Ingathering of the Exiles. There arises before Arab eyes the spectre of a wave of Jewish immigration, bringing to Israel another ten million Jews, overflowing its narrow frontiers and conquering Arab states, evicting the inhabitants and grabbing land for innumerable new kibbutzim. There is something ludicrous in the present situation. Zionists leaders, including Prime Minister Eshkol, make visionary speeches about millions of Jews who will soon arrive on the shores of Israel, fulfilling the prophesy of Zionism. To an Israeli audience, knowing the reality, this is the sort of wishful thinking by which an antiquated regime tries desperately to preserve its obsolete slogans. Yet, to millions of Arabs these speeches sound like definite threats to Arab existence, threats made even more terrible by Israel's manifest military superiority.
Thus an empty slogan can become a political factor in the most negative sense.
But the Zionist philosophy has a more destructive influence on Israel's own mentality. Because a Zionist considers Israel the beachhead of world Jewry, world Jewry is seen as an inexhaustible reservoir of manpower and money; thus, the relationship between Israel and the Jews, mainly in the West, seems of primary importance, while that between Israel and the Arab world automatically, therefore, takes a back seat. The location of Israel in the Middle East seems a geographical accident, to be disregarded whenever possible, dealt with by military means if necessary. The ideal solution for a Zionist would be to saw off Israel from the Middle East and tow it away to a more congenial environment, somewhere opposite the French Riviera-if not off Long Island or near Miami Beach.
How else can one explain the most astonishing fact in Israeli public life? After a Zionist-Arab conflict which has gone on for three generations, and the actual state of war between Israel and the Arab states which is now entering its twentieth year, there does not exist an effective government department for Arab affairs. While we have a Ministry for Posts and a Ministry for Transportation, to say