Mid-East Realitieswww.middleeast.org

Vital History - Origins of Israel's "Arab Problem"

MER - VITAL HISTORY SERIES:

THE CONFLICT WAS ALWAYS KNOWN AND FORSEEABLE

Nahum Goldman* was usually right MID-EAST REALITIES - MER - www.MiddleEast.Org - Washington, DC - 3/25/2002: In 1947, the then representative of the Zionist Organization in Washington, Nahum Goldman, urged David Ben-Gurion not to declare a "Jewish State" but rather to hold out for finding some way of accomodation with the Palestinians that could lead to a unified "bi-national state", a state that would recognize both the national and political rights of both the Palestinian people and the Jewish people then just beginning to recover from the European holocaust.

Had Goldman prevailed the conflict that has now helped to so seriously destabilized the entire world might have been prevented and there would be no Palestinian refugees.

Goldman at the time was the most senior international Jewish figure having been both Founder of the World Jewish Congress and President of the World Zionist Organization. Ben-Gurion however choose otherwise. And it is thought that for that reason among others Goldman declined to consider becoming President of Israel, as had Albert Einstein before him.

In his memoirs Goldman recalls one of his most profound conversations that took place in private with David Ben-Gurion about "the Arab problem", nine years after the "Jewish State" was proclaimed:

"One day, or rather night, in 1956 I sat up at his house [Ben-Gurion's] till three in the morning. That night, a beautiful summer night, we had a forthright discussion on the Arab problem.

"'I don't understand your optimism,' Ben-Gurion declared. 'Why should the Arabs make peace? If I were an Arab leader I would never make terms with Israel. That is natural: we have taken their country. Sure, God promised it to us, but what does that matter to them? Our God is not theirs. We come from Israel, it's true, but two thousand years ago, and what is that to them? There has been anti-Semitism, the Nazis, Hitler, Auschwitz, but was that their fault? They only see one thing: we have come here and stolen their country. Why should they accept that? They may perhaps forget in one or two generations' time, but for the moment there is no chance. So it's simple: we have to stay strong and maintain a powerful army. Our whole policy is there. Otherwise the Arabs will wipe us out...

"I'll be seventy years old soon. Well, Nahum, if you asked me whether I shall die and be buried in a Jewish State I would tell you Yes; in ten years, fifteen years, I believe there will still be a Jewish State. But ask me whether my son Amos, who will be fifty at the end of this year, has a chance of dying and being buried in a Jewish State, and I would answer: fifty-fifty'.

"But how can you sleep with that prospect in mind and be PM of Israel too?" Goldmann responded. " 'Who says I sleep?' was Ben-Gurion's simple reply.

"That was Ben-Gurion all over: he had told me that so as to show me how well he knew in his heart that Israel could not exist without peace with the Arabs, but his stubborn, aggressive unbending character prevented him from following what his own intelligence told him."

From: Nahum Goldmann, The Jewish Paradox: A personal memoir - New York: Grosset and Dunlap, 1978, pp. 99-100).

Lesson to be learned: There are crucial historical moments when decisions taken can lead down one road or another; and the ramifications for wrong choices can be catastrophic in the future if not in the present.


Mid-East Realitieswww.middleeast.org

Source: http://www.middleeast.org/articles/2002/3/720.htm