![Israel must continue to be able to deter Hezbollah, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar stressed on Wednesday, speaking amid efforts to reach a ceasefire with Iran's Lebanese terrorist proxy. "We need to keep the freedom to act if there will be violations. And we will have to act in time, before the problem will grow," the minister told a gathering of nearly 100 foreign ambassadors in Jerusalem, the Times of Israel reported. A deal to end more than a year of fighting on the northern border must be durable, Sa'ar said, saying Jerusalem “would like to reach an agreement that will stand the test of time." He added that a ceasefire would be an "opportunity" for Lebanon to regain its sovereignty after the Israeli military severely degraded the Iranian-backed group in recent months. He called for the Lebanese Armed Forces to be strengthened and urged the international community to invest more in the economically devastated country, which is drowning in debt following years of mismanagement and corruption. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz also emphasized on Wednesday the necessity for Jerusalem to be able to act against any Hezbollah threats that may arise after a ceasefire deal is implemented. “The condition for any political settlement in Lebanon is the preservation of the intelligence capability and the preservation of the [IDF’s] right to act and protect the citizens of Israel from Hezbollah,” Katz said. Meanwhile, U.S. special envoy Amos Hochstein remained in Beirut for a second day on Wednesday to discuss "technical details" of an American ceasefire proposal with Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, who heads the Hezbollah-allied Amal movement. President Joe Biden's point man in the Land of the Cedars announced he would travel to Israel on Wednesday night, speaking after he made "additional progress" in a second meeting with Berri. Hochstein was scheduled to meet with Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer shortly after his arrival, followed by a tête-à-tête with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the following day. “The meeting today built on the meeting yesterday, and made additional progress,” Hochstein said. “So I will travel from here in a couple hours to Israel to try to bring this to a close if we can.” The Biden envoy added that he will work with the incoming Trump administration on ceasefire efforts, saying that he has kept the president-elect's transition team informed of progress. Hochstein described as "very productive" his meetings with Lebanese officials on Tuesday. “We have a real opportunity to end the conflict, and now is the moment to decide. We are committed to doing everything we can to work with Lebanon and Israel to end this conflict,” Hochstein said at a press conference on Tuesday. Hochstein also met on Tuesday with Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati, and he was scheduled to meet with Lebanese Armed Forces commander Gen. Joseph Aoun. Mikati emphasized that Lebanon’s primary objectives are achieving a ceasefire and safeguarding its sovereignty. He highlighted the need to implement international resolutions and bolster the Lebanese Armed Forces in the southern part of the country. Lebanon delivered its written response to the latest U.S. proposal on Monday. According to Ali Hassan Khalil, an aide to Berri, the response included “comments” that were “presented in a positive atmosphere.” He did not provide details on the nature of the comments, saying only that they “affirm the precise adherence to [U.N. Security Council] Resolution 1701 with all its provisions,” according to Reuters. Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem said in a speech on Wednesday that the terrorist group had "read the ceasefire proposal. "We have our comments, and Nabih Berri has comments, and ours and the Lebanese government's comments are, Inshallah ['God willing'], identical," Qassem said. "We have decided not to discuss these ceasefire proposals or our comments in the media. All I will say is that Israeli is trying to obtain through negotiations what it couldn't through war." The terrorist leader vowed to “continue our efforts on the ground, whether the negotiations succeed or not. “We are confronting a savage enemy, and we will remain on the ground, no matter the cost, as we will also increase the cost for the enemy. We are facing Israeli human monsters supported by American human monsters,” threatened Qassem. Disarm and retreat Resolution 1701, which ended the 2006 Second Lebanon War, stipulated that Hezbollah must disarm and retreat north of the Litani River, but was never enforced. The Litani lies some 20 miles from the Israel-Lebanon border. Its enforcement, along with Israeli freedom of operation in Lebanon should Hezbollah violate the terms of a ceasefire agreement, are the key sticking points in the current negotiations. Netanyahu emphasized during a speech in the Knesset plenum on Monday that Israel will not allow Hezbollah to “return to the state it was in on Oct. 6, 2023. “We will be required, in order to ensure our security in the north, to systematically carry out operations—not only against Hezbollah’s attacks, which could come. Even if there is a ceasefire, nobody can guarantee it will hold. So it’s not only our reaction, a preventive reaction, a reaction in the wake of attack but also the capacity to prevent Hezbollah from strengthening,” he said. Hezbollah has launched some 16,000 rockets, missiles and drones from Lebanon at Israel since joining the war in support of Hamas on Oct. 8, 2023, a day after the Gaza-based terrorist group’s massacre in southern Israel. More than 60,000 residents of northern Israel remain internally displaced due to the ongoing rocket and drone attacks from Lebanon. Seventy-six people in northern Israel have been killed by Hezbollah cross-border rocket, missile and drone attacks since the start of the war, including 31 soldiers and six foreign citizens, according to the latest data provided by the Prime Minister’s Office, updated on Sunday. In addition, 729 people have been wounded, including 497 civilians and 232 soldiers. Of these, 29 civilians and 37 soldiers were severely injured; 63 civilians and 38 soldiers were moderately injured and 405 civilians and 157 soldiers were lightly injured. Hezbollah’s leadership has been left in tatters following a series of targeted killings by Israel, including that of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut on Sept. 27. This was preceded by Israeli sabotage of Hezbollah communication devices that killed 39 people and wounded more than 3,400 members of the terrorist group. Israel has been waging a devastating aerial campaign against Hezbollah throughout Lebanon, including its stronghold of Dahieh south of Beirut. According to Israeli estimates, the terrorist group has lost most of its arsenal to the ongoing strikes. Then-Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said in late October that Hezbollah had lost an estimated 80%-plus of its long-range rockets since the start of the war. Israel also continues to battle Hamas terrorists in Gaza. The terrorist group still holds 101 hostages in the Strip, 97 of whom were kidnapped on Oct. 7. Many of the captives are believed to be dead. Brazil summit Meanwhile, G20 leaders gathered in Rio de Janeiro for a summit put out a joint statement on Monday calling for “comprehensive” ceasefires in Gaza and Lebanon. The leaders of the world’s biggest economies called for U.S. proposals to end fighting in Gaza and free the hostages, and one for Lebanon “that enables citizens to return safely to their homes on both sides of the Blue Line.” The 13-point U.S. proposal presented to Lebanese officials on Nov. 14 includes a 60-day truce, during which Lebanon would redeploy its troops along the border. The proposal also calls for Moscow to prevent Hezbollah from resupplying itself via Syrian land routes. Hezbollah would retreat north of the Litani River, with the border area then being under control of the Lebanese Armed Forces, overseen by the United States and Britain. Israeli officials are emphasizing, however, that the Israel Defense Forces must retain freedom of operation in Lebanon to thwart attempts by Hezbollah to violate the agreement and rearm and reestablish itself. A senior Israeli diplomatic official told Israel Hayom on Saturday that the IDF will retain operational freedom to respond to any security threats from across the northern border, regardless of any diplomatic arrangements. However, a source close to Hezbollah told The Washington Post that the group’s “condition for progress remains clear: Israel must be prohibited from conducting operations within Lebanese territory.” Berri emphasized at the time that any ceasefire agreement must not include the ability for Israel to attack by land, sea or air, Channel 12 reported. “Otherwise, what’s the purpose of an agreement?” he remarked. Another sticking point is Lebanon’s objection to the United Kingdom and Germany monitoring the implementation of U.N. Resolution 1701. Beirut reportedly favors the United States and France. If the ceasefire efforts fail, there are plans in the works to expand ground operations in Lebanon, an Israeli military official told the Post. Israel’s Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer discussed the proposal with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump during a visit to his Florida estate earlier this month, as well as with senior Biden administration officials in Washington. Dermer also traveled to Russia to discuss the ceasefire proposal. Tehran is telling its Lebanese terrorist proxy Hezbollah that it supports ending the war against Israel, The New York Times reported over the weekend. Ali Larijani, senior adviser to Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, met with senior Lebanese officials in Beirut on Nov. 15 to discuss the matter. Two Iranians affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps told the Times that Larijani conveyed messages to Hezbollah from Khamenei that he supported the end of the war and that the regime would assist with rebuilding the terrorist group’s forces and recovering from the war.](https://jewishwebsite.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Gideon-Saar-1320x880-2-218x150.jpg "Sa’ar: Israel must be free to act against Hezbollah truce violations")
The Arab sector in Israel is modernizing, according to Nasreen Haddad Haj-Yahya, director of the Arab Society in Israel program at the Israel Democracy Institute (IDI).
Haj-Yahya is co-author of a new report—the Annual Statistical Report on Arab Society—published on Thursday by IDI, which supplies an overview of the changes taking place in what she called a “dynamic” society.
“Internal developments that have taken place in Arab society in recent years are clearly reflected in the numbers and data presented in the report,” Haj Yahya and her colleagues Muhammed Khalaily and Arik Rudnitzky said in a statement. “The rise in the standard of living, life expectancy and education, along with the decline in fertility rates, the change in the structure of the Arab family, and the desire to realize individual aspirations at the expense of collective values. These factors are undermining traditional patterns and revolutionizing Arab society.”
They said that the real “revolution” in the last two decades is reflected in the “dramatic rise” in the number of Arab Israelis enrolled in higher education programs—something that will not only affect Arab society but also Israeli society at large.
However, they noted that the gaps in quality of employment and the level of compensation between Jews and Arabs has not yet closed.
Haj-Yahya said that the report, which pulls together data that was otherwise disparate and largely inaccessible, is meant to help government decision makers and NGOs make smarter decisions about their investments in and programs for the Arab community.
The basics
Today, there are around 1.9 million Arabs living in Israel—including almost 362,000 Arab residents of eastern Jerusalem who hold “permanent resident” status but not full citizenship—out of a population of 9.3 million, according to the country’s latest population report.
They live in five key geographic areas, the report showed: 51.6% of Arab Israelis live in northern Israel; 19.7% in what is known as the “Triangle” region in the center of the country; 17.5% in the Negev; 8.3% in mixed cities; 1.1% in Jerusalem; and 1.8% in the rest of the country.
The majority of Arabs are Muslim (82.9%), though there are sizeable communities of Druze (9.2%) and Christians (7.9%). Communities in northern Israel, and the mixed cities, tend to have more diverse Arab populations, the Triangle region and the Negev have exclusively Muslim populations, the report showed.
“The populations of the geographic regions are very different from each other,” Haj-Yahya told JNS, noting that the greatest challenges tend to be centered among the Bedouin in the Negev.
‘We have to bring Arabs into the labor market’
The most striking shift among the Arab community is the rate of students enrolled in academic institutions in Israel, which has nearly doubled in the last decade, from 10% in 2010 to 18.3% in the 2020 academic year.
The change is even more pronounced when looking at graduate students—the proportion and number has nearly tripled in the last 10 years, according to the report. Moreover, the proportion of Arabs studying for a PhD rose from 3.9% in 2010 to 7.3% in 2020.
“There is a strong connection between the fact that the government is investing more in the Arab community, specifically providing grants for higher education, and the number of students in Israeli institutions,” said Thabet Abu Rass, co-executive director of the Abraham Initiatives NGO, that provided certain data for the report.
He praised the government for recognizing that “it could not ignore the Arab community.”
“We are around 20% of the total population of Israel, yet we are only contributing 11% to the greater GDP,” Abu Rass explained. “So, we have to bring Arabs into the labor market.”
But, he noted, the labor market in Israel has been dramatically changing, with ever increasing jobs in high-tech and related fields. As such, to effectively integrate Arab Israelis into the market, they need to get educated, he said.
Haj-Yahya said that in some areas, such as within the medical community, there was already integration among Jews and Arabs. But now, she said, the country is starting to see more Arab-Jewish collaboration in retail, commerce and more.
The shift is happening much faster for Arab women than men; women compose two-thirds of the total Arab students in the higher education institutions. At the same time, employment rates for Arab women rose steadily from the mid-2000s. Between 2001 and 2018 the rate almost doubled, climbing from 19.8% to 38.2%, according to the report.
Between 2017 and 2019, Arab employment rates plateaued and even declined slightly. In 2020, following the outbreak of the pandemic in March, employment rates for Arab men dropped sharply to a low of 69.3%.
Haj-Yahya said that this is in part because Arab men are expected to start working from an early age and are less likely to “treat themselves” to a higher education.
The result is Arab men being employed mainly in blue-collar jobs, such as construction, manufacturing, retail and wholesale trade, hospitality and transport industries, according to the report.
“A very small percentage (especially in comparison with Jewish men) work in the information and communication industries, in financial services, in professional, scientific and technical services, and in public administration,” the report noted. “In construction, retail and wholesale, and hospitality—economic sectors that together employ almost half of Arab men—average salaries are lower than the national average. And even in manufacturing, the information and communication sector, and professional, scientific and technical services, in which salaries are higher than the national average, Arab workers earn less.”
Abu Rass said that even as women start to enter high-tech and other more lucrative fields, they are not doing it at the pace that would be expected—and certainly at a lower rate than their haredi equivalents.
The Arab cohort least likely to get educated or work are young Arab men between the ages of 18 and 24, he added. The result, he said, is that they get involved in gangs and are more likely to commit acts of violence and crime.
Crime, poverty on the rise
“If you look at the graphs, there is a direct connection between increased wages and decreased crime and vice versa,” Haj-Yahya said.
Crime rates have spiked in Arab society for the better part of the last decade, from 51 Arab murder victims in 2014, to 94 in 2019 and 113 in 2020 and 110 in 2021.
“Indeed, over the last decade, the number of murder victims in Arab society has almost tripled,” according to the IDI report. “At the same time, the number of Arab citizens wounded in shooting incidents increased more than threefold between 2016 and 2018, from 82 to 301. Since 2000, some 1,574 Arab citizens have been killed, 68 by the police (4.3%) and 1,506 by other Arab citizens.”
Poverty levels have also been on the incline.
The report explains that the National Insurance Institute sets the poverty line in Israel as a relative measure, and accordingly determines the percentage of families falling above or below the line.
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, 45.3% of Arab families were living under the poverty line, including 57.8% of children. Among Jewish society, 13.4% of families and 21.2 percent of children lived below the poverty line.
Haj-Yahya said the situation, though there is not yet formal data available, is known to have worsened as a result of COVID-19.
“Every kid that lives under the poverty line is not just a statistic,” Haj-Yahya stressed. “These are people who go to sleep hungry, and that is certainly something that decision makers need to know to make reforms. We also need to look at ourselves and think about how we can improve the situation and benefits to improve the quality of life for this community.”
‘Not only in the hospitals’
Abu Rass believes that better times are coming. He said the Arab society is more socially, economically and politically integrated in Israeli society than ever before.
“There is an Arab middle class that is expanding all the time,” he said. “These people are moving to improve their quality of life. They are going to Jewish or mixed cities and now Arabs and Jews can meet not only in hospitals but in public spaces, like malls and restaurants and factories.”
He said that the Ra’am party joining the government gave legitimacy to Arabs in the political arena, something that is “huge for Arabs and putting Arabs in a positive mood. The political integration is enhancing and strengthening the economic and social integration.
“I believe the Arab community is much stronger than it was a decade ago.”