The Unmaking of Israel (30 page)

29
by voting no confidence:
Hok Hama’avar, 1949; Medding,
Founding of Israeli Democracy
32–34.

30
the case ever since:
“Haknesset Harishonah,” www.knesset.gov.il/history/heb/heb_hist1_s.htm, acc. 10 Oct. 2010.

30
a low-priced political bargain:
Medding,
Founding of Israeli Democracy
44–53, 82–84; Tom Segev,
1949: The First Israelis
(New York: Metropolitan, 1998): 282; Shapira,
Yigal Allon
464.

31
all power in Mapai’s hands:
“The prime minister wants to eliminate the influence of parties in the army, leaving [only] the influence of his own party.” Menachem Begin, DK, 7 Feb. 1950: 738; Medding,
Founding of Israeli Democracy
47, 134ff.; Lev Luis Grinberg,
Hahistadrut Me’al Lakol
(The Histadrut above All) (Jerusalem: Nevo, 1993): 94.

31
fulfillment of Jewish history:
Eliezer Don Yehiya,
Mashber Utmurah Bemedinah Hadashah: Hinukh, Dat Upolitikah Bama’avak Al Ha’aliyah Hagdolah
(Crisis and Change in a New State: Education, Religion and Politics in the Struggle over the Absorption of Mass Immigration in Israel) (Jerusalem: Yad Ben-Zvi, 2008): 57.

31
four party-run systems:
Hok Limmud Hovah, 1949.

31
after the first ones:
A full description of the education crisis is given in Don Yehiya,
Mashber Utmurah.

32
Kol Ha’am (Voice of the people):
This discussion of
Kol Ha’am
is based on HCF 53/73, 53/87; Pnina Lahav,
Judgment in Jerusalem: Chief Justice Simon Agranat and the Zionist Century
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997): 107–12; David Kretzmer,
The Occupation of Justice: The Supreme Court of Israel and the Occupied Territories
(Albany: SUNY Press, 2002); Moshe Negbi, interview.

35
founded after 1945:
Medding,
Founding of Israeli Democracy
3–4.

35
Sharon did suggest a coup:
Amir Oren, “Mehkar Betzahal: Sharon Dibber Im Rabin Be-’67 Al ‘Tfisat Hashilton Bidei Hatzava Kedei Lekabel Hahlatah’ Letzet Lemilhamah,”
Ha’aretz,
November 16, 2004: 1.

36
“the past is a fiction”:
Jacob Katz, “Orthodoxy in Historical Perspective,”
Studies in Contemporary Judaism
2 (1986): 4; cf. Michael Silber, “The Emergence of Ultra-Orthodoxy: The Invention of a Tradition,” in
The Uses of Tradition
:
Jewish Continuity in the Modern Era
, ed. Jack Wertheimer (New York: Jewish Theological Seminary, 1992): 23.

36
assumption into a question:
Menachem Friedman,
Hahevrah Haharedit: Mekorot, Megamot Vetahalikhim
(Jerusalem: JIIS, 1991): 1–3; Katz, “Orthodoxy in Historical Perspective” 3–7; Silber, “Emergence of Ultra-Orthodoxy” 24–25.

36
separation from other Jews:
Katz, “Orthodoxy in Historical Perspective” 5–8; Friedman,
Hahevrah
6–10.

37
personal affairs as well:
Binyamin Baron, “Ve’ein Shi’ur Rak Hatorah Hazot,”
Eretz Aheret
39 (September–October 2007): 57–58.

38
especially in Poland and Germany:
Katz, “Orthodoxy in Historical Perspective” 9–12; Friedman,
Hahevrah
6–9, 26ff.

38
“vanish in the foreseeable future”:
Friedman,
Hahevrah
2; Menachem Friedman, interview.

39
an arm of the government:
Menachem Friedman, “The Structural Foundations for Religio-Political Accommodation in Israel: Fallacy and Reality,” in
Israel: The First Decade of Independence
, ed. S. Ilan Troen and Noah Lucas (Albany: SUNY Press, 1995): 67ff.

39
creating a state school system:
Hok Hinukh Mamlakhti, 1953.

40
not to prepare them for it:
Don Yehiya,
Mashber Utmurah
463–64; Menachem Friedman, interview.

40
the secular-religious split:
Medding,
Founding of Israeli Democracy
90–91.

40
“in the palm of its hand”:
Leibowitz,
Judaism
115.

40
“disappear off the face of the earth”:
Amos Oz,
A Tale of Love and Darkness
, trans. Nicholas de Lange (London: Vintage, 2005): 271–73.

41
“a mechanical majority”:
DK, 7 Feb. 1950: 738.

41
“rights of the individual”:
DK, 7 Feb. 1950: 734.

42
separate synagogue and state:
DK, 7 Feb. 1950: 744; Medding,
Founding of Israeli Democracy
40.

42
suppressing Judaism—frightened them:
Menachem Friedman, “ ‘Al Hanissim’—Prihato Shel ‘Olam Hatorah’ (Hayeshivot Vehakollelim) Biyisrael,” in
Yeshivot Uvatei Midrashot
, ed. Emanuel Etkes (Jerusalem: Merkaz Shazar, 2006): 431–42.

42
no consensus wide enough:
DK, 14 Feb. 1950: 796–98.

42
“aspire to a totalitarian regime”:
DK, 20 Feb. 1950: 816–18.

43
Poland, Latvia, Italy, or Germany:
DK, 14 Feb. 1950: 796–98.

43
slaves to slave states:
U.S. Constitution, art. 4, sec. 2.

43
shopkeepers into workers:
DK, 7 Feb. 1950: 735.

43
cede Jewish claims:
DK, 7 Feb. 1950: 739.

44
assigned to the Arab state:
Morris,
1948
52–53; Benny Morris,
The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004): 13.

44
“of its Palestinian population”:
Rashid Khalidi,
The Iron Cage: The Story of the Palestinian Struggle for Statehood
(Boston: Beacon, 2007): 126.

45
not wanted there:
Judt,
Postwar
31–32. Three hundred thirty-two thousand Jewish DPs in fact immigrated to Israel by 1953; another 165,000 went elsewhere.

45
necessary Jewish majority:
Uzi Benziman and Atallah Mansour,
Dayarei Mishneh
(Subtenants) (Jerusalem: Keter, 1992): 14.

45
citizenship in the Arab state:
United Nations Special Committee on Palestine, Report to the General Assembly, 3 Sept. 1947, chap. VI, unispal.un.org/unispal.nsf/0/07175de9fa2de563852568d3006e10f3, acc. 17 Oct. 2010.

46
Jews living outside the state:
“M. Shertok to D. Ben-Gurion,” 30 Oct. 1947, in Yehoshua Freundlich and Zvi Ganin,
Political Documents of the Jewish Agency: January–November 1947
(Jerusalem: Hasifriya Hazionit, 1996): doc. 441.

46
1923 as a positive precedent:
Morris,
Birth Revisited
47.

46
accepted by “pragmatic” statesmen:
Judt,
Postwar
25–28.

46
the evidence is missing:
Morris,
Birth Revisited
60.

47
budget needed to pay them:
Jonathan Fine,
Kakh Noladnu
(The Birth of a State) (Jerusalem: Carmel, 2009): 33–58.

47
sixteen Jewish and eight Arab:
“Memshal Hamedinah Bimdinah Ha’ivrit: Hatza’ah Lemivneh Hamahlakot, Manginonan Vetaktziveihen,” ISA 41/121/19-Gimel, www.archives.gov.il/ArchiveGov/itemDetails.aspx?ID=41.0.1.436, acc. 22 Nov. 2009.

48
Deir Yassin outside Jerusalem:
Morris,
1948
116–28.

48
status quo ante was unthinkable:
“Meeting, M. Shertok, E. Epstein - G. Marshall, R. Lovett, D. Rusk,” 8 May 1948, in
Political and Diplomatic Documents, December 1947–May 1948
, ed. Gedalia Yogev (Jerusalem: State of Israel and WZO, 1979): doc. 483; Louise Fischer,
Moshe Sharett: Rosh Hamemshalah Hasheni:
Mivhar Te’udot Mepirkei Hayav 1894–1965
(Moshe Sharett: The Second Prime Minister: Selected Documents, 1894–1965) (Jerusalem: State of Israel, 2007): 348.

49
into a choice:
Morris,
1948
298–301; Morris,
Birth Revisited
588–89.

49
same territory beforehand:
Hillel Cohen,
Good Arabs: The Israeli Security services and the Israeli Arabs, 1948–1967
, trans. Haim Watzman (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2010): 1–2; Morris,
1948
407, 411. Benziman and Mansour,
Dayarei Mishneh
15–16, give the number of abandoned villages as 346; Morris,
Birth Revisited
xvi–xx, lists 389.

50
would be citizens:
Hok Ha’ezrahut, 1952; David Kretzmer,
The Legal Status of Arabs in Israel
(Boulder, Colo.: Westview, 1990): 36–39.

50
Palestinian Arabs who had left
: Cf. Shira Nomi Robinson,
Occupied Citizens in a Liberal State: Palestinians under Military Rule and the Colonial Formation of Israeli Society, 1948–1966
(Ph.D. diss., Stanford University, 2005): 53–54.

50
the right to immigrate:
Hok Hashvut, 1950.

51
for the Jewish people:
Kretzmer,
Legal Status
61.

51
slowed the buying effort:
Benziman and Mansour, 158; Tom Segev,
One Palestine, Complete: Jews and Arabs under the British Mandate
(New York: Metropolitan, 2000), 273–75.

52
holding property rights:
Kretzmer,
Legal Status
49–50, 69; Samuel Fleischacker, “Collective Ownership,” 13 Oct. 2008, normblog.typepad.com/normblog/2008/10/a-cool-hour-on-the-israel-palestine-conflict-6-by-samuel-fleischacker.html, acc. 13 Oct. 2008.

52
anyone who had left his home:
Hok Nikhsei Nifkadim, 1950.

52
records from the time show:
“Taibe,” ISA 3098/14-Gimel; Hussein Jbarah and Abd al-Aziz Abu Isba Maswari, interview.

52
75,000 Arab citizens:
Kretzmer,
Legal Status
57; Cohen,
Good Arabs
96.

53
lease to non-Jews:
Kretzmer,
Legal Status
60–63.

53
for all state services:
Benziman and Mansour,
Dayarei Mishneh
33, 43.

53
flooded with Jewish immigrants:
Grinberg,
Hahistadrut
93, 115.

53
party interests was glaring:
Cohen,
Good Arabs
11ff., 41–45, 61–64, 129–31, 139ff.

54
“of a colonial administration”:
Robinson,
Occupied Citizens
7.

54
“the ruling Mapai party”:
Robinson 83.

54
a level playing field:
Grinberg,
Hahistadrut
93–94; Cohen,
Good Arabs
207–8.

55
struggle against the government:
“When they fired the cannon, I gave the order, ‘No!’ Today I give the order, ‘Yes!’ . . . If need be, I will resume the war. . . . This will be a difficult war, lasting years. We will again separate from our children and our families.” Menachem Begin, speaking at a demonstration in Jerusalem, 7 Jan. 1952, www.begincenter.org.il/uploads/Shilumim.pdf, acc. 21 Oct. 2010.

55
Bialik and Shaul Tchernichovsky:
Hussein Jbarah and Abd al-Aziz Abu Isba Maswari, interview.

III. The Capital of Lawlessness

56
freedom-of-information request:
Capt. Tzidki Maman to Yehezkel Lein, B’Tselem, 12 Aug. 2007, www.btselem.org/Download/20070812_Letter_from_civil_administration_about_ofra.pdf, acc. 18 Oct. 2009.

57
over 500 buildings:
Interior Ministry, “Sakh Hakol Toshavei Yosh,” June 2007, e-mail from ministry spokesperson; Nir Shalev et al.,
The Ofrah Settlement: An Illegal Outpost
(Jerusalem: B’Tselem, 2008): 13.

57
privately owned by Palestinians
: Spiegel Report, www.haaretz.co.il/hasite/images/printed/P300109/uriib.mht, acc. 30 Apr. 2009. The name is unofficial and refers to the report’s author, Brig. Gen. (reserves) Baruch Spiegel. For background on the report, see Daniel Kurtzer, “Behind the Settlements,”
American Interest
, Spring 2010: 7–9; Uri Blau, “Secret Israeli Database Reveals Full Extent of Illegal Settlement,”
Ha’aretz
, 1 Feb. 2009, www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1060043.html, acc. 30 Apr. 2009. According to
Ha’aretz
editor Dov Alfon (interview), the newspaper received the report as part of the large quantity of material leaked by former soldier Anat Kam.

57
synonymous with the settlement effort:
For a full description of Ofrah’s founding, see Gorenberg,
Accidental Empire
306, 311–18, 328, 351–52. Additional documents showing Shimon Peres’s role, in violation of Yitzhak Rabin’s instructions and in contrast to Peres’s public statements, are found in IDFA 1510/1989/492. The documents were declassified following my petition to the High Court of Justice against the IDF Archives.