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Israeli society, new avenues will be open for Jewish-Arab under–
standing, since 'Oriental' Jews, coming themselves from an Arab
environment, would be better suited than their Western brethren for
an accommodation with the Arab World. PLO propaganda some–
times gave expression to a more malignant version of the same idea,
namely, that all the trouble in the Middle East stems from the
'European' and 'Western' nature of 'Ashkenazi Zionism': with the
ascent of the 'Arab Jews,' as the PLO calls them, peace and under–
standing will triumph.
Reality, however, proved to be much more complex and recal–
citrant. Jews coming from Arab countries do come from an Arab
environment: yet they bring with them not only knowledge of the
Arab language and acquaintance with Arab music, but also
memories, personal and collective, of centuries of persecution and
discrimination at the hands of Arab and Muslim majorities. Though
the Muslim world was generally free from anything like the rabid
brands of European anti-Semitism, Jews in Muslim countries -like
all other non-Muslim minorities - were subjected to discrimination,
humiliation, and occasional persecution. The civic discrimination of
non-Muslims is basic to Muslim societies and codified in Islamic
law, and anti-J ewish pogroms became even more frequent with the
rise of Arab radical nationalism which sometimes took on quite
xenophobic features. Jews coming from Iraq or Yemen have carried
with them the scars of these personal and historical memories just as
European Jews carried with them the imprint of Ukrainian pogroms
and Nazi persecution.
While for most European Jews in Israel the Arab- Israeli conflict
remained primarily a political conflict, basically free from the bitter–
ness of historical memories and resentments, for many 'Oriental'
Jews the conflict is imbued with overtones of precisely such historical
dimensions. And just as European Jews can be understood - if not
necessarily forgiven - for not harboring particularly fond emotions
about Cossacks, so many Jews immigrating from Arab countries
continue likewise to carry with them an anti-Arab resentment which
is then translated into more hawkish attitudes about the Arab-Israeli
conflict. Bluntly put, for many Middle Eastern Jews the Arabs are
the historical oppressors, the
goyim.
No wonder that while many
European Jews do agonize about the degree to which the PLO may
represent some elements of the Palestinian right to self-determina–
tion despite its terroristic activities, for most 'Oriental' Jews the PLO
is nothing else than a continuation of a familiar Arab enmity
towards the Jews. And when an Iraqi nuclear reactor is hit by Israel,
