Arab MK Azmi Bishara has returned to Israel. In an interview to Israeli-Arab radio Al-Shams, he said:
We must remember that we are the original owners of this land. They want us to act like we are guests in our land, and always prove to them that we are ‘okay’. We are not ‘okay’. We are the Palestinian Arabs, sons of this land, and we will do whatever is right to resist occupation and aggression.
There really isn’t anything else to say about Bishara. I suppose someone could say “he is talking about the West Bank”, but I don’t believe that, and I bet that Bishara would agree with me if I could ask him.
What he is saying is that the State of Israel is illegitimate and the land of Israel belongs to the Arabs. That’s fine, it’s the same point of view held by Mahmoud Abbas, Ismail Haniyeh, Khaled Meshaal, Bashar al-Assad and many others. He is entitled to this point of view.
He is not entitled to hold it and be a member of the Knesset.
A Knesset member can hold very strong opinions about equal rights for Arabs and Jews and fair treatment for minorities in a democratic state. He cannot say that the state needs become an Arab state.
There was supposed to be a Palestinian state in historical Palestine; it became Jordan and is not ruled by Palestinians. This is not the Jews’ fault. Later (1947), there was supposed to be a Palestinian state alongside Israel and about the same size. It didn’t happen. This isn’t the Jews’ fault either. To turn a popular anti-Zionist argument around, Bishara shouldn’t expect the Jews to pay the price for the crimes of the Arab nations.
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