In the early 1950s, the Bedouin population in the Negev numbered a little over a dozen.
Today, 70 years later, the Bedouin in the Negev number almost 300,000 people.
Along with infiltrating the territory of the country, especially in the years following its establishment, this inconceivable growth is the result of an extraordinary and unprecedented natural increase, even in Middle Eastern terms, of a population doubling every 15 years.
In 1951 the Bedouin numbered 12,700 - 20 years later, in 1970, their number reached about 25,000.
In 1980 it stood at 37,000, and by 2000 it had already reached 120,000.
Today it stands, as mentioned, at almost 300,000 people.
The governments of Israel have allowed and even encouraged natural multiplication, and it is, therefore, their handiwork to boast about it. They enabled polygamy, in which any man could marry several women, and also allowed the marriage of Israeli Bedouins to women, and in fact to girls, from Gaza and the Hebron Mountains, where the Mohar fees were remarkably cheap. And finally, generous child benefits granted that encouraged family cells that included a man, several women, and dozens of children, who relied on government benefits. It is no wonder that the cuts in child benefits at the end of 2002 led to a dramatic drop in birth rates among the Bedouin - from about ten children per woman, to five.
Israel is not the only country in the region facing a challenge that is essentially demographic, but that combines the tension between a nomadic population, prone to rebellion and unloading, and the modern state, which seeks to spread its authority over them and integrate them into the fabric of life there.
This is the case in Syria, where the Bedouin tribes took an active part in a protest that erupted in the country in 2011 against the Syrian regime, and so in Jordan, where the Bedouin are the mainstay of the Hashemite regime, but in recent decades they have repeatedly rioted in protest of their economic situation.
Like other countries in the region, Israeli governments have failed to deal with Bedouin society in the Negev.
They have failed, and perhaps it is a lost mission in the first place, to provide housing solutions, jobs, and before that, to establish an education system that will advance the Bedouin children and get them out of the cycle of poverty and backwardness.
This is before we mention the lack of governance and the lack of presence of law enforcement agencies.
It seems that only Moshe Arens, in his various positions, including defense minister, listened to voices from the field, and already in the 1980s and 1990s he preached for increasing the Bedouin's integration into society and also called for their enlistment in the IDF. Meanwhile, the Bedouin were abandoned to the influence of the Islamic movements, and especially to the radical northern faction, as well as adopted a Palestinian identity that was foreign to them when the state was established.
Thus, those who did not open kindergartens and classrooms, those who did not take care of employment and residence, and those who did not bother to maintain governance and the presence of state institutions in the Negev - today is a storm.
But there is no need to give up.
A policy that combines law enforcement and governance, along with providing a real response to the economic and social distress of the Bedouin population, is the solution.
But it is time for loud and firm statements and contingency plans that do not materialize.
It's time for action, before it's too late.
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