This could be an excellent plan for the Palestinian minority in Israel, but the Likud, of course, would not dream of accepting it. Like the anti-Semites in Czarist Russia, today's right-wing Israelis consider the national minority a potential or actual fifth column, and any form of autonomy for them a danger to the state.
Lovers of the Bible may find some amusement in the words of Pharaoh (Exodus 1) about the Children of Israel: "When there falleth out any war, they join also unto our enemies and fight against us." By a curious turn, now we are Pharaoh, and the Arabs are the new Children of Israel.
SO WHAT is the situation of Israel's Arab citizens?
It is neither a situation of real equality, as Israeli propagandists assert, not is it a terrible situation of suffering and oppression, as painted by irrational haters of Israel. The actual situation is far more complex.
This week I was in a supermarket in Tel Aviv. I collected some articles and went to pay. I was served by a very good-looking young cashier, who spoke perfect Hebrew and was also extremely polite. When I left, I was a bit surprised to realize that she was Arab.
Some time ago I was hospitalized (forgot for what) in Tel Aviv. The chief doctor of the department was an Arab. Also many of the male nurses. Contrary to the image of the wild, savage Arab, it is generally agreed that Arab nurses, male and female, are much gentler than their Jewish counterparts.
A respected Supreme Court judge, who also sits on the committee for appointing judges, is an Arab.
Arabs are deeply embedded in the Israeli economy. Their average income may be lower than the Jewish one, especially since much fewer Arab women than Jewish ones work. But Israeli living standards are much higher than in any Arab country.
I think that Arab citizens are much more "Israelized" than most of them realize. It is only when they visit Jordan, for example, that they feel they are different (and superior).
While they do not enjoy autonomy, in practice there is a "supervising committee" that unites all Arab municipalities and associations, and there is the Joint Arab faction (the third largest faction in the Knesset)
That is one side of the ledger. The other side is the very opposite: Arab citizens feel every day that they are different from the Jews, that they are looked down upon and discriminated against. Not even the Jewish Left dreams about setting up a government coalition with the Arab faction.
There is a hidden debate inside Arab society in Israel. Many Arabs believe that their faction in the Knesset should deal more with their situation in Israel, while the faction itself deals much more with the situation of their brothers and sisters in the occupied Palestinian territories.
There used to be a well-known Yiddish saying: "It isn't easy to be a Jew." In the Jewish State, "it is not easy to be an Arab."
ALL THESE dilemmas are somehow symbolized by the proposed law of the Muslim prayer call.
Of course, the problem could be solved by mutual discussion and understanding. In all Arab towns and villages, people want to hear the call to prayer, even if many of them do not get up to go to the mosque. In neighborhoods with a non-Muslim population, the loudspeakers could be silenced by agreement, or their volume lowered. But prior to submitting the bill, there were no consultations at all.
So if Yai'r is woken up at 4 o'clock in the morning, perhaps he could devote the next hour to thinking about how to reach an understanding between the Jews and their Arab neighbors.
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