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What the Arabs have repeatedly demanded—and the U.N. General Assembly has repeatedly recommended—is that Israel give all displaced Palestinians the choice of returning to their homes in Israel or accepting indemnity payments instead. Until now, Israel has always refused to consider such a solution. "To return to Israel hundreds of thousands of Arabs conditioned to hate it and incited to engineer its extinction," in the words of an official government document, "could only be an invitation to suicide." But would it? Many responsible Arabs believe that only a relatively few refugees would choose to live under Israeli rule, and that most would be content to receive payments that would enable them to settle permanently in Arab lands.
That view may be somewhat unrealistic, considering the constant pining of the refugees for their homeland. In fact, one trouble is the profoundly emotional and irrational nature of many of the Arab demands and expectations—almost an inability to recognize the hard facts of life. The Arabs have seen Israel prosper on soil from which they barely scratched a living when they had it; Israel's success is not only a blow to their pride but a constant rebuke to the dismal poverty in which most of the Arab world lives.
More than Good Will. Any solution will thus demand much more than ordinary good will. Still, a beginning has to be made, and many feel that the present crisis is the very time to try to start with the hitherto unsolvable plight of the refugees. However the crisis is finally resolved, Israel must somehow make peace with the Arabs if it is to survive as a nation. It cannot prosper indefinitely, or even exist indefinitely, barricaded against its neighbors. If Israel is to continue to thrive, it has to find a way to trade in peace, attract new investment and live within its means; it now spends a third of its national budget on defense.
Isaac and Ishmael never really understood each other, but both were sons of Abraham—and both at least forgot their differences long enough to bury their father. Their descendants in Israel and the Arab world today, even if they never embrace as brothers, need to come to terms with each other not only for the sake of world order but for selfish reasons. The Arabs need the help—and the lessons—that Israel is willing to give. The Israelis need peace. "We must try and try and try again to find a modus vivendi with our neighbors," says Levi Eshkol. "A small state has to work hard for friendship." Israel's hardest task is not just to survive the onslaught of Arab enmity, but to convince the Arabs that the Jewish state, here to stay, is worth having as a neighbor.
* Ishmael is traditionally considered the ancestor of the Arabs, Isaac of the Jews.