The Lion's Roar

On the issue of war with the Arabs, nearly every Israeli is a hawk. Such unanimity dissipates when it comes to the question of planning for peace. While most hard-liners insist on retaining every square inch of territory conquered in the 1967 war, an impressive number of Israelis feel that some concessions are necessary. Most political doves, however, are reluctant to speak up. They are all too well aware of the controversy such talk invariably provokes. Early last year, for example, when Premier Levi Eshkol suggested that Israel might not retain some Arab-populated areas of the West Bank, an awesome political uproar followed; some of Eshkol's friends claim that it contributed to the fatal heart attack that struck him soon afterward. Deputy Premier Yigael Allon was also criticized sharply by Israeli hawks for proposing that some bits of Arab land be returned to Arab control.

The risk of censure has not deterred brainy, diminutive Arie Eliav, newly elected Secretary-General of the ruling Labor Party. He has been speaking out more forcefully than any other major political figure in Israel. As top executive of the 300,000-member party, a post once held by Premier Golda Meir, Russian-born Eliav, 48, feels that he now has "the channel to disseminate my ideas." In Tel Aviv last week, he told TIME Correspondent Marlin Levin about those ideas, which include some radical proposals for unilateral Israeli concessions to the Arabs.

A Little Late. "The first thing we have to do," he said, "is to recognize that the Palestinian Arabs exist as an infant nation. It is there. We have to recognize them. The sooner we do it, the better it will be for us, for them, for eventual peace." His view is in direct contradiction with that of Mrs. Meir, who is on record as saying that there is no such thing as either a Palestinian nation or people. That difference of opinion is one reason why the Premier was so slow in throwing her support to Eliav as Secretary-General.

Equally controversial is Eliav's second suggestion--a declaration that Israel does not plan to annex territories. "We have annexed Jerusalem," he said. "That is a fact that cannot be undone. But we should not annex any more territories." To Israeli hardliners, who claim all of Palestine on the basis of historical rights, Eliav retorts: "True, our forefathers lived here and in Jordan. But so did the Arabs. The solution has to be that two states can live equally together. There is ample place for a Jewish state as big as Holland, with 10 million people, and an Arab state as big as Belgium with 9 million. I think we should recognize a legitimate Arab national movement."

As one step in this direction, Eliav, who is a Cambridge-educated specialist in village planning, urges that Israel "should start tackling the Arab-refugee problem with those refugees already in our hands. We already are a little late." For example, he suggests that a vocational-education network be established for Arab children, that new towns and new farms be set up for the refugees.

High on the List. An artillery officer with the British Army in World War II, Eliav later worked with the Jewish underground and earned himself a place high on the British mandatory administration's wanted list. In one notable exploit, he smuggled in 2,000 illegal immigrants from Sweden aboard the Ulua, a onetime United Fruit Co. banana boat aboard which the Richard Nixons once took a cruise. During the 1956 Sinai campaign, he posed as a Foreign Legion officer to smuggle 200 Egyptian Jews out of Port Said aboard fishing smacks.

Eliav's nickname is Lyova, an affectionate form of the Russian word lev (lion). In speaking out as forcefully as he has, Eliav has lived up to the name. A self-described "superdove," he maintains that "my views are those of the silent majority. There hasn't been a show of hands yet, but I hope that one day there will be."

Eliav argues that of Zionism's three principal goals, only one has been attained--the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine. The other two, providing a refuge for all Jews who want or need one and creating a model society based on the Jewish heritage, have not been completely fulfilled. "Our achievements are many," he says, "but so too are our failures. There is a long way to go. The real danger, as I see it, is that the conflict with the Arabs may take us farther away from building the kind of Jewish society that we Zionists want to have in the land of Israel."

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