Israeli Arab Pioneers

Jonathan Edelstein has an interesting post on the Arab members of the first Knesset. I've often thought the Israeli Arabs were in a somewhat troubling social position, as simply by existing, they get to be part of the "demographic threat" to the existence of the state which has their loyalties. Other nations have similar issues, but not to the same degree: The French majority in France is unlikely to be seriously threatened anytime soon. Still, they do have rights and privileges as citizens, and I suspect that if there were ever a final status agreement they would play an important role in the rest of the Arab world.