When Israeli Prime Minister Sharon suggested that in any future peace negotiations certain areas of Israel heavily populated by Arabs may be transmitted to a an Arab sovereignty, there were no great cries of joy at their liberation by Arabs in Israel.



In fact, one of the most vocal spokesman of the Arabs, Member of Knesset Ahmed Tibi - notorious for his simultaneous close connections with Yasser Arafat and with the Israeli establishment - said, "We are dealing with a dangerous, anti-democratic suggestion, which will bring about a schism between the state and its Arab citizens." (Jerusalem Post, Feb. 4, 2004)



Clearly, Mr. Tibi feels very threatened by the idea that the Palestinians in Israel might one day have to live under an Arab sovereignty.



There are Jews who will have a delighted and satisfied reaction to Ahmed Tibi's remarks. They will say that this shows the superiority of Israeli democracy to Arab dictatorships; it shows that Israel is such a wonderfully democratic country that even a dissatisfied minority would rather belong to it than to a state in which all citizens are Arabs.



Yet, a close examination of the problem shows that there is no reason whatsoever for Israeli Jews to delight in Tibi's consternation. In fact, a closer look at his attitude, and that of those who now call themselves Palestinian Israelis, will reveal that there is a very deep reason for supporters of the Jewish state to be extremely concerned.



The situation of Muslim Arabs in Israel is considerably different from that most often depicted not only in the media, but in the whole sociology of the subject. In general, the attitude of those Jews, usually from the far-left, and Arabs who have concerned themselves with the subject, is to concentrate on the relative deprivation of the Arab community vis-a-vis the Jews. Very rarely is there a real look at the whole existential situation of the Muslim Arabs in Israel, especially in comparison with that of their brothers throughout the Arab world.



The fact of the matter is that Arabs living in Israel have generally higher standards of living and health care than do Arabs elsewhere in the Middle East. They also have a degree of political freedom beyond anything known to most people in the Arab world. And this, when they do their best to escape all duties as citizens of the state.



It is, in one sense, understandable that the Muslim Arabs have by and large exemptions from the army, that they are not forced to fight against their Arab brothers, but they also have an exemption, or have taken an exemption, from that other most onerous of citizens duties: paying taxes. The municipalities in Arab towns and villages collect less than one percent of the funds that they should. Most Arab business people escape the Israeli tax-man completely. For this double exemption, the Muslims in Israel receive welfare payments the likes of which few nations in the world supply.



Israel, through Bituach Leumi, pays out child support funds and encourages large Muslim families. The equating of the child allowance payments between those who serve in the army and those who do not was another step in discrimination in favor of the non-serving Arab minority. Arabs also receive a full basket of medical care, cradle to grave, for which they pay only a minuscule proportion of the cost. And of course their young people, without army obligation, and with the encouragement of Arab teachers, who help their students with exams, have a foot up in the university world.



In other words, Israel discriminates in favor of its Muslim Arab citizens. It supports their having large families. It encourages their bilking of the state without supplying anything in return.



The Muslim population has also illegally occupied tens of thousands of dunams in the Galilee and the Negev. This illegal building on state lands, of course, receives a small fraction of the attention given the 'settlers' in Judea and Samaria. Even major right-wing Israeli political figures avoid the issue like the plague, out of the understanding that they have no power to do anything about it, and for fear that they will be attacked as 'racists'.



It should be noted, too, that the Muslim Arab community in Israel has taken a major role in agitating against the Jewish state. It is this group, its Islamic faithful, that stirred up the unrest on the Temple Mount, that accelerated illegal Muslim building, and that was most instrumental in supplying the equipment for destruction of Jewish antiquities. Representatives of the Islamic Movement in Israel have openly agitated for an end to the Jewish state. Not to mention the increasing number of Israeli citizens involved in acts of terror against the State and its citizens.



So, when one looks at the situation and asks why Mr. Tibi is so disturbed, one can understand fully. The Muslim Arabs in Israel have a great deal, which they are not going to get anywhere else. They have a 'sucker state' supplying them services without demanding any of the normal duties a citizen must fulfill.



Along with this, in the back of Mr. Tibi's mind, is the understanding that, demographically, time is on the Arab side. One out of every four young people under eighteen in Israel is a Muslim. Tibi knows well that the Israeli Left supports most Arab claims. He knows that the elite Left, which despises much in Jewish religious life, favors a 'state of all its citizens'. He knows, too, that the 'state of all its citizens' will have a very, very short transitional phase before it becomes connected with the vast Arab world without; before, that is, it becomes yet another Arab state in the Middle East.



Tibi wants to stay in Jewish Israel today for economic and social benefits, which will lead to the Israel of today becoming the Arab Palestine of tomorrow. If the Jewish state persists in cultivating and developing its Muslim minority in the way it has, then the efforts and sacrifices of generations of Jews will turn into dust, and yet another Arab backwater will dot the sad map of the Middle East.