146 chapter four its compactness and its snaking borders, resulted in most of the Arab population having to live under these restrictions [in the periphery]” (Yakobson and Rubinstein 2009, 106, 107).29 Moreover, the authors also posit that the extensive land confiscation from Arabs were “inevitable” due to “the absorption of the massive influx of Jewish immigration …, in numbers which far exceeded the entire Jewish population in Mandatory Palestine” (Yakobson and Rubinstein 2009, 107). Israeli violations and mechanisms of disenfranchisement targeting its non-Jewish population are, according to the authors, “not necessarily the result of deliberate decisions…” (Yakobson and Rubinstein 2009, 113).30 Here discrimination against Arabs in Israel is generously depicted as often being a “consequence of neglect, a lack of sensitivity to the minority’s specific needs …, [as well as] the absence of adequate representation in decision making settings …” (Yakobson and Rubinstein 2009, 113). So the authors hold that it is not the case that Israel is actively politically and legally targeting its Arab community; rather, it is simply passively overlooking the population. Despite the extensive record of declarations by the Zionist leadership, racialized coverage of Arab activity and population growth in Israeli public discourse, and the explicitly stated intent of legislation targeting Israel’s Arab citizenry, Yakobson and Rubinstein posit a reading of Zionism as a national project that basically means well. Taken together, the above melange of liberal posturing moves from one criticism of Israeli state power to another, with the effect of cloaking the violent implications of the Israeli incorporation regime. Soaked in liberal terms of tolerance, representation, and self-defence, and deprived of any analysis of power and control, the adopted line of argumentation employs logical connectors to transition the attention of the reader from the devastating historical record to the myth of a basically virtuous colonial-settler project. 29 At best, scathing criticism provided by the authors comes in the following desensitized form: “All in all, there is no denying that Israeli governments failed in their duty to look after the interests of all of the state’s citizens equally …” (ibid., 108). Describing almost two decades of state-imposed policies during the Military Administration with steeply disproportionate and heavily adverse effects on the Arab population only as not equal effectively dilutes the historical record. 30 The authors do, however, recognize that there have been cases in the past where such deliberate or intended decisions have been made.