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Israel—1998
Independence Day
by Carl Alpert
HAIFA—Ten years ago I
ventured an imaginative preview
of Israel’s 50th anniversary
celebration, to be held in 1998-
Despite the clouds over the
country today, it is not out of place
to review once again that picture of
the future. This is how l described
the jubilee anniversary celebration:
The great parade marched by
the reviewing stand, in which stood
the diplomatic representatives of
Lebanon and Egypt, among
others. In the center was Prime
Minister Yigal Sharon, alongside
Abdul Hakim Afifi, elected as first
Arab president of the State of
Israel. A beloved personality, he
was the man who braved the last of
the Arab terrorists and dared raise
the flag of Middle East
brotherhood. He is a native of
Haifa.
One of the major attractions of
the country is the Great
Archaeology Park, covering
hundreds of acres. Its faithful
reconstruction of the cities of the
past has become one of the
wonders of the world, and has
drawn five million tourist visitors.
What used to be the Negev is a
vast area of grain fields and
orchards The former desert has
now been transformed by the
almost endless supply of fresh
water, coming from the great
nuclear desalination plants at Eilat
and Gaza.
Yet all is not Utopian. The
country still has grave problems. A
minor flurry occurred when the
Israel Committee to Give Back the
Occupied Areas held a
demonstration march, but they
were quietly diverted into a side
street. In Amman there was also a
protest demonstration by six men
who said they were descendants of
the old Hashemite Royal Family,
claimants to a now non-existant
throne of Jordan.
Newspaper editorials dealt with
the vexing problem of “Who is a
Jew?” especially in view of the
large-syalc immigration of
American Jews who had been born
and married in the framework of
Reform Judaism in that country.
Here and there could be seen the
first election posters, heralding the
forthcoming poll in which the Labor
Party would be pitted against the
I iberals. The latter, embracing all
the various groupings to the right,
had in Israel’s 50 years of existence
been voted into power by the
electorate only once. Their term
had been marked by almost
constant strikes and bitter class
war until the weary public returned
Labor to power in the Knesset
The Technion, three of whose
graduates had received Nobel
Prizes, was in the throes of a bitter
controversy. With an enrollment
now exceeding 20,000 students of
science and technology, the
institute was seeking to introduce a
quota, and announced that Arabs
would be limited to 50 percent of
the total enrollment. Feelings ran
high on both sides of the question.
The shortage of housing was
acute. Delegations of new
immigrants warned that if Israeli
young married couples continued
to be given preference in new
apartments, the immigrants would
occupy the new buildings by force
to press their demands.
A special Knesset and
interministfrial committee was set
up to deal with the problem of
pollution of Tel Aviv’s beaches,
and contamination of the air over
Haifa.
Curious interest was displayed
in a group of 800 Chinese settlers
who had established a kibbutz, and
claimed to be descendants of the
Ten Lost Tribes, now at last
returning to their homeland. The
Peking government warned that
any discrimination shown against
the Chinese Jews would be
regarded as an unfriendly act.
There were rumors that millions of
additional Chinese were attracted
to the new Sino-Jewish sect, but
diplomatic circles in Jerusalem
hastened to brand these reports as
“fantasy.”
That was the end of my account,
written I0 years ago, at a time
when even diplomatic relations
with Egypt would have been
regarded as fantasy. Much can yet
happen between 1982 and I998.
The history-minded reader will
clip this column and file it away for
16 years.
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PAGE 11 THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE April 30, 1982