The Three Bees
Paul Eidelberg
Vic: Hi Josh, where you been lately?
Josh: Hi Vic. Overseas; spent a month in Israel, Jordan, and Egypt.
Vic: Were you with that group from the university?
Josh: Yes, I was part of that “junior year abroad” program.
Vic: I saw a blurb about it in the alumni news, but no names were mentioned. I guess you are now an expert on the Palestinian conflict. Did you speak to any VIPs?
Josh: Yeah, we had a few minutes with the three Bees: Bibi, Bogie, and Barak.
Vic: Wow! What did you think of them?
Josh: Well, they’re politicians, meaning they’re spin masters—although Bibi wins the prize. He and Bogie say they’re working on the Palestinian problem, and Barak says the “two-state” solution is the only solution to the conflict. I think he only differs from Bibi and Bogie on nuances. They all talk about separation from the Arabs and building up their economy—you know, like making them middle-class Americans.
Vic: I never could understand this. I mean, look, we’re had desegregation since 1954, and while blacks have made a lot of progress, there’s still segregation, I mean blacks live east of Broad Street whites live west of Broad Street; there’s no social integration. And I still see racial tensions even on the campus. Did you see much commingling among Jewish and Arab Israelis?
Josh: We had an hour in the visitors’ gallery in the Knesset, and didn’t see much love between Arab and Jewish MKs. Quite the opposite. They call each other ‘racists’? But all the talk we hear of apartheid in Israel is horse manure.
Vic: Thought so. I saw a piece in the Claremont Review of Books which covered the case we had here, the Kansas City desegregation case. I carry a clipping to show my liberal friends whenever they pipe up about whites oppressing blacks. Here, take a look at it.
Josh takes the clipping and reads:
Between 1985 and 2003 federal judges ordered more than $2 billion in new spending by the school district to encourage desegregation. Not only did they double the property taxes to pay this huge bill, but they imposed an income tax surcharge on everyone who lived or worked in the city. The court order turned every high school and middle school (as well as half the elementary schools) into “magnet schools,” each with a distinctive theme—including not merely science, performing arts, and computer studies, but also classical Greek, Asian studies, agribusiness, and environmental studies. The newly constructed classical Greek high school housed an Olympic-sized pool with an underwater observation room, an indoor track, a gymnastic center, and racquet ball courts. The former coach of the Soviet Olympic fencing team was hired to teach inner-city students how to thrust and parry. The school system spent almost a million dollars a year to recruit white kids from the suburbs, and even hired door-to-door taxi service for them. By 1995 Kansas City was spending over $10,000 per student, more than any comparable school system in the country. Despite the massive effort, litigation failed either to improve the quality of education or to reduce racial isolation. Test scores continued to drop, and the percentage of minority students continued to rise.
Vic: Show this to your liberal friends, Josh, maybe they’ll see the light?
Josh: Nah, liberals live in denial, like many Israelis, including the three Bees. Hard to say what divides people more: skin color or religious/cultural differences.
Vic: But look Josh, as you know, blacks and whites here speak the same language, are more or less Christian, read the same school books prescribed by our boards of education, go to the same movies, watch the same basketball and baseball games, participate in the same elections, and we still have racial tensions. And yet, the three Bees you met think they can overcome the conflict between Arabs and Jews whose cultural and religious differences are far greater.
Josh: True enough, either these politicians are shmucks, or they’re playing a cynical game. For sure the Arabs aren’t shmucks. Just look at all the money they rake in from us—yeah, and goes into their private bank accounts.
Vic: Yes, Arabs are the shrewdest wheeler-dealers in the world. But what did you think of Israel, the country?
Josh: Beautiful country. Amazing what Jews have accomplished in Israel—really unbelievable. But, when it comes to dealing with Arabs, their Bibis, Bogies, and Barakians are troglodytes.
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