Hannah Arendt wrote in late 1948 article Waffenstillstand oder Frieden im Osten Nahen ‘( Peace or Armistice in the Middle East’, published in USA in January 1950). The article discusses the history of Palestine and the founding of the State of Israel. According to the text, peace can only be reached by a fair agreement and understanding between Arabs and Jews. Describes the history of immigration since 1907 and stressed that since both groups are facing and that’s also by the Turkish invasion and later the United Kingdom ‘never have considered to be level or have never even considered people. While describing the main problem of the Jews as the lack of home or world (Weltlosigkeit), criticizes the majority of Jewish leaders, who have not seen the problems of Arab people.
His vision is of a Palestine two nations on the basis of a non-nationalist politics, a federation, which could possibly include other Middle Eastern states. Immigration and the expulsion of part of the Arab people is a moral mortgage, while the groups that are based on equality and justice (Kibbutz), and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, as well as industrialization, are in the column have .
According to Arendt, Israel could escape the laws of capitalism, which was funded by grants from the U.S. and therefore not under the obligation to maximize returns. Their concern was that Israel would continue an aggressive expansionist policy, having won a war, who had brought disgrace to the Jews and Arabs, as well as destroying economic sectors of both peoples. But she had hope in the spirit of Judaism unversalista and willingness to understanding the forces in the Arab States.
At that time there were very few people from Jewish and Arab support a binational Palestine. Arendt refers to the first president of Hebrew University Magnes Judah Leon , and professor of philosophy and political Lebanese Charles Malik, which emphasizes its uniqueness. Both supported a clear understanding between Jews and Arabs, Magnes and Malik in 1946 before the Security Council of the UN in May 1948.
In December 1948 when the former leader of the terrorist organization antibritanica Irgun, Menajem Beguin, came to New York with the goal of donations to his new party Herut, 26 intellectuals, which included a number of Jewish origin, wrote a harsh open letter that was published on December 4, 1948 in The New York Times. Among the signers were, in addition to Hannah Arendt, among others, Isidore Abramowitz, Albert Einstein, Sidney Hook and Stefan Wolpe. The letter clearly warned against the party that believed in derecha extreme ‘and’ racista .
His friend, the American writer Mary McCarthy, Arendt wrote twenty years later that Israel was an example of equality between people. Even more important is the ‘passion for supervivencia of the Jewish people, from this old age . Expressed fear that the Holocaust could be repeated. Israel believes that it is necessary as a safe and fireproof due to anti-Semitism. Arendt says that any real catastrophe in Israel affects you more than almost anything else.
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