Because of public perceptions, some things just don't seem capable of existing, despite the fact that they exist.

One such thing is the existence of Israeli Arabs.

I was reminded of this after talking with an Israeli Arab friend. He told me that he is unwelcome in Arab countries, and when he traveled to Egypt and other countries with an Israeli passport he was treated very badly, called a "traitor," and suspected of being a spy -- all because of an accident of birth. He was born and grew up in Israel, and is fluent in Hebrew, Arabic and English. (Obviously, itself a dangerous combination in today's world.) His fear of being considered a spy is more than justifiable; consider the plight of this Israeli Arab.

In general, Israeli Arabs tend not to be a hot topic of discussion in the media, because they defy easy analysis, and don't fit the conventional stereotypes. For starters, they are descended from people who refused to flee Israel -- something that tends to defy the conventional, U.N.-style wisdom of Israel as a genocidal, racist state. From the militant Islamic ideological perspective, of course, any Arab living happily in Israel would have to be considered an ideological traitor.

Whether they're considered "traitors" or not, Israeli Arabs constitute between 20 and 25% of the Israeli Population, and their numbers are growing faster than the numbers of Jews, raising some interesting questions:

....[A]re they flourishing under the auspices of the Jewish state, as their ever-increasing presence in the Knesset and in much of Israeli life suggests? One of them, `Abd ar-Rahman az-Zu`abi, was recently appointed the first Arab to sit on Israel's Supreme Court. Miss Israel 1999, Rana Raslan, is an Israeli Arab beauty. Arab members of the Israeli parliament twice have served as deputy speaker; Husima Jahara become the first Arab Israeli woman elected to the Knesset; and an Arab broke a taboo by being named to the parliament's prestigious Defense and Foreign Affairs Committee.2

Beyond the headlines, too, Arab citizens of Israel seem to have imbibed the country's pluralistic and democratic ways. Thus, in 1994, when several busloads of touring foreign journalists gathered in the community center of the new Jewish town of Katzir, built on a hilltop just inside the pre-1967 boundary, they heard a Jewish National Fund (JNF) representative explain that Katzir was built, in part, to help redress the overwhelming Arab majority in its area. Then spoke the assistant principal from a nearby Israeli Arab village who mused out loud why it should matter whether the local population is majority Arab or majority Jewish, since "we are all Israelis" with equal rights and since Israeli-Palestinian peace is on the way?

Good question. Although neither the JNF representative nor the Katzir officials replied on that occasion, the assistant principal's point is worth some thought. Can Israel, as a Jewish state, reach such a point of amity that it makes no difference whether the population in a region is majority Arab or Jewish?

There's something odious about the belief that there's a duty to religious and ethnic identities imposed by others, especially when these duties are hotly disputed. Israeli Arabs are whipsawed by their very existence in a classic damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don't situation.

This analysis by Dave Kopel raises questions about the extent to which Israeli Arabs can be fully assimilated in Israel:

Atashi said that he does not "feel inferior as a minority in Israel." As a Druze, Atashi was subject to the same mandatory service in the Israel Defense Force as are Jews. Christian and Moslem Arabs, Atashi added, are not drafted, but may volunteer.

While Arabs face no discrimination within the army, Atashi did feel that informal (and illegal) discrimination does exist in some parts of Israel's civilian economy. Jewish immigrants from Morocco, Yemen, and other Arab nations also face similar problems, observed Atashi, because they are significantly less educated than Jews from Europe.

While it's not up to me, I think it might be a very good idea to encourage Israeli Arabs to join the American "melting pot." But that's another question.

(These days, a growing number of American ideologues consider the "melting pot" itself a form of treason to "multiculturalism." But, hey, at least they can't issue fatwas!)