TEXTBOOK WATCH. Last week it was Russian kids learning Putin and Stalin propaganda. Today newspapers report that a new third-grade history textbook for Arab-Israeli schoolchildren refers to the 1948 founding of the Israeli state by its Arabic name, Al Naqba (The Tragedy), for the first time. The book, called "Living Together in Israel," also admits that 700,000 Arabs were involuntarily displaced by Israel's War of Independence, and that until 1966, Arab citizens of Israeli were subject to military rule. The books were created under the watch of Labor Party Education Minister Yuli Tamir. The conservative Likkud Party has called for her to be fired. Jewish and Arab children, for the most part, attend segregated schools in Israel. The Education Ministry says it has no plans to introduce the Arab narrative into textbooks targeted toward Jewish elementary school students, and that Jewish high school students hear a much more complex historical narrative. But if Arab-Israeli third-graders are expected to balance what they learn at home with other perspectives, why aren't Israeli Jewish kids being held to the same expectation? --Dana Goldstein
