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time being. For
if
security requires an unmilitarized Palestinian state, it can
be
enforced only by the Israeli army, which brings everything back to the cur–
rent situation. Peace rhetoric masks the difficulties of the problem. Some Is–
raelis with whom I talked admitted that a Palestinian state would probably
create grave security risks but that the present situation is intolerable-and
perhaps even more risky. And behind the various Israeli views of the
Palestinian problem, one senses the feeling that American pressures cannot
be ignored. If one could generalize about Israeli politics, it might be said that
except for the loonies on the right and the left, most Israelis have a prag–
matic attitude: that is, they feel that Israel should proceed one step at a time.
The most concrete idea I heard was that a line could be drawn
through the West Bank that would satisfy Israeli security needs. My own
wild proposal is that Israel become the fifty-second state of the Union. This
would at one stroke solve all the agonizing problems of the existence of Is–
rael, surrounded by Arab states that cannot get the notion of obliterating the
Israelis out of their heads.
The conference mentality:
American academics are a new historical
phenomenon. They are the monks of the modern world: monkish in their
insularity and narrowness, and in their religiosity and institutional life, though
more worldly in their concern with contemporary trends and movements, as
well as with their careers, and in their international busding. However, they
blossom at conferences, where they exhibit themselves to each other in the
jargon of their professions, for at home in their universities they are dis–
tracted by various duties and activities, such as teaching and campus politics.
To be sure, I am not talking about the outstanding teachers, who usually do
not participate in the marathon ofconferences, and make their contributions
mosdy in their writings.
In Israel I attended a conference of the International Society of Political
Psychology, at which I gave a paper (on the Politics and Psychology ofIn–
tellectuals). There were some intelligent and interesting people at the
conference, many of them Israelis. But some of the Americans gave papers
on such questions as authority, gender, and obedience that seemed too
specialized. Several Israelis discussed the public response to various
suggestions for dealing with the Palestinian problem, particularly with
Shamir's latest proposal offree elections in the West Bank. They ranged
from tough to soft, though mostly they stayed away from apocalyptic
solutions.
The Americans mainly supported a Palestinian state, and they advo–
cated dealing with the P.L.O. But what struck one was their dogmatism, their
assurance, their air of high-mindedness, and the conviction they seemed to
have that they were talking to members of the same fraternity.
