Positions and attitudes of Israeli Arabs regarding the Arab world, 1990–2001

Abstract

Scholars have debated intensely whether Israel's Arab citizens are increasingly becoming hostile to the State, working within the system, or aspire to some form of cultural and political autonomy short of insurrection and potential secession-I Whatever position they take in the debate, most would agree that Israeli Arabs have become increasingly politically assertive over the past two decades in Israeli politics. The following article analyses whether this assertiveness characterizes Israeli Arab attitudes and behaviour towards the Arab world (rather than the Palestinians) since Iraq's occupation of Kuwait on 1 August 1990 up to 2001. It begins by exploring their attitudes and behaviour regarding Iraq's invasion of Kuwait and the subsequent war waged between the Allied coalition and Iraq and Israel's policies in Lebanon during the 1990s until the final withdrawal on 24 May 2000. Another milestone that elicited many reactions amongst the Israeli Arab public and elite was the Israeli-Jordanian peace treaty signed in October 1994 in Wadi Araba near the Gulf of Akaba. It proceeds to investigate the positions Israeli Arabs adopted toward the intensive struggle waged mainly by professional unions in states such as Egypt and Jordan that signed formal peace treaties against the 'normalization7 of relations (muqawamat al-tatbi') between Israel and Arab states and their respective societies2 This was by far the most complex issue facing Israeli Arabs not only because it extended into the cultural realm but also because it raised the issue of their legitimacy in the Arab world. The article concludes by asking how these positions on foreign affairs issues help identify whether Israel's Arabs are embarking on a radical approach, taking the more moderate alternative of working within the system, or maintaining some position in between. The article is based on an analysis of the Israeli Arab press, the major Hebrew-language newspapers and the little secondary source material that exists on the subject.