, my country is in a war with my people." A current-day Arab Knesset member would not be uttering such a balanced statement. Today, they would not use the term "my country" in relation to Israel, yet the "oy" has remained an "oy."

Once upon a time we thought that when we ask an Arab Israeli whether he is more Arab or more Israeli, we would usually get a 50-50 answer. Today we already know that an Arab Israeli is usually an Arab first and foremost, then a Palestinian, then a Muslim, and only at the end Israeli.

No other way

As noted, I do not envy them and I do not condemn them, and I am not offering a solution. I only suggest that the State of Israel refrain from addressing this matter through the practical, scientific problem-solving approach that believes there is a solution to every problem. This approach led the West to great achievements, but it also dragged him to the greatest follies. At times, when this culture encounters a problem that has no solution, it cannot tolerate it, and then it tends to convince itself that if there is no solution there is apparently no problem either.

For this we should express a tiny bit of gratitude to Azmi Bishara and his entanglements. There is a problem: An Israeli Arab today would not normally refer to Israel as "my country," and he would be right. He is Arab, and Israel is the Jewish State. He is a citizen of a country that is not his own. The idea of "a state of all its citizens" does not work, and it would not work even if we change the words of our national anthem and annul the Law of Return.

We cannot sweep this under the rug. An Arab Israeli is first and foremost an Arab, and a Jewish Israeli is first and foremost a Jew, and a thousand post-modern sociologists will not be able to erase the connection between a people and a state, even if the thousand modernists who came before them were unable to define this connection well.

Israel is the Jewish people's state. It includes non-Jewish citizens who enjoy full civic equality, all individual rights, and all the freedoms guaranteed by a democracy. There is one thing we cannot give them: We cannot completely be rid of their foreignness. They live in another people's country.

This is not an opinion; it's a fact. As a result, says Azmi Bishara, and the small Bishara in the heart of every Arab agrees with him, be it an Israeli, Syrian, or Algerian, the State of Israel is the 20th Century's greatest robbery. For them, the Jews suddenly arrived and took for themselves a country that used to belong to the Arab people. For them, they should be dreaming about the day the robbed land would return to its owners, and the Jewish thieves would be out of here. As to us, we should be aware of this.

I do not propose that Israeli law should demand them to believe in Zionism, and of course not the other way around, that we would make this country less Jewish in order to resolve the problem. First of all, because this would not be fair. Secondly, it would not resolve anything, but rather, only make the problem worse. I only suggest that we understand there is a problem. This country is democratic and equal and just, and they are its citizens, yet at the same time it would never be theirs: It would never give up on being Jewish and they would never give up on being Arab.

This is the most important thing at this point: To know there is a problem and that it has no solution, and that is ok. This is the way it should be. We can live with it and adhere to the rules of democracy, and also to the duty to be cautious and aware of the dangers. There is no other way.