All the dissenters I spoke with seemed to think that the Israelis themselves could not set up an acceptable Palestinian political structure. Yet some questioned whether the Palestinians could do it themselves. "I hope they can." said one student. "but they've never been able to before, even while the Jews were structuring themselves under the British Mandate. And it is especially difficult now, with the Palestinians living under so many governments."

Fatah is rejected as the representative of the Palestinians because although it enjoys wide support. it has never been legitimized by the Palestinian population. "Semehow, there must be elections." someone sighed. "Maybe the Fatah leaders would be elected, but the Palestinian population is in general more moderate." he continued, and many of the Fatah leaders are being discredited as their success makes them more and more bourgeois."

Ultimately, ?one of the dissenters really know what to do. The Israeli Student Union did send a letter to Fatah and received a reply-certainly a milestone, but the content of the answer a complete refutation of everything the students had written, showed the distance that still has to be bridged.

Even if they knew what should be done, the dissenters wouldn't know how to get their government to do it. Political channels are closed. Demonstrations are ludicrous, for few Israelis could seriously stand on a picket line-or seriously react to it-after they've fought in a war. (This attitude carries over to student-power issues, where problems are worked out quietly with a very cooperative faculty and a rather progressive federal administration.)

The idea of any violent protest is inconceivable in a country at war. "Besides." a student laughed, "we are officers and trained fighters, but so are the people we'd be fighting."

Undoubtedly the dissent is receiving new publicity since the confrontation between the government and Dr. Nahun Goldmann, who was allegedly contacted by Nasser to hold talks, which the government refused because of Goldmann's political views. This event will tend to polarize and will undoubtedly force the government to publicly justify-if not modify-its policy. But there is no way to insure that this will happen.

So they talk and write and argue. Some of them are working for a change in political structure so an opposition could have a voice. But mostly, like all Israelis, they hope.