Israel’s Relations with Its Arab Citizens Are Improving

On the basis of recent evidence, Amnon Rubinstein argues that Israeli Arabs are growing ever warmer to the Jewish state, and proposes ways for the government to encourage this trend:

A recent survey by the Pew Research Center reviewed [the attitudes of] local populations across the Middle East toward Islamic State. . . . Israel’s Muslim community came in second with an overwhelming 97 percent of participants saying they oppose the group, and only 1 percent saying they were sympathizers. . . . .

I believe the shift among Israeli Arabs stems from their deep disappointment with the Arab world and their slow, hesitant integration in Israeli society and the Israeli economy. For the first time in years, the heads of Arab local authorities have voiced their unequivocal support for cooperating with Israel and the Jews, and have urged their publics to abandon . . . conflict.

How can we accelerate this process? I suggest . . . a visit by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Nazareth. Symbolic acts can go a long way. . . . Second, cities with a mixed Jewish and Arab population must learn from the successful reality in Jaffa, and take steps in the direction of joint bilingual [school curricula]. . . .

Read more at Israel Hayom

More about: Education, ISIS, Israel & Zionism, Israeli Arabs, Israeli society

What a Strategic Victory in Gaza Can and Can’t Achieve

On Tuesday, the Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant met in Washington with Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin. Gallant says that he told the former that only “a decisive victory will bring this war to an end.” Shay Shabtai tries to outline what exactly this would entail, arguing that the IDF can and must attain a “strategic” victory, as opposed to merely a tactical or operational one. Yet even after a such a victory Israelis can’t expect to start beating their rifles into plowshares:

Strategic victory is the removal of the enemy’s ability to pose a military threat in the operational arena for many years to come. . . . This means the Israeli military will continue to fight guerrilla and terrorist operatives in the Strip alongside extensive activity by a local civilian government with an effective police force and international and regional economic and civil backing. This should lead in the coming years to the stabilization of the Gaza Strip without Hamas control over it.

In such a scenario, it will be possible to ensure relative quiet for a decade or more. However, it will not be possible to ensure quiet beyond that, since the absence of a fundamental change in the situation on the ground is likely to lead to a long-term erosion of security quiet and the re-creation of challenges to Israel. This is what happened in the West Bank after a decade of relative quiet, and in relatively stable Iraq after the withdrawal of the United States at the end of 2011.

Read more at BESA Center

More about: Gaza War 2023, Hamas, IDF