Preface and Acknowledgments
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
Summary
Our goal in writing this book is not only to provide a thorough scholarly analysis of Jewish-Arab relations in Israel but also to issue an urgent call for a major change in these relations. The book is intended to sound an alarm, to warn that, unless immediate and dramatic action is taken, the relationship between Israel's Jewish majority and its Palestinian-Arab minority will continue to deteriorate. This will put Arab-Jewish coexistence in Israel, the country's political stability, and the quality of its democracy seriously at risk. It will also undermine the prospects for a truly comprehensive and lasting solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Some may think that we are being overly alarmist and that majority-minority relations in Israel are not nearly as bad, or as unstable, as we suggest. It might even be argued that whatever the complaints and frustrations of Israel's Palestinian minority, they have never really posed a threat to the state and have always remained firmly under its control. According to this view, the predicament of the Palestinian minority in Israel today and the relationship between it and the Jewish majority – though far from ideal – is not a pressing issue or major concern, certainly not for a country that faces a host of internal challenges and external threats. We strongly disagree with this perspective.
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- Israel’s PalestiniansThe Conflict Within, pp. vii - xPublisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2011