tural and spiritual background of all the peoples of our Region, so much influenced by their past. In this respect, the Semitic family of culture includes even the Turks, the Kurds, and the Persians, who are descended from different races and speak non-Semitic languages, but whose history is bound up with the culture of the Semitic world and the great religions of the Semites. Yet the main reason for the indispensability of this term is that it automatically includes Arabs and Hebrews, explains itself readily in the Region and throughout the world, and has the same meaning in all languages.
It is my deepest belief-and perhaps the point at which my friends and I differ from other people who aspire to peace in the Region-that such a peace cannot and must not contradict the national aspirations of both Hebrews and Arabs. Nationalism will reign supreme in our generation in all the countries of the Region, and nothing will stop it. Any idea, inspiring as it may be, which runs counter to the national feelings of the people concerned, will be by-passed by history.
I am a Hebrew nationalist, and I want to deal with Arab nationalists. I want to tell them: The last fifty years have shown that neither you nor we can achieve our national aspirations as long as we fight each other. Our two great national movements can neutralize each other, or they can be combined in one great regional movement of liberation and progress. This is what the Semitic idea means-an ideal combining the two nationalisms, an ideal with which nationalists on both sides can identify.
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Joining a great Semitic confederacy would mean, for Israel, putting an end to the Zionist chapter in its history and starting a new one-the chapter of Israel as a state integrated in its Region, playing a part in the Region's struggle for progress and unity.
For the Arabs it would mean recognition of a post-Zion¬