47
must first exert pressure on the Arab regimes to move in the
direction of democracy. According to Netanyahu, pressures
such as this were used in the past by the West in other
regions of the world, but not in the Arab world. Netanyahu
explains that the West should leverage economic aid given
to Arab countries in order to pressure the regimes in these
countries to promote democratic processes.
23
The question
is how Israel (the only democracy in the Middle East as he
sees it) can promote democratization in the Arab world?
Netanyahu’s response to the Arab Spring events as Prime
Minister was fundamentally different from the things that
he wrote in his book. Precisely when manifestations of the
democratization process started in the Arab countries and
when Western countries enthusiastically welcomed this trend
and did what they could to promote it, Netanyahu presented
quite a different position to the Israeli public, painting a very
negative and intimidating picture of the developments he had
spoken about so favorably in the past. Later on, he repeated
what he wrote in the book and took a positive position, saying
that he was extending his hand to the nations trying to build
a democratic future.
24
The Arab Spring and the demands for democratization of the
nations in the Arab world raise at least a few questions about
Netanyahu’s view of the Arab countries. It is true that at this
point, the Arab citizens that took to the streets in 2010-2011
have not yet achieved their goal. As in other cases of drastic
change among peoples and nations of the world, the process
of democratization in the Arab countries is accompanied by
excessive violence and bloody struggles. But the peoples
of the region seek democracy, and will eventually achieve it.
Israel’s Arab-Palestinian citizens, who on the one hand belong
nationally to the Palestinian people and the Arab nation, but
on the other, are part of Israeli society, to which they have
adapted and whose democratic character – despite all
their criticism and the limitations of Israeli democracy – they
know and cherish, are in fact the only group within the Arab
nation that has long-term experience of life in a democratic
society. There is a broad consensus among the majority of
the Arab public in Israel that the Israeli expanse, i.e. Israeli
citizenship, is a major component that forges and creates
a new and unique identity for Arab-Palestinian citizens of
Israel. This complex identity and the experience of life in
a democracy can serve as a basis for the promotion of
democratic values in the Arab world by Arab-Palestinian
citizens of the State of Israel.
In 1993, Shimon Peres, then foreignminister in the government
of Yitzhak Rabin, who together with Rabin led the Israeli-
Palestinian peace process, published a book. The book, “The
New Middle East,” unveiled his peace doctrine, which was
based on a conceptual change, which included moving from
23 Benjamin Netanyahu, A place among the Nations: Israel and the
World, New York: Bantam, 1993.
24 Lior Lehrs, “Egyptian Plague or Spring of Youth? The Israeli
Discourse Regarding the Arab Spring,” in Israel and the Arab Spring:
Opportunities in Change, Nimrod Goren and Jenia Yudkecvich.,
(eds.), Ramat Gan: Mitvim, 2013.
a terminology of war to a terminology of peace. It represented
a real hope for an agreement with the Palestinians, in wake
of which reconciliation with the Arab world would follow. As
part of the future change, Peres addressed Israeli Arabs in
two contexts:
1. “On the very eve of the signing of the agreement with
the PLO, six MKs of the Shas party withdrew from the
coalition, and we were left with a majority of only 61
MKs. Although in a democracy, a majority of one is a
majority, it is difficult to build a new national consensus
around it, especially considering the fact that this majority
depended on the votes of the Arab MKs, who favored
the concessions we made to the Palestinians.”
2. “About an hour before the signing ceremony on the White
House lawn, Dr. Ahmed Tibi, Yasser Arafat’s representative,
showed up in my hotel room and informed me that if we
did not agree to change the wording of certain statements
in the Declaration of Principles (DOP), Arafat would go
home.”
25
Peres’ first statement in effect delineated the limits of the
involvement of Arab-Palestinian Israeli citizens in the decision-
making processes in the Knesset: Even if Arabs are elected
to the Knesset, they are not full partners in decision-making
in Israel, which belongs to the Jewish majority. On the other
hand, in the second text, Peres awarded Israeli Arabs an
important role: to be the mediators between the Palestinians
and Israel. This is based on the assumption that the Arabs
in Israel are part of the Israeli society created after 1948.
These two statements underlie the complexity of the status
and role of the Arabs in Israel and of their relationship with
the Palestinians outside Israel and with the Arab world.
This situation came into being, in my opinion, also due to
the lack of consensus in Arab society in Israel regarding a
future vision based on the broadest possible consensus of
all Arab-Palestinians in Israel. What is especially lacking is a
clear answer to the question: What do they want their role to
be and what are they capable of? While all four vision papers
published in 2006 and 2007 speak about the Arab-Palestinian
citizens of Israel, i.e. they work from the assumption that the
vision needs to be realized within the framework of the State
of Israel, the emphasis in each document is different, and no
comprehensive document that includes a shared vision for
all Arab society in Israel exists.
26
In addition, the absence
of a shared vision for all the Arab-Palestinians in Israel may
25 Shimon Peres with Arye Naor, The New Middle East, Steimatzky,
1993, see especially pp. 30-35.
26 Yusuf Jabarin, “An Equal Constitution for All?” Mossawa, the
Advocacy Center for Palestinian Arab citizens in Israel,
mossawa.org/uploads/constitution_paper_heb_FINAL.pdf.; “The
Future Vision of the Palestinian Arabs in Israel,” National Committee
for the Heads of the Arab Local Authorities,
.
il/committees/heb/material/data/H26-12-2006_10-30-37_heb.pdf;
“The Democratic Constitution,” Adalaah, The Legal Center for Arab
Minority Rights in Israel,
upfiles/democratic_constitution-h(1).pdf; “The Haifa Declaration,”
Mada al-Carmel, Arab Center for Applied Social Research, http://
mada-research.org/wp-content/uploads/2007/09/haifahebrew.pdf.
