EXCUSE ME (Continued from p.5) have been a national referendum before the signing of Oslo 2. I wish I had attended the meeting between you and the English-speaking community and that it had taken place in an atmosphere of mutual respect and dialogue, which native-born Israelis have come to expect of us. I would have asked you, in my American-accented Hebrew, which one of your ministers recently maligned, one simple question: "Excuse me, Mr. Prime Minister, but just what is your mandate for your current policies?" If it is based on your electoral victory of three years ago, then you have gone too far. Your parliamentary majority is razor-thin, based on those who might not have the State of Israel's long-term security in mind and a few rookie politicians who most certainly have their short-term careers in mind. It was your angry words at the Wingate Institute that revealed what you feel to be the true source of the authority that drives you to continue your unpopular policies. Yours is a personal mandate, based on your having "fought for the land" and built it as a veteran Israeli political figure. In short, you believe that Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, Chief of Staff during the Six Day War in which the disputed territories were captured, is now empowered by history to dispense with them. For your past achievements as Palmach commander during the War of Independence, as Chief of Staff, and as the Prime Minister who ordered the rescue mission to Entebbe, I have nothing but respect. But excuse me, Mr. Prime Minister, that kind of mandate just isn't the democratic sort that we "Anglos" are accustomed to, so I hope you'll understand our anger. In the past months, you have lashed out at those who live over the Green Line even though they have

often risked their lives and livelihoods in what they considered to be a Zionist undertaking. You have recently alienated American Jewry, an important source of financial, legislative and moral backing for the State of Israel, by accusing them of having crossed the red lines of interference in your government's policies. Now, you have sent a message to those "Anglos" living in the U.S. and other countries, who might be considering aliya, that they are not wanted here. Excuse me, Mr. Prime Minister, for being cynical, but your words sound uncannily like those of your partner in peace, Mr. Arafat, in his "pre-statesman" days. Back then, he tendered a 'Democratic Palestinian State' in which only those Jews who had arrived in Palestine before the "Zionist invasion" would be "allowed" to remain. Perhaps in the diminished Israel you are creating for us, there will only be room for those who fought for and built the State--and those who agree with Yitzhak Rabin. It is true that the individual contributions of the majority of us "Anglos" are modest, but taken together with those of thousands of other immigrants from the former Soviet Union, Latin America, Europe and the Middle East, who work and serve in the army alongside Israelis who were born here, it is considerable. We call it Zionism. Living in Israel, our right to "judge its actions and directions" goes beyond the one vote we each cast every four years. It allows us to sign petitions and protest peacefully against policies which endanger our children's future. We call that democracy. Excuse me, Mr. Prime Minister, you don't have to agree with us, but you should be listening to what we have to say. It is in matters of democracy that we "Anglos" have our most substantial contribution to make. Eli Kenin is a freelance journalist living in Jerusalem.

Outpost               - 6 -               November 1995