The Committee of Arab Mayors in Israel recently issued a document proffering a new political “vision.” The message is sharp and clear: The Arab-Palestinian minority in Israel no longer advocates a two-state solution. Beside the future Palestinian — Arab- Muslim — state there should be a binational state, Jewish and Palestinian, which will give the Palestinian minority special political rights. Israel would thus lose its specific nature as a Jewish homeland, as its flag, national anthem, and rhythm of national life would represent both peoples, Jews and Palestinians.

There is not a word for either entity about civil society, freedom of expression, rule of law, or other values associated with freedom.

“The Future Vision of the Palestinian Arabs in Israel,” whose preparation was financed by the United Nations Development Program, is replete with hostility toward Israel and Zionism. “Israel is the result of a colonialist action instigated by the Jewish-Zionist elites of Europe,” the document states, and Palestinians “were forced to acquire Israeli citizenship.” The mayors ignore that the so-called colonialists promised equal rights to all non-Jews in the Jewish state.

The paradox is that this bash-Israel document comes at a time when the socioeconomic gaps between Arabs and Jews in Israel are narrowing.

Examining the status of the Arab minority reveals a nuanced situation. On the one hand, Arabs do suffer some disadvantage in government budgetary allocations, and Muslim Arabs in particular have lower socio-economic status than Jews. On the other hand, there has been progress in closing the gaps between Arabs and Jews, and Christian Arabs have made much progress. Indeed, the achievements of Christian Arabs refute the allegations of apartheid that are so widely heard today.

Muslim Arabs form an underclass in Israeli society, which is partly explained by their difficulty in entering the business and industrial sectors. The Muslim, but not Christian, villages and towns are among Israel’s poorest. In the socio-economic scale of Israel’s Ministry of Interior, all but nine of 71 local authorities in the lowest third are Muslim Arab. The Christian Arab villages are way above them — half-way to the top.

Arabs are conspicuous by their absence from Israel’s prosperous high-tech and bio-tech industry. Unemployment is higher among Arabs than among Jews. In 2005, the unemployment rate for the country was 9%, of which 8.7% was Jewish and 11.3% was Arab.

Muslim Arab villages and towns suffer from a lack of some municipal services that are common in Jewish ones. Arab state schools — but not private state–supported Christian ones — have much lower achievement levels than Jewish ones. As a result of laws ensuring affirmative action for Arabs, the Arab share in the civil service and among directors of state corporations has recently increased but is still much lower than their percentage of the population. No Arab minister sits at the Cabinet table.

Many problems of the Muslim Arabs do not result from Israeli governmental policy but rather are endemic to their culture. Muslim society discourages the participation of women in the workforce and in general ascribes an inferior position to women. Muslim Arabs have large families, and marriage between relatives is permitted. Muslim Arabs believe in a traditional economy and are suspicious of the modern non-cash economy based on invisible assets. Indeed, Christian Arabs, who do not hold these socio-economic tenets, are successful despite the fact that they are subject to the same governmental policy.

Perhaps Israel could have done more to counteract the traditional Muslim cultural patterns such as encouraging village-based industry for women. Nevertheless, more egalitarian governmental policies adopted in recent years, especially in education and health, are responsible for the dramatic narrowing of the gaps between the Arab and Jewish communities.

Israel inherited a primitive Arab education system from the British Mandatory regime. In 1948, only 35% of Arab children attended elementary school, and an insignificant fraction attended high school. Among Jews, school attendance was 100%. These gaps almost disappeared with Israeli statehood. In 2004, in elementary school attendance, the Arabs had actually overtaken the Jews by 2%, while in high school there still was a 7% gap.

Health indicators are even more significant: During the British Mandate, infant mortality was 10% among Muslims and 3.5% among Jews. Child mortality, deaths up to 5 years, was 21% among Muslims and 4.5% among Jews. With Israeli statehood, these gaps narrowed, and in 2004, the infant mortality rate was 0.8% among Muslims and 0.3% among Jews. Among Israeli Christian Arabs the infant mortality rate was one of the world’s lowest: 0.2%, lower than that of Sweden, Norway, and Japan, half that of Switzerland, and a third of the American rate. Life expectancy of Israeli Arabs is somewhat lower than that of the Jews but equals that of Denmark and America.

On the day the bash-Israel “vision” was published, the airport authority announced that a mosque would be built in Ben-Gurion Airport. With the new radicalized “vision” denying Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state, such progress will be thwarted. Great pity.

Mr. Rubinstein is president of the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya, Israel.