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Developing an Israeli Grand Strategy toward
a Peaceful Two-State Solution
the Arab citizen could change the situation: If in the Arab
states, they succeeded despite the repressive attitude
of the leadership towards the citizens as subjects, then
it is reasonable to expect that here too, we should be
able to positively influence our position and improve our
inferior social and economic situation in Israel.
2. The success of the Arab Spring, or at least a start of the
democratization process in the Arab world, refute Israel’s
claim that it is the only democracy in the Middle East. As
a result of this change, Israel would be the first to lead
improvements in its flawed democracy with regard to its
Arab citizens. This change would significantly improve the
situation of the Arab population and bring about a sense
of satisfaction in view of the changes in the Middle East,
which could cast a positive light on their status in Israel
and possibly also provide them with new opportunities
to connect with the region as it undergoes a process of
democratization.
3. Israeli Arabs have a relative advantage in comparison to all
the Arabs in the Middle East and the world. The advantage
is reflected in their status as an Arab minority living on its
land under Jewish democratic rule since 1948. Although
the Israeli democracy is flawed in various respects,
especially in regard to the discriminatory treatment of its
Arab population, the regime is fundamentally democratic,
with Jews and Arabs living alongside one another for more
than sixty years. This is an experience that only Israel’s
Arab minority is familiar with, and the preservation and
improvement of Israel’s democracy is an important value
for the Arab community in Israel. The Arabs of Israel can
contribute from their civic experience in a democratic
society to any of the societies undergoing a process of
democratization, especially the Arab societies in the
Middle East.
The Arab Spring has sparked interest and debate not only
among Jewish society and in the Israeli establishment, but
has also led to the development of an in-depth internal
dialogue within Palestinian society in Israel. This new dialogue
is being conducted among both the elites of Arab society in
Israel and ordinary people. In the following pages, I will try
to identify the state of mind among the Palestinian elites and
general Arab-Palestinian society in Israel, and I will discuss
the relationship between these two groups, the impact of
the Arab Spring on them and future implications for Israel
in the changing Arab region.
Palestinians and Israelis: The elites and
ordinary people
The question of the formation of the consciousness and
identity of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel serves as a
broad and comprehensive framework for understanding the
common space created after 1948. For the Arab-Palestinians,
the establishment of the State of Israel led to far-reaching
changes that re-shaped their experience in light of their
culture and citizenship in Israel. In general, Arab society
in Israel can be divided into two main sections: the elites
and the ordinary people. In the unique case of the Arab-
Palestinians in Israel, the elites also grew out of the ordinary
people, mostly from the rural population. The relationship that
has developed in Israel between the Arab-Palestinian elites
and the ordinary people, and between them and the Jewish
majority and the state is one dimension for understanding
the experience and aspirations of the Arab-Palestinians in
Israel. The second dimension is the connection between
Israel’s Arab-Palestinian citizens and the Palestinian and
Arab expanse. I would argue that Arab society in Israel
has a third reference group, the circumstances of whose
formation is related to the 1948 war. That war led some
25-40% of the Arab-Palestinians to obtain the status of
“present absentees,” namely the internally displaced. This
group, in my opinion, represents a major component in
the consciousness and identity of Israel’s Arab-Palestinian
citizens. These three reference groups, with different degrees
of impact over time, have shaped the unique experience of
Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel. Understanding the extent
and characteristics of the three dimensions of the Palestinian
consciousness and identity in Israel can become the basis
for a rehabilitation of East-West, Jewish-Arab, Palestinian-
Israeli relations.
The Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel are the only Arabs
in the Middle East and the world who have lived and still
live as citizens of a country perceived as the enemy of their
people and of most of the Arab countries of the region.
They are the only Arabs that have an Israeli, Arab and
Palestinian component in their identity and consciousness:
This combination of identity components is unique to Arab-
Palestinian Israeli citizens and could form the basis for a new
approach aimed at developing future ties between Israel
and the Palestinians and Arabs in the Middle East that have
experiences shared by Palestinian citizens of Israel. The Arab-
Palestinian citizens of Israel have undergone drastic changes
since 1948, while the Arab world has been undergoing
drastic processes since 2010. The main point is that there
are certain similarities between the traumatic experiences
that the Palestinian citizens of Israel experienced and those
that the Arabs in the Middle East have been experiencing in
recent years. The similarities in their experience, on the one
hand, and the unique characteristics of this identity of the
Arabs of Israel, on the other, can serve as the basis to both
improve Israel’s democracy and promote the democratization
process that has begun in the Arab world.
The question of the relationship between Israel as a
democratic state and the non-democratic Arab expanse
lay at the focus of one of the chapters of the book Benjamin
Netanyahu published in 1993 “A Place among the Nations.”
In the chapter, which discusses the relationship between
democracy and peace, Netanyahu maintains that the main
obstacle to peace in the Middle East is the fact that all
countries of the region – except for Israel – are not democratic.
Netanyahu states that if the West wants to promote peace in
the Middle East in accordance with the “Western model,” it
