Israel ben Dor / A Jewish Island in the Arab Sea – Image and reality in the development of the relations between Israel with the Arab expanse in its first years (1947 – 1956)

 

The study deals with the image of the Arabs of the Jewish settlement and the State of Israel in the formative years of the Israeli – Arab conflict and their affiliation to the historical reality. The conflict with the Arabs, that were defined as the enemy, was perceived as existential conflict and affected all walks of life. Therefore, the approach taken in this study was to examine the reflection of the images in a broad spectrum of social and cultural phenomena, relying on a wide range of sources.

 

The negative dimension, which ascribed negative attributes to the Arabs and painted the conflict in dark colors, constitutes the majority of the system of images and the perception of the Arabs as the enemy and the perception of the expected threat from which it constantly worsened. The Arabs, their culture, Arab society and the expanse were referred to, inter alia, as failed, ignorant, murderous, and revengeful. The Arab nationality was identified with Fascism and Nazism. The Arabs in the Land of Israel were perceived as a most dangerous enemy and also after their defeat and the establishment of the State of Israel, they were perceived as a “Fifth Column”. The Jewish side attributed humanism, initiative, love of building and creativity to itself, and therefore the State of Israel viewed itself as a “Jewish Island in the Arab Sea”.