Israel Now — A Few Questions

In the last year’s Arab-Israel crisis, most Of US on the democratic Left supported the Israeli cause. Our justification for this had little, if anything, to do with Zionist sentiment. The existence of a small democratic state (whose every action we did not necessarily approve) was clearly endangered. The Arab nations had announced their intent to “wipe out” Israel; aided by the Russians, they had mobilized substantial forces; in closing the Gulf of Aqaba, they had taken warlike actions. Under similar circumstances, we ought to defend the right of any threatened people to exist.

The six-day Blitz transformed the Near Eastern picture; most of all, it changed the relation between Arabs and Israelis within Israel itself. The Jewish state now incorporates about 1 million new Arabs plus the 300,000 already there. The ratio of Jew to Arab has been reduced from 8 to 1 to 2 to 1. Given the substantially higher Arab birthrate, the Arab population could draw even with the Jews within 20 years. This alone gives a new urgency to the need for a permanent solution.

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