Disappearing from the pages of history

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran has been regularly castigated for saying that “Israel will be wiped off the face of the map”. A better translation from the Farsi of what he said is “The Zionist regime in Jerusalem will disappear from the pages of history”.
His point was that a country that is based on religion cannot long survive. He seems to have missed the irony that he is the president of the Islamic Republic of Iran. He may, however, have a point.
It may not be a large problem in Iran which is 99% Shia Muslim, but Israel’s population, on the other hand, is 20% Arab, Christians and Muslims.
During my trips to the region, I have seen a growing sense of anger and frustration among the Israeli Arab population. This anger and frustration stems not only from the treatment of their Arab brothers and sisters in the West Bank and Gaza under the Israeli occupation, but also from the discrimination that they experience within Israel in housing, education and jobs. They are, in effect, second class citizens in their own country.
After years of festering just under the surface, the frustration boiled to the surface in the last week in the Israeli northern port city of Acre. Acre is a gritty lower middle class city of mixed Jews and Arabs who live together, sometimes in separate communities and sometimes next to each other.
On the eve of the Jewish holy day, Yom Kippur, during which many observant Jews do not drive, a young Arab drove through a Jewish neighborhood on his way home from work. A group of Jewish youth, incensed by this affront to their observance, attacked the Arab. When word of the attack spread to the Arab community, a riot ensued. Over the next four days and nights the violence resulted in the destruction of cars, the burning of tires and the arrest of a number of Jews and Arabs. The houses of two Arab residents were burned.
Israeli political leaders have expressed shock that such a thing could happen in Israel. While some on the far right have advocated expelling Arabs from Acre, most leaders have tried to restore coexistence. Feelings are running so high, however, that the Jewish leaders have refused to meet with their Arab neighbors.
All this misses the larger question. What is the role of Muslims and Christians in a state defined as a “Jewish state”? Unless a satisfactory answer is found to this question, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad may well be right. The Jewish state may disappear from the pages of history.