48
Developing an Israeli Grand Strategy toward
a Peaceful Two-State Solution
reflect a desire on their part to leave all their options open,
to allow the State of Israel, the Palestinians, and Arabs in
the region, including countries in the world to view them as
potential partners, thus increasing their chances of improving
their situation in the present and future.
Arik Rudnitzky summarized the main phases and approaches
that characterized the approach of Arab-Palestinians to
Israel since the establishment of the state.
27
Initially, there
was an identity crisis between their identity as Israeli citizens
and their Palestinian national identity, and this has been
an inseparable part of the life of Israel’s Arab-Palestinian
citizens since the establishment of the state.
28
Over time,
there has been a change, with the Arab-Palestinians feeling
that they live in a “double periphery,” as defined by Majid
Al-Haj, who argued that the question of the national status
of Arab-Palestinians in Israel has not been placed on the
agenda, and that despite the signing of the peace agreement,
the legitimacy of the Arab-Palestinians as equal citizens of
the state or possible partners in the coalition government
has not grown stronger.
29
As a result, the long-standing hopes for the association of
peace with equality were dashed; Israel’s Arab-Palestinian
citizens remained on the margins of Israeli society and
politics. The combined effect of these developments was
reflected in the process that Eli Reches has called the
“localization of national struggle”: “The Arab-Palestinians in
Israel gradually abandoned the traditional effort to realize
the national aspirations of their fellow Palestinians in the
territories, and instead turned all their resources towards the
areas inside the “Green Line,” and enlisted in the struggle
for national and civic status within the state.”
30
The local
dimension was a central focus in forging the internal social
discourse among the Arab-Palestinians in Israel, which was
sustained by a system of dense social networks that were
reshaped after 1948, especially among the rural population.
I will address the discourse among this group below.
Ephraim Lavie has identified the processes that have led
to the Israelization of Israel’s Arab-Palestinians and their
integration into Israeli society, on the one hand, and their
developing demands for recognition as a native national
Palestinian group that is entitled to equal rights, on the other,
as a crucial component that will affect their collective identity.
He further notes that it will characterize their reciprocal
relationship with the state and the Jewish majority at the
time when a Palestinian nation-state is being established
alongside Israel. “The Arabs in Israel have learned to adapt
to the majority among whom they live. These processes have
27 Arik Rudnitzky, “Arab Citizens of Israel Early in the Twenty-First
Century,” INSS, Memorandum 139, July 2014.
28 This dilemma was at the focus of an early research debate in the
article by Yohanan Peres and Nira Darwish, “On the national identity
of the Israeli Arab” The New East, 18, 1968, pp. 106-111.
29 Majid Al-Haj, “Identity and political orientation among the Arabs
in Israel: The double periphery,” Medina, Mimshal ve-Yahasim
Benle’umiyyim, Vols.41–42 (1997), pp.104-122.
30 Eli Reches, “Israeli Arabs after the Oslo process: Localization of
the national struggle,” The New East, 43, 2002, pp. 275-303.
continually strengthened their identity component as Israelis
alongside their Arab-Palestinian identity. Moreover, after the
signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993, the Arabs realized that
they need to stand up for themselves and take care of their
future in the State of Israel, independent of future political
processes and their results.”
31
As noted, Arab society has adapted to the Jewish majority
among which it lives, after coming a long way in terms of its
social and cultural experience with it. Prof. Sammy Smooha
argues that: “The Arabs have undergone Israelization (without
assimilation), which ties them closely to the state and the
Jews in many areas of life. They have become bilingual
and bicultural, they have become partially modernized
in their lifestyle and way of thinking; they have become
accustomed to Israeli standards, and Jewish society has
become their reference group.”
32
The Hebrew language as
a key element of Israeliness has had a powerful impact, and
has already significantly changed the Arabic of Israel’s Arabs
so much that Israeli Arabic is now considered a separate
regional language, distinct from other forms of Arabic,
writes Muhammad Amara.
33
Smooha introduced a new and
innovative approach entitled “Shared bound Israeliness.”
34
In his conclusion, he writes, “The instrumental procedural
democracy must become a substantive democracy, and
introduce education towards the values of human rights,
equality, tolerance, mutual respect and mutual responsibility.”
In his view, “The deepest rift in Israeli society is between
its Arab and Jewish citizens. The culture, Zionism and the
Arab-Israeli conflict are pulling them deeply apart. As long
as the occupation continues, along with the hostile relations
between Israel and the Arab world, while Israel strives to
belong to the West, the impact of Israelization and the
measures to increase integration and equality between Arabs
and Jews will be limited.” In his conclusion Smooha notes
that one can identify the civic, day-to-day aspect, (the Israeli
experience) as something that is a central element in the
forging of identity, and as a predictor of the positions of the
Jewish majority, the state and the Palestinians in Israel, who
have built themselves a unique emerging history, politics,
society and economy, with impressive personal and group
achievements. A second aspect is related to the region
31 Ephraim Lavie, “The Arabs in Israel after the founding of a Palestinian
state: The struggle to be recognized as an indigenous-national
minority in the State of Israel,” in The Influence of the Establishment
of a Palestinian State on Israeli Arabs, The S. Daniel AbrahamCenter
for Strategic Dialogue, 2011, pp. 36-54.
32 Sammy Smooha, “Still Playing by the Rules: The Index of Arab-
Jewish Relations in Israel 2012,” Jerusalem: Haifa University and
Israel Democracy Institute, 2013, pp. 22-23.
33 Muhammad Amara, “Hebraization in the Palestinian Language
Landscape in Israel”, in Challenges for Language Education and
Policy: Making Space for People, edited by Bernard Spolsky, Ofra
Inbar-Lourie and Michal Tannenbaum, NY and London: Routledge,
2015, pp. 182-195.
34 Sammy Smooha, “Shared Israeliness,” in the “Four Tribes” initiative
of the Office of the President of the State of Israel with the Institute
for Policy and Strategy (IPS), Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya,
February 25, 2016.
