My Promised Land: The Triumph and Tragedy of Israel

by Ari Shavit

“Let me put it this way,” Gabai continues. “In its terms of reference and in its mission statement, the State of Israel never planned for Aryeh Deri or Gal Gabai. That’s not who it had in mind. But at the end of the day, the European fort was housed by Arab-speaking Jews. By Aryeh Deri and Gal Gabai. But the fundamental structure of the fort and the ethos of its builders sentenced Aryeh Deri and Gal Gabai to remain outside in a sense. Western Zionism feared us. It feared the Arabism we brought with us: the Arab music, the smells and tastes of Arab cuisine, Arab mannerisms. Think about it, something amazing happened here. After the Holocaust, Zionism imported a million Jewish Arabs here so they’d save it, demographically, from the Arab world. But after it brought these Jewish Arabs, Zionism panicked because of their Arabic identity. It sensed danger in my grandfather’s Moroccan music, and in my grandmother’s Moroccan cooking, and in my father’s Moroccan tradition. It feared that we Oriental Jews would dissolve Western Zionism from within.