New York — Israel’s General Secret Service (GSS — Shin Bet) has produced an internal document that holds that Israel’s Arab population is a “genuine long-range danger to the Jewish character and very existence of the State of Israel.” The paper, which has been presented to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, cites worrisome data in various spheres, including increasing Israeli-Arab solidarity and identification with terrorist elements, including the Lebanese Islamist terrorist group Hizballah and the Hamas government in the Palestinian Authority (PA). Among the GSS’s findings:

• Some 40% of the Israeli Arabs involved in terrorism originated in Judea and Samaria but were permitted to come to pre-‘67 Israel and receive Israeli residency after marrying Israeli-Arabs. They are then permitted to travel freely throughout the country.

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  A January 2006 survey has found that Israeli Arabs willing to enlist in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) decreased significantly following the second Lebanon war, falling from an already low figure of 42% of the Arab population in 2006 to an even lower 26.5% in 2007 (Yediot Ahronot, January 17, 2007). 

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  In December 2006, the Mossawa Center the Advocacy Center for Arab Citizens in Israel , an Arab advocacy group, produced a paper, ‘Constitution Based on Equality for All’ which calls for overturning the Law of Return which allows for automatic citizenship for Jews who immigrate to Israel. (Independent Media Review & Analysis, December 6, 2006).

• Similarly, the Higher Arab Monitoring Committee also released a document in December 2006 entitled, ‘The Future Vision of the Palestinian Arabs in Israel,’ stipulating that Israeli Arabs will demand that during the next two decades Israel become a binational state alongside an independent Palestinian state (Haaretz, December 6, 2006).

A sample of recent troubling statements by Israeli Arab members of Knesset:

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  Azmi Bishara: Has praised Syria for its “struggle to liberate occupied Arab land, its resistance against occupation and its defense of the legitimacy of such resistance” ( Jerusalem Post, September 12, 2006); stated that “We are Syria’s ally” and supported its efforts to free “occupied Arab land” (Haaretz, September 10, 2006); condemned “Israel’s barbaric onslaughts” against Lebanon and urged Hizballah’s Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah to “continue his fight” ( Jerusalem Post, September 12, 2006) and warned Syria of likely “preemptive Israeli strikes” (Jerusalem Post, September 12, 2006), something of which he might well have knowledge as a result of his presence in the Knesset.

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  Jamal Zahalka: “For us Syria is no enemy … [we support] solidarity with Syria, especially after Israel’s savage aggression against Lebanon” (Jerusalem Post, September 12, 2006); “We don’t see Syria as an enemy state” ( Haaretz, September 10, 2006)

• Wasal Taha: terrorist groups should “concentrate their efforts on attacking and abducting Israeli soldiers” (Jerusalem Post, September 12, 2006).

The Zionist Organization of America, founded in 1897, is the oldest pro-Israel organization in the United States. The ZOA works to strengthen U.S.-Israel relations, educates the American public and Congress about the dangers that Israel faces, and combats anti-Israel bias in the media and on college campuses. Its past presidents have included Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis and Rabbi Dr. Abba Hillel Silver.