Israel and the Arab World

     The testimony of Miles Seeley is valuable:
     "I have long been disturbed by the absence of decent dialogue on the Arab-Israeli problems. Growing up I had several Jewish friends and only one bad experience: when the parents of a girl I had dated and liked forbade her to go out with me again because I was not Jewish. My parents were active in The National Conference of Christians and Jews, and my father's law firm had many Jewish lawyers. I never considered that there could be much of a gap between us.
     Then I lived in Arab countries for 7 1/2 years, including Jordan during the Six Day War. I learned respect and admiration for much of the Arab culture, and became close friends with many of the people. When I returned to the US I discovered that I was suspect in the eyes of some Jews because I had lived so long in the lands of their enemies. More to the point, I discovered that rational discourse about Arab/Israeli issues was almost impossible with many American Jews. They simply took a hard line and refused to budge. Interestingly, I also have met with some young Israeli tourists a few times, and have found that they are not nearly as hard-line. They were more than willing to talk about the shortcomings of their country.
     I lament the fact that I can so easily be branded anti-Semitic. As Arabs say, Arabs and Jews are cousins. Why should discussion about their problems be so devoid of reason?


     My comment: Avi Shlaim makes clear that the people of Tel Aviv are in general very open, while the religious right is concentrated in Jerusalem. Strangely, many American secular Jews, among them several of my friends, take the hard line on religious issues.

Ronald Hilton - 1/31/00