With Israel in the throes of a debate about mandatory inclusion in national service for ultra-Orthodox Jews and Arabs, the New York Times runs a front-page article by Jerusalem bureau chief Jodi Rudoren, headlined "Service to Israel Tugs at Identity of Arab Citizens." As is the Times' usual wont, Rudoren presents a selective picture that gives greater prominence to examples of Arab alienation in the Jewish state than to progress toward greater integration. Tellingly, her first "expert" on the matter is Elie Rekhess, a historian of Arab-Jewish relations, who asserts that Arab leaders are confronted "by the impossibility of this situation of being Arabs in a Jewish state."  Which leads Rudoren to sum up in the same alarmist vein that Arabs are "citizens of a state whose defining philosophy most find alienating at best, often considered enemies within, with a list of complaints about discrimination in employment, education and housing." Still looking through a glass darkly, Rudoren...(Read Full Post)