Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org

Viewpoints Special Edition
Israel: Growing Pains at 60
The Middle East Institute
Washington, DC
Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org
The mission of the Middle East Institute is to promote knowledge of the Middle East in America
and strengthen understanding of the United States by the people and governments of the
region.
For more than 60 years, MEI has dealt with the momentous events in the Middle East — from the birth of the state
of Israel to the invasion of Iraq. Today, MEI is a foremost authority on contemporary Middle East issues. It provides
a vital forum for honest and open debate that attracts politicians, scholars, government officials, and policy
experts from the US, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. MEI enjoys wide access to political and business leaders
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with the region.
To learn more about the Middle East Institute, visit our website at http://www.mideasti.org
The maps on pages 96-103 are copyright The Foundation for Middle East Peace. Our thanks to the Foundation for graciously
allowing the inclusion of the maps in this publication. Cover photo in the top row, middle is © Tom Spender/IRIN, as is the photo
in the bottom row, extreme left.
Middle East Institute
Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org
Viewpoints Special Edition
Israel: Growing Pains at 60
Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org
Israel: Growing Pains at 60
A Special Edition of Viewpoints
Preface
by Paul Scham 8
Introduction
by Don Peretz 9
I. Culture and Media
Reflections on Israeli Literature, by Glenda Abramson 13
The Israeli Media: Future Challenges, by Gabriel Weimann 16
Green Lines of Imagination, by Ronald W. Zweig 19
II. Economy
The Israeli Economy: Past Achievements, Future Prospects
by Paul Rivlin 22
Much Accomplished, Much More to Be Done,
by Avia Spivak 24
III. Identity
Why Celebrate, by Mark A. Heller 28
Majoritarian Despotism and the Hollowing out of Citizenship
in Israel, by Amal Jamal 30
Israeli Citizenship, by Yoav Peled 32
Majority-Minority Relations in the Jewish Republic, by Ilan Peleg 35
Is Israel in the Middle East? by Elie Podeh 38
Russian/Soviet Jews in Israel, by Larissa Remennick 41
Israeli-Jewish Diaspora Relations, by Gabriel (Gabi) Sheffer 44
Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org
Demography and Environment, by Arnon Soffer 47
IV. Domestic and International Affairs
A Society in Denial? by Galia Golan 51
The Rise and Possible Fall of Partition West
of the Jordan, 1948-2008, by Motti Golani 54 A Success Story, by Efraim Inbar 57
Historical Success in Danger, by Menachem Klein 60
Between Samson and Jeremiah, by Ian S. Lustick 62
Globalization and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, by Uri Ram 65
Transformations in Israeli Politics since the 1990s,
by Doron Shultziner 67
Debating the Failure of the 2000 Camp David Summit,
by Mark Tessler 70
Israel and the Arab World between War and Peace,
by Eyal Zisser 73
V. Religion and Society
Challenges on the Road to Tranquility,
by Raphael Cohen-Almagor 77
The Intergenerational Split between Secular and Religious
Jews, by Eva Etzioni-Halevy 80
Israeli Civil Society at 60, by Tamar S. Hermann 83
Israel and the Jews from Arab Countries, by Avi Picard 86
Ba-Tipul [In Treatment], by Donna Robinson Divine 89
Religious Thought as a Promoter of War or Driver of Peace,
by Avinoam Rosenak 92
Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org
Maps
UN Partition Plan, 1947 96
The Armistice Lines of 1949 97
Territories Occupied by Israel since June 1967 98
Staged Israeli Transfers of West Bank Territory to
Palestinian Self-Rule During the Interim Period, 1994-2000 99
The West Bank after Oslo:
Control and Separation — June 2002 100
Facilitating Disengagement — Israel’s West Bank
Road Plan — 2004 101
West Bank Separation Barrier — April 2007 102
Golan Heights 1923-2000 103
Golan Heights — Israel Withdrawal Options 104
Israeli Settlement in and around the Old City of
Jerusalem — August 2006 105
Containing Palestinian Neighborhoods in and around
Jerusalem’s Old City — 2008 106
Statistics
Demographics 108
Economics 111
Education 114
Environment 115
Technology 116
Women 117
Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org
Freedom House Rankings 118
Selected Works of Contributors 119
Bibliography
General Historical Studies and Reference Works 141
Intellectual Origins of the State 143
British Mandate to Independence 145
Struggle for Statehood: The Early Years 148
National Security Affairs and Civil-Military Relations 150
Israel and the Arabs in War and Peace 156
The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict 162
The Pursuit of Peace: Dialogue and Diplomacy 167
Israel’s Foreign Relations: States and Diaspora 172
Israel’s Relations with the United States 174
Israel’s Law, Government, and Politics 178
Economic Conditions and Development Policies 183
Society and Culture: Memory and Identity 187
Literature and the Arts 195
Religion in Society and Politics 198
Biography, Autobiography, and Memoirs 2 01
Women of Israel 2 03
Water Resources 2 05
Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org
Preface
Paul Scham
Paul Scham, Adjunct
Scholar at MEI, is co-editor
of Shared Histories:
A Palestinian-Israeli
Dialogue (2005) and formerly
a Research Associate
at the Truman Institute
of Hebrew University,
Jerusalem.
Within a mere few years after World War II the Middle East was remade. The creation
of the State of Israel in 1948 and its consequences helped propel that part of the world to
what seems to be a permanent and unenviable spot on any list of world crises.
Shortly before that momentous year, two other events of rather lesser moment
that have nonetheless had a continuing impact on the Middle East occurred, namely, the
establishment of the Middle East Institute in 1947 and Don Peretz’s arrival in Palestine the
year before, to begin his studies in the then minuscule field of the modern Middle East.
The two have been associated for almost the whole time since, both providing an eclectic
perspective on the Middle East, but each starting from a very different point. MEI was
founded by Arabists (back when the word had some meaning), most of whom had served
in the State Department, and some of whom had grown up in the Arab world themselves.
Don Peretz, in contrast, was the scion of an old Middle Eastern (Sephardi) Jewish family,
whose interest in the region was piqued by his Jewish connection.
Much of Don’s work throughout a lifetime of teaching and publications has been
dedicated to the Arab-Israeli conflict and its ramifications. What particularly distinguishes
his contributions is his hard-headed empathy for both sides — a quality that was (and
in some respects still is) rare and refreshing. From almost being tried for espionage by
Palestinians in 1948 (when they discovered he was Jewish) to being regarded with suspicion
by much of the Jewish establishment for most of his career for being too open to Arab
viewpoints, Don has put forward a perspective informed by the conviction that recognition
of the real grievances of both sides is essential for successful peacemaking, an insight
that is still the key to any possible settlement. MEI is proud to have been associated with
Don Peretz through its entire history and his distinguished career.
MEI’s contribution has been to provide a forum for responsible, yet widely diverging
views through policy-relevant scholarship and education. From its beginnings, and
more fully from the 1960s on, The Middle East Journal has published Israeli and Israel-oriented
scholars on any number of topics related to the country and its issues as part of its
mission to cover the entire region. In the last few years, it has hosted as Resident Scholars
such distinguished Israeli academics as Moshe Ma’oz and Yoram Peri, while also providing
an intellectual home for me when I returned from Israel, as well as for many others.
This collection of essays follows in that tradition by presenting a variety of subjects
and viewpoints from a distinguished group of scholars to mark Israel’s 60th birthday.
Most, quite properly, are directed at issues other than “the conflict,” but its presence, of
course, informs almost all of them, as it does so many aspects of life in Israel. And, no one
could reasonably claim that they represent a limited perspective on anything.
As the field of Middle East scholarship is shaken by political and methodological
rifts, and as many academic institutions are establishing separate “Israeli Studies” and
“Middle Eastern Studies” institutes, MEI maintains its insistence on providing a variety
of viewpoints on issues. While by no means any longer the sole institution in Washington
focused on the modern Middle East, it has preserved its mission to provide different perspectives
to inform policy, scholarship, and the education of the general public, as the
region has become ever more visible to Americans.
Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org
Introduction
Don Peretz
My first visit to the country before it became Israel was in 1933 when I was eleven.
My family had lived there for generations, since the expulsion of Jews from Spain during
the Inquisition in 1492. By the 20th century, just a remnant of Ladino-speaking
Sephardim remained in the Ottoman Empire. Today only a handful can remember the
Ottoman era. When my father came to America in 1915 his immigration papers identified
him as a Syrian refugee from Jerusalem, Turkey. During the short-lived era of
the British mandate all residents of the country, Muslim, Christian, or Jewish, Arab,
Armenian, or Greek were called “Palestinian.” The large Jewish fundraising organization
in America was the United Palestine Appeal (UPA). Not until 1948 did leaders of
the Yishuv (Palestine Jewish community) decide to call their new state Israel.
During the latter years of the Ottoman Empire members of the Yishuv and a few
Jewish immigrants established the first small Jewish settlements (called colonies) outside
towns and cities like Jerusalem, Jaffa, or Tiberias. My grandfather was among
them, a muktar of Beer Tuvia and Gadera. An important function of the muktar was to
maintain relations with the nine surrounding Arab villages like Faluja. During World
War I, my grandfather, like many of the Jewish and Arab muktars, was imprisoned
in Damascus by the Ottoman authorities. After the war his family settled in Tel Aviv
where he was in charge of issuing various kinds of licenses. When I visited in 1933, his
house was among the first on Hayarkon Street, then a sandy beachfront, now a site of
fancy boutiques, restaurants, and nightclubs. The road from the Haifa port to Tel Aviv,
at the time not much more than a one-track rural camel path, is now a major several
lane highway.
I next visited two years before mandatory Palestine was divided into Israel, Jerusalem,
and a proposed Arab state, as a student on the G.I. Bill at the Hebrew University in
Jerusalem. The day I arrived for classes, Menachem Begin’s Irgun Zvai Leumi (ETZEL)
blew up the King David Hotel. Thereafter not much studying was done! Many Jewish
students volunteered or were drafted into the Haganah, Etzel, or Lehi (Stern Gang)
outlawed by the British Mandatory authorities. When fighting between Jews and Arabs
intensified I became a “stringer” (local reporter) for NBC, working with its Middle
East correspondent, John Donovan. As the date for partition approached, Tel Aviv and
Jerusalem became the gathering place of the world’s leading reporters and journalists
— George Polk, Homer Bigart, I.F. Stone, Robert Capa, and others. Although classes
at the University on Mount Scopus were irregular and uncertain, I became acquainted
with several professors who influenced my thinking about the situation — Norman
Don Peretz is Professor
Emeritus, State
University of New York,
Binghamton, where
he was Director of the
Middle East Program
and a professor of political
science. He has published
over 200 articles
and 10 books, including
The Government
and Politics of
Israel, Intifada: The
Palestinian Uprising,
The Middle East
Today, and Israel and
the Palestine Arabs.
10 Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org
Peretz...
Bentwich, Alfred Bonne, Ernst Simon, and Edwin Samuel (son of Lord Samuel, the first British High Commissioner of
mandatory Palestine). Among those who helped shape my perspective on the impending conflict were Martin Buber
and the president of Hebrew University, Judah Magnes, both ardent proponents of conciliation between the country’s
Jews and Arabs. Their proposal was to establish a binational (Arab-Jewish) state rather than separate ethnic enclaves.
The bi-national approach to a solution seemed more credible then and was supported by Hashomer Hatsair (later
Mapam), one of the larger Jewish Zionist parties.
Although nearly all contact between Jews and Arabs was severed as a result of the conflict, I was able to maintain
some connection with the “enemy” as a journalist. One of my best sources was Said Jundi, a commander of an Arab
military unit and a former football star. He often had played against Jewish teams and had a Jewish Yemenite girlfriend
with whom he remained in close touch despite the conflict.
As fighting intensified and increasing numbers of Arabs either fled or were driven from their towns and villages, it
soon became obvious that the partition of the country created a refugee problem that was to become a major, if not the
major obstacle to any resolution of the conflict. I wanted to make a contribution by helping to alleviate the refugee plight.
Having returned to New York during the first truce I became a volunteer with the American Friends Service Committee
(Quakers) as one of their UNRPR representatives, before UNRWA was formed. The Quakers had a large unit working
with thousands of refugees in Gaza. I joined a small outpost in Acre distributing UN rations to Arab refugees who fled
from one village to another within the newly established Israel. Israeli military authorities were ambivalent about the
work of AFSC. Some, like the military governor of western Galilee, were sympathetic, even helpful. Others, like Baruch
Noy, the appointed mayor of Acre, resented what they perceived as Quaker interference in their affairs.
My association with Palestinian Arabs and Jews drew me into academia and graduate work in Middle East studies
at Columbia University where I wrote my Ph.D. thesis on Israel and the Palestine Arabs supervised by Professor J.C.
Hurewitz. While researching, I became acquainted with the Middle East Institute in Washington, DC which published
my thesis as Israel and the Palestine Arabs. As one of the first books on the subject it was rather controversial. Lebanon
once banned it; Israeli officials were none too enthusiastic about it. Since then many others have written on the subject,
notably Benny Morris, whose works often have been disputed.
During the next 50 years The Middle East Journal printed nearly a score of my articles on developments in Israel
and the Middle East. Several election articles were prepared in collaboration with Israelis, Sammy Smooha of Haifa
University and Gideon Doron of Tel Aviv University. Doron was also co-author of my Government and Politics of Israel
(Westview Press).
In 1998 the AFSC sent me and my wife, accompanied by former Haaretz Arab affairs correspondent Atallah
Mansour to survey villages in Western Galilee where the Quakers had worked in 1949. According to the UN partition
plan, this area was to have been part of the Arab state. However, as a result of the 1948 war, it became incorporated into
the new state of Israel. In the half century since AFSC began relief operations there, the region has been transformed
into a relatively modern site of Arab and Jewish cities, towns, and villages. Sixty years ago cities like Haifa and Acre had
Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org 11
Peretz...
large Arab populations that effectively made them bi-national. There were few Jewish settlements in western Galilee.
Acre, then mostly an Arab town, as well as the bi-national Haifa, though still “mixed,” have become Jewish rather than
Arab. Now, there are nearly as many Jewish as Arab settlements in Galilee, a result of the government’s campaign to
“Judaize” the region. Formerly small Arab villages have turned into towns, and towns into cities, largely because of
population increase, from about 150,000 in 1949 to several times that today. Overwhelming construction, paved streets,
electrification, municipal water and sewage facilities, and paralyzing traffic jams caused by thousands of motor vehicles
of all kinds evidence “modernization.” Whereas 60 years ago horses, donkeys, mules, and even camels were widely used
for transportation, today they are as rare as the automobile half a century ago when the Quaker jeep was often the only
motor vehicle to be seen. Now multi-lane highways with connecting roads have considerably shortened distances between
population centers. Signs on shops and offices appear in both Hebrew and Arabic, and often in Russian, due to
the large Jewish immigration from the former Soviet Union.
The changes over the last 60 years are too numerous to count. In this special edition of MEI’s Viewpoints series, we
have asked Israelis, scholars of Israel, and members of the Diaspora community to reflect on Israel’s beginnings, growing
pains, and future prospects. This anthology asks Israeli intellectuals to turn their lens on Israel — an act of self-reflection
in a precarious and important time.
12 Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org
I
Culture and Media
Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org 13
Reflections on Israeli Literature
Glenda Abramson
Israeli literature has matured and developed almost, but not quite, from a standing
start. It had the grand tradition of pre-state Hebrew literature to draw upon, but from
the beginning proclaimed its youth and independence from its literary forebears. Now,
no longer so young, it has its own story to tell.
In the years after the establishment of the state, the Israeli writer was regarded
as part-artist and part-politician. At that time the boundaries between art and life were
blurred. The writers themselves both welcomed and rejected the prophetic role that had
been thrust on them, because they knew that within the Jewish tradition prophecy and
national endeavor are always linked. It was this element of social commitment, exemplified
by the generations of the novelists S. Yizhar in the 1950s and Amos Oz and A.B.
Yehoshua from the 1960s that defined the literature in its nascent stage. The voice represented
by these authors predominantly belonged to the political left: a male, Ashkenazi,
and perhaps secular voice. It was a voice that retained the morality that underlay the
prophetic ideal.
Political engagement remained a central phenomenon of the literature until
comparatively recently. In its reflection of the contemporary condition, Israeli culture,
with some youthful bravado, claimed to have replaced Jewish culture. Yet in one area
this boast is not entirely valid. However hard they tried, Israeli authors could not ignore
their tradition, which resides in the very language they used. The negotiation with
Hebrew is still one of Israeli literature’s greatest achievements. Writers became adept at
taking passages of sacred literature and modifying, distorting, and secularizing them.
This allusion signalled a confrontation with the cultural power of tradition. For example
the story of the Akedah, the near-sacrifice of Isaac, became a code which many
Israeli writers used to express their views of victimization and war.
In many ways the development of the literature has been marked by Israel’s
wars. Following the War of Independence, the literary protagonists spoke about the disparity
between the Zionist dream and Israeli reality. After the Six-Day War in 1967 they
worried about the state’s relationship with the Palestinians, and after the Yom Kippur
War in 1973 they were driven into a painful self-examination as individuals and as a
nation. The Lebanon War in 1982 made a large crack in the wall of the Zionist consensus
in Israel. It was after this war that a new generation of writers began to be noticed,
producing a new wave of literature which, with hindsight, we call “postmodern.” This is
Glenda Abramson has recently
retired as Professor of
Hebrew and Jewish Studies at
the University of Oxford. Her
latest book (2008) deals with
Hebrew writing of the First
World War. She is editor of
the Journal of Modern Jewish
Studies.
14 Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org
Abramson...
a literature that no longer has an ideological center, a consensus, an agreed system of norms and values, but that reflects
the real relationships among the various parts of Israeli society. Above all, this new “postmodernism” defines an eclectic
group of young Israeli writers with no apparent political agendas, some of them even living and writing abroad.
These writers have abandoned the old literary obsessions. Israel’s literature now allows itself to speak about
everything. In an essentially urban literature — perhaps a reproach to the Zionist ideal of a romantic, agrarian culture
— the topics are less confined. They deal with subcultures, race, identity, families, youth, women, Jewish and other
immigrants, and Israeli Palestinians, through a range of experimental techniques often drawn from outside Israel. For
example, Yoel Hoffman includes elements of Buddhism and Japanese culture in his experimental fiction; Yuval Shimoni
plays with textual layout and unmatching chronology; while Etgar Keret, the literary High Priest of the incongruous,
writes ironic, anarchic prose that defies categorization. A new literature is already emerging, written by neither Jews nor
Arabs, but Israelis of a variety of different origins.
Textual sources, no longer exclusively classical, are derived from television, cinema, comics, and pop music. The
new literature re-examines the Israeli condition from its own ironic, sometimes profound, sometimes banal, often violent,
point of view. The political obsession is in the past; yet while contemporary Israeli
literature may appear to be wholly detached, a national crisis will pull it right back to
its social roots.
In the past two decades the literature has seen remarkable changes. Early on, it
thought of itself, and was thought to be, strictly secular, according to Israel’s idiosyncratic
use of the term. Religiously-oriented writers were ignored. But this absence of religion,
or faith, or spirituality is another one of Israel’s literary myths: Poets like Yehuda
Amichai and fiction writers like S.Y. Agnon could not be described as secular, using today’s terminology. Yet now, when
writers allude to the sacred texts, they do so not as a witty, allusive exercise, but from within their faith. A group of
Israeli writers has shown an inclination towards a metaphysical idiom; whether they are writing “religious,” “metaphysical,”
or “spiritual” literature, it seems that for many of them these terms mean a return to “Jewish” literature.
Over the years, certain groups were overlooked in favor of the Ashkenazi mainstream, but now just about every
national, ethnic, and gender group is represented in the literature. This period has seen the emergence of Mizrahi (from
North Africa and the Middle East) writers who were always overtly or covertly classified as “the other” in Israeli society.
Now authors such as Sami Michael, Shimon Ballas, Ronit Matalon, Dorit Rabinyan, and many others are telling Israeli
readers about the Mizrahi experience, a cultural lacuna which is being redressed. Also, a number of Israeli Arab novelists
and poets have become key literary figures; for example, Anton Shammas for his globally acclaimed Arabesques,
written in Hebrew, and Emil Habiby, who won the Israel Prize in 1992 for a critique of Israel written in Arabic. Sayed
Kashua, a young writer and journalist, moves easily within serious fiction about Arab/Palestinian life and Israeli popular
culture.
Women writers in Israel were also, from the start, a comparatively neglected literary group. This also has
Israel’s literature
now allows itself to
speak about everything.
Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org 15
Abramson...
changed due to the sudden growth, in a short space of time, of prose fiction, poetry,
and drama by a new generation of women writers. The question is whether the advent
of feminism, together with multiculturalism and postmodernism in Israel is due to the
influence of foreign literature — whether these are imported fashions, like the designer
clothes beloved by trendy Israelis. Doubtless, American cultural influence is obvious
everywhere in Israel, and highlighted in an article about current Israeli fiction entitled
“Inniut and Kooliut” (What’s in and what’s cool). On the other hand, these trends may
reflect the spirit of the time, changes within Israeli society, and the Israeli mood. For
example, women’s writing reflects the need to withdraw from the “big” issues of politics
and ideology.
At sixty, Israeli literature is sophisticated and modern, stylish and profound,
flippant and serious. Its topics range from the Holocaust to American movies and its
style from jazz to prophecy. It is a fractious, difficult, idiosyncratic literature. Amos
Oz once wrote that the history of Hebrew literature is full of sound and fury. So is the
literature itself.
The question is
whether the advent
of feminism,
together with multiculturalism
and
postmodernism in
Israel is due to the
influence of foreign
literature — whether
these are imported
fashions, like the
designer clothes
beloved by trendy
Israelis.
16 Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org
The Israeli media environment has changed dramatically in recent years and is still
changing. The changes included the introduction of new communication technologies
(from digital cable television and new satellite channels to sophisticated cellular
phone and Internet services); privatization of the communication industry, primarily
of broadcasting; enrichment of the channels and sources offered; and a growing concentration
of media ownership. Thus, at its 60th birthday, Israel has a media system
that is complex and advanced. However, some of the changes that have taken place in
the media environment are alarming, namely the processes of commercialization and
privatization and their sociopolitical and cultural implications.
From State -Controlled Media to Privatization
The process and challenges of nation-building encouraged the leaders of the
young Jewish state to control the media in various ways. It started with the control
of the press, which originally was mostly a party press. In addition to the party press,
privately owned newspapers were established, notably Ha’aretz, Yediot Achronot, and
Ma’ariv. However, in the early years of Israeli statehood, they, too, tended to publish
information that fell largely within the accepted parameters of the Zionist ideology and
supported the government’s views and actions.
An even tighter and more powerful control of media was in the realm of broadcasting.
Both radio and early Israeli television were under public, rather than governmental,
authority (the Israel Broadcasting Authority or IBA). However, that did not
reduce political control of broadcasting in Israel: Instead of directly supervising the
electronic media from the Prime Minister’s office, the government appointed 31 “representatives”
to maintain control through the IBA’s public council. Direct intervention in
programming by the Prime Minister, other ministers, and by politicians or their proxies
in the IBA’s public council became almost a daily occurrence. Control over the IBA was
enhanced by power over its budget. Because the law did not permit commercial advertisement
on television (it did permit it on radio), the IBA’s operating budget in effect
came from the government. Everyone who owns a radio or a television pays an annual
tax for its use. But since this amount could not cover the IBA’s expenses, its budget became
a product of intensive bargaining with the Bureau of the Budget.
The public demand for enriched television offerings, combined with the growing
criticism of the broadcasting monopoly, led to several changes. The introduction of
The Israeli Media: Future Challenges
Gabriel Weimann
Gabriel Weimann is a Full
Professor of Communication
at the University of Haifa,
Israel. He is the author of
six books on communication
as well as over 130 scientific
publications.
Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org 17
Weimann...
cable television and the enactment of the Second Authority for Television and Radio Law facilitated the establishment
of a second national television channel and the development of regional commercial radio. It meant a move towards a
market-based model where operating costs are covered by advertising revenues. Formally launched in 1993, Channel
Two quickly captured the lion’s share of television viewers. By 2008, its regular ratings were running at more than four
times those of the IBA’s Channel One, and all top ten programs (in terms of ratings) are, week after week, those of
Channel Two. The Channel Two authority is also responsible for commercial radio: by 2008, it had licensed 14 regional
stations. In theory, control over the new stations should be ensured by limiting their news broadcasts to local bulletins
and by establishing a series of regional regulatory committees. This stage also involved the death of most of the party
press and the concentration of the newspaper readership in three private papers, namely Yediot Ahronot (enjoying a
60-70% share of the readers), Ma’ariv (20-30%), and Ha’aretz (7%). But these papers belong to huge media concerns,
controlling most of the Israeli mass media including print, broadcasting, telecommunications, and Internet services.
Finally, computer-based communications infiltrated the Israeli scene rapidly:
by 2005 there were 3,200,000 Israeli Internet users, constituting 45.8% of the population.
Israel has one of the highest household broadband penetration rates in the world,
building on even higher Internet penetration. Market competition is fierce, both between
cable and DSL infrastructures and between ISPs. Israel’s very high broadband
penetration rate provides great potential for triple play and digital media market development.
Both Bezeq, together with its satellite TV subsidiary YES, and HOT, the
merged operating entity of the three Israeli cable TV companies, have the potential to
deliver triple play services easily, as each possesses both content and delivery mechanisms.
According to surveys, of all Internet users in Israel, approximately 75% of them
use the Internet to search for information, 73% use it to e-mail, 59% for downloading
files, 39% for joining chat rooms, and 29% use it to read online newspapers. Of all
Internet users in Israel, 89% access the Internet at home, 32% at work, 21% at school, and 9% in other places.
Causes for Concern
The increased commercialization and privatization of the Israeli media could have led to a free media market,
multi-ownership, and competitive environment. But in fact, it went the opposite direction — towards growing concentration
and monopolization. Several media moguls now own most of the Israeli media. The three major dailies
anxiously sought ways to persevere, consolidating themselves as media conglomerates and expanding cross‑ownership
of other media. At first, each conglomerate intensified its hold on the local press, seeking the financial prospects of local
advertising. Subsequently, the media barons joined forces with other economic powers and went after other media.
Soon, the conglomerates accumulated a significant share in all media — print, cable TV, Internet companies, cellular
communication, the Channel Two franchisees, and almost every form of media that Israelis see, read, or hear. For example,
the Mozes media empire has owned in recent years, in addition to Yediot Ahronot, Israel’s leading daily, a chain of
local weeklies, an economic daily, a freely distributed daily (“24 Minutes”), two women’s magazines, a youth magazine,
Israel has one of the
highest household
broadband penetration
rates in the
world, building on
even higher Internet
penetration.
18 Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org
Weimann...
a weekly television guide, the Vesti group of Russian-language newspapers, an outdoor advertising company, book and
music publishing houses, a stake in Channel Two franchises, a stake in one of the cable television companies, the most
popular Internet news site (Ynet), and a share of Netvision (Israel’s leading Internet service provider). The Nimrodi
family used to control similar holdings: Ma’ariv, Israel’s second leading daily, a chain of local newspapers, a women’s
magazine, a youth magazine, a book publishing house and a music publishing house, a stake in the Channel Two franchise,
a popular Internet news site (NRG), and more. Even the new communication technologies, namely online press
and online broadcasting, are dominated by the major media barons.
Finally, the “ratings race,” the tough competition over audiences and profits from advertising revenues, has a negative
impact on all aspects of Israeli culture — from political discourse to “ratings culture,”
the desperate seeking of the lowest common denominator. The Americanization
of Israeli media painted our newspapers in yellow, trivialized our political discourse,
and turned our television into “chewing gum for the eyes” with the cheap combination
of game shows, reality programs, entertainment news, sports, soap operas, and movies.
The collapsing public broadcasting, abandoned by the viewers rushing to the fun
and low-key commercial media, is fighting to keep the governmental and public support
while losing the reasons for such support. Thus, when faced with their new media
environment, Israelis may look back at the early days of their controlled, limited, and
centralized media and wonder if today they are indeed better off.
The collapsing public
broadcasting, abandoned
by the viewers
rushing to the fun
and low-key commercial
media, is
fighting to keep the
governmental and
public support while
losing the reasons for
such support.
Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org 19
Green Lines of Imagination
Ronald W. Zweig
Israel at 60 can celebrate many achievements. It has survived generations of hostility;
provided refuge for distressed Jewish communities and safe haven for Jews that needed
it; achieved stable and enduring peace with Arab states along most of its borders; enabled
Hebrew culture to thrive; allowed centers of Jewish religious learning to flourish
and fill the void brought about by the Holocaust; created a prosperous economy based
on advanced industries and agriculture; and fostered a presence in the world of science
and technology that belies its tiny size and small population. Problems that once
seemed unsolvable in our life time have withered to much smaller proportions — the
Ashkenazi/Mizrahi divide is being bridged by a second and third generation of Israeliborn
citizens that freely inter-marry across communal divides.
It is true that old concerns are being replaced by problems that were once marginal
but are now center stage in public concern — relations between the secular and
the ultra-orthodox, the role of Arab citizens in the Israeli state, and growing economic
inequalities in what was once a proudly egalitarian and collective society. Given the
dynamism of Israeli society we can safely predict that these newly significant problems
will also wither — whether as the result of conscious policy or more likely, if history is
any guide, the result of good luck — and be supplanted by another round of newly-urgent
social concerns. In fact, the best one can wish for Israel for the next 60 years is that
old problems will fade as new ones emerge.
However, and as everyone is aware, not all the issues confronting Israel at 60 can
be resolved by the simple passage of time. Despite appearances, Israel is a country that
has not yet defined its borders or even its population. It must do so before it can envision
its own future. There are three possible paradigms for the future of Israel: partition
of the land west of the Jordan; a bi-national state; or a Jewish state encompassing all
of the land after the transfer of all or part of the non-Jewish (Palestinian) population.
Historically, none of these solutions appealed to all Israelis, although partition always
has enjoyed a clear majority support. Bi-nationalism and transfer always have been solutions
advocated by small, radical fringe groups. But today it is a sobering fact that
almost 80% of the current population of Israel has no adult memory of living with the
borders of 1967. They were either born after that date, or were children in 1967, or did
not then live in Israel.
The task of re-inventing the Green Line is one of the biggest problems facing
Israeli society. The primary reason to tackle this problem is the belief that peace and
Ronald W. Zweig, Taub
Professor of Israel Studies,
New York University.
20 Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org
Zweig...
coexistence is still possible with our Palestinian neighbors. The vast majority of Israelis desire that objective. Today,
however, 40 years since 1967 and after 20 years of direct conflict with the Palestinians living under Israeli occupation,
few Israelis believe that peace is possible. So the biggest challenge facing Israel at 60 is to reclaim the majority support
for a peace that no one believes in any more and for a border that has no reality for most of the population.
Borders are not only spatial facts. They are also states of mind. Jews and Arabs existed alongside each other
during the pre-state years. Although the two communities functioned separately, and their interaction was often violent
(even terribly so) there were nevertheless many junctures of coexistence and an overwhelming awareness of the reality
of the other community. After Independence, the physical borders of 1948/49 allowed Israelis to create a perceptual
border as well in which the Palestinian other was absent, gone, irrelevant. For Israelis, the Arab “other” was always
Egyptian, Syrian, Jordanian, or Lebanese, while the Palestinians were essentially transparent, not experienced, not
present. It took 20 years, until the outbreak of the first Intifada in December 1987 (almost a whole generation after the
collapse of the actual 1967 Green Line) for Palestinians to gain any real presence as a collective in Israeli awareness. The
borders of the mind lasted longer than the borders on the ground.
Two intifadas brought the realities of cohabitation in the same land back into Israeli consciousness in a brutal
and brutalizing way, and have made urgent the revival of a suspended debate on envisioning
the future. Palestinian intellectuals have been arguing for some time that the
absence of the Green Line will lead eventually to a bi-national solution with an inevitable
Arab majority in the foreseeable future. Prime Minster Ehud Olmert made the
same point, after the Annapolis summit, in only slightly different words — the absence
of a two-state solution (partition) will mean the end of the Jewish state. Palestinian
intellectuals and the prime minister of Israel all agree. He wishes to avert that outcome,
while they wish to bring it on.
As a first step in recreating the Green Line in Israeli public awareness, the “settlement issue” must be defused. The
settlers have consciously attempted to magnify the size of the settler population, just as they have attempted to intimidate
and manipulate public opinion by escalating the level of violence whenever there is an attempt to dislodge them. The settlers
have successfully created an image of a problem that can only be accommodated, not excised. However, if the settlement
reality on the ground is broken into its component parts — suburbs of Jerusalem, settlements just across the border,
and settlements in the middle of the West Bank beyond the Separation Barrier — the settlement enterprise need not be an
obstacle to peace. Voluntary evacuation in exchange for compensation, small border adjustments in exchange for a land
corridor (between Gaza and the West Bank) that would allow for the inclusion of the large majority of the settlers inside
Israel’s borders, and arrangements to permit small numbers of Jews to remain close to Jewish holy sites in Hebron within
a Palestinian state — as well as other similar moves — will be a huge step forward to re-imagining the borders of 1967.
This step will require leadership and political will, premised on a renewed belief that peace is possible despite
the experience of Israelis and Palestinians. Otherwise, why would anyone bother? But only if it is possible to imagine
coexistence across a future border can Israel look forward to the achievements of the next 60 years.
Borders are not
only spatial facts.
They are also states
of mind.
Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org 21
II
Economy
22 Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org
The achievements of the Israeli economy over the last 60 years have been immense.
The population has grown from some 600,000 Jews and 150,000 Arabs at independence
to 5.3 million Jews and 1.3 million Arabs in early 2008. The national income rose from
under $5 billion in 1950 to $160 billion in 2007 (in 2005 prices and exchange rates). As
a result, GDP per capita went up from $3,500 to about $22,000 in the same period, a
more than six-fold real rise.
The early ideological emphasis on agriculture that preceded the creation of the
state served the economy well, providing for basic needs, employment, and inputs for
industry. From the 1950s, industrialization, within the framework of import substitution,
encouraged very fast economic growth. At the same time, Israel also began the
move from socialism with a mixed economy to a much more capitalist economy. In due
course, inequality grew and the bonds that held society together weakened. The Labor
Party, which ruled until 1977, favored a mixed economy and, given the limited number
of entrepreneurs available locally, brought in entrepreneurs from the Diaspora to encourage
the development of industry in the 1950s and 1960s.
By the early 1960s, the benefits of import substitution were declining, and the policy
was gradually abandoned in favor of an export-oriented one. Between the mid-1960s
and 1990s, as free trade agreements were signed with the European Community, the US
and other countries, restrictions on imports were unilaterally reduced or abolished.
Economic pressures resulting from the Yom Kippur War (1973) and the extreme
mismanagement of the economy in the early 1980s led to hyperinflation and near
economic collapse. The July 1985 economic stabilization program reduced inflation to
international levels almost overnight and the economy has been managed much more
conservatively ever since. Many economic reforms have been introduced in the name
of stabilization in the public sector, labor markets, foreign trade, and payments. As a
result, much of Israel’s economy was liberalized without an explicit public discussion.
One of the distinguishing features of the economy is the large volume of resources
devoted to defense. Not only are there large budget allocations to the defense
sector, there are also sizable extra-budgetary costs. This is the result of the conscription
of tens of thousands of school-leavers into the army for up to three years. They are not
paid a market wage and bear the costs of conscription through a loss of earnings. US aid
reduces the budget burden, and a few hundred million dollars of aid each year is spent
The Israeli Economy: Past Achievements, Future Prospects
Paul Rivlin
Dr. Paul Rivlin is a Senior
Fellow at the Moshe Dayan
Center for Middle Eastern
and African Studies at Tel
Aviv University and Visiting
Professor of Economics
at Emory University. He is
the author of four books and
numerous papers, chapters,
and monographs on Middle
East economics.
Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org 23
Rivlin...
on military projects in Israel. The 2008 defense budget is $14 billion or 6.8% of GDP. If hidden manpower and other
extra-budgetary costs are included, then the total comes to $17.6 billion, equal to nine percent of forecast GDP. If the
value of US aid ($2.4 billion) is removed, then it comes to $15.2 billion, 7.8% of forecast GDP.
In the aftermath of the Yom Kippur War, the budgetary burden of massive defense spending rose to crippling levels.
In 1975, major reductions were implemented and the share of defense spending in national income has fallen almost
continuously since then. The cancellation of the Lavi fighter aircraft project in 1987 gave a boost to the civilian high-tech
sector by releasing highly skilled manpower from the defense sector. While the 2006 war had only a small, negative impact
on economic growth, the rise in defense spending did put pressure on other public spending programs.
Partly because of its large defense effort, Israel has developed a world class high-tech sector not only in qualitative
but also in quantitative terms. This has been done by investing in military technology and creating a domestic
production base. Most significantly, this involved training manpower inside and outside the armed forces; and the importance
of technological education spread throughout Israeli society. The benefits of a hands-on approach to technology
and learning-by-doing are very apparent and also have helped the civilian sectors of the economy.
Since 2003 Israel has, for the first time, had significant and continuous surpluses
on the current account of the balance of payments. In 2003-2007, they averaged
$4.4 billion a year compared with an annual average deficit of $1.1 billion in 1998-2002.
Furthermore, this turnaround has taken place against the background of rapid economic
growth that in the past has drawn in more imports and constrained exports. In
2004-2007, the economy recovered from a deep slump and grew by an average annual
rate of 5.3%. With a population growth of 1.8%, income per capita rose by 3.4%. Large
foreign investments, a significant proportion of which is long term, have transformed the capital account of the balance
of payments. These developments have freed the economy from one of the major constraints operating since 1948. As a
result, foreign debt has been reduced and Israel now has a net surplus of foreign assets. This bodes well for the future.
Major economic losses have been incurred in building settlements in Gaza and the West Bank, including the
heavy cost of guarding them. Many or all of the West Bank settlements will have to be dismantled if a peace agreement
is reached and the costs will be huge. Another self-imposed political burden is the failure of Israeli society to ensure
that ultra-orthodox (Haredi) Jews take financial responsibility for their (often very large) families by fully participating
in the labor force and the defense of the country.
There are a number of storm clouds on the horizon, apart from the effects on Israeli exports of the recession
developing in the United States. The first is a possible deterioration of the security situation. The second is the long-term
economic and social ill effects of the inequalities and inadequacies of the educational system. The third is instability in
the political system, which has weakened decision-making processes, thereby compounding the difficulty of tackling
major issues. Finally, there is the problem of corruption, which threatens to damage Israel’s economy, weaken its society,
and tarnish its international image.
The achievements of
the Israeli economy
over the last 60 years
have been immense.
24 Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org
Much Accomplished, Much More to Be Done
Avia Spivak
If told in 1985 that 23 years later the balance of payment would show a $5 billion surplus,
and that the problem for Stanley Fischer, the Governor of the Bank of Israel, would
be an over-valued Shekel, the listener would have believed that the economic Messiah
had come.
The year 1984 saw 440% inflation, and a 500% devaluation of the Shekel. The
country was almost bankrupt. The year 2007 ended with 3.4% inflation, the country a
net lender to the world, and the liquid reserves at the Bank of Israel approaching $30
billion dollars. About half of the country’s exports belong to the high-tech industry, and
The Economist hailed Israel as second only to the Silicon Valley in its technical prowess.
But this improvement in the fiscal and macro fundamentals of the country came
at a heavy price. The level of inequality is the highest in the developed countries, similar
to that of the United States. A third of all children in Israel live below the poverty line.
The periphery — The Negev, Galilee, even parts of Jerusalem — was left behind, suffering
from education, health, and infrastructure services deficiencies. The worst condition
is that of the “non-recognized” Bedouin villages in the Negev. Even the average level of
education has deteriorated to unthinkable lows. In the Organisation for Economic Co-
Operation and Development (OECD) common Piza examination, Israelis of 15 years
of age ranked 39th out of 57 in the sciences. At the universities, where the golden years
of the 1960s inspired three Nobel prizes in the early 2000s, the faculty are getting older
and have very limited research funding.
Besides education, there are problems with other governmental services. Social
services are in poor shape. The police force is weak: Organized crime is prospering
and gang shootings in the streets are commonplace. The police almost never inquire
into property crimes. The physical infrastructure (i.e., roads and railroads) is lagging
behind that of the more advanced countries. Health services are good, but the poor
sometimes find it financially hard to pay for their prescribed medicines. The telephone
and Internet are the only infrastructure on a par with the advanced world.
The unifying explanation for these conditions is the takeover of Israeli public
policy by a small group of economists who embrace a free market ideology. This small
professional elite is mostly concentrated at the Bank of Israel and the Finance Ministry.
It is supported by a new generation of business and economics journalists with formal
Dr. Avia Spivak, Department
of Economics, Ben-Gurion
University and the Van Leer
Jerusalem Institute.
Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org 25
Spivak...
training in economics, often with a BA in Economics and an MBA.
Influential journalists such as Nehemia Strassler and Guy Rolnik popularized the approaches favored by this
elite in their economic columns in Ha’aretz — an important newspaper of the educated elite that always has been antilabor.
(One of its established reporters told me in a private conversation that after writing a pro-workers article he was
rebuked by an editor, who exclaimed, “That it isn’t the union’s paper here.”) Ha’aretz practically never endorsed any
strike in all its 80-some year history. Since the 1990s, this newspaper has wholeheartedly endorsed business freedom.
The other influential newspaper, Yedioth Aharonoth, which has the highest circulation, was less dogmatic. Its
columnist, Sever Plocker, is perhaps the most influential and esteemed economic journalist in Israel. He is very much
pro-business, but not anti-government. He simply knows more economics, and he is more open to different views.
The professional elite received wide legal powers to control the budget and carry out reforms of the economy.
These efforts were undertaken in order to curb inflation. The Bank of Israel was granted independence in determining
the money supply, the exchange rate, and the short-term interest rate. The Bank gradually deregulated the foreign
exchange market, which is now freely floating. The Wage and Labor Accord Unit in the
public sector at the Finance Ministry acquired extensive legal powers to oversee wages
in all budgeted bodies. The budget division received the authority to append to the
yearly budget law an omnibus law that included scores of reforms in many areas. Thus
the legislative power of the Knesset was severely limited.
Both the Bank and Treasury believed in the Washington Consensus.
Consequently, many government-owned firms were privatized, and the size of the government in the economy and the
tax share in GDP were reduced. The latter is now approximately the OECD average.
This policy was helped by two highly influential external events: 1) the end of the arms race with Syria in 1988,
and the peace with Egypt; and 2) the immigration of a million Jews from former Soviet Union countries beginning in
1989.
Why did this ideology have such a devastating impact on public services? In the education sector, for example,
the increased power of the Finance Ministry and decreased power of the teachers’ union caused a decline in the wages
of teachers, relative to alternative employment in the private sector. At the same time, budget cuts in the system kept
the size of classes high relative to Western standards — thus, teaching conditions worsened. Consequently, as any Israeli
will attest from personal experience, the intellectual level of teachers deteriorated.
A poor education system creates and broadens social gaps that tear apart the social fabric. Furthermore, a
knowledge-based economy must create its own knowledge and not count on miracles of Jewish immigration. America
. See: John Williamson, “What Should the World Bank Think about the Washington Consensus?” World Bank Research Observer, Vol.
15, No. 2 (August 2000), pp. 251-64.
. The definition of Jews was rather broad.
A third of all children
in Israel live
below the poverty
line.
26 Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org
will always be more attractive to Jews with valuable knowledge.
There are already some influential persons, in and out of government, who realize that a change is needed in
the system of economic governance. The power must be shared with the professional ministries and not be a monopoly
of the Treasury. There should be a planning body that will look at the longer horizon, possibly in consultation with an
“economic and social council,” that will have the employers, unions, and NGOs as social partners. All this can be done
without losing the ability to control the budget deficit and maintain fiscal and financial stability — a marked success of
the current regime.
Change is urgently necessary because the challenges are enormous. In addition to the problems discussed above,
labor participation is low, especially for the ultra-orthodox men and Arab women. Productivity in the non-high-tech
sector is low. All research and development is concentrated in high-tech. The country is not ready for the next wave
of technology in water treatment, alternative energy, biotech, nanotech, etc. The universities do not lack specialists in
these fields, but rather the specialists lack money for research. The army has money for research, but no interest in these
areas.
As a result, GDP per capita has not closed the gap with the most developed
countries in the last 25 years. And unless the government gets its act together and
mobilizes all sectors of the economy and society for change, Israel will continue to lag
behind.
The challenge for Israel is to close the gap within the country and the gap between
itself and other advanced economies. With the right mindset, this challenge can
be tackled effectively. It is encouraging that some of the people who are leading the call
for change are veterans of the Finance Ministry.
. The US and Israel agreed in the late 1980s to block the entrance of Jewish immigrants to the US — this is why they came
to Israel.
. This is the so called “Irish Model,” that also was adopted by the Czech Republic, Finland, and Denmark.
Spivak...
The challenge for
Israel is to close
the gap within the
country and the
gap between itself
and other advanced
economies.
Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org 27
III
Identity
28 Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org
Observers of the run-up to Israel’s celebration of 60 years of independence have been
struck by the exuberance that isn’t there. Many Israelis have questioned the logic of
an extravaganza for a year that has no symbolic significance apart from the fact that it
ends in zero. Others— especially in less prosperous parts of the country — have carped
at the huge outlays in the face of other, arguably more worthy demands on the public
purse. Local manufacturers have even complained that the importation of hundreds of
thousands of cheap Israeli flags from the Far East has hurt their business and soured
their mood — never mind that private citizens are not bothering to fly the flags in great
numbers anyway.
Given the inordinate interest of the international media in Israel’s 60th anniversary —
indeed, in all things Israeli — it is possible that the image of collective angst has been
exaggerated. Still, by Israeli standards, this year’s festivities seem to be marked by unusual
sobriety.
There are several possible explanations for this. The first is that the week of Independence
Day this year coincided with some particularly dispiriting news: police sources
revealed that another investigation into Prime Minister Ehud Olmert (the fifth in the
last two years) uncovered serious matters that might well result in an indictment; the
Attorney General told the Speaker of Parliament that a former Minister of Finance
would be indicted for embezzlement, money laundering, bribery, and other crimes and
misdemeanors; three members of the Pensioners’ Party (the only one to inject some vibrancy
into the Israeli party system in recent years) defected to the arms of a billionaire
who wants to set up his own party; and everyone’s favorite basketball team (Maccabi Tel
Aviv) lost the Euroleague championship to its hated rival, CSKA Moscow. All in all, a
bad week. Still, Israelis have become inured to far worse news, and these kinds of developments
are hardly the thing to put such a damper on the public mood.
A second explanation, much more compelling than the first, is that an anniversary,
especially one that ends with a zero, inevitably becomes an occasion for stocktaking.
Israelis are no less introspective than others, and 60 years after their national renaissance,
they — at least, Jewish Israelis — are perhaps focusing less on what has been
accomplished and more on what has not yet been done. The list of unfinished business
is long. Most foreigners would put peace with Israel’s neighbors at the top of the list.
Dr. Mark A. Heller, Principal
Research Associate,
Institute for National Security
Studies, Tel Aviv
University
Why Celebrate?
Mark A. Heller
Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org 29
But it’s not at all clear that Israelis share this rank ordering. Certainly they long for recognition and acceptance and the
sense that their national status has been normalized, “like all other nations.” But the regret that this has not happened is
mitigated to some degree by the conviction that the failure is not solely or even mainly because of what Israelis themselves
have or have not done. Rather, it is because of the refusal of most of their neighbors — not just to agree to peace
terms also acceptable to Israel, but even more basically to acknowledge and internalize Israel’s rightful existence. As a
result, this item on the check-list actually prompts less regret of the “would have, could have, should have” sort than do
some others more closely identified with the ethos that is thought to have prevailed in 1948 and withered away in the
ensuing six decades.
Once, it is believed, Israel was an egalitarian society, perhaps one less prosperous than now but one in which the burdens
of scarcity and deprivation were shared far more equally than now. Once, it is believed, Israel was a society based
on voluntary organizations dedicated to mutual help, where self-sacrifice (or at least modesty) was a virtue; now, it is a
consumerist society in which the “we” has long since been trampled by the “I.” Once, it is believed, Israel was a society
dedicated to the promotion of education, research, and “real” culture; now, it neglects its educational system at all levels,
starves it research institutions, and wallows in the tasteless mass culture of globalized
media. Once, it is believed, Israel was an honest society with a functioning political system
led by a selfless political class dedicated to the public good; now, it is governed by
self-promoting mediocrities operating in a dysfunctional system and dedicated only to
their own welfare and that of their rich friends. Once, it is believed, Israel was a decent
society, virtually free of both white-collar and violent crime; now, its news broadcasts
are dominated by murderers, muggers, spousal and child abusers, embezzlers, drug
dealers, and leaders of organized crime, all of whom are given a “Get out of jail” card by incompetent or corrupt police
and overly lenient judges.
Does this sound like nostalgia? Well, it is. Of course, not everything is caricature. There are very real problems that
Israelis cannot reasonably blame on anyone else: great and growing inequalities, the unresolved problems of religion
and the state as well as the status of its Arab citizens, the declining performance of the school system, and others. Nevertheless,
nostalgia does very often distort perspectives and make what was look better than it really was and what is
look worse than it really is.
With a bit more time and maturity, Israelis may one day discover that David Ben-Gurion (like George Washington?)
fiddled his expense account — and they may even come to terms with that. They also may learn to set the undoubted
shortcomings of Israel against its equally undeniable achievements: an entrenched democracy, the rule of law guaranteed
by an independent judiciary, a thriving economy driven by cutting edge technology and entrepreneurship, worldclass
universities and hospitals, vibrant media, and the tolerance of diversity. But while the politicians can be relied
upon to recall all that has been done, ordinary people, for whom the miracle of rebirth and survival is now taken for
granted, can be forgiven for beginning to brood after six decades about the promises still unfulfilled. Perhaps that, after
all, is the real significance of 60.
Now, it is a consumerist
society
in which the “we”
has long since been
trampled by the “I.”
Heller...
30 Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org
The growing alienation between the Jewish majority and the Arab minority in Israel
reached a turning point in the last decade. At the center of this destructive process have
been efforts taken by the Jewish majority to intensify the nationalizing policies of the
state and thereby hollow out Arab citizenship. These efforts — in the political, legal,
economic, cultural, and housing fields — have had far-reaching negative effects on the
Arab-Israeli citizenry and have cast a dark shadow over both the future of Jewish-Arab
relations as well as over the future of Israeli democracy.
Over the years, Israeli leaders repeatedly extolled the democratic character of
the state, something that has not been questioned by most Israelis. Nonetheless, Zionism
always has been exclusivist, subordinating state institutions and resources to the
well-being of only part of Israeli citizenry. From the very start, Israeli citizenship was
normatively subordinated to the national affiliation of the hegemonic Jewish majority.
In an attempt to “normalize” Jewish life, public space was constructed to reflect modern
Hebrew national identity alone. As a result, the Arab presence has been de-normalized
and fragmented, emptied of its historical and cultural past and separated from substantial
connection with its homeland.
The Jewish majority in Israel has rendered the normative value of basic civil
rights of non-Jews/Arabs void. These attempts are legitimated by ethnic majoritarian
despotism in the legislative process, the lack of constitutional protections for the subordinate
Arab minority, and the Western understanding of what has been coined as Israeli
exceptionalism. Jewish hegemony in Israel has been turned into a super-constitutional
axiom that not only undermines the substantial meaning of the democratic political
game but also endangers the mere Arab presence, especially in light of the continuous
weakening of liberal public institutions, the corruption in the political system, and the
indifference of most media and civil institutions to Arab basic civic rights.
The more Israel strived to become a developed state and acquired the characteristics
of a wealthy country, the wider the gaps became between the Jewish and Arab
sense of “homeness” in the state. The more that Jewish life was normalized through the
settlement of the land and the building of modern transportation and communication
infrastructures, thereby leading to the homogenization of their collective space, the
more the Arab citizenry became fragmented and alienated from the state.
This negative dialectics was facilitated by investing much majoritarian energy in
blocking any challenges to Jewish hegemony. In 1985 the Jewish majority in the Knesset
made any challenge to the Jewish identity of the state illegal, by passing an amendment
Majoritarian Despotism and the Hollowing Out of Citizenship in Israel
Amal Jamal
Amal Jamal is Chair
of the Department of
Political Science at Tel
Aviv University and
head of the Walter
Leibach Institute.
Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org 31
to the Basic Law. The exclusive Jewish character of the state thereby became a supra-constitutional principle. As a result,
the democratic game became a procedural instrument to enforce the national normative system in all state institutions
and policies. Arab representatives are invited to play the game, but ever as a minority that legitimates the process by its
mere symbolic participation.
This reification of Israel’s identity as a Jewish state was reinforced by immutable legislation in the form of Basic
Law: Human Dignity and Liberty and the Basic Law Freedom of Occupation. The opening paragraph of the law reads:
“This Constitutional Law is meant to protect human dignity and liberty (or freedom of occupation), in order to anchor
in the Basic Law the values of the State of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state.” These principles give a clear normative
priority to the Jewish essence of the state over the democratic one. In effect, this law precludes the Arab minority
from effective democratic participation: by conferring upon this minority inferior status in the conceptual normative
order of the state, the law makes Arabs’ participation contradictory to their basic interests. This explains the growing
alienation of Arab citizens with the democratic process.
Any Arab demand for liberalizing Israel and turning it into a civic state is perceived by the Jewish majority as
offending the right to the self-determination of the Jewish people and, therefore, by
extension, threatening the security of the state and its right to exist. The official and
public reactions to the publication in 2007 of “The Future Vision Documents” of the
Arab community gave a clear indication of the extent of the hollowing out of Arab citizenship.
The Jewish majority viewed these documents, which can be implemented only
with their consent, as a “declaration of war.”
Recently, the Jewish majority legislated changes in the citizenship law that limit
the right of Arab citizens to live with their spouses if those spouses originate from Palestinian
occupied areas or from some of the Arab states. Whereas Israel’s Citizenship
Law enables a gradual process of naturalization for aliens (non-Jews) who marry Israeli
citizens, this right is denied to Palestinians who reside in the Occupied Territories or in Arab countries. Since Israeli
citizens of Palestinian origin are those most likely to marry a Palestinian from the Occupied Territories, the amendment
is unmistakable evidence that Israeli legislators targeted a particular group of people based on their national affiliation.
When the spirit of the law is compared to the liberalism of the Law of Jewish Return, which allows those with
one Jewish grandparent — a “Jewishness” in question when judged by traditional halakhic definitions — to immigrate
to Israel and acquire Israeli citizenship, as did hundreds of thousands of immigrants from the former Soviet Union, the
real intentions behind Israeli policies towards the citizenship of the Arab population become even more clear.
Instead of political devolution that might empower the Arab community, increase its trust in state institutions,
and meet its expectations for equal citizenship, the state is primarily engaged in fragmenting and controlling the Arab
minority, conceived as a demographic threat that should be eliminated. One of the ideas invented to reach this goal is the
revocation of the citizenship of hundreds of thousands of Arab-Israelis and the transfer of jurisdiction over them and their
limited landholdings to the Palestinian Authority in exchange for official annexation of large Israeli settlements in the West
Bank. The threats to implement such ideas may lead Arab citizens to fear the Israeli state, but they cannot cause them to
feel any patriotic attachment to it, or to celebrate with any genuine enthusiasm the 60th anniversary of its independence.
The state is primarily
engaged in fragmenting
and controlling
the Arab
minority, conceived
as a demographic
threat that should
be eliminated.
Jamal...
32 Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org
Israeli Citizenship
Yoav Peled
As a democratic frontier society, Israel has operated historically under two partially
contradictory imperatives: the exclusionary imperative of colonial settlement and nation-
building; and the universalistic imperative of democratic state-formation. The dynamic
relations between these two imperatives have resulted in two profound transformations.
The first transformation that Israel has undergone, which began in the mid-
1970s, has been the change from a corporatist, relatively egalitarian society in conflict
with its Arab neighbors to a liberal, highly inegalitarian society seeking accommodation
with them. The second, since 2001, has been the change to an even more harshly
inegalitarian society engaged in an open-ended war with the Palestinians. Israeli citizenship
has evolved in accordance with these transformations.
The System of 1948
Israel’s citizenship discourse has consisted of three different layers: 1) an ethnonationalist
discourse of inclusion and exclusion; 2) a liberal discourse of universal civil,
political and social rights; and 3) a republican discourse of community goals and civic
virtue, that mediated the other two.
The pre-1948 Jewish community in Palestine was an ethno-republican community
organized to achieve a common moral purpose — the fulfillment of Zionism.
The pioneering civic virtue of its members was manifested through the performance of
three “redemptive” activities: physical labor, agricultural settlement, and military defense.
Thus the foundation was laid for distinguishing between the virtue not only of
Jews and Arabs, but also of different groupings within the Jewish community, based on
their presumed contributions to the project of Zionist redemption.
Since 1967 the differential allocation of entitlements, obligations, and domination
entailed by the notion of citizenship has proceeded in the following manner. First,
the liberal discourse functioned to separate Jewish and Palestinian citizens of Israel
from the non-citizen Palestinians in the Occupied Territories. Then, the ethno-nationalist
discourse was invoked to discriminate between Jewish and Palestinian citizens
within the sovereign State of Israel. Lastly, the republican discourse was used to legitimate
the different citizenship positions of the major Jewish social groups: Ashkenazim
(European) versus Mizrachim (Middle Eastern), males versus females, and secular ver-
Yoav Peled, Professor of
Political Science, Tel Aviv
University, is co-author,
with Gershon Shafir, of
Being Israeli: The Dynamics
of Multiple Citizenship
(Cambridge University Press,
2002), which won the 2002
Albert Hourani Prize (Middle
East Studies Association).
Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org 33
Peled...
sus religiously orthodox.
Palestinian residents of the occupied West Bank and the besieged Gaza Strip possess no citizenship rights.
(The “citizenship” provided by the sham Palestinian National Authority has no practical meaning.) Since 1993 these
Palestinians have been excluded from the Israeli labor market as well. Much of their land and water resources have been
diverted to use by Jewish settlers. While the latter have enjoyed the extra-territorial protection of Israeli civil law, the
Palestinians live under arbitrary military rule.
The privileged position of the settlers is understandable in view of their pioneering commitment and their
demographic presence in the disputed areas. But ultra-orthodox, non-Zionist Jews, who neither serve in the military
nor perform any other pioneering activity, also have been granted privileges beyond any proportion to their electoral
strength. Their privileged position stems exclusively from their service as living symbols of Jewish historical continuity
in the Land of Israel.
Until 1966 Israel’s Palestinian citizens were ruled through a military administration which suspended their
citizenship rights in practice. Since then, they have enjoyed civil and political rights
on an individual, liberal basis, but have been excluded from political citizenship in
the republican sense — participation in attending to the common good of society. As
most Palestinian citizens are not called up for military service, this has been used, in a
truly republican manner, to justify the abridgement of their social rights as well. Only
recently has an alternative form of national service been instituted for them on an experimental
basis.
Among Israeli Jews, Ashkenazim have legitimated their dominance by designating themselves as idealistic pioneers
and the Mizrachim as merely “natural” workers. Thus, as Jews immigrating under the Law of Return, Mizrachim
have been granted all civil and political rights; as “natural workers,” however, they were settled in the periphery and
used to provide unskilled labor for the country’s industrialization drive.
Official, public religiosity combined with militarism and with Jewish demographic anxieties to confine women
to their traditional role as mothers and homemakers. As a frontier society, Israel has valued military service as the highest
form of civic virtue, and has been greatly concerned with the demographic balance between Jews and Palestinians.
This resulted in defining maternity as women’s prime contribution to the common good, undermining their quest for
equality.
Liberalization and Peacemaking
With time, Israel’s economic development, funded largely by unilateral transfers, had weakened the public sector
economy in favor of private business interests. This shift was enhanced by the 1979 peace treaty with Egypt. Under
the Labor government of 1992-1996 that signed the Oslo Accords, drastic neo-liberal reforms were instituted in key
areas of the economy and society.
Since the second
intifada Israel has
been involved in its
own version of the
war on terror.
34 Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org
Economic reform, meant to facilitate Israel’s integration into the global economy, reflected the liberal discourse
of citizenship and benefited mostly upper middle class Ashkenazim. Since the Arab-Israeli conflict was an obstacle to
globalization, settling the conflict — decolonizing portions of the Occupied Territories through accommodation with
the PLO — became an economic necessity for this social sector. Since the Oslo Accords, the global market has indeed
opened up to Israeli capital, while direct foreign investment in the Israeli economy skyrocketed, leading to unprecedented
economic prosperity.
The Neo -Liberal Warfare State
Since the second intifada Israel has been involved in its own version of the war on terror. Surprisingly, perhaps,
this war has coincided with the acceleration of the dismantling of the welfare state. The republican discourse of citizenship
that had legitimated the old corporatist socioeconomic regime and served as the basis of Jewish solidarity (and
Labor Party power) has lost its position of prominence. Meanwhile, the liberal discourse has become more prominent
in the economy, and the ethno-nationalist discourse more so in politics.
Liberal economic policy has led to extensive privatization of public services and the neglect of those that cannot
be made profitable enough to be privatized. The maintenance and supply of public
bomb shelters in times of war is one activity that cannot be privatized. So these
services were not provided at all during the Lebanon War of 2006, or were provided
very inadequately by private charities and non-governmental organizations (NGOs).
Furthermore, out of fear of hurting Israel’s international credit rating, the state failed
to declare a state of emergency in the northern part of the country that came under
constant bombardment. Short of such a declaration, the needs of most residents of that
region could not be met.
The enhanced position of the ethno-nationalist discourse in the context of the
second intifada found its expression in a new citizenship law enacted in 2003. This law prohibits the granting of residency
in Israel to Palestinians living in the Occupied Territories, even those who are married to Israeli citizens or have
Israeli parents or children. The duration of the law, which in effect deprived Israel’s Palestinian citizens of the right of
family unification, was to have been one year, but has been extended repeatedly.
The weakening of the republican discourse has deprived Israel’s citizenship structure of its coherence. Both the
social rights of all citizens, as well as the civil and political rights of Israel’s Palestinian citizens, have deteriorated. This
resulted in growing political instability, marked by five national elections and six Prime Ministers (including Yitzhak
Rabin, assassinated in 1995) since the signing of the Oslo Accords. On Israel’s 60th anniversary public trust in the institutions
of government is at an all-time low, and the country faces its worst crisis of governability.
Peled...
Public trust in the
institutions of government
is at an
all-time low, and
the country faces its
worst crisis of governability.
Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org 35
A political struggle has been fought in Israel for the last 60 years. It is the result of the
tension between the commitment of most Israelis to the “Jewishness” of their state and
their loyalty to the state’s democratic ideals.
The historical record of the state in regard to its dualistic existence is mixed. The
tenets of universalistic democracy have been met by the establishment of an elected legislature,
the adoption of most “Western” freedoms, the formulation of Basic Laws, the
recognition of an independent judiciary, and the conduct of vibrant and open public
debate on most political issues. Acting particularistically, however, the state has sponsored
the immigration of millions of Jews, and acquired land and established hundreds
of settlements to absorb them, developed an educational system to inculcate Jewish and
Zionist values, adopted nationalist myths and symbols, and granted special recognition
to Orthodox Judaism.
This universalistic-particularistic tension is at the very center of Israel’s political
life; and it is likely to remain at that very center in the foreseeable future. This tension
determines the relationships between the Jewish majority and the country’s sizable Palestinian
Arab minority, it shapes the controversies between religious and secular Jews,
it is at the basis of the attitudes of many Israelis toward the “territories,” and it informs
their perception of the outside world.
The tension between “universalists” and “particularists,” as dominant as it might
be, is not static. While evident in the foundational Declaration of Independence of May
1948, it has evolved, deepened, and has even come to determine the very essence of the
state. It is especially important in regard to the definition of the State as “Jewish and
democratic,” a definition that is included in several Basic Laws and Supreme Court rulings.
This definition of the state has emerged as somewhat of a sacred formula in the last
two decades.
While the Israeli political scene is extremely complex, three political-ideological
camps could be discerned in relation to this definition of the state that encompasses
the universalist-particularist tension. On the particularistic end of the spectrum there
are those who believe that Israel ought to be committed primarily or even exclusively to
its Jewishness. While members of the camp might recognize democratic ideals as a desirable
common good, they view those as decisively secondary to the country’s Jewishness.
If and when the requirements of democracy and the interests of the Jewish people
are incompatible, the interests of the Jewish people and their state — Israel — take precedence.
This position is common among nationalist, and especially religious, circles.
Ilan Peleg is the Editor-in-
Chief of Israel Studies Forum:
An Interdisciplinary
Journal. His most recent
book is Democratizing the
Hegemonic State: Political
Transformation at the Age
of Identity (Cambridge
University Press, 2007), offering
a worldwide, theoretical,
and empirical analysis
of majority-minority relations.
Majority-Minority Relations in the Jewish Republic
Ilan Peleg
36 Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org
The second camp in Israel includes those who believe that Israel needs to transform itself from a “Jewish and
democratic” state to a “state of all its citizens.” Such a formula would presumably turn Israel into a typical Western liberal
democracy, dealing equally with all citizens as individuals and adopting a neutral position toward each of its ethnic,
national, or religious groups. Some members of this camp propose that Israel becomes an Arab-Jewish bi-national
entity; thus, they represent a nationalist Palestinian position.
The third and easily the largest political camp endorse the definition of Israel as “Jewish and democratic.” Members
of this camp believe that Israel’s commitments to both Jewishness and democracy are fundamentally compatible,
that the formula is a reasonable compromise between two competing sets of values, and that the state has, in fact, kept
both of its commitments.
The reality of Israel’s first 60 years, particularly in regard to Jewish-Arab relations, requires a fresh, bold re-examination
of the arguments of the third camp, which is dominant in the country’s political life. There is a general agreement
among Arab and Jewish scholars, heavily documented by official Israeli sources and even the state’s bodies (such
as the Or Commission that investigated the riots of 2000), that discrimination toward and neglect of the minority has
been a characteristic of the system for decades. There is also an increasing recognition on the part of many Israeli Jews,
led by Israel’s Supreme Court, that this situation must change toward greater equality
in the interest of both the Palestinian minority and the Jewish majority.
If Israel’s Jewish majority decides to establish a more inclusive polity, it could
move in an integrative-liberal direction, strengthening a “Western” democratic order
based on individual equality, or toward a “consociational” order in which Arabs and
Jews share power as collectivities. While both liberal and consociational changes could
ease the inter-ethnic clash within Israel’s body politic, they are neither likely to nor
should they turn the country into a bi-national entity. Such an outcome would contradict the foundational UN Partition
Resolution of 1947, which called for the establishment of a Jewish state and an Arab state in Palestine; it will never
be accepted by Israel’s Jewish majority.
The sacred formula of “Jewish and democratic” has not worked particularly well to date. It might be salvageable
if the existing balance between its two components changes. One way of transforming this formula is to increase the
weight of “democracy” by eliminating all forms of material discrimination against minority members in a variety of
areas such as land purchases, housing, employment, monetary allocation to municipalities, and so forth. At the same
time, the precise consequences of the state’s “Jewishness” ought to be reexamined. Such reexamination will not amount
to the elimination of the Jewish character and/or a redefinition of the state. The particularism of the majority could
prevail without seriously injuring the country’s democratic quality.
A way of reconstructing the polity is to withdraw all substantive and material forms of discrimination — that is,
insisting on the equality of all citizens — while sustaining the Jewish character of the state on the symbolic level. Such
a future Israel will still have a Jewish majority (a condition that will require withdrawal from the territories), the dominant
language will remain Hebrew and the culture both Jewish and Hebraic, and most if not all symbols and holidays
will continue to be rooted in the Jewish tradition. This model — a liberal democracy with deep historic, symbolic links
The sacred formula
of “Jewish and democratic”
has not
worked particularly
well to date.
Peleg...
Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org 37

Is Israel in the Middle East?
Elie Podeh
Sixty years after its establishment, Israel seems to be in the process of extricating itself
from its state of schizophrenia with regard to its place in the region. Yet, the quest for
a natural space, in which Israel would see itself — and be perceived — as a legitimate
actor in the Middle East is not yet over. This search is all the more meaningful since it
penetrates deeply into the core issue of Israel’s identity.
For many Muslims and Arabs this search is superfluous, as Israel is a foreign
element in the Middle East, closely tied to the West and serving its interests. According
to this view, Israel is an extension of the colonial experience and its Jewish character
accentuates its “foreignhood” in an area predominantly populated by Muslim and Arab
communities. This Arab perception and the long duration of the Arab-Israeli conflict
largely excluded the possibility of Israel’s integration into the region. However, it also
seems that ideological reasons in Israel led to its exclusion, as proven by the early decision
to separate Judaism, Zionism, and Israel from Middle Eastern studies in the academic
institutions. Yet, in spite of the seeming inevitability of Israel’s Western orientation,
other options have existed.
In general, and with the risk of over-simplification, it is possible to identify three
schools in the Israeli discourse. The first, and most dominant one, is the Western or
Separatist school, which has opposed integration in the Middle East as a result of political,
economic, and cultural reasons. The most outspoken and influential voice of this
school was the first Israeli Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion, who thought that the
Arab countries — characterized by backwardness and dictatorial regimes — have little
to offer the Jewish people, who aspire to become like Western, civilized countries, such
as the United States, Britain, and France. This orientation dovetailed with the Iron Wall
strategy, which was preached by Ze’ev Jabotinsky and other elements on the political
right. In fact, this strategy, as shown by Avi Shlaim, has been adopted by many Israeli
governments regardless of their political affiliation. The Iron Wall was not only a strategy
of dealing with the Arabs in a protracted conflict, but also a clear message about
Israel’s desired association with the Arab Middle East. In recent years, Ehud Barak
(Labor) and Benjamin Netanyahu (Likud) — the former perceiving Israel as a villa in
the jungle and the latter emphasizing Israel’s place among the Western nations — can
be seen as typical representatives of this school. The wall recently built by Israel, though
primarily aimed at forestalling terrorist operations, and the disengagement from Gaza
Professor Elie Podeh is Head
of the Department of Islam
and Middle East Studies
at the Hebrew University
of Jerusalem; Editor of
The New East (Hamizrah
Hehadash); and Senior
Research Fellow at the Harry
S. Truman Institute for the
Advancement of Peace.
Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org 39
can be seen as further testimony of Israel’s desire, however unconscious, to separate itself from its neighbors.
The second school is the Middle East or Integrationist school, which has advocated some association between
Israel and its neighbors. Since this option has hardly been viable during the years of conflict, it was usually expressed
as a desire, hope, or dream. Most advocates of this school came from the political left. From this school emerged some
interesting voices, such as the Canaanites and advocates of Jewish-Arab cooperation on the basis of their Semitic origin.
The most typical representative of the Middle East school was Moshe Sharett, the first Israeli Foreign Minister. In
his first speech in the Knesset, in June 1949, Sharett articulated a vision of a foreign policy network that included Cairo,
Damascus, Beirut, and Amman. Fearing Israel would become an island in the region, and in line with his image of the
Jews as Asiatic people, Sharett favored Israel’s integration in the Middle East. A similar view was voiced by a leading
Labor politician, Yigal Allon, who wrote in the 1960s:
The whole world — first and foremost Jews and Arabs — should know that Israel does not see itself as a
guest in the region or as a proxy of some outside force … A Commonwealth of the eastern nations with the
active participation of Israel for the sake of economic, political, scientific, cultural
and security cooperation will not only ensure the economic prosperity of
all peoples of the region but will also serve as a guarantee for their security and
sovereignty. Surely, achieving this goal is remote, unfortunately ... nevertheless,
posing a clear target, even if it is too far to accomplish in the near future, may
serve as a compass, guiding our way toward a sublime destination, preventing us
from making mistakes and wandering helplessly in global politics.
The most eloquent representative of this school in the 1990s was Shimon Peres,
former Prime Minister and current President, in his celebrated book The New Middle
East, published in the wake of the Oslo agreements. Yet, the cool Arab response and the failure of Oslo was the kiss of
death. Most of the advocates of this school — perhaps because of their European-Ashkenazi orientation — rejected
Israel’s cultural integration, which was tantamount in their eyes to the Levantinization of Israeli society, opting only for
political and/or economic association. Only a small group, mostly of Sephardic-Arab origin, also advocated a cultural
fusion.
The third school, oscillating between the West and the Middle East, is the Mediterranean school. This view
considered the sea as constituting a major factor in the evolution of the Jewish identity, as a result of the commercial,
cultural, and historical links with the countries lying on its shores. In particular, the ties of Jerusalem with Athens and
Rome, the two pre-modern centers of Western civilization, were emphasized. Accordingly, Israel was linked with the
West but not divorced from its geographical environment. This school particularly appealed to those who advocated a
regional approach but realized that Arab objections to accepting Israel as a legitimate player and the cultural differences
existing between the Jews and the Muslim-Arabs would undermine the Middle East approach. Two recognized voices
of this school were Abba Eban, the legendary Israeli Foreign Minister, and Ya’acov Hazan, leader of the leftist Mapam
Podeh...
Israel seems to be
in the process of extricating
itself from
its state of schizophrenia
with regard
to its place in the
region.
40 Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org
Podeh...
Party. This school was less influential in political circles than it was popular among intellectuals and certain segments
of society.
The Israeli quest for a specific orientation stemmed from two basic needs. The first was the need for a defined
identity for a people that came from various cultural settings in the Diaspora. The second was what can be termed as
the “desire to belong” syndrome: Feeling ostracized, isolated, and insecure in the Middle East, Israel always has sought
to be a part of larger groupings.
However, Arab and Muslim opposition prevented Israel’s inclusion in the Asian group of the United Nations.
Not until 2000 was Israel accepted as a temporary member of the Western European and Other States Group — a decision
that dovetailed with the dominance of the Western school. Moreover, in spite of the peace treaties with Egypt
(1979) and Jordan (1994), the rise and spread of Islamic fundamentalist voices in the Middle East put another obstacle
in the way of Israel’s integration in the region. Conveniently, by rejecting Israel as a legitimate
regional actor, the Arabs helped to substantiate their claim that Israel is indeed
part of the West.
In addition to the Arab rejection, it should be noted that the dominance of
Israel’s Western orientation has also been the result of its leaders’ preferences. Indeed,
the Israeli leaders felt that the nation’s progress truly depended on close attachment
to the West, politically, economically and culturally. Thus, two parallel processes reinforced
the separation of Israel from the Middle East.
It’s about time that Israelis acknowledge the fact that however forced Israel’s
separation from the Middle East might have been, it was also a conscious decision
on the part of its leaders. But, since Israel cannot ultimately divorce itself from the
region, its decision makers and public should rethink its orientation in a manner that
would dovetail with its geographic reality. On its sixtieth anniversary, Israel should realize that these orientations are
not mutually exclusive and that it can, indeed should, play a role in the three circles surrounding it — Middle Eastern,
Mediterranean, and Western.
Since Israel cannot
ultimately divorce
itself from the region,
its decision
makers and public
should rethink its
orientation in a
manner that would
dovetail with its
geographic reality.
Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org 41
Russian/Soviet Jews in Israel
Larissa Remennick
Jews from the Russian Empire (mainly from Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, and Ukraine)
formed the backbone of the pre-state Jewish Yishuv (community) in Eretz Israel and
later became founding fathers of the State. Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, an ardent advocate
of Hebrew as the vernacular and state language of Israel, and most key figures of the
Zionist movement and early Israeli politics (Vladimir Jabotinsky, Shaul Tchernihovsky,
Menachem Usyshkin, Nachum Sokolov, Yitskhok Katsenelson, David Ben-Gurion,
Menachem Begin) were all Russian- and Polish-speaking Jews, as were writers and poets
such as Haim Bialik and Shai Agnon and actors Hanna Rovina and Alexander Penn.
The Habima National Theater was formed from the group of actors who fled Russia
after the Bolshevik Revolution. During the early decades of the state, the Russian language,
literature, music, and artistic traditions were ubiquitous in the everyday life of
Ashkenazi Israelis, and the traits of Soviet socialism were omnipresent in the Israeli
economy and political life. Many Israeli homes featured the volumes of Alexander
Pushkin and Ivan Turgenev, along with Hebrew poetry and perhaps some Yiddish
books by Shalom Aleichem and Peretz Markish. The epoch of Russian/East European
cultural and political hegemony came to an end by the late 1960s, along with the departure
of the older generations and their replacement by the brave new Sabras who were
building the new Israeli culture, negating the Diasporic legacies. Rapid changes in the
ethnic composition of the Israeli population reflecting several major waves of immigration
of Jews from North Africa and Asia over the 1950s and 1960s entailed the further
decline of the Russian themes in culture and society.
During the early decades of state socialism, among the emigration of Jews to
Palestine and Israel was a small but permanent trickle of activists whom the Bolsheviks
were glad to get rid of to avoid the spread of Zionist ideas among Soviet Jews. A small
peak of Soviet Jewish emigration occurred soon after the founding of the State of Israel,
allowed by the Soviet government in hopes of fostering communist tendencies in the
new polity and adding it to the camp of “progressive socialist states” in the Middle East.
Yet, in view of the growing American influence on Israel, this affair soon ended, and
Soviet authorities froze Jewish emigration until the beginning of Détente in the early
1970s. The euphoria of the Six-Day War victory in 1967 was conducive to the rebirth of
the Zionist movement in the USSR and a growing number of requests by Jews to immigrate
to Israel. Giving up to various political pressures, the Soviets had to allow many
Jews to leave, and between 1970 and 1980 about 130,000 of them made Aliyah to Israel
Larissa Remennick, Ph.D. is
Professor and Chair of the
Sociology and Anthropology
Department at Bar-Ilan
University. She was born and
educated in Moscow and immigrated
to Israel in 1991.
She lives in Tel Aviv.
42 Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org
Remennick...
(a similar number ended their journey in the United States and other Western countries as so-called “drop-outs”). In
the early 1980s hard-liners returned to power in Moscow and granted few exit visas. However, from 1987 on, Mikhail
Gorbachev’s reforms brought about a more liberal approach to emigration. Since the late 1980s, the trickle of émigrés
turned into a stream, with the majority wishing to move to the West. Yet, after 1990 entry to the US, Canada, Australia,
and Western Europe (except Germany) became increasingly limited, which effectively redirected the major post-Soviet
Jewish exodus to Israel. For most émigrés, the “push” factors (i.e., political and economic crisis in the USSR/Former
Soviet Union (FSU)) dominated over Zionist sentiments; combined with their secular lifestyle and tenuous Jewish identity,
accommodation to the Jewish state tended to be difficult.
Thus, over the early 1990s Israel faced a mass influx of Russian-speaking Jews, whose number reached almost
one million and increased the Jewish population by 20%. The tide gradually subsided after 1995, and subsequently
turned into a trickle. The integration of the last immigration wave posed major difficulties,
as opposed to the previous wave. To begin with, the 1970s wave was much
smaller and spreadout over a decade, while about half a million of the recent newcomers
arrived in just three years (1990-1992). The Israeli labor market of the 1970s had
been ready to absorb the educated Jewish professionals from the USSR due to many
shortages in the skilled workforce in the fields of medicine, education, technology, and
science. In contrast, by the 1990s Israel had trained enough professionals of its own,
and the market was rather saturated. Hence, tens of thousands of Soviet-trained teachers,
doctors, scientists, engineers, artists, etc. found out that their former professional
experience was irrelevant in Israel; they had to seek retraining into more demanded
semi-skilled occupations (e.g. in banking, tourism, insurance, sales, etc.) or make a
living by manual work in construction, industry, security, cleaning, and personal services
(mainly geriatric care). Occupational downgrading compromised the income and living standards of Russian immigrants,
causing their concentration in poorer urban neighborhoods and social isolation from their potential Israeli
peers. Indirectly, it also discouraged many Russian Jews from learning Hebrew beyond the basic minimum and getting
closer to Israeli culture and society. On the psychological level, the immigrants’ failure to find work as professionals
severely harmed their self-esteem, leaving them to wonder whether the whole immigration venture was worth the effort.
Given the gradual improvement of the economic situation in Russia and Ukraine from the mid-1990s on, this also
propelled some educated and/or business-minded immigrants to return to the FSU or re-migrate to North America
(about 10% of the 1990s wave eventually left Israel).
Another challenge that awaited ex-Soviet immigrants in Israel was finding permanent housing, given growing
costs on the private market and the lack of public housing (especially needed for the elderly, single parents, and the
disabled), often causing the co-residence of three generations in small apartments. Many mixed families that included
partly Jewish or non-Jewish members experienced additional alienation from the host society due to their second-class
status in the matters of religion, marriage, divorce, burial, visas to their relatives from the FSU, etc. Only a small frac-
Tens of thousands
of Soviet-trained
teachers, doctors,
scientists, engineers,
artists, etc.
found out that their
former professional
experience was irrelevant
in Israel.
Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org 43
Remennick...
tion of non-Jews (under 3%) could convert to Judaism via full Orthodox giyur — the only possible conversion type
recognized by Israeli authorities. Reflecting all these pressures, many immigrants of the 1990s felt estranged from the
mainstream Hebrew society and found a solution to their social and cultural needs by creating a thriving system of
social institutions of their own (schools, libraries, clubs, theaters, small businesses), as well as media in the Russian
language (several daily newspapers, a TV channel, radio stations, etc.). Although the hegemonic majority detested the
Russian sub-culture thriving side-by-side with the mainstream, they could hardly stop it from emerging and giving the
“critical mass” of Russian immigrants their political clout (in the form of greater electoral weight, immigrant parties,
and politicians).
However, despite the difficult integration and many mistakes made in Aliyah ve Klita (immigration and absorption)
policy over the last 20 years, the last wave of Russian immigrants made a deep and lasting impact on Israeli
society. It significantly fortified the educated and secular sector of the population and added new facets to the range
of Jewish identities already existing in Israel. Due to a significant influx of skilled professionals (trained elsewhere — a
pure economic gain), the Israeli economy experienced an upsurge in many sectors,
such as high-tech, engineering, and applied science. Russian immigrants also enriched
Israeli education (both as teachers and students), culture (especially theater), competitive
sports (winning a number of Olympic medals), and made many Israelis perceive
cultural diversity as good news. By spurring the comeback of Russian culture in Israel,
former Soviet immigrants turned Israeli into a de facto multicultural society, forcing it
to put aside its “melting pot” aspirations towards every new immigrant wave.
By spurring the
comeback of Russian
culture in Israel,
former Soviet immigrants
turned Israeli
into a de facto multicultural
society.
44 Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org
Israeli-Jewish Diaspora Relations
Gabriel (Gabi) Sheffer
There is no doubt — as some Israelis and Diaspora Jews admit openly — that Israel
and the Jewish Diaspora are experiencing major transformations which influence their
relations. These include demographic changes, especially in the Diaspora; shifts in the
centers of the Jewish Diasporic communities (the creation of new communities on state
and local levels and the reemergence of communities especially in Eastern Europe); improvement
of the political, social, and economic positions of Diaspora Jews, but at the
same time an increase in anti-Semitism and enmity in certain states; and the emergence
of new cultural, social, political, and economic forces in Israel that strongly impact
Israeli society and, consequently, its relations with the Diaspora. It should be added
that all these changes occur against the background of globalization, individualization,
and the substantial use of sophisticated communication systems by Israelis and Jewish
Diasporans.
As a result of these changes, the entire Jewish people, both in Israel and the
Diaspora, confront several major challenges: 1) redefining and maintaining Jewish
identity; 2) ensuring continuous close connections among all Jews worldwide while
defining the delicate issues of center and periphery in world Jewry as well as the loyalties
of Israel and the Diaspora toward each other; 3) developing and enlarging Jewish-
Israeli education in both Israel and the Diaspora; 4) dealing with Jewish immigration
to Israel and to other hostlands; 5) grappling with Israelis’ attitudes and policies toward
prosperous, reemerging, and declining Jewish communities; 6) struggling against anti-
Semitism; 7) resolving the reparations issue; and 8) implementing far-reaching reforms
in the Israeli organizations and institutions that deal with the Jewish Diaspora.
Not all the news is bad. In general, Israelis care especially for Diaspora Jews in
despair, are ready to extend help to Jewish communities facing difficulties, and for the
first time have allocated resources for these purposes. On the other side, Diaspora Jews
still show interest in what is happening in Israel, donate money, and lobby on behalf of
Israel and Israelis.
Yet, as aforementioned, some basic matters require attention. From the Israeli
perspective and given space limitations, let us consider these:
. On all the issues discussed in this article see especially Gabi Sheffer, Diaspora Politics: At
Home Abroad (New York and Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006); Gabi Sheffer
and H. Roth-Toledano, Who leads? Israeli-Jewish Diaspora Relations (Tel Aviv: Hakibutz
Hameuhad, 2006)
Dr. Gabriel (Gabi)
Sheffer, Political Science
Department, The Hebrew
University of Jerusalem
Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org 45
• Most Israelis, particularly younger Israelis, lack deep knowledge of the situation of the Diaspora. Even those
Israelis who have traveled abroad and visited Diasporic communities know little about the general situation of
world Jewry or the specific situation in the communities they have visited. Even worse, most of them are not
interested in the Diaspora. This is not surprising since the Israeli school system and the media do not invest
much in teaching and reporting about the Diaspora. Consequently there is almost no public discussion and
debate about Israeli attitudes, positions, and policies concerning the Diaspora.
• The vast majority of Israelis have an archaic, Israeli-centric ideology or mindset that strongly influences the
actual policies of Israeli governments and organizations. These views, which are sharply at variance from the
current situation of the Diaspora and its relations with Israel, have not been re-examined or even discussed for
a very long time.
• There is a lack of formative leadership that is willing and capable of overcoming the inertia in Israeli formal
and informal positions in a way that might lead to new attitudes and consequently to policies which will be
more suitable to the Diaspora’s current situation and will lead to the required
changed relations between the two parts of the Jewish nation.
• Most of the statements made by a few Israeli politicians and bureaucrats who
deal with Israeli-Diaspora relations are devoid of serious meaning. Such statements
are merely lip service to the need for close relations between Israel and
the Diaspora.
• Despite the statements made by some politicians and mainly by Israeli “professionals”
emphasizing the good performance of the various organizations
dealing with the Diaspora and the need for reforms, actually all these institutions face severe financial, personnel,
and other constraints that impede their ability to conduct effective relations with the Diaspora.
• There are severe problems in policy formation and implementation in Israel. Most decisions are made not by
senior Israeli politicians but rather by the “professionals” in accordance with their personal and institutional
agendas; and most decisions deal with marginal matters, rather than with meaningful steps to buttress Israel-
Diaspora relations. Regarding some critical issues (e.g., Jewish identity, immigration to Israel, Jewish and Israeli
education and requested support for Israel, and communities facing difficulties) there is no clear cooperation
between the government and the organizations active in Israel, as well as between the various governmental
ministries and the various departments in the organizations dealing with Diaspora matters.
• Cooperation and coordination between the Israeli government and organizations, on the one hand, and the
main organizations in the Diaspora, on the other, is inadequate. Successive Israeli governments have failed to create
proper mechanisms for addressing this deficiency. This situation is pretty obvious with respect to the solicitation
of donations and other resources for Israel, and the order of priorities in the use of available resources.
Sheffer...
Most Israelis, particularly
younger
Israelis, lack deep
knowledge of the
situation of the
Diaspora.
46 Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org
Sheffer...
To address this multitude of challenges, several suggestions come to mind. First and foremost, there is a need to
adopt new patterns and means, some of which are known, to deepen and widen Israelis’ knowledge and understanding
of what is currently happening in the Diaspora. Thus, the number of classes in Israeli schools and courses in universities
and colleges should be expanded. The Israeli media should be encouraged to increase its continuous coverage of
developments in the Diaspora. In this context, Israeli organizations should begin supporting the research and development
of non-conventional approaches to these issues, including the study of the vast literature on the general Diasporic
phenomenon, which can shed new light on various questions facing Israel and the Diaspora.
Despite the widespread skepticism concerning the significance of ideologies that are expressed in the parties’
platforms and in the Israeli government’s publications and announcements about its basic policies, there is a need to
reformulate them. Most importantly, if there is a genuine belief in and desire for unity in world Jewry, the above-mentioned
Israeli-centric basic approach of most Israelis and institutions must be critically re-examined. Thus, when basic
policies are made, the wishes and needs of the Diaspora should be given due consideration.
In this connection, there is an urgent need to redefine and consolidate Jewish
identity — to resolve the highly contested question of “who is a Jew?” It should be
noted that the widely accepted notion of the religious nature of Judaism has given way
to an increasing number of Jews in the Diaspora and in Israel who define Judaism in
terms of ethnic-national-religious identity.
Such a reexamination of the Jewish identity should include the issue of center
and periphery in the Jewish nation. Many in the Diaspora, especially younger persons
who have been fully integrated in their host countries, question Israel’s centrality to
the nation. In order to avoid the estrangement of such Jews, the implications of these
changes must be seriously considered.
Consequently, it is necessary to reorganize the structure of organizations such as the Jewish Agency (which is
now in a crisis), or perhaps to establish new organizations in which Israel and the Diaspora are on an equal footing in
terms of representation, control, and management. This will entail greater involvement of the Israeli government and
representative organizations in the Diaspora.
Israeli-Diaspora relations are at risk of further deterioration without a clear Israeli acknowledgment of the
problematic issues previously discussed and without the willingness to invest unconventional thinking and action in
tackling them.
There is an urgent
need to redefine
and consolidate
Jewish identity — to
resolve the highly
contested question
of “who is a Jew?”
Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org 47
Demography and Environment
Arnon Soffer
The issue of demography has been Zionism’s constant companion. From the very
start, it was evident that without a critical mass of Jews in Palestine the Zionist dream
would not come to pass. Accordingly, every wave of Jewish migration to Palestine was
a blessing, a step towards the fulfillment of that dream.
In this regard the years prior to the creation of the state of Israel in no way differ
from the 60 years of its existence. Israel continues to be obsessed by demography, and
for several reasons:
• The foremost goal for which Israel was created was to be a home for all the
Jews of the world; without this aim and its realization, the state of Israel has no
raison d’être.
• Israel needs a large population from which to draw its military strength in
order to meet the challenge of defense against those Arab states that
have refused to recognize its right to exist.
• Within Israel there exists a large Arab population that does not identify with
the Zionist dream. In recent years in particular, this portion of the population
has posed an existential challenge to the state of Israel.
• Since independence, Israel has been concerned that it might be compelled to
accept the return of some, if not all, of the 1948 Arab refugees, which would
lead to a critical demographic challenge.
• At the end of the Six-Day War, Israel found itself in control of a large Arab
(Palestinian) population whose natural increase has accelerated as a result of
the success of Israeli health services in drastically lowering mortality
rates among this portion of the population, whose birthrates have not changed
for decades.
The fear that the Jews of Israel will lose their majority is the main factor that has
prevented the annexation of the territories of Judea and Samaria. The data presented in
Table 1 illustrates the source of this fear.
Arnon Soffer, Head of Chaikin
Chair of Geostrategy at
University of Haifa.
48 Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org
Table 1: Composition of the Population of Palestine in 2008 and 2025 (in millions)
2008 % 2025 %
Jews 5500 50.8 6510 43.5
Others (non-Arabs) 0.320 2.9 0.390 2.5
Arabs in Israel 1450 2300
Arabs in West Bank 2140 3550
Arabs in Gaza Strip 1400 2570
Total Arabs in Palestine 4990 46.36 8420 55.0
Total pop. in Palestine 10810 100 15320 100
Sources: Israeli and Palestinian Central Bureaus of Statistics, 2007/8.
This demographic reality was the chief factor that caused former Prime Minister
Ariel Sharon to disengage from the Gaza Strip; indeed, without the Gaza population the
proportion of Arabs in the remaining parts of Palestine currently stands at 38.2%; however,
in 2025 the situation will again be critical for a Jewish Israel, as the percentage of
Arabs is expected to climb to 45.9% of the population of all of Palestine.
Clearly, if no significant geopolitical turn of events occurs and the creeping annexation
of Judea and Samaria continues, Israel will find itself in about 20 years with
a Jewish minority throughout mandatory Palestine: This has terminal implications for
Israel as a Jewish state. Indeed, this will mark the end of the Jewish community in the
Middle East — replicating the demise of the Christian communities of the region that
is taking place at this very moment.
Israel faces a second demographic challenge, which arises from the inversely
related population trajectories of Jewish and Arab Israelis. Currently, Arabs constitute
18.4% of Israel’s population. (The latter figure does not include the Druze but does include the Arabs of Jerusalem, who
are not citizens of Israel though they are citizens of Jerusalem.) In 2025 the Arab population of Israel will be about a
quarter of the total population. As Arab Israelis’ demographic weight increases, and as they come to constitute an absolute
majority in several important areas in Israel (e.g., the central hilly Galilee and across tracts of the northern Negev,
home to a Bedouin population that is increasing at a world-record rate of 5-5.5% annually), so their call to turn Israel
into a bi-national state will grow louder.
Meanwhile, natural increase among the Jewish secular communities is declining, while emigration in this group
in rising. In parallel, high natural increase continues to rise in the ultra-orthodox and national-religious population.
Therefore, voices and demands of the religious circles are becoming ever louder on every matter and issue, primarily in
propelling a welfare policy — one which grants large allowances to families with many children (characteristic of the
religious population) — that is having a ruinous effect on the Israeli economy. The ultra-orthodox populations recoil
Soffer...
Clearly, if no significant
geopolitical
turn of events occurs
and the creeping
annexation of
Judea and Samaria
continues, Israel
will find itself in
about 20 years with
a Jewish minority
throughout mandatory
Palestine.
Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org 49
Soffer...
from the Zionist ethos, refusing to serve in the Israeli armed forces or to shoulder their obligations to the state.
The demographic strengthening of the national-religious sector also has manifested itself in increased migration
to areas in Judea and Samaria and the consequent enlargement of “settler” communities. The annual rate of growth
of the number of settlers has soared to 3-5%! In 2008 the number of settlers in Judea and Samaria (excluding Jerusalem)
is estimated to have reached about 280,000. The settlers, more than any other group or factor in Israeli society, are
bringing about the creation of a bi-national state in Palestine, while believing and hoping that the Arabs of Palestine
will leave the country.
These demographic trends have been accompanied by yet another disturbing change — increased population
density. As of 2007, Israel has become the second most densely populated country in the Western world after Holland,
where density is 399 persons per km,2 compared to Israel’s 350. Discounting the Israeli desert (the Negev), which covers
about 60% of the country’s area, Israel is almost twice as densely populated (845 persons per km2 in 2007) as the densest
Western states such as Britain, Japan, Belgium, and Holland.
This condition already has contributed to environmental degradation and has
created havoc in the educational system and national planning. Proximity to carrying
capacity causes collapse of the water regime. (Most of Israel’s watercourses have turned
into sewage canals or have dried up. The quality of the water in the aquifers has declined.
The Sea of Galilee is at an unprecedented low level, and the demand for water is
rising owing to population increase and a rise in living conditions). Drought and fear
of climate change will worsen the shortfall.
The collapsing transport regime is perhaps the worst case of disintegration,
because it exacts a high price in the economy and in the quality of life.
We cannot ignore the non-enforcement of the law, the deterioration in relations between people, and the yawning
social gulfs between the Tel Aviv population and the populations of the country’s center and periphery. Particularly
as the weight of the poor populations (e.g., the Arabs and ultra-orthodox, who are anti-Zionist) increases, the magnitude
of these problems will grow. The courts in Israel have not digested this new reality. In fact, the Israeli Supreme
Court delays every development enterprise, and thus speeds up the collapse of systems in Israel.
Under these conditions, quality Jewish Israeli youth will emigrate, while quality Jewish youth in the West (an
important source of potential immigrants) will not come to Israel even in times of distress. With its pool of talent thus
depleted, Israel would face the prospect of gradually turning into yet another developing Middle Eastern state.
The immediate threat to Israel of 2008-2030 is not the Jewish-Arab conflict on its various levels but population
density, which is leading to the disintegration of Israel. The urgency and enormity of this challenge notwithstanding,
with responsible leadership, a great deal could be done to turn Israel into a flourishing Singapore or Hong Kong.
As of 2007, Israel
has become the second
most densely
populated country
in the Western
world after Holland.
50 Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org
IV
Domestic and International Affairs
Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org 51
A Society in Denial?
Galia Golan
Regrettably, Israel at 60 is more a source of concern than one of pride, at least for me.
One cannot, of course, deny that a modern, vibrant state was created, which, in comparison
with others of its age, produced remarkably stable, working democratic institutions,
a lively and broad civil society, a generally thriving economy, and a social system
on par with most Western European states.
Yet the concerns are many — and worrisome: flagrant abandonment of any hint
of the socialist ideals of many of the founders of the state; unabashed embrace of crude
capitalism and globalization at the expense of welfare, services, and the public good;
and “liberal” individualism without the attendant respect for individual rights, human
rights, and the most essential element, equality. Add to this a national paranoia born
of centuries of persecution and oppression, reinforced by regional rejection and chauvinistically
manipulated by all-too fallible leaders. The result: a blind and often cruel
society, tainted by growing racism, permeated by militarism, denial, and indifference.
On a recent visit to Provence, I was struck once again by the slogan of the French
Revolution inscribed in innumerable public places: humanité, égalité, fraternité. These
universal values are the very values that we seem to have lost over the past 60 years.
There may be those who contend that we never enthroned them as guiding ideals. It
may well be the case that they could never have been attained within the framework of
the Zionist dream. It may be that elements beyond our control, outside and inside the
country, from adversaries and, in fact, enemies, rendered the realization of such ideals
impossible. Or it may be that tragic, gross mistakes were made all along the way, bringing
us to the point at which we find ourselves today.
One amazing, comprehensible yet not so comprehensible mistake, in my view,
was the treatment of those Palestinians remaining in the new state as if they were a fifth
column. Not only the initiation and continuation of holding them under military rule
for 14 years, the destruction of villages, confiscation of lands, expulsions, and other
early measures, but also continuing to deny them equal resources and opportunities
in comparison with the Jewish and emigrant citizens of the state. This marginalization
occurred particularly in the area of education, refusal to recognize villages (including
also those of the Bedouin — considered loyal citizens, who even serve in the army),
harassment by security officials, and unofficial discrimination. Few would deny that the
Palestinian citizens of Israel continue to be treated as second-class citizens even with
their representation in the Knesset and active social/political life in the country. And so
Galia Golan, Darwin
Professor (Emerita) Hebrew
University of Jerusalem, is
Professor of Government
at the Interdisciplinary
Center, Herzliya. She is a
leading activist of Peace
Now, Bat Shalom, and the
International Women’s
Commission for Palestinian-
Israeli Peace.
52 Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org
Golan...
what conceivably could have been considered an understandable policy in the wake of a war, in 1949, becomes not only
incomprehensible but alarmingly short-sighted and self-destructive in the ensuing years.
The injustices became still greater in the aftermath of the 1967 war and the occupation. It would take more
than a few lines to discuss the mistakes and negative effects of the occupation on Israeli society and the evolution of
the Jewish state, as well as on the Palestinians. The cardinal mistake is the failure to take the steps necessary to end the
conflict with the Palestinians. In most of the post-1967 years, when there was no possibility of maintaining the state
of Israel and accommodating the right of the Palestinians to self-determination, i.e., when the Palestinian objective
included all of mandated Palestine, Israel turned to Jordan for the solution. But even then, Israel, under a Labor government,
was unwilling to forego sovereignty over East Jerusalem in the interests of a peace agreement with Jordan and
later, under a right-wing government in the 1980s, unwilling to reach any compromise with Jordan.
It is doubtful that the “Jordanian option” constituted a solution, but even when a solution did appear in the
form of the PLO’s acceptance of the idea of a Palestinian state next to, rather than instead of, Israel, in 1988, Israel was
not forthcoming. While a few years later Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin subsequently appeared — albeit reluctantly
— to comprehend the need, and the opportunity to move toward this solution, the
Oslo period unfortunately still saw many mistakes, not least of which was the continued
building of settlements, sending what could and was interpreted as a signal to the
Palestinians that Israel did not in fact intend to leave the Occupied Territories. Still
more serious mistakes were made in the negotiations conducted by Prime Minister
Ehud Barak, compounded by the subsequent outbreak of the Al-Aqsa intifada and the
total breakdown of hopes for peace amongst Israelis and Palestinians alike.
But the mistakes continue. Having in the past, pre-Oslo, supported Islamists
while deporting PLO moderates and jailing Fatah activists, more recently Israel not only rejected the Palestinian unity
government of 2007 that promised a resumption of popularly supported negotiations, but the government subsequently
failed, and continues to fail, to meet Israeli commitments that might strengthen the government of Abu Mazen
(Palestinian Authority President Mahmud ‘Abbas) and his capacity to make the compromises necessary for a peace
agreement. Moreover, we have done virtually nothing in response to the offer of the entire Arab world to make peace
with Israel — the Arab Peace Initiative launched by the Arab League in 2002 and repeatedly reaffirmed to this day.
Instead, this first decade of the 21st century, the sixth decade of Israel’s existence as a state, has seen unprecedented
violence between Israel and the Palestinians: from the Israeli side, the building of the fence/wall, bombings,
artillery shelling, “targeted” assassinations. This is in addition to the stalwart hallmarks of the occupation: settlement
building, arbitrary arrests, torture, searches, curfews and checkpoints, apartheid roads, separation of families, land
confiscation, uprooting of trees and crops. From the Palestinian side, there have been suicide bombings, terrorism, and
daily Qassam and mortar shelling of southern Israel. To these tactics the Israeli government argues, legitimately, that it
must defend its population, but it sees defense only through the path of military incursion and killing.
The cardinal mistake
is the failure
to take the steps
necessary to end
the conflict with the
Palestinians.
Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org 53
Golan...
Indeed, while the majority of the people on both sides support negotiations and the two-state solution, both
also seem to be convinced that only violence/force will make the difference. Yet common sense and our own experience
have demonstrated repeatedly that violence and the use of force have only given rise not to moderation but to greater
resistance and violence. In fact, it is this violence that strengthens the radical elements in our midst, weakening the
political capacity of the leadership on both sides and apparently driving a solution still further away. Thus, even as we
find ourselves in the process of peace negotiations with the PLO, neither Prime Minister Ehud Olmert nor Abu Mazen
appears able to “deliver” an agreement.
Yet, for all that has been said, the 60 years have in fact brought us closer to a
solution. The majority of both peoples and their official leadership have abandoned the
idea of territorial maximalism in favor of a peace based on two viable states side by side.
Both have agreed to the principle of land exchanges to make this possible. They also
have agreed to the idea of some kind of international presence to guarantee the peace.
And both, without officially acknowledging it, appear to understand that significant
compromises must be made on the highly sensitive issues of refugees and Jerusalem.
Furthermore, the Arab world is prepared to back up such a peace with normal relations
and security for Israel — an end to the conflict, thereby providing crucial backing for
the Palestinian peace-makers as well as added incentive for reluctant Israelis.
Thus maybe the 60th anniversary is more hopeful than it first appears …
It is this violence
that strengthens the
radical elements in
our midst, weakening
the political capacity
of the leaderships
on both sides
and apparently
driving a solution
still further away.
54 Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org
When the last British High Commissioner, Sir Alan G. Cunningham, left Palestine in
May 1948, he was asked to sum up his opinion on Jewish-Arab relations. Cunningham
said that repeatedly, when speaking with him, each side made sure to ignore the other.
The Jews would talk about a land without a people for a people without a land, while
the Arabs spoke about the bond between the Palestinian Arab state and the other
Arab countries. The Jews were preoccupied with immigration: who, when, and most
importantly, how many. The Palestinian Arabs were concerned with King ‘Abdullah of
Transjordan’s increasing interest in their land west of the Jordan. Neither thought that
satisfying the other, even a little, was in their own interest.
During the period of the British Mandate in Palestine, some experts tried to
dress up the need for mutual Jewish-Arab recognition in geopolitical garb. This idea
was known as “partition,” and it mainly focused on two separate nation-states west of
the Jordan. In 1948, when the Mandate came to an end and Israel was founded, the idea
of partition was already more than ten years old. Now it is more than 70. Does it still
have a chance?
The British were the promoters, even the creators, of the concept of partition.
Before the Mandate was signed, the British Colonial Office decided to divide the
historical territory known as “Palestine” into two parts along the Jordan River: The
eastern portion, Transjordan, was handed over to ‘Abdullah bin Husayn, Britain’s
Hashemite ally. And west of the river was to be the Jewish national home in accordance
with the Balfour Declaration of November 1917. To the British, this decision fulfilled
the “dual obligation” that they had given the Zionists and the Hashemites during World
War I.
However, escalating Jewish-Arab national conflict and an Arab revolt against
the British that erupted in April 1936 led the British government to advance the idea
of partition: a state for the Jews, a state for the Arabs with a connection to Transjordan,
and a separate solution for Greater Jerusalem. This principle, formulated by a royal
commission headed by Lord William Peel, which spent the winter of 1936/37 in
Palestine, was and still remains the basis for all the partition suggestions made since
then.
The parties’ reaction to the idea of partition oscillated between support and
rejection. From a historical perspective, it may be argued that as of now the graph of
support for partition shows a steady rise on both sides. The Zionists were the first to
respond positively to the principle of partition west of the Jordan, but not to the specific
Dr. Motti Golani
is a professor at
the University of
Haifa.
The Rise and Possible Fall of Partition West of the Jordan, 1948-2008
Motti Golani
Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org 55
plan of the Peel Commission. The Higher Arab Committee rejected the principle of partition out of hand in 1937. With
its weak political organization, the most that the nascent Palestinian national movement could achieve was an internal
consensus about what they did not want.
When the principle of partition came up again for discussion, this time at the United Nations in November
1947— in a slightly different form than the Peel Commission’s proposal— the two sides responded as might almost have
been expected. World War II and the Holocaust had hardened the position of the Zionists and the Yishuv. But with the
end of the war and fear that Britain would suppress the Yishuv as it had the Palestinian Arabs during the Arab revolt
in the 1930s, the Zionist leadership accepted the 1947 partition plan (UN Resolution No. 181) both in principle and in
practice. Their agreement was a historic milestone; most attempts, even today, to actualize the “Peel principle” of 1937
follow the partition plan of 1947. This plan was validated further when Israel’s Arab neighbors accepted the outline of
the 1947 partition — but by then, towards the end of 1948, it was too late.
When the dust had settled after the decisive Israeli military victory in June 1967, the most significant result
of the war turned out to be an Israeli-Palestinian return to the Mandate situation but
without the British, without a “father” to maintain order. Under the circumstances,
the Palestinians once again became significant players in the question of the country’s
future, and the issue of partition was back on the agenda, as in 1937, as in 1947, just as
if Arab countries had not ruled over land west of the Jordan from the end of the 1948
war until 1967.
Israel after 1967 was caught up in the euphoria of the return to “the complete
land of Israel” (basically, Mandatory Palestine). Out of this context emerged the new
Israeli right — the religious Zionists who settled the Occupied Territories with (and
even without) the tacit consent of the government. These people (350,000–500,000
strong, depending on whom you ask and how you count) were and still are the most
significant obstacles to partition.
In 1977–79, during the peace negotiations between Israel and Egypt, the latter tried to put the discussion of
partition back on the agenda of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but to no avail. Nevertheless, one result of the internal
Israeli debate in those years was the emergence of the Peace Now movement. If settlers (by means of Gush Emunim)
were the most important extra-parliamentary obstacle to partition, Peace Now was the leading organization outside the
Knesset advocating partition.
In the 1980s, the road back to partition was paved slowly and hesitantly on both sides. The Israeli-Egyptian
peace treaty (1979) and the first Lebanon War (1982) made it clear to the Palestinians that they were not being taken
into account in either peace or war. Their frustration led to a popular uprising in late 1987, but more importantly, to
recognition of the Palestinian leadership (PLO) in Israel for the first time in history, i.e., the principle of partition. It is
no coincidence that in the same year Jordan relinquished its demand for sovereignty in western Palestine.
In Israel, as a delayed reaction to the debacle of the Yom Kippur War (1973), to peace with Egypt, to the protests
over the failed adventure in Lebanon, and to the moderation of the Labor party, which had experienced its first years in
the opposition, something similar occurred. This made possible the Oslo Accords and the attempt to implement them
The Israeli-Egyptian
peace treaty (1979)
and the first
Lebanon War (1982)
made it clear to the
Palestinians that
they were not being
taken into account
either in peace or
war.
Golani...
56 Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org
in 1993–97. If after 1967 the idea of partition appeared to have suffered a mortal blow, it now had its finest hour even in
Israel. The revival of the idea of partition was perceived as being good for the Palestinians and therefore — and here is
the great novelty — good for Israel as well.
After the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in November 1995, it seemed as if aside from taking
steps mandated by the Oslo Accords, both sides had done everything they could to prevent the principle of partition
from being put into practice. The situation — a cross between partition and occupation — intensified Palestinian
terrorism, promoted a second intifada, and led to unprecedented Israeli investment in settlement infrastructure, a wall,
and roadblocks. All these greatly detracted from the stature of advocates of partition on both sides.
Moreover, these circumstances engendered a strange, unholy coalition of supporters of a return to the “one state
solution” of pre-1937. They include many Palestinians in Israel and in the Palestinian Authority, Gush Emunim and its
supporters on the right, and the Israeli far left, with plenty of help from outsiders and self-styled moralists, especially in
Europe. The ostensibly fringe conference held recently in London on behalf of the one-state solution represents a stance
that is no longer limited to the fringes. A Palestinian advocate of partition would have difficulty today stating his views
in public. In Israel it is once again being said that “there’s no one to talk to,” i.e., there’s
no one to divide up the land with.
We have to hurry. According to the latest surveys, a silent majority of both
Palestinians and Israelis still favor the principle of partition. But on both sides, faith
that it is possible to implement this principle has declined sharply. If we drag our feet
in the current sluggish political negotiations between the two sides, if we don’t have the
courage to pay a political price today, we will pay a terrible price in blood tomorrow.
A political attempt at a “one-state solution” will not be accepted in Israel, and for good
reason. It would levy a terrible price in blood on both sides, would wipe out the dream
of a Palestinian state for years to come, and would greatly undermine Israel’s ability to
exist. The only chance we — all of us — have is to partition the land. Those who dream of one state west of the Jordan
would do best to be patient. It will happen, if ever, only after many years of evolution, and definitely not through a
political decision. Both sides have to want partition very badly.
According to the
latest surveys, a
silent majority of
both Palestinians
and israelis still favor
the principle of
partition.
Golani...
Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org 57
A Success Story
Efraim Inbar
Israel was successful in parrying several military challenges intent on destroying the
Jewish state. Over time the power differential between Israel and its regional foes has
grown, enhancing Israel’s capacity to deal successfully with security problems. While
Israel has become stronger, its enemies, with the exception of Iran, have become weaker.
The Jewish state is widely recognized as an entrenched reality in the Middle East by
most of the world, and even within the Arab and Muslim states there is growing acceptance
of Israel.
The common image of a deeply-torn Israel is inaccurate; as on many issues that
were divisive in the past, there is a coalescence of views. An analysis of the political,
social, and economic dynamics within Israel indicates that time is on Israel’s side. This
is good news for the ability of Israeli society to withstand inevitable tests of protracted
conflict in the future.
Significantly, the ideological debate over the future of the territories acquired in
1967 is over. The Sinai was relinquished in 1979. Gaza is no longer a bone of contention
after the 2005 unilateral withdrawal. Over two-thirds of Israelis oppose any territorial
concessions in the Golan Heights. Concerning Judea and Samaria, there is a great majority
in favor of partition, the traditional Zionist position, and in favor of retaining the
settlement blocs, Jerusalem (the Temple Mount), and the Jordan Rift.
The current territorial debate revolves around the percentage of historic homeland
that should be relinquished to Arab control. The discussion is not couched in ideological
reasoning, but in a pragmatic assessment of Israel’s security needs and domestic
political costs. Similarly, the Israeli public no longer opposes the establishment of a
Palestinian state, once seen as a mortal danger, although skepticism over the ability of
Palestinian state-building is widespread.
Furthermore, the expectations of the Left for peaceful coexistence with the
Palestinians after the Oslo agreements, which elicited ridicule and anger on the Right,
were replaced by a more realistic consensus that peace is not around the corner. Israeli
society has reconciled itself to the idea that it will have to live by its sword for the foreseeable
future.
Similarly, economic policies that were once a source of domestic discord are no
longer debated. Nearly all Israelis agree that capitalism is the best way to create further
Efraim Inbar is Professor of
Political Studies at Bar-Ilan
University and the Director
of the Begin-Sadat (BESA)
Center for Strategic Studies.
58 Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org
Inbar...
wealth. Israel’s strong, vibrant economy is a result of wise economic policies stressing market values, and adapting to
globalization. Currently, all economic indices point to bright prospects despite continuous security problems. A strong
economy reinforces Israel’s social capacity to withstand the protracted conflict with its neighbors.
The Ashkenazi/Sephardi social rift also has become much less divisive than in the past. The number of “intermarriages”
is on the rise, obfuscating ethnic differences. The political system has responded positively to complaints of
discrimination by significantly increasing the number of Sephardi politicians at the local and national levels. The past
three decades have seen an influx of Sephardi Jews into the middle class and into the ranks of the senior officers of the
Israeli military.
The only rift within Israeli society which is still of great social, cultural, and political importance is the religious-
secular divide. However, this situation does not differ greatly from the afflictions of identity politics faced by
other Western societies. Moreover, this divide is not impassable. A growing number of Israelis identify themselves as
traditionalists, situated in the middle of the Orthodox-Secular continuum. The conflict
is not between two clearly defined camps, leaving room for finding a reasonable modus
vivendi.
In the international arena, developments have been similarly positive. The
American victory in the Cold War and in the 1991 Gulf War bode well for Israel, a
valued American ally. The November 1991 Madrid conference, convened by the US,
marked greater Arab acceptance of Israel. The Arab League peace initiative (2002) and
the Arab states’ presence at the Annapolis gathering (2007), indicate the continuation
of this trend.
Many important countries decided to improve relations with the Jewish state due to the perceptions of it as a
good conduit to Washington and its military and technological strength. The year 1992 marked the establishment of
ambassadorial relations by important states such as China, India, Turkey, and Nigeria. Jerusalem nourished new strategic
partnerships with Ankara and Delhi, alliances which significantly impact the region.
The ups and mostly downs in Israeli-Palestinian relations have hardly had an impact on how states conduct
their bilateral relations with Israel. Actually, the failures of the Palestinian national movement and the ascent of Hamas
in Palestinian politics have elicited greater understanding for the Israeli predicament. 9/11 was an event that also sensitized
much of the world to Israel’s dilemmas in fighting Palestinian terrorism.
Palestinian terrorism was successfully contained since the large-scale 2002 offensive in the West Bank. Gaza
will in all probability be subject to a similar military treatment to limit its nuisance value. The IDF learned its lesson
from the 2006 fiasco in Lebanon and seems better prepared to deal with Hizbullah.
In contrast, Israel’s foes in the Arab world display weakness and their stagnant societies are beleaguered by
The common image
of a deeply-torn
Israel is inaccurate;
as on many issues
that were divisive
in the past, there
is a coalescence of
views.
Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org 59
Inbar...
problems. The United Nations Human Development Reports underscore their huge deficits entering into the 21st century.
Their ability to challenge the status quo militarily is limited.
The only serious security challenge is a nuclear Iran. It is unclear how the international
community will deal with this issue, but the world seems more attentive to
Israel’s perspective on this matter. Possibly, Israel might be left alone to deal with the
Ayatollahs, but the obstruction of the Iranian nuclear program is not beyond the capabilities
of Jerusalem.
Finally, the Zeitgeist of this epoch, which stresses democracy and free market
values, favors Israel rather than its Muslim opponents, who continue to grapple with
the challenge of modernity.
In conclusion, Israel is a vibrant democracy that prospers and maintains strong social cohesion. Significantly, it
built a mighty military machine able to meet all regional threats. In parallel, Israel’s international status has improved,
while support for Israel in the United States, its main ally and the hegemonic power in world affairs, remains high.
Israel is a success story. If the country continues to inculcate the Zionist ethos into the next generations, its future looks
bright.
Israel is a vibrant
democracy that
prospers and
maintains strong
social cohesion.
60 Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org
Historical Success in Danger
Menachem Klein
While Israel celebrates its 60th anniversary, the Zionist movement that founded the
state marks 120 years of existence. By any standards the Zionist project is an extraordinary
historical success.
The Zionist enterprise has two complementary aspects. The first includes the
Zionist motivations, ideologies, and excuses. They are used to explain why Zionism
oriented itself to Palestine to justify the national project, to accuse its opponents, and
to defend its wrongs. This aspect is well known and too often used in domestic and
external debates. The second aspect, however, is less discussed in public. It relates to
the goals that the Zionist movement and Israel have and the means they use to achieve
them. Hereafter I wish to examine the latter aspect.
It should be noted that the Zionist enterprise could not succeed without massive
Jewish and international financial and political support. Since Zionism did not
originate in Palestine nor encompass the Arab Middle East, it heavily depends on outside
(i.e. outside Palestine/Israel) resources. Zionism and Israel succeeded in creating
Hebrew culture and tapping outside manpower, funds, political backing, and national
identity sentiment to support the project and to assure its existence.
Classical Zionism used three tools to achieve its goal of establishing a democratic
Jewish national home in Palestine: immigration of the maximum available number of
Jews to the historic homeland; acquisition of land in the free market with the permission
of the political authority; and the establishment of colonies, towns, and institutions
separate from those of the Arab majority. The architects and practitioners of the Zionist
enterprise were aware of their demographic inferiority vis-à-vis the Palestinians. They
aimed to overcome it by creating an asymmetric military and educational power balance
with the majority in addition to the massive external support. Immigration was
aimed at creating a critical demographic mass of Jews in the historic land of Israel;
land acquisition was meant to create a continuous territorial entity where the Jewish
state would be sovereign and from which it can expand; the establishment of colonies
and institutions were meant to create a well-governed counter-society to that of the
Palestinians. Until the end of the 1948 war, the Zionist movement acquired land and
expanded its territory by purchase from Palestinian or Arab owners; by building settlements
and cultivating the land as an act of ownership; by military conquest; and by administrative
fiat — the nationalization of Palestinian land that Israel took in 1948 war.
Dr. Menachem Klein is
a senior lecturer in Bar
Ilan University. He studies
mainly Israeli-Palestinian
relations and in 2000
served as an adviser to
the Israeli peace team. His
book A Possible Peace between
Israel and Palestine
was published in 2007 by
Columbia University Press.
Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org 61
Klein...
With the establishment of Israel’s external borders at the end of the 1948 war, it looked as if purchase and
military conquest would become things of the past. Thereafter, within its borders Israel used settlement building and
administrative means to achieve its classic goals. But the 1967 war opened up new territories for the pursuit of classic
Zionism. The expansion of the state into the occupied territories became Israel’s national project. It is a mistake to see
the settlement movement as the process of repeated waves of young enthusiasts, or as a marginal group of religious eccentrics
dragging the country along behind it. Even though the inner kernel of the settlers is motivated by a messianic
Jewish ideology, they act in the name and with the help of the Israeli government. The state encouraged Jews to move to
the new territories and build settlements, with the purpose of gaining control of the land there and redefining the state’s
borders. Since most of the territories occupied in 1967 (the exception being East Jerusalem) were not formally annexed
to Israel, the military administered them and became the dominant factor in the day-to-day life of the Palestinian
inhabitants. As Israel broadened the settlement project after 1977, the links between the settlements, the army, and
the state bureaucracy grew tighter, to the point that it is difficult to make out where one ends and the other begins. A
military-settlement-bureaucracy complex arose that suffocates not only the Palestinian
inhabitants of the territories, but also the future of the state of Israel. With its territorial
success, the classic Zionist method endangers the Jewish state.
Israel’s pre-1967 war borders with the Palestinians exist only in international law
textbooks. Through its settlements, army bases, security zones, the separation wall, and the
roads serving them exclusively, Israel de-facto expended. It contains 1967 land without annexing
most of it. Israel created an ethno-military regime over Mandatory Palestine — the
area from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea. If it does not exist already, then in a
few years a Jewish minority will rule over the Palestinian majority. Based on a power asymmetry
that works for them, the Jews rule the Palestinians through implementing differential
levels of state supervision, security control, bureaucratic limitations, legal status, civil rights,
and benefits. The Israeli Palestinians enjoy maximum rights and benefits compared to their compatriots in the 1967 territories.
They are Israeli citizens represented in the Knesset, though systematically discriminated against by the Jewish majority that
dominates development plans, budgets, education, housing, and ruling institutions. Below them are the Palestinians in East
Jerusalem. They are permanent residents only, enjoying fewer benefits and suffering from more restrictions than the first group.
However, with their right to move and work in Israel and to get health and national insurance they are above the West Bank
Palestinians. Israel divides physically the Palestinians of the West Bank into several geographical units, and heavily restricts the
movement between them by a huge system of roadblocks, checkpoints, and permits. Israel established this system prior to the
Intifada of 2000, and developed it as the conflict escalated. The Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are the worst off, especially since
the blockade put on them following the 2006 elections that brought Hamas to power.
Although many Israelis see the disadvantages of their system, they are unable to change it. The many actors
deeply invested in this project can lose too much once it changes. To prevent this, they exercise veto power on a seriously
fragmented political system and weak civil society. Therefore, the system will continue as long as the Palestinian
subjects inside and Israel supporters outside accept it, and the cost of maintaining it is less than that of changing it.
Even though the
inner kernel of the
settlers is motivated
by a messianic
Jewish ideology,
they act in the
name and with the
help of the Israeli
government.
62 Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org
Between Samson and Jeremiah
Ian S. Lustick
Israel’s existence in the Middle East is fundamentally precarious.
Twentieth century Zionism and Israeli statehood is but a brief moment in
Jewish history. Indeed there is nothing more regular in Jewish history and myth than
Jews “returning” to the Land to build a collective life — nothing more regular, that is,
except, for Jews leaving the country and abandoning the project. Abraham came from
Mesopotamia; Abraham left for Egypt. Jacob left for Hauran, then returned, then left
with his sons for Egypt. The Israelites subsequently left Egypt with Moses and Joshua,
and “returned” to the Land. Upper class Jews who did not leave with the Assyrians left
with Jeremiah for Babylon; then they returned with Ezra and Nehemiah. In the period
of Greek and Roman rule, massive numbers of Jews left the land to inhabit a Diaspora
where more Jews lived than in the Land, even before the Roman expulsion. In the 19th
and 20th centuries, a minority of Jews returned to the Land, but so far in the 21st century,
more Jews have left than have arrived. Currently Jews are a minority, or very close to it,
of the actual inhabitants of the Land of Israel, even excluding the territories of Reuven,
Gad, Naphtali, and Asher (in Lebanon and Jordan).
All this coming and going, going and coming, points to the danger and ahistoricity
of imagining that a Jewish state can be considered a “permanent” feature of the
region, even if it is as muscular, as domineering, and as capable of producing a wealthy
upper class as the Hasmonean kingdom.
The same point can be made by stripping away ideological prettifications and
considering Israel in comparative terms, as a settler/pioneering state established by
Europeans that did not annihilate or render irrelevant the indigenous population. In
North America, parts of South America, Australia, and New Zealand, European “fragment”
societies sank deep roots, overwhelmed indigenous populations, and appear today
as unproblematic, permanent parts of the regions where they were planted. Where
these fragments survived but did not annihilate or render irrelevant the indigenous
populations, European-style societies have been less fortunate. Considering the category
broadly (but omitting tiny enclaves such as Hong Kong, Macao, and Goa) we may
include the Crusader kingdoms, South Africa, Rhodesia, French Algeria, and Israel.
Israel, of course, is the only survivor. Counting from the state’s establishment it is 60
years old. Counting from the first arrival of Zionist settlers in Palestine it is 125 years
old — compared to almost 200 years for the Crusaders, about 80 years for the white
version of the Union, then Republic, of South Africa, 120 years for French Algeria, and
Dr. Ian S. Lustick, Bess W.
Heyman Chair, Political Science
Department, University
of Pennsylvania.
Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org 63
Lustick...
34 years for independent (white) Rhodesia.
In the context of Jewish history, Israel’s biggest challenge is to break the cycle of abandonment, return, and
abandonment. In the context of comparative politics, that means escaping the fate of all other polities falling within the
category of Israel’s creation by establishing itself as a commonsensical, naturalized, and permanent feature of a non-
European landscape. Can this be done?
Few Zionists were as clear-eyed about the imperative of reaching an agreement with the Palestinians in order
to solve this problem as Ze’ev Jabotinsky. His solution was to reach an agreement with the “Arabs of Palestine,” but only
after they had been taught to abandon what he explicitly acknowledged were their natural, normal, and even inevitable
struggles to eliminate the Zionist project. In his justly famous, but almost always mistranslated and misquoted 1925 article
“On the Iron Wall,” Jabotinsky emphasized three points: that Zionism needed peace with the Arabs of the Middle
East to succeed in the long run; that Palestinians were acting rationally by violently resisting Zionist objectives to transform
the country through massive Jewish immigration and Jewish state building; and
that a fair compromise, “based on national equality and guarantees not to drive them
out,” could be negotiated only after decades of war had proven to Arabs the indestructibility
of the Jewish presence.
From Ben-Gurion to Jabotinsky, Dayan to Begin, this has been Zionism’s
hopeful and rational response to the fact that Arab opposition to the “alien settlers,” as
Jabotinsky referred to Zionists, was neither barbaric nor fanatic, but perfectly normal
for an indigenous people. The Iron Wall plan was that after decades of bloody defeats,
the Arabs would divide among themselves. Some would be ready to accept half a loaf,
rather than continue a fruitless battle for objectives that would still be understood as
just, but more like a dream than an attainable reality. Extremists would continue to fight under the “No, Never,” slogan.
But according to Jabotinsky, Jewish political leaders behind the Iron Wall would be able to begin negotiations with the
moderates, thereby isolating the extremists, and then use those negotiations to establish a permanent peace for both
nations.
The first part of the strategy worked brilliantly. Bravely and effectively the Jews built and defended an Iron Wall
by inflicting defeat after defeat on the Arabs. And although signs of a split were present even earlier, in the aftermath of
1967, and certainly in light of Jordanian and Egyptian initiatives in the early 1970s and the split between the “acceptance
front” and the “rejection front,” the stage was set for the next phase of the Iron Wall plan — outreach to Arab moderates
to isolate the extremists and drive a fair and permanent bargain.
It was here that Jabotinsky’s vision clouded. He did not realize that while a normal nation does produce moderates
willing to compromise when it is regularly and painfully defeated for trying to achieve what it feels is just, a normal
nation (such as the Jews) that experiences victory after victory over an apparently impotent foe will tend to eliminate
moderates within itself, empower maximalists, and search for reasons to avoid negotiations and compromise in the
In the context of
Jewish history,
Israel’s biggest challenge
is to break the
cycle of abandonment,
return, and
abandonment.
64 Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org
Lustick...
expectation that fulfilling all its dreams simply requires the dogged and ruthless exercise of power.
Only when the Arabs, including the Palestinians, erected their own “Iron Wall,” and began teaching Jews painful
lessons about the impossibility of eradicating the Arab problem by force (the War of Attrition, the Yom Kippur War,
two Intifadas, two Lebanon Wars, etc.), did the Israeli populace gradually split between “moderates,” grudgingly ready
for a two state solution of some kind, and extremists adhering to the “No, Never,” slogan. What ensued from the mid-
1970s through the 1990s was a period of a “hurting stalemate,” during which opportunities for reaching an historic
agreement based on the kind of compromise that classical Zionism was aiming for in principle were lost.
Now that period is over. Triumphalist Jewish redemptionism, the bait and switch tactics of Ehud Barak at Camp
David, the cumulative effect of Islamist trends in the Middle East, and Arab fury and disgust with Israeli tactics against
the Palestinians have opened an ominous new era in which Muslims in the Middle East hate Israel more than they love
the Palestinians, while Israelis see the Middle East as a whole as akin to the Lebanese “botz,” (mud) encouraging those
who can to prepare future lives for themselves and their children in Europe, America, or Australia. Instead of moderates
on each side exploiting the rational human desire to avoid losing everything in order to save something, extremists
on each side are prevailing. Reinforced by despair at the apparent inhumanity of the
Arab/Muslim or Jewish/Zionist enemy, their messages of “No, Never!” have helped
turn both Israelis and Arabs toward styles of thinking that avoid even contemplating a
future in which Israel is an integral part of the region.
Time is running against Israel. The elite knows it. Note how often Prime Minister
Ehud Olmert and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni speak of “time running out” for the two
state solution that they, so belatedly, have realized is the country’s only hope. By now,
even if Israel rends itself to offer the Palestinians a real West Bank/Gaza/al-Quds state with a satisfying solution to the
refugee problem, this may no longer matter to the masses of Middle Eastern Muslims, or to the governments bound to
replace decrepit regimes in Cairo, Riyadh, ‘Amman, and Damascus. That will mean the end of the Palestinian option.
Then peace really will be only attainable via abandonment of the Jewish state or the arrival of the Messiah.
What I am arguing, however, is that the stakes have changed. At the outset of the Zionist project, and still in
1948, the question was not peace, but whether a Jewish state (in whatever form) would exist in the Middle East. For
decades following 1967, “progress,” of a sort, was registered by the substitution of “peace” for the country’s existence as
its fundamental challenge. Now, again, the fundamental challenge is existence, with peace as a requirement to meet that
challenge.
It may be too soon to say all hope is lost that Israel, via a generous Palestinian state solution, might escape the
tragic patterns of both Jewish history and comparative politics. But for any Israeli to believe that time is on the side of
the Jewish state, or to bet the future of the country on a contest in brutality with the rest of the Middle East, is actually
to endorse one of two options — Samson, or, eventually, Jeremiah — to die with one’s enemies or leave.
The fundamental
challenge is existence,
with peace
as a requirement to
meet that challenge.
Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org 65
Israel is frequently discussed in terms of the Israeli-Arab conflict, the occupation of the
Palestinian territories, or the launching of terrorist attacks against its citizens. Less frequently
discussed is Israel as a capitalist society in the era of globalization. Yet since the
1990s Israel has undergone an extensive and intensive process of globalization, which
has fundamentally altered its economy, society, culture, and politics. All this bears substantial
effects on the Israeli-Palestinian and Israeli-Arab conflict and the prospects of
its resolution. What, then, has been the overarching effect of globalization on Israel at
its 60th year of independence? The short answer is — bifurcation. Under the impact of
globalization, Israeli political culture has become simultaneously more universalistic
and more particularistic, more constitutional and more tribal (or communal), more
(neo-) liberal and more (neo-) fundamentalist and hence also more pragmatic and
more nationalist in terms of Jewish-Arab relations.
Geopolitically, Israel straddles the West (by being or being viewed as a protégée
of the United States) and the Middle East (the heart of world Islamic resistance to the
United States). Employing Benjamin Barber’s colorful terms, Israel straddles “McWorld”
and “Jihad.” Meanwhile, within Israel itself there is a tension between the market and
tribe. That is to say, the same two contending forces in the world at large are also present
in Israel: a global, capitalist, civic trend on the one hand, and a local, national-religious,
ethno-centric trend on the other.
The global-local or McWorld-jihad dialectic is the source of the confusing impressions
that Israel has cast in recent years. Viewed from one vantage point, Israel is
a stable parliamentarian democracy, is highly advanced economically, and is a Western-
style consumer society. Viewed from another, Israel is an occupying and oppressive
power, its Arab citizens suffer severe civic inequality, its population as a whole is
polarized between a strong, rich upper class and mass of a peripheral underprivileged
population, and it mixes state and religious affairs.
Thus, while Israeli society is undergoing socioeconomic “marketization” it also
is experiencing cultural-political “tribalization.” Moreover, in the case of Israel, the tension
between McWorld and jihad is rendered as a tension between the Jewish and the
Israeli facets of its identity. The official Zionist ideology depicts Israel as a “Jewish and
democratic” nation-state. Yet the global dialectic of McWorld-jihad has driven a wedge
between the “Jewish-democratic” Israel, producing two diverging trends — Jewish ethno-
nationalism (neo-Zionism) on the one hand, and Israeli pragmatic-liberalism (post-
Zionism) on the other. This bifurcation overlaps with class divisions in Israel, whereby
Professor Uri Ram is a
Sociologist at Ben Gurion
University, Israel and
the Director of the Humphrey
Institute for Social
Research. His recent book
is The Globalization of
Israel: McWorld in Tel
Aviv, Jihad in Jerusalem
(Routledge, 2007) won
the Shapiro Prize of the
Association for Israel
Studies as the best book
in Israel studies in 2008.
The Globalization and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
Uri Ram
66 Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org
the socioeconomic winners of globalization have tended to become politically and culturally more “global,” while the
losers of globalization have tended to react more “locally.” Significant sections of the upper classes in Israel, mostly of
European descent (Ashkenazim), today are more concerned with the prospects of their business, the returns on their
investments, their professional careers and their standard of living, than with national myths and military heroism.
Large sections of the lower and marginal classes in Israel today — whether Mizrachim (of Eastern descent) in development
towns or semi-Jewish new immigrants from Russia — find that the only channel open for their upward mobility
and political integration passes through the adoption of exactly those myths and habits that the upper classes are now
leaving behind them: ethnic solidarity and military service. The center-left political wing in Israel represents today the
upper classes; the right-wing and religious political wing represents the lower and middle-lower classes.
There are manifold cleavages in Israel: nation, class, religion, ethnicity, and ideology, to name just the major
ones. Yet much of this divergence coalesces around a global-local or civic-ethnic bifurcation. Observing Israeli society
through the prism of the globalization paradigm thus sheds light on the most important changes that have reshaped it
in the last two decades: the simultaneous development of two interwoven yet conflicting
political cultures — the culture of the market and citizenship, which attracts the
upper classes, and the culture of identity and communality, which attracts the lower
classes.
One offshoot of the socio-economic and political-cultural bifurcation described
here is that the resentment of the lower classes against what they perceive as a threat
to both the resources of their welfare and their sense of identity is directed against the
Israeli-Palestinian “peace process,” which they identify with the elite and the “Left.”
Thus, paradoxically, the globalization of Israel boosts the interest of some segments
of its upper classes and political elites in reaching a “solution” to the conflict, while at
the same time fostering the alienation of many in the lower classes from the pursuit of
non-belligerent stabilization in Israeli-Palestinian relations, driving them to support nationalist-populist political actors
who object to the process of withdrawing from the occupied territories and establishing there a Palestinian state.
Thus globalization both facilitates and obstructs the pursuit of a resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The social
and cultural bifurcation it generates coalesces with the political and ideological divisions in a way that blocks those
pragmatic elites in Israel and in Palestine who already reached the conclusion that the division of the land to two states
along the Green Line borders of 1967 is the only solution to the century-long conflict. The same process has taken place
in Palestine, where the rise of Hamas echoes belatedly the rise of Jewish religious-nationalism. As long as the jihadists
on both sides have the upper hand, the prospect for a solution based on historical compromise and reconciliation looks
very dim indeed.
Under the impact
of globalization,
Israeli political culture
has become simultaneously
more
universalistic and
more particularistic.
Ram...
Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org 67
Transformations in Israeli Politics since the 1990s
Doron Shultziner
Israeli politics have gone through many structural and ideological transformations
during the sixty years since Israel’s declaration of independence on May 14, 1948. Some
of the most interesting and far reaching developments have occurred since the 1990s.
Israel’s 60th anniversary invites an opportunity to reflect upon these developments in
Israeli politics and predict possible developments.
Since the 1990s, the Israeli political system has undergone speedy structural
reconfigurations and adjustments. Political polarization, on the one hand, and political
stalemate, on the other hand, provided the context of these changes. This duality accelerated
after the First Intifada (1987) and the onset of the peace process in Oslo (1993).
Growing distrust in politicians and corresponding growing disengagement of the public
from politics were the negative implications of political stalemate and polarization,
which manifested in declining rates of voter turnout reaching its nadir in the 2006 elections.
While the Parliament and governments sank into disrepute, other political players
began shaping important decisions that Israel’s elected representatives were unable
or unwilling to take. This tendency has had mixed results with regards to the Israeli
democracy. The negative side was that the Knesset, Israel’s symbol and body of democratic
sovereignty, lost power to unelected professional bodies. The positive side is the
heightened enforcement of the rule of law by these professionals.
This point may seem counterintuitive in light of the increasing exposure of corruption
and other political scandals in Israel. An explanation for this paradox is not that
actual levels of corruption have increased; in fact, they have probably remained stable
or even declined. Rather, the normative context of politics became more sensitive to
common political practices and the latter became intolerable by non-partisan political
players. The State Comptroller’s investigations and critical annual reports received increasing
weight and public exposure, thus weeding out illegal practices and strengthening
Israel’s rule of law. The Attorney General became a powerful independent political
player deciding on legal-political issues ranging from the indictment of Israeli ministers
and prime ministers, state positions on the security fence, state relationship with
the Jewish National Fund, and the indictment of the President. When the Netanyahu
government made a dubious political deal to appoint an unqualified person to this position,
the newly appointed Attorney General (now a politician) was forced to resign by
Doron Shultziner, Political
Science and History Departments,
Emory University.
68 Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org
Shultziner...
public discontent and mounting pressures from nonpartisan professionals. The appointment resulted in a legal investigation
that jeopardized the Prime Minster’s own position.
The champion of the rule of law in Israel, however, has been the Supreme Court. Under the leadership and influential
philosophy of Chief Justice Aharon Barak, the Israeli Supreme Court took a leading role in shaping and redefining
constitutional arrangements in Israel. Compromises and power struggles in 1992 bore two (quite ambiguous) Basic
Laws. The Supreme Court’s extended interpretation of these laws led to a full-fledged ‘Constitutional Revolution’. The
Supreme Court redefined itself as an active and assertive branch of government, and following the American model,
took on the responsibility to check and balance the actions and legislations of the government and the Knesset, and to
provide heightened (yet incomplete) protection of human rights. The Supreme Court sounded the drumbeat of Israel’s
march to become a liberal democracy and ensured its loyalty to the universal norms promulgated in its Declaration of
Independence.
Through the actions of these various non-partisan political players, Israel’s democracy has indeed improved, at
least in terms of internal rule of law. The continued occupation of the West Bank (and until 2005 the Gaza Strip), however,
has posed a mounting challenge to Israel’s liberal-democratic values and achievements.
The occupation led to Palestinian resistance, swaying Israeli public opinion to
the right at several critical moments and strengthening political parties that supported
the occupation. The First Intifada (1987) gave the Likud party a small plurality in the
1988 elections; the terrorist attacks in the heart of Israeli cities in 1995-1996 led to
Netanyahu’s razor-thin victory over Labor’s Peres. The Second Intifada (2000) brought
to power none other than one of Israel’s staunchest hardliners, Ariel Sharon, and kept
him there until he suffered a severe stroke in 2005. A similar sway to the right occurred after the Second Lebanon War
(2006). Indeed, one of the paradoxes of Israeli politics is that violence is seen as proof of the bankruptcy of the left wing’s
soft-line ideology and a vindication of the right wing’s hard-line ideology, instead of vice versa. In the context of these
political psychological factors and a contentious (and often violent) reality since the Second Intifada, the Israeli left
wing (Labor, Meretz, and the Arab parties) have been unable to win a plurality in parliament.
The only way out of this deadlock had to come from within the right wing itself. It is an irony of history and a
pathological sign of Israeli politics that Ariel Sharon – who ridiculed Amram Mitzna (Labor’s chairman for the 2003
election) for his proposal of unilateral disengagement from the Gaza Strip – implemented a far more radical disengagement
plan after he was elected. Politically, the Israeli right defeated the Israeli left. Ideologically, however, the left’s
policies triumphed as the right wing’s Greater Israel ideals proved disastrous and detrimental to Israel’s strategic needs
and jeopardized the whole Zionist enterprise of a Jewish state, with a Jewish majority within internationally recognized
borders. This realization gradually permeated even Sharon’s political mind.
These ideological transformations within the right wing in Israel are one of the most important political developments
of recent years because they make obsolete and irrelevant the long-standing dichotomous distinctions
between the right and left. This new era in Israeli politics has already manifested itself in the disengagement plan, the
The champion of the
rule of law in Israel,
however, has been
the Supreme Court.
Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org 69
Shultziner...
breakup and crisis of the Likud party, the creation of the center Kadima party, and talks
of the latter’s potential merger with Labor. Former Likud hardliners, including current
Prime Minister Olmert, now implement a once far left ideology. They use radical vocabulary
to emphasize that continued occupation and a lack of clear borders threaten
to transform Israel into an apartheid state should the situation persist.
These major transformations in Israeli politics hold promises and new challenges
for the future. Israel’s elected representatives are trying to reassert their power
vis-à-vis the Supreme Court. Yet, the norms and mechanisms of the rule of law will
continue to improve. The ideological convergence on the Palestinian question is likely
to bring to the fore other political dilemmas that are currently overshadowed by, and
shelved due to, the conflict: Arab Israelis’ demands for full recognition, hundreds of
thousands of overseas migrants who want citizenship, socio-economic inequalities, the
ultra-orthodox monopoly over marriage and divorce, the enactment of a constitution, and Israel’s place in the Middle
East’s politics. The bargaining power of the religious parties is likely to decrease, ultra-national parties are likely to disappear,
and mergers between several center-left parties will occur. The end of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will release
Israeli politics from its central complex and will lead to the realignment of the system, the disappearance of the old
politics and long-standing politicians, and the entrance of a new generation of politicians who will deal with a new set
of political challenges of a state and society that look nothing like those from 60 years ago.
The ideological
convergence on the
Palestinian question
is likely to bring to
the fore other political
dilemmas that
are currently overshadowed
by, and
shelved due to, the
conflict.
70 Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org
Debating the Failure of the 2000 Camp David Summit
Mark Tessler
The Declaration of Principles signed by Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization
(PLO) in September 1993 raised hopes that a breakthrough in the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict might at last be in sight, and during the next year or two there was indeed
dramatic progress toward peace. However, this early momentum did not last long. By
the middle of the 1990s the tide had turned both in the diplomatic arena and with
respect to facts on the ground. In light of the deteriorating situation, including an impasse
in the official negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, Ehud Barak and
Yasir ‘Arafat agreed in April 2000 to initiate secret talks, which began in Jerusalem in
May and then continued in Sweden. Participants in this “Stockholm channel” drafted
multiple versions of a framework agreement, and although no consensus was reached,
these talks were a step on the road to the critical meeting at which, finally, there would
be real and intense bargaining over all of the final status issues on which discussion had
been repeatedly deferred. This meeting was the Camp David Summit of July 2000. The
most important of the final status issues to which the summit devoted attention were
borders, settlements, security, Jerusalem, and refugees.
While there are a number of very well-informed accounts of what transpired at
Camp David, as well as a general consensus on the broad outlines of the positions and
proposals that were advanced, there are also competing narratives and sharply divergent
points of view about exactly what was offered by each side, and in particular about
who is responsible for the failure to reach agreement on any of the final status issues.
Many of these differing perspectives were brought together at a June 2003 conference
held at Tel Aviv University, and organized in cooperation with Al-Quds University in
Jerusalem. With presentations by Israelis, Palestinians, and Americans, including participants
in the summit and other scholars and specialists, the proceedings offer both
strong endorsements and strong criticism of the behavior of each of the negotiating
teams at Camp David.
Opening remarks at the Tel Aviv conference were made by Itamar Rabinovich,
a leading Israeli specialist on the Arab world who at the time was president of Tel Aviv
University. Rabinovich used the occasion to propose a categorization of the competing
narratives about the summit. Noting that there is neither a single Israeli version nor
a single American one, to say nothing of one by Palestinians, Rabinovich divided the
writing and pronouncements on the summit into four categories. The two most important
are those he labeled the “orthodox narrative” and the “revisionist counterclaim.”
Mark Tessler is Samuel J.
Eldersveld Collegiate Professor
of Political Science at
the University of Michigan.
He is also Vice Provost for
International Affairs and
Director of the University’s
International Institute.
Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org 71
Tessler...
The so-called “orthodox narrative” reflects the assessments offered by Prime Minister Barak and President
Clinton, as well as some of their deputies. It holds that the Israelis made unprecedented and indeed revolutionary concessions
at Camp David. For example, Barak crossed traditional Israeli red lines by agreeing to Palestinian sovereignty
in the Jordan Valley and some parts of Jerusalem. More generally, as expressed by Barak himself, “For the first time in
the history of this conflict, the Palestinians were offered … an independent contiguous state in more than 90 percent
of the West Bank and in 100 percent of the Gaza Strip, access to neighboring Arab countries, the right of return for
Palestinian refugees to any place in the Palestinian state, massive international assistance and even a hold in a part of
Jerusalem that would become the Palestinian capital.”
Thus, according to this narrative, the summit failed not because of any deficiencies in what the Israelis offered
but, rather, because the Palestinians, and ‘Arafat in particular, were not seriously interested in concluding a peace
agreement. After describing what the Israelis offered, Barak stated that “Arafat refused to accept all this as a basis for
negotiations, and [later] deliberately opted for terror. That is the whole story.” Similarly, according to Gilead Sher, one
of the Israeli principals at Camp David, “It was Yasir Arafat who critically failed … The
Camp David talks could have paved the way toward ending the occupation. What the
Palestinians called a conspiracy or a trap was in fact a genuine invitation to negotiate,
to have a real give and take process, unlike their wish to automatically obtain the totality
of their demands.” Dennis Ross, one of the American principals at the summit,
also blames the Palestinian leader for the failure to reach an agreement. He writes that
“Arafat has made being a victim an art form; he can’t redefine himself as someone who
must end all claims and truly end the conflict.” At Camp David, Ross asserts, “Only one
leader was unable or unwilling to confront history and mythology: Yasir Arafat.”
Rabinovich’s second narrative, the so-called “revisionist counterclaim,” advances
two interrelated arguments: that there were serious shortcomings in what the Israelis offered, even if the proposals
did break new ground from the Israeli perspective; and that responsibility for the failure to conclude an agreement does
not rest solely with ‘Arafat and the Palestinians. These arguments are advanced by some Israeli and American analysts,
as well as by Palestinians, and they do not accept that theirs is a “revisionist” narrative. Rather, they contend that the
summit was followed by a campaign of disinformation and spin, led by Israeli and American allies of Barak, emphasizing
Israel’s “generous offer” and ‘Arafat’s “rejectionism.” According to Robert Malley, another important member of the
American team at Camp David, “the largely one-sided accounts spread in the period immediately after Camp David
have had a very damaging effect.” Malley adds, however, that these accounts “have been widely discredited over time.”
With respect to Barak’s offer, Palestinians contend that it was not generous at all, primarily because it failed to
give them 22% of historic Palestine, as they believe had been agreed to in the Oslo Accord, but also because it remained
vague on many details. As expressed by Akram Haniyeh, a close advisor to Arafat and a member of the Palestinian team
at the summit, “Israel’s goal at Camp David was to obtain the Palestinian ‘golden’ signature on final recognition and the
‘end of conflict’ at a cheap price — without returning all the land, without acknowledging full sovereignty, and, most
Fall 2000 brought
lethal and sustained
confrontations that
soon put to rest any
hope that the peace
process might be
resurrected.
72 Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org
Tessler...
dangerous of all, without solving the refugee issue.” Ron Pundik, an Israeli critic of the “generous offer” thesis, offers a
similar assessment: “It was only generous compared to the traditional position of Israel’s right-wing, which never seriously
wanted peace, or to Barak’s opening position in the talks which, as even he himself subsequently realized, was
unrealistic.” With respect to the charge of Palestinian intransigence, Pundik adds, “Contrary to the perceptions that
have now taken root due to the Israeli spin, the Palestinians actually did display during the negotiations understanding
for Israel’s needs and interests.” Malley writes in this connection that “all three sides are to be indicted for their conduct”
at Camp David, including the Palestinians, but the summit did not fail because of Palestinian rejectionism. “If there is
one myth that has to be put to rest,” he contends, it is that the American-backed Israeli offer “was something that any
Palestinian could have accepted. One should not excuse the Palestinians’ passivity or unhelpful posture at Camp David.
But the simple and inescapable truth is that there was no deal at Camp David that Arafat, Abu Mazen, Dahlan or any
other Palestinian in his right mind could have accepted.”
The collapse of the Camp David summit was followed by efforts to revive negotiations and break the
stalemate. They included a dinner meeting between Barak and ‘Arafat at the Israeli Prime Minister’s home and Israeli-
Palestinian talks at Taba, Egypt in January 2001. However, none of this produced
lasting results. On the contrary, fall 2000 brought lethal and sustained confrontations
that soon put to rest any hope that the peace process might be resurrected. Nor
did subsequent events improve the situation. There were important changes in the
political map of both Israelis and Palestinians. These included ‘Arafat’s death, Israel’s
withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, a stroke that removed Ariel Sharon from the political
scene, the emergence of a new centrist government coalition in Israel, and the victory
of Hamas in the 2006 Palestinian elections. But clashes between Israel and the
Palestinians continued throughout this period, fueling anger and deepening distrust.
Accordingly, in the judgment of most observers, a peace agreement was as remote at
the end of 2007 as it had been at the end of the Camp David summit seven and a half years earlier.
A peace agreement
was as remote at
the end of 2007 as it
had been at the end
of the Camp David
summit seven and a
half years earlier.
Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org 73
Israel and the Arab World between War and Peace
Eyal Zisser
During the past 60 years, Israel has had to fight constantly for its independence, indeed
for its very existence. In the course of this struggle it has become the strongest,
most prosperous state in the Middle East — stronger than all its Arab neighbors combined.
Furthermore, Israel has struck roots in the region and established a set of relations,
sometimes close and intimate, with some of its neighbors, even with some those
with whom it had been locked in conflict for many years. Even so, Israel has still not
reached a condition of peace and security.
An important element in the Zionist idea that led to the establishment of the
State of Israel was the desire to turn the Jewish people into “a nation like all the nations,”
a “normal” nation — something the Jews were unable to do during the long period of
their Galut (“Exile”). The Zionist founders of Israel envisioned and aspired to the establishment
of a Jewish state living in peace with its neighbors, assuming that achieving
this would ensure the existence of the state and the security and welfare of its citizens.
This goal has been achieved only in part. Israel’s military power may be able to
ensure the Jewish state’s independence and sovereignty. However, in the eyes of many of
its neighbors, Israel is still a foreign element that must be uprooted at all costs. Strong
feelings of animosity, hostility, and outright hatred towards the Jewish state lurk just
beneath the surface, and sometimes break out into the open. To see this, one need only
recall Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad’s recent statements, which included
calling Israel an infectious germ that must be destroyed — terminology that reminds
many Israelis of the much darker days of the not so distant past.
In order to come into existence the State of Israel had to engage in a bloody
struggle against an Arab world that refused to accept the idea of partitioning Palestine
and establishing a Jewish state on part of it. Israel’s main problem for many years was
the hostility of its neighbors. Israel’s adversaries were led by Jamal ‘Abd al-Nasir’s Egypt
during the 1950s and 1960s, and Egypt was perceived in Israel as the main threat facing
the country.
However, most of the Arab states, and perhaps even all of them, eventually
changed their attitude. The years of bloody struggle had taken a heavy toll on the countries
actively involved in the conflict. Furthermore, most of the Arab states had to face
significant social and economic crises of their own that could no be ignored. As a result,
Arab leaders, beginning with Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, came to realize that
Professor Eyal Zisser is the
Chair of the Department of
Middle Eastern and African
History and the Director of
the Moshe Dayan Center
for Middle Eastern and
African Studies at Tel Aviv
University.
74 Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org
Zisser...
their own state interests dictated an end to the conflict with Israel. In November 1977 Sadat launched an historic peace
initiative that led to the signing of a peace treaty with Israel. Many others followed in Sadat’s steps, so that by the early
2000s the Arab League was able to adopt a peace proposal approved by all of its members that expressed readiness to
recognize the State of Israel’s right to exist and to establish peaceful relations with it.
The front-line confrontation states of Egypt, Jordan, and to a certain degree, even Syria, have shifted their position
and are now prepared to establish peaceful relations with Israel. However, the removal or reduction of this threat
to Israel has taken place under circumstances in which other menaces, old in their roots and new in their character,
have increased.
First among them is the Palestinian question, which has plagued Israel from the moment of its establishment,
and even earlier. During Israel’s first two decades, it seemed as though the problem had been limited to the question
of the future of those Palestinians in refugee camps scattered across the Arab world. However, in the wake of the June
1967 Six-Day War the Palestinian question reemerged — driven in large part by the growth of the Palestinian national
movement — and became a prominent item on Israel’s and the world’s agenda.
The Palestinian national movement unequivocally opposed at first Israel’s right
to exist and called for the destruction of the Jewish state. In time this position changed,
culminating in the movement’s readiness to recognize Israel’s existence and reach a
peace settlement. At the end of the Six-Day War, Israel had expressed a readiness to relinquish
the territories over which it had gained control in exchange for a peace agreement.
Over the years, however, the idea that Israel should encompass all of the Land
of Israel west of the Jordan River, including the whole West Bank and the Gaza Strip
(Greater Israel) gained strength. This approach found expression in the construction of
settlements in the disputed territories.
The Palestinian intifada of 1987 and growing concern over the demographic aspect of the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict led many Israelis to call for abandoning the “Greater Israel” idea in favor of arriving at a settlement with the
Palestinians based on the notion of two states for two nations. These people warned that the failure to reach such a
settlement might enable Israel to remain a single state, but it would also compel it in time to become bi-national in
character. Such an eventuality, they noted, was far removed from the Jewish and democratic entity envisioned by the
Zionist thinkers and founders of Israel.
The process of disengagement from the Gaza Strip led by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon culminated in September
2005 and gave expression to the “two states for two nations” solution, or at least a solution based upon Israel withdrawing
into borders that would ensure the maintenance of its Jewish and democratic foundations. Recall that Israel came
into being when its first Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion, decided that the partition plan — the main feature of
which was the establishment of a Jewish and democratic state in part of the Land of Israel — should be accepted. As the
country reaches its 60th birthday, Israel’s Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, seeks to follow in Ben-Gurion’s path and reach
In the current clash
with Iran, Israel
finds itself in the
unusual and interesting
position of
having allies among
the Arab states.
Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org 75
Zisser...
a decision no less momentous.
Ironically, however, the deep changes taking place in Israeli society have been met by a radical turn of events
in Palestinian society whose main feature is the rise to power of Hamas — an Islamic movement that refuses to accept
the existence of the State of Israel or to establish peaceful relations with it. Thus the Palestinian question remains
unresolved. And Israel will continue into the foreseeable future to ponder whether this tangled and complex conflict
with the Palestinians, involving sensitive issues such as refugees and Jerusalem, can really be settled. Perhaps all that is
realistically achievable at the present time is a reduction of the acuteness of the conflict.
The Arabs living within the State of Israel who hold Israeli citizenship constitute an additional element of the
Palestinian question. They continue to waver between carrying on a civil rights struggle aimed at improving their
conditions as citizens and waging a nationalist struggle that will widen the already great gap separating them from the
Jewish citizens of Israel.
It is also ironic that the withdrawal of most of the Arab states from the calamitous
conflict with Israel has taken place at the same time as the emergence of new forces
intent on fuelling it, most notably Iran and al-Qa‘ida. Israel perceives Iran as a clear and
present threat because of the latter’s efforts to achieve nuclear capability and because of
its leaders’ unrelentingly hostile rhetoric towards Israel.
In the current clash with Iran, Israel finds itself in the unusual and interesting
position of having allies among the Arab states. The 1950s witnessed a parallel situation,
when Iran and Turkey joined Israel in the so-called “alliance of the periphery” in order
to confront the Nasserite threat from Egypt. Today, Arab states, led by Egypt and Saudi
Arabia, are joining Israel, if only covertly, to advance their mutual interest vis-à-vis the
threat from Iran. This has led some observers in Israel to assert that the Middle East conflict is no longer between Arabs
and Israelis, but between moderates and radicals. The war in Lebanon in the summer of 2006 presented a good example
of this configuration: while not everyone who opposed Israel was Arab, not all of the Arabs opposed Israel.
Without doubt, Israel possesses sufficient military power to defend itself against any military threat. However,
this is not enough to achieve the recognition, peace, and quiet security that Israel longs for, or the normalcy for the
Jewish people that the Zionist thinkers and founders of Israel sought. This goal can be achieved only through a combination
of military might and effective statecraft aimed at a peace settlement. The lesson for Israel of the past 60 years
— marked by both bloody fighting and breakthroughs to peace — is that the goal of living in peace and security in the
region is attainable.
This has led some
observers in Israel
to assert that the
Middle East conflict
is no longer
between Arabs and
Israelis, but between
moderates
and radicals.
76 Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org
V
Religion and Society
Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org 77
We cannot expect Israel to be normal, as the country is constantly under threat and
stress. But we can expect Israeli leaders to have some knowledge and expertise in dealing
with the main challenges that lie ahead. These challenges include resolving the conflict
with the Palestinians; integrating Israeli-Arabs into society; and changing the relationship
between the state and religion.
In order to address these challenges effectively, Israeli leaders will have to summon
the courage and apply their skills to the pursuit of several objectives: 1) dividing
the land and ending the occupation, thereby facilitating a two-state solution; 2) accommodating
the interests of the Israeli- Arabs — striving to safeguard equal rights and liberties
for all citizens notwithstanding nationality, religion, race, or color, while insisting
that citizens fulfill their duties as such; and 3) ensuring the separation between state and
religion.
Resolving the Israeli -Palestinian Conflict
Between the Jordan River and the sea there are now about 7.2 million Israelis
(among them 1.3 million Israeli-Arabs) and 4 million Palestinians. The annual growth
rate of the Palestinians is among the highest in the world. Israel faces the danger of
becoming another Bosnia, or another white South Africa, or a combination thereof.
Therefore there is an existential need to realize a two (hopefully not three) state solution.
In the Camp David talks of 2000, Israel proposed giving up 92% of the West
Bank and 100% of the Gaza Strip. Yasir ‘Arafat insisted on the Right of Return, which
meant suicide for Israel. In the following Taba talks, Israel was willing to acknowledge
family unification on humanitarian grounds, arguing that it cannot accept a full-scale
right of return for all Palestinian refugees. By insisting on this, ‘Arafat insinuated that he
wished the demise of Israel as a Jewish-Zionist state.
The occupation should be minimized if not terminated, and the sooner the better.
Every person aspires to be free. As the historian Lord Acton (1834-1902) stated so
eloquently: “Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political
end ... liberty is the only object which benefits all alike, and provokes no sincere
opposition.”
Generally, I favor bridges rather than fences. However, when during the March
of 2002 Passover terrorists attacked Hotel Park in Netanya, where people convened to
Raphael Cohen-Almagor
(D. Phil., Oxford), Professor
and Chair in Politics,
University of Hull, England.
Founder and Director
of the Center for Democratic
Studies, University
of Haifa (2003-2007). Fellow
at the Woodrow Wilson
Center (2007-2008).
Challenges on the Road to Tranquility
Ralphael Cohen-Almagor
78 Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org
hold their traditional meal, Israel’s understandable response was to erect the fence in order to defend its population.
The effects of the partial construction of the fence have been stunning and conclusive. Whereas there had been
an average number of 26 terrorist attacks per year, the number of attacks has dropped to three per year. Meanwhile, the
death toll has fallen by over 70% (from 103 to 28), and the number of injured has dropped by more than 80% (from an
annual average of 628 to 83). Terrorist penetration into Israel from the northern West Bank, where the initial portion
of the fence was completed, has dropped from 600 per year to zero — as Israel was able to foil every suicide bombing
originating from the northern West Bank and specifically from the cities of Nablus and Jenin, areas that had previously
been infamous for exporting suicide bombers.
At the same time, it is important to recognize that the route of the fence is discriminatory. Large parts of the
fence pass inside the Green Line. 16.6% of the West Bank land is expected to serve as a buffer between Israel and the
fence. These are the most fertile lands of the Bank. Upon the fence’s completion, 160,000 Palestinians are likely to be
locked in buffer zones. Forty-seven gates are supposed to enable the movement of farmers to their lands. However,
these gates are opened at the discretion of Israeli guards; Palestinian freedom of movement is extremely limited.
The fence should have been built along the 1967 Green Line, with some accommodations
necessary to include large cluster settlements in the Jerusalem area and
Ariel, with compensation for the Palestinians in other areas. The idea of using the fence
to create geographic-political facts through the de facto creation of a “greater” Israel
and a “lesser” Palestine is unwise and unjust. The fence should be moved, and it will
be. The questions revolve only around time, money, and blood involved. In the Bible,
there is one word for both money and blood: “Damim.” Israeli politics eloquently and
forcefully explains why.
Integrating the Israeli -Arabs into Society
After the Holocaust, the goal was to found a safe haven for Jews from all over the world so as to avoid the possibility
of another horrific experience of that nature. Indeed, the United Nations acknowledged the need to establish a
Jewish state. Yet, by its nature a Jewish state discriminates against Israeli Arabs.
To assure an equal status for the Arab minority, which constitutes some 19% of the Israeli population, the Declaration
of Independence holds that Israel will foster the development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants;
that it will be based on the foundations of liberty, justice, and peace; that it will uphold complete equality of social and
political rights to all of its citizens irrespective of religion, race, or sex; and that it will guarantee freedom of religion,
conscience; language, education, and culture.
There is a lot to do in order to realize these ends. Israel needs to strive for equality in housing, in municipal
budgets, in allocation of resources; fight against racism, bigotry, and discrimination; introduce changes to accommodate
the interests of Israeli-Arabs so that they would “feel at home” in their own country. Delegates of the Arab minority
should be represented, in accordance with their size in society, in the Knesset and in the government. Studies of all
religions that exist in Israel should be made available.
Israel faces the danger
of becoming
another Bosnia, or
white South Africa,
or a combination
thereof.
Cohen-Almagor...
Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org 79
Separating the State and Religion
Democracy is supposed to allow each and every individual the opportunity to follow their conception of what
is good without coercion. Israel today gives precedence to Judaism over liberalism. I submit that on issues such as this
one, the reverse should be the case. Israel, being the only Jewish state in the world, should strive to retain its Jewish
character. The symbols should remain Jewish, with some accommodations, in order to make the state a home for its
Palestinian citizens as well. Shabbat should remain the official day of rest. Palestinian villages and towns may make
Friday their day of rest. Hopefully, one day, Friday and Shabbat will become the two official days of rest.
However, the preservation of the Jewish character of the state should not entail coercion of the predominant
secular circles of Israel. We need to differentiate between the symbolic and the modus operandi aspects. Regarding the
latter, there must be a separation between state and religion. People are born free and wish to continue their lives as free
citizens in their homeland. Coercion is alien to our natural sentiments and desires to lead our lives freely.
Hence, while Shabbat should be observed, malls and shopping places outside the cities should be available for the many
people who work during the week and do their shopping during weekends. Public transportation should be made available
for all people. Kosher shops and restaurants should be available, as should non-
Kosher shops and restaurants for the secular, agnostic population. Most importantly,
the significant events in one’s life — birth, wedding, divorce, and death — should be
handled in accordance with the people’s own choices. If they so desire, people may involve
the rabbinate and other religious institutions in their private lives. If people wish
to have secular ceremonies, then they should have the ability to conduct them and not
be forced to undergo practices that mean very little, if anything, to them. The state
should have as little say as possible in intimate, family affairs.
Conclusion
Israelis yearn for tranquility — for normalcy. In the short term, at least, this will surely be difficult. Nonetheless,
the surest path to ensuring that the country survives and thrives as a democracy is for Israeli leaders to maintain a
zero tolerance posture toward all forms of terror while seeking to build trust and good will with Israel’s neighbors, and
between Israeli Arabs and Israeli Jews. It will further require them to ensure that liberalism prevails over Judaism.
Israel today gives
precedence to
Judaism over liberalism.
Cohen-Almagor...
80 Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org
A major component of the socio-political scene in Israel concerns the relations between
secular and religious Jews. Israel’s 60th anniversary is an opportune time to take
stock of the recent changes and long-term, not easily reversible trends in this arena.
To some extent Israel is a multicultural society, portions of whose population
are distinguished from each other by country of origin, length of stay in the country,
and more.
The central axis of differentiation among Israeli Jews is between the secular
(about 35-40%) and the religious (about 15-20%, including the ultra-orthodox) segments
of society. The “traditional,” comprising the remaining 35-40% of the Jewish
public, lie between these two camps.
The secular-religious divide overlaps with the political cleavage between the
“right” and the “left.” Most (though not all) religious Jews are right-of-center in their
political leanings, while about half of the “traditional” and only a minority of the secular
are political rightists.
The conflict between the secular and religious camps, which overlaps with the
political struggle between the “right” and the “left,” has recently softened. At this juncture,
the character and tone of the conflict is no more virulent than what is legitimate,
indeed necessary, in a democracy. To use Samuel Huntington’s terms, there is no “clash
of civilizations” but rather a parting of them.
By contrast, the gap between the secular and religious camps is a long-term
phenomenon that is becoming more pronounced from generation to generation, while
the commonality between them has steadily eroded.
The Attenuation of Conflict
The conflict between religious and secular Jewish Israeli forces has become
milder in recent years for two reasons: 1) the disappearance of “Shinui,” a secularist
party that had fanned the flames of secular-religious conflict for its own political aims,
and 2) the fear that the confrontation between the camps might erupt into violence.
The clash between the camps reached its most violent expression with the assassination
of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1995. The murderer, Yigal Amir, did
not in any way represent the religious right, but he originated from this camp and his
motive was that of preventing a “left-of-center” policy (the Oslo Accords) from being
implemented. Hence the fear that something of this nature might happen again has led
Eva Etzioni-Halevy is Professor
Emeritus in the Department
of Sociology, Bar-Ilan
University, Israel and a Fellow
of the Academy of the
Social Sciences in Australia.
She has written and edited
fourteen books in Sociology,
and numerous articles in
professional journals in English
and in Hebrew.
The Intergenerational Split Between Secular and Religious Jews
Eva Etzioni-Halevy
Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org 81
to the attenuation of the most vitriolic mutual vilification, which had included referring to one’s opponents as Nazis,
fascists, Arab terrorists, enemies of the Jewish people, or traitors.
The most recent physical confrontation between a left-of-center government and the religious right concerned
the evacuation by the security forces of settlers from the Gaza Strip in 2005, and from the unauthorized West Bank
settlement of Amona in 2006. Although these events involved violence, it was of a restrained character — resulting in a
few minor injuries, but no loss of life.
Since then, the government has been drawing back from confrontation with settlers in unauthorized settlements,
opting, instead, for a compromise whose outcome is not yet clear.
Thus, in comparison to previous years, conflict has been more subdued than before. As noted, such conflict, as
long as it proceeds within the guidelines of democratic rules and the diversity of opinion that underlies it, is not only
legitimate, but is the oxygen that flows through the veins of a democracy. Without it, no meaningful elections would be
possible.
The Growing Intergenerational Split
Paradoxically, the split between the secular and the religious has increased.
This is a long-term, intergenerational, and possibly irreversible trend in Jewish Israeli
society.
Whereas the ultra-orthodox have long lived in towns and neighborhoods of
their own, the other religious segments of society have tended to live in “mixed” environments.
In recent years, however, an increasing number of the young religious have
separated themselves from the secular by moving into neighborhoods, towns, and
settlements of their own, where religious law governs conduct in public spaces. Meanwhile,
the public spaces they leave behind, in which the secular form the majority, have
become more and more secularized. At the beginning of the state era, all Jewish shops and entertainment venues were
closed on the Sabbath and the Jewish holidays. Today, many remain open on those days.
There also has been an increasing split in the observance of national holidays: public Independence Day celebrations,
which used to form a ritual of unity for the entire nation, have moved from the public into the private sphere.
Jerusalem Day, marking the unification of the city following the Six-Day War, is celebrated mainly by the religious,
while the day of mourning in memory of the Rabin assassination is observed almost exclusively by the secular left.
Most importantly, there is a growing intergenerational split in Jewish identity: The religious, as well as almost
all the traditional and first generation secular (i.e. those who have been raised in religious homes) define themselves as
possessing a strong Jewish identity. This identity remains strong among the second and third generation secular, but is
substantially less than it is among the religious and the “traditional.” Furthermore, knowledge of Judaism among the
secular is declining from generation to generation.
The memory of the Holocaust, which has long served as a common denominator binding the entire Jewish
people together, is gradually fading as the number of survivors — those best equipped to hold the memory alive — di-
The gap between
the secular and
religious camps is
a long-term phenomenon
that is
becoming more
pronounced from
generation to generation.
Etzioni-Halevy...
82 Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org
minishes. Soon there will be no one left to recount the Holocaust from first-hand experience.
Countervailing Factors Are Insufficient
Factors that work in the opposite direction include the previously mentioned
“traditional,” along with the Conservative and Reform movements. All of these stand
in between the religious and the secular camps. But the Conservative and Reform
movements have not been taking off in Israel. The traditional group alone can mitigate,
but cannot reverse, the trend of a widening abyss between the secular and the
religious.
The growing separation between the camps is not on the verge of leading to
Israel’s breakdown. But the deeper the cleavage, and the narrower the common ground
between them, the greater the difficulty they will have in cohabiting in the same political system.
What could bridge the chasm to some extent would be if Judaism were to reinvent itself as a set of values, ideas,
symbols, and cultural contents that are meaningful not only to the religious and the “traditional,’ but also to secular
Jews. In fact, although there are some rabbis who have been making valiant attempts to render Judaism more “userfriendly”
for secular Jews, the goal of making it truly significant to this group is still far from being realized.
Such conflict . . . is
not only legitimate,
but is the oxygen
that flows through
the veins of a democracy.
Etzioni-Halevy...
Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org 83
On the face of it, the concept of civil society should have come naturally to Israeli society
based on past experience. After all, the Diaspora’s Jewish communities around the
world were in many ways classical civil society formations — voluntary, always set apart
from the state apparatus, and in charge of their members’ various identity, economic,
religious, educational, and other necessities on a non-profit basis. Like most other civil
society organizations, these communities also functioned as social centers, and in this
capacity they molded the shared values and defined the acceptable codes of behavior.
The Yishuv (Jewish pre-state society in mandatory Palestine) was also a fully
developed civil society formation, with the sovereign political authority lying in the
hands of the British Mandate authorities. Nevertheless, the facts on the ground suggest
that as of today, Israel’s 60th year of independence, Israeli civil society — despite its
significant volume and its impressive performance on a wide range of highly necessary
social, political, and economic functions — is not generally perceived as a main pillar of
Israeli democracy. In fact, presently, the civil society is widely perceived by Israeli politicians,
the general public, and even some of its own activists as a “temporary order” that
will give way to the state if and when the latter reclaims its role as the main provider of
social services and as the chief regulator of the socio-economic sphere.
. For lists of civil society’s functions and characteristics, see, e.g., Jean L. Cohen and Andrew
Arato, Civil Society and Political Theory (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1992); Ernest Gellner,
Conditions of Liberty: Civil Society and Its Rivals (London: Hamish Hamilton, 1994); Adam
B. Seligman, The Idea of Civil Society (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1995); and
Thomas Janosky, Citizenship and Civil Society (Cambridge, UK and New York: Cambridge
University Press, 1998).
. According to the government’s records, in 2006 Israeli civil society encompassed more
than 25,000 registered organizations and already in 2002 it made use of 236,000 jobs, most
of which were voluntary (i.e., unpaid). See http://www.pmo.gov.il/PMO/Communication/
Spokesman/2008/02/spokemigzar240208.htm.
. A classical example of many civil society activists’ expectations that at critical moments
the state takes over issues that they took upon themselves to deal with could be found
recently in the heated dispute over the African (mostly Sudanese and Eritrean) illegal migrants.
While the official Israeli policy was and still is of closing its gates, and while Prime
Minister Ehud Olmert goes as far as calling this incoming influx of migrants a “human
tsunami,” http://www.haaretz.co.il/hasite/spages/957863.html, the Physicians for Human
Rights — Israel (PHR) organization, closed down its medical clinic in Tel Aviv where for
years it provided medical services to illegal residents as well. In their closing statement, PHR
ignored the fact that the state made a decision not to let the migrants in and demanded that
the health authorities take responsibility for these illegal residents medical needs. See “On
the 23rd of March: PHR-Israel Closes the Open Clinic; Demands Responsibility of Israeli
Health Ministry,” Physicians for Human Rights — Israel, March 16, 2008, http://www/phr.
org.il/phr/article.asp?articleid=557&catid=64&pcat=-1&lang=ENG.
Dr. Tamar S. Hermann,
Dean of Academic Studies,
The Open University of Israel,
and the Israel Democracy
Institute
Israeli Civil Society at 60
Tamar S. Hermann
84 Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org
Clearly, in recent years, the Israeli state has exhibited massive withdrawal from many of its “traditional” roles as
a self-declared welfare state. This was partly the result of the world-wide phenomena of globalization and privatization,
and partly the consequence of the ongoing change in the top leaders’ definition of the state’s basic responsibilities for its
citizens’ wages, job security, education, personal security, medical needs, etc. Although certain free market advocates
present some figures suggesting otherwise, the prevalent sense in Israel today is that the state has neglected some of
its basic duties to the point where the weaker public sectors, especially but not exclusively, are unprotected and unattended.
Thus, although the official position fosters the idea of limiting the (direct) involvement of the state in the socioeconomic
realm, the empirical data indicate that the Israeli public considers this limited involvement of the state as a
malfunction and widely expects it to come back into the picture to act as a strong regulator as well as provide extensive
services and cater to a wide range of needs and wishes of its citizens (and in certain cases even of non-citizens).
Thus in a recent focus group-based study conducted in 2007, the majority of
the participants in all groups acknowledged the critical need of Israeli society for the
services and support presently provided mainly, and by default, by civil society organizations.
As one participant put it, “at least they are doing things and help people [as
opposed to the state],” while another participant maintained in the same spirit that,
“the very fact that they actually provide when someone is in need is highly valuable
under the circumstance.” Most, although not all participants also expressed high appreciation
for the quality of the services given by these organizations and even more
so to the warmth and attention they offer to the needy: “When I had to weep over a
severe case of cancer in my family, the only shoulder I could cry over was that of the
people of the Israel Cancer Association.” At the same time, in almost all focus groups
the participants expressed their concerns about the absence of a regulatory body which
could monitor the activities and functioning of the civil society organizations and particularly
the salaries of their top managers (following several revelations by the media
of mega-earning by some of these managers). These positive attitudes towards civil
society notwithstanding and apparently contrary to the free market-small state logic, all participants favored a future
state of affairs in which civil society organizations would be “nice to have,” but where the state would regain a strong
. Even prominent politicians acknowledge this dismal situation. For example, Yuli Tamir, Israeli Minister of Education,
said in so many words that Israeli civil society takes upon itself missions that are classical duties of the government. See
Yuli Tamir, “Instead of the Government and the Knesset,” Haaretz, January 26, 2007, http://www.haaretz.co.il/hasite/pages/
ShArtPE.jhtml?itemNo=112412&contrassID=2&subContrassID=3&sbSubContrassID=0.
. The often-heard official counter-argument is that significant amounts of money are being transferred (indirectly) to
the weaker sectors via the civil society organizations. See e.g., http://www.pmo.gov.il/PMO/Communication/Spokesman/
2008/02/spokemigzar240208.htm.
. The study included nine different focus groups constructed by gender, age, class, religiosity, ethnic origin, nationality, date
of immigration to the country, and place of residence. Each group included 8-9 participants (all together around 80 people,
not a statistically representative sample of the population but quite a good selection of the common “opinion clusters.” The
discussions took about two hours each and were conducted in the native language of the group’s majority (Hebrew, Arabic, or
Russian). For more details see Hermann, Lebel, and Zaban, The Politics of Antipolitics (Jerusalem: Israel Democracy Institute,
forthcoming).
Israeli civil society
— despite its significant
volume and
its impressive performance
on a wide
range of highly necessary
social, political,
and economic
functions — is not
generally perceived
as a main pillar of
Israeli democracy.
Hermann...
Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org 85
presence in its citizens’ lives. A typical example of this dominant position can be found in one participant’s statement:
“It is the state that should administer the society. The government is your representative.
This is the best and normal way of taking care of the majority of the people.
Other bodies can perhaps be of help but cannot replace it because the people must have
some[body] which will be accountable to them, someone to whom they can come with
their troubles and who will have to deal with their problems.” Similarly: “We are all
Israelis and we call for the guidance of the state and wish to bond to the state.”
Thus it is apparent that the Israeli state must redefine, and indeed expand its
relevant spheres of activity in order to maintain its public legitimacy. At the same time,
Israeli civil society — despite its success in terms of growth in volume and role expansion
— should invest more effort in establishing itself as a legitimate and permanent
actor in the democratic arena and not as a substitute service provider.
In recent years, the
Israeli state has
exhibited massive
withdrawal from
many of its “traditional”
roles as a
self-declared welfare
state.
Hermann...
86 Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org
Why did Jews immigrate to Israel? And how were these Jews received after they settled
into the young state? These central questions are the subject of continuing debate
among scholars from various fields.
On one side of this debate are those who have taken the “establishment” approach.
They argue that Jews from Arab countries were persecuted in their homelands,
just as Jews in Europe had been. They were brought to Israel in rescue operations, where
upon arrival they received equal treatment from state authorities, and, along with their
children, were afforded a modern education.
On the other side of the debate are those who have adopted a “critical” approach.
They contend that Jews had lived harmoniously with Muslims in Arab countries until
Zionism destabilized their status. That is, Jews in Arab lands came to be identified with
Zionism while Muslims came to be identified with Palestinian Arabs. Nonetheless, Jews
from Arab countries were not enthusiastic about moving to Israel. In fact, were it not
for the campaign waged by the Jewish Agency and the Israeli government, they would
not have left their Arab homelands. Moreover, when they did immigrate to Israel they
faced discrimination, served as cannon fodder and cheap labor, and their cultural identity
was suppressed.
It is difficult to generalize the attitudes and behavior of Muslim Arabs toward
the Jewish minorities in their midst. While Jews tended to be humiliated in Yemen, they
were treated relatively fairly in Iraq and in some places in Morocco as well. Compared
to Christian European attitudes in the Middle Ages, Jews in Arab countries faired reasonably
well. But things changed in Western Europe as a result of the Enlightenment:
Jews there were emancipated, and most of them became equal citizens (except for the
Russian empire in which half of world Jewry lived). In contrast, Jews remained secondclass
citizens in Muslim countries.
When part of the Muslim world came under colonial control, Jews preferred the
egalitarian attitude of the European rulers over the humiliating attitude of their Muslim
neighbors. Jews in those colonial countries saw the Europeans as liberators while the
Muslim majority saw them as occupiers. At this point, a significant disruption of the
relationship between Jews and the Muslim majority started to emerge. But Zionism
was not the principal cause of it. Even without Zionism there was no safe future for the
Jewish minority in Arab countries.
Israel and the Jews from Arab Countries
Avi Picard
Avi Picard is
Schusterman Visiting
Professor of Israel
Studies at Rutgers
University, Newark.
His specialty is ethnic
relations in Israel.
Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org 87
If Israel had not
been created, what
country would have
opened its gates to
the immigration of
more than 120,000
Iraqi Jews?
Picard...
Israel was created to serve as a shelter for persecuted Jews. The visionaries of the state had in mind especially the
persecuted and humiliated Jews of Europe, but with its creation Israel fulfilled this role for the Jews of Arab countries as
well. If Israel had not been created, what country would have opened its gates to the immigration of more than 120,000
Iraqi Jews? Where could 50,000 Yemenite Jews escape to? Could Egyptian or Moroccan Jews remain in those countries
that were under the influence of extreme Arab nationalist views?
Escaping persecution was not the exclusive determinant of the immigration of Jews to Israel. Many wanted
to improve their economic situation, and many others had strong religious ties to the land of the patriarchs, the Holy
Land. However, for the majority of Jews in Arab countries (and the majority of East European Jews) Israel was the default
choice. Most of them probably would have emigrated to one of the Western countries had they been given other
options, as had Algerian Jews by virtue of holding French citizenship. But this is exactly the point. They had no option.
What, then, of the attitude toward the Jews from Arab countries after they arrived?
At the heart of this question is what might be termed the “ethnic factor,” more
specifically the gap and the tension between Ashkenazi/European Jews and Sephardic/
Eastern Jews (the latter are mainly the Jews from Arab countries). European Jews, including
those of them who immigrated to America, were 90% of the Jewish people
when Israel was declared. They did, and to some extent still do, have hegemonic power
in Israel. They constituted almost all of the Israeli leadership in the formative years.
And they hold important positions in the Israeli economy, culture, and academia today.
This is the case even though the mass immigration from the Muslim world changed
Israel’s demography. In fact, Jews from Arab countries constituted the majority in Israel
(55% of Israel Jewish population) from the 1960s to 1990s, at which point immigration from the former Soviet Union
reduced their size to 40-45%.
The attitude of Israel toward the Jews from Arab countries can be characterized as patronizing solidarity. This
approach is shaped by two contradictory states of mind. On the one hand, Israel sees itself as the state of the Jewish
people and thus emphasizes the right of all Jews to become Israeli citizens. On the other hand, most of Israel’s leaders
and citizens at the time of independence were of European origin and a Eurocentric orientation that led many of them
to develop a kind of superiority toward the inhabitants of the third world. This superiority was encouraged by the fact
that, in the colonial era, Europe ruled the world. Accordingly, Jews from Arab countries were viewed as culturally backward
people who needed guardianship in order to advance. The very fact that Israel made an effort to bring all these
Jews to Israel was an expression of the solidarity between Jews from different diaspora.
However, these new immigrants encountered structural discrimination. They were sent to inhabit the undeveloped
part of the country without being consulted. They were employed in low-status and low-income jobs. For most
Middle Eastern Jews, educational opportunities were limited, though education in Israel is equal, public, and free. This
situation brought about gaps in the level of education and average income: Whereas Israelis of European origins are still
88 Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org
Picard...
heavily represented in the upper strata, Israelis from Arab countries (and their Israeliborn
children and grandchildren) are overrepresented in the lower strata. These gaps
were the reasons for waves of public protests and political turbulence.
This picture would not be complete without emphasizing that the Israeli middle
class is ethnically mixed, and many of the Jews from Arab countries are successfully
integrated into it. The high level of interethnic marriage has narrowed the ethnic
gap. Israel’s declared ideology encourages ethnic integration, and over the past three
decades, the culture of Jews from Arab countries has been legitimated and has begun
to regenerate. Nevertheless, the ethnic question hasn’t disappeared from the Israeli
agenda.
Israel’s declared
ideology encourages
ethnic integration,
and over the
past three decades,
the culture of Jews
from Arab countries
has been legitimated
and has begun
to regenerate.
Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org 89
Israel was created not only as a state but also as a trope of self-sacrifice, solidarity, and
a redemption, lifting up a bruised and battered people to become a model for the entire
world. In its six decades, Israel, with its limited natural resources, has created a robust
economy that takes full advantage of the global market and generates unprecedented
growth. Technological changes have been rapidly integrated to provide its citizens with
the most modern of infrastructures and access to the most sophisticated means of communication.
Having paid dearly for their independence and shadowed ever since by threats
and attacks, Israelis have understandably channeled considerable capital and initiative
into their military to produce one of the most proficient armies in the world. But the
language that guided the country through shortages, rationing, and the constant dread
of the dangers on its borders cannot quite accept the achievements so inequitably dispensed
or admit into the public discourse the psychological costs in building the Jewish
state.
In the past, Israel was filled more with the voices of its leaders than of its people,
whose feelings were shrouded in what was interpreted as a self-imposed silence. That
silence, however, was actually the outcome of a heavily regulated dominant culture determined
to organize the view of what was happening in the country. Perhaps because
Israelis were afraid they lacked the emotional resources to withstand the suffering, they
agreed to deny public expression to their feelings. When despair about life in Israel
did surface, it was typically suppressed by recalling the heroic Zionist past. Emotional
restraint thus became both a value and a sign of the commitment to national purpose.
But now that the country’s capacity can satisfy the personal ambitions of a significant
number of its citizens, the stoic survival that once held Israelis back from expressing
their feelings seems a quaint but unnecessary relic that has so outlived its time that it
can be easily discarded without any negative repercussions.
While the wounds of war were always acknowledged in literature, the darker
dimensions of Israel’s strategic predicament did not compel the same attention in the
political arena nor alter a decorum that forged a solidarity requiring no explanation.
But that silence did not hold. In recent years, an ethos of self-restraint has given way to
a discourse obsessed with how people feel about events, policies, army service, themselves
— all dissected in every conceivable way in the media. Not surprisingly, America’s
new television hit “In Treatment,” about the experience of psychotherapy, is an Israeli
transplant. With their emotions under constant surveillance, Israelis find it increasingly
Donna Robinson Divine,
Morningstar Family Professor
of Jewish Studies and
Professor of Government,
Smith College and author
of the forthcoming Exiled
in the Homeland, a study
of the experience of Jewish
immigration to Palestine
during the early years of the
British Mandate.
Ba-Tipul [In Treatment]
Donna Robinson Divine
90 Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org
difficult to wrest meaning from the institutions and activities once celebrated as fulfilling the purpose of the Jewish
state. Massive introspection may have shifted the priority once accorded to duty over personal interest, but it also has
changed the cultural temper. Silence was taken as synonymous with confidence in Zionism’s fundamental assumptions
about history and the security a Jewish state could provide for the Jewish people. Full disclosure of the trials and tribulations
of living with Jewish sovereignty could not help but loosen the grip of the Zionist truths once so deeply planted
in Israel’s culture.
At its origins, Israel managed the burden of the Jewish past by projecting a unified story that was supposed to
serve as the basis of its imagined future. Israel has many battlegrounds that might have been turned into sites of mourning;
instead, they became places of memory and for glorifying and memorializing the fallen as exemplary figures who
supposedly exhibited neither fear nor hesitation about the circumstances thrust upon them. Today, newly opened archives
make Israel’s past less a story of people propelled simply by the overarching idea of perfection than by the goal of
self-interest, and the traditional narrative of Israel’s history is presented as one among many competing points of view.
Without the imperatives of the Zionist past, the future becomes less easily imaginable
and the present more open to question.
Not so long ago, Zionism posited its own ascendancy in expectation of supplanting
a Jewish religious belief and practice it deemed moribund and doomed to
eventual extinction. Today, Zionism has been refitted and redefined by Jewish theology
claiming the firm authority of national idealism and religious obedience and given impetus
by the 1967 War. Once sanctity resided in Zionist projects; today, holiness seems
rooted in ancient historical sites.
The Zionist project was also once cast as a powerful antidote to the condition
of exile. In exile, Zionists described Jews as weak in body and mind in contrast to the
strong, healthy, and beautiful Hebrews. Powerless in the face of hatred and discrimination and presumably closed off
from options for self-fulfillment, Diaspora Jews were expected to assimilate where possible, loosen their bonds with
religious belief, and consciously or not, impoverish Jewish culture and identity. Today, the interactions between Jews
in Israel and in the Diaspora communities are crucial to sustaining an array of creative developments in literature,
religious practice, and economic ventures in both domains. A significant number of Diaspora Jews is drawn into an
engagement with Israel. For many Jews, including those who live in Israel, the very polarity between Diaspora and
Homeland is anachronistic.
Political dislocations have deepened the sense of uncertainty in Israel. Israel once had a stable set of political
institutions. Political parties achieved dominance without winning a majority of the votes in any election. Authority
within the dominant political party often substituted for the coherent rule of state institutions. But over time authoritative
institutions have been nibbled away by social and economic changes beyond their power to control.
Finally, Israel’s 60-year history is also the story of the end of its consensus on security and on the value of military action.
How that consensus was shaken by the outcome of particular wars and battles is well known, but less understood
is the fact that its demise has effected a remarkable dispersion of the once unimpeachable authority of the military.
Soldiers now speak freely about their experiences in military actions — even in training exercises — and particularly
When despair
about life in Israel
did surface, it
was typically suppressed
by recalling
the heroic Zionist
past.
Robinson Divine...
Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org 91
about their feelings when wars are simply paused and never concluded.
The loss of confidence does not mean that Israelis are unwilling to rally to their
country’s defense in times of crisis. But Israelis are acutely aware that what they see as
a matter of life and death is often viewed differently and condemned across the globe.
Thus while most Israelis feel perfectly comfortable — even happy — with their homes
and homeland, they are made constantly aware that their society has failed to live up
to its early utopian dreams. Israel, in other words, has become normal but hasn’t quite
figured out how to cope with it.
In recent years, an
ethos of self-restraint
has given
way to a discourse
obsessed with how
people feel about
events, policies,
army service, themselves
— all dissected
in every conceivable
way by the
media.
Robinson Divine...
92 Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org
At a meeting I attended some weeks ago, a leader of the Palestinian administration
argued that the quarrel between Jews and Palestinians had been made more intractable
by becoming a matter of theology and religion. If only the dispute could be analyzed
exclusively through secular, political tools, it could seemingly be resolved much more
readily. This argument is commonly heard from Israelis and Palestinians alike. Among
Palestinians, the concern is about the religious ideology within Hamas, Hizbullah, and
other groups — an ideology expressed, in the Israeli experience, through murderous
terror. Among Israelis, there is concern about elements within the messianic religious
right, who maintain a “Greater Land of Israel” ideology that rejects all compromise and
makes negotiation difficult.
This dichotomy is widespread among analysts of Middle Eastern politics, but I
want to challenge it through a deeper examination of Jewish religious thought —specifically,
that of Rabbi Abraham Isaac ha-Kohen Kook (1865-1935), regarded as the
father of Religious Zionist thought. An examination of his teachings —which have
already attracted scholarly interest — can call the dichotomy into question and clarify
the downside of secularizing the conflict.
First, however, it is important to note that attempting to resolve a conflict that
has tightly intertwined cultural, historical, religious, and existential roots by disregarding
its religious and cultural components can be compared to trying to solve a murder
by disregarding motive or attempting to bring about an economic revolution without
taking account of the society’s customs and beliefs. Anyone trying to change or even
study the conflict without understanding its embedded religious components will be
left in the dark, unable to comprehend the powerful and fundamental driving forces
that are central to the dispute and underlie its widely analyzed political, economic, and
social aspects.
. See Avinoam Rosenak, The Prophetic Halakhah: Rabbi A.I H. Kook’s Philosophy of Halakhah
(Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 2007) [Hebrew]; Avinoam Rosenak, Rabbi A.I.H Kook
(Jerusalem, Zalman Shazar Center, 2006) [Hebrew].
. For example: Binyamin Ish-Shalom, Rav Avraham Itzhak HaCohen Kook: Between Rationalism
and Mysticism, trans. from the Hebrew by Ora Wiskind-Elper (Albany: State University
of New York Press, 1993); Yosef Ben-Shlomo, Poetry of Being: Lectures on the philosophy
of Rabbi Kook, trans. from the Hebrew by Shmuel Himelstein (Tel-Aviv: MOD Books,
1990); Aviezer Ravitzky, Messianism, Zionism, and Jewish Religious Radicalism, trans. from
the Hebrew by Michael Swirsky and Jonathan Chipman (London & Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, 1996).
Religious Thought as a Promoter of War or Driver of Peace
Avinoam Rosenak
Avinoam Rosenak, Department
of Jewish
Thought, The Hebrew
University.
Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org 93
Rabbi Kook : Shaping the Vision of the Return to the Land of Israel
At first glance, Rabbi Kook is an impediment to thinking about peace. His theological and halakhic teachings
convey the heart of the Zionist vision and the return of the Jews to the Land of Israel. His historiosophic exegesis of
the events of his day (the First World War, the Balfour Declaration, and Jewish immigration to the Land of Israel) were
marked by a note of the divine will to bring Israel back to its formative crucible. He explained the blossoming of the
Land of Israel as a miracle associated with Israel’s return to its natural home. And because that return would enrich all
of humanity — through Israel serving as “a light unto the nations” — he believed all nations would support it.
Rabbi Kook’s writings speak of a profound, ontological correspondence among the Land of Israel, the People of
Israel, and the Torah of Israel. Naturally enough there arose within his school a position that unambiguously denies all
retreat or compromise and that assigns vast importance to every new settlement in the Land. These ideas became the
ideological foundation of the Religious-Zionist right.
Rabbi Kook : A Theology of Peace
One can understand why the pilots of the peace process are horrified by all this.
By and large, however, they are unaware of the strongly pluralistic arguments implied
by the kabbalistic underpinnings of Rabbi Kook’s thought. I am referring to the “doctrine
of the unity of opposites,” which argues that even though the world encompasses
antitheses and contradictory positions, they all share a common source in which the
contradictions disappear. To clarify: the conventional view holds that two contradictory
claims — such as liberalism vs. conservatism or universalism vs. particularism
— cannot coexist and that one must triumph over the other. Antitheses (such as between secularism and religion, east
and west) are absolute, and all one can do is decide between them.
Rabbi Kook, though understanding what motivates people to make such choices, had reservations about doing
so. In his view, “opposites” stem from a single, monotheistic unity. The one divine Source embraces all opposites and is
their origin. In the divine world, the antitheses are resolved, and there is no contradiction between them. The opposites
appear to be irreconcilable contradictions only because we do not see them from the divine Source’s perspective. But an
all-embracing theological perspective will not renounce any side of a dispute, for all contain a kernel of truth that must
not be forgone.
Applications and Risks
We have identified two antithetical strains in Rabbi Kook’s thought: a strongly ideological stance that links
. Interestingly, this argument is a version of religious post-modernism that is regarded as far removed from Rabbi Kook’s
modern thought. See on this Tamar Ross, “Rabbi A. I. H. Kook and Post-Modernism,” Akdamut, Vol. 10, pp. 187-223 [Hebrew];
Avinoam Rosenak, “Seeds of Post-Modernism in Modern Jewish Thought,” Common Knowledge (forthcoming).
Rosenak...
In the divine world,
the antitheses are
resolved, and there
is no contradiction
between them.
94 Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org
Israel to its Land in a way that undercuts any attempt at compromise; and a metaphysical stance whose negation of ideology
flows from an awareness of humanity’s narrow perspective in relation to the all-encompassing divine, in which
opposites are joined. Many of Rabbi Kook’s disciples stressed the ideological tendency, downplaying the theology of
peace that is so central and vital in his thinking.
If theological peace-talk is to be renewed, there must first be an internal Jewish conversation (among people
having many varied viewpoints), which will examine the non-ideological quality of religious thought. This internal
conversation must be grounded on three principles: 1) the “Other” is not to be stigmatized; 2) my own positions need
not be disregarded for the sake of the “Other;” and 3) the various positions are presented as inherent to a dialogue that
is sensitive both to my existential and cultural needs and to the possibility of conducting an empathetic conversation
with the “Other.” A parallel conversation must take place among religious Muslims.
The very existence of this sort of dynamic with respect to the contradictory spiritual forces within both faiths
will prepare the ground for an encounter between religious scholars from both sides at which the issues can be examined
anew, in a non-ideological manner and out of a desire to enhance God-sanctifying
life.
Summary
This proposal is only a precursor to intra- and inter-religious dialogue, something
that is vital even though its success cannot be guaranteed. The extended effort to
reach a peace settlement without taking account of the religious energy inherent in the
cultures that are party to the conflict is simply unrealistic, for peace is not reached solely
between leaders but also between nations and cultures. Moreover, secular political
thought, lacking a theology of peace and knowing only the pragmatism of compromise,
is too willing to forgo available cultural and metaphysical energies — energies that
encompass a profound pluralism on the basis of which novel peaceful solutions can be forged through interreligious
dialogue.
. See Avinoam Rosenak, “War and Peace in Jewish Thought in the Face of the Other,” Da`at, Vol. 62 (2008), pp. 104-105
[Hebrew].
. Together with my colleagues Dr. Alec Isaacs and Ms. Sharon Leshem Singer, I am organizing a project along these lines; it
is scheduled to take place in Jerusalem early in 2009.
Rosenak...
The extended effort
to reach a peace
settlement without
taking account of
the religious energy
inherent in the cultures
that are party
to the conflict is
simply unrealistic.
Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org 95
Maps
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Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org 107
Statistics
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Demographics
Source: Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics
Source: Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics
Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org 109
Source: Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics
Source: UN
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Source: UN
Source: UN
Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org 111
Economics
Source: UN
Source: UN
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Source: UN
Source: UN, CIA World Factbook
Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org 113
Source: Globalis, UNDP
Source: UN/IMF
114 Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org
Education
Source: UNESCO
Source: UN
Note: From 1994, change in classification of one or more national programs of education
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Environment
Source: UN
Source: UN
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Technology
Source: Globalis, UN
Source: UN
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Women
Source: UN
Source: UN
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Freedom House Rankings
Source: Freedom House
Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org 119
Selected Works of Contributors
120 Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org
PAUL SCHAM
Authored and Edited Books
Shared Histories: A Palestinian-Israeli Dialogue (co-edited with Benjamin Pogrund). Left Coast Press, 2005.
Book Chapters and Journal Articles
Annapolis, November 2007: Hopes & Doubts. MEI Policy Brief. http://www.mideasti.org/files/Annapolis-November-
2007-Hopes-and-Doubts.pdf
“Israel’s Neo-Revisionism and American Neoconservatism: The Unexplored Parallels,” (with Prof. Ilan Peleg), The
Middle East Journal, Vol. 61, No. 1 (Winter 2007), pp. 73-94.
“The Historical Narratives of Israelis and Palestinians and the Peacemaking Process,” Israel Studies Forum, Vol. 20,
No. 2 (2006), pp. 58-84.
“The Role of Civil Society Institutions in the Middle East Peace Process,” in The Friedrich Ebert Foundation,
Towards a Common European-American Strategy for Democracy in the Greater Middle East: The Role of Civil Society
Institutions, Washington Office of the, 2004.
“‘Normalization’ and ‘Anti-Normalization’ in Jordan: The Public Debate” (with Russell Lucas). Israel Affairs, Vol. 9,
No. 3 (2003), pp. 141-64.
“A Dialogue on Shared Israeli-Palestinian History: The War of Independence/Al Naqba” (ed.). Palestine-Israel Journal
February 2003.
“Arab-Israel Research Cooperation 1995-99: An Analytical Study,” Middle East Review of International Affairs, Vol. 4,
No. 3 (2000). Available at http://meria.idc.ac.il/journal/2000/issue3/jv4n3a1.html
“The Israeli Peace Movement,” Mansfield (College) Journal of Peace Research (1991), pp. 16-26.
DON PERETZ
Authored and Edited Books
The Arab-Israeli Dispute. New York: Facts on File, 1996.
The Middle East Today (6th edition). New York: Praeger, 1994.
Middle East Foreign Policy: Issues and Processes (with R.D. McLaurin and Lewis W. Snider). New York: Praeger, 1982.
The Government and Politics of Israel. Boulder, CO: Westview Press,1979.
Israel and the Palestine Arabs. Washington, DC: The Middle East Institute, 1958.
Book Chapters and Journal Articles
“Knesset Election 2003: Why Likud Regained its Political Domination and Labor Continued to Fade Out,” (with
Rebecca Kook and Gideon Doron) The Middle East Journal, Vol. 57, No. 4 (2003), pp. 588-604.
Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org 121
“Sectarian Politics and the Peace Process: The 1999 Israeli Elections,” (with Gideon Doron) The Middle East Journal,
Vol. 54, No. 2 (2000), pp. 259-73.
“Israel’s 1996 Elections: A Second Political Earthquake?” The Middle East Journal, Vol. 50, No. 4 (1996), pp. 251-66.
“Israel’s 1992 Knesset Elections: Are They Critical?” (with Sammy Smooha) The Middle East Journal, Vol. 47, No. 3
(1993), pp. 444-63.
“Israel’s Twelfth Knesset Election: An All-Loser Game,” (with Sammy Smooha) The Middle East Journal, Vol. 43, No. 3
(1989), pp. 388-405.
“Israel’s Eleventh Knesset Election,” (with Sammy Smooha) The Middle East Journal, Vol. 39, No. 1 (1985), pp. 86-103.
GLENDA ABRAMSON
Authored and Edited Books
Religious Perspectives in Modern Muslim and Jewish Literatures. Co-edited with Hilary Kilpatrick. London, UK:
Routledge, 2006.
Encyclopedia of Modern Jewish Culture. 2 vols. New edition. (ed.). London, UK: Routledge, 2005.
Book Chapters and Journal Articles
“Exile, Imprisonment and the Literary Imagination,” Jewish Studies Quarterly, Vol. 13, No. 2 (2006), pp. 171-91.
“Anglicising the Holocaust,” The Journal of Theatre and Drama, Nos. 7-8 (2001/2002), pp. 105-23.
“Dante and Modern Hebrew Literature,” in Geoffrey Khan (ed.), Semitic Studies in Honour of Edward Ullendorff.
Leiden and Boston, MA: Brill, 2005.
“Israeli Drama and the Bible: Kings on the Stage,” in Nehama Aschkenasy (guest ed.), AJS Review, Vol. 28, No.1
(2004), pp. 68-82.
“Modern Hebrew Literature,” in Martin Goodman and David Sorkin (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Jewish Studies,
pp. 515-40. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2003.
“A Reasonable Rapture,” CCAR Journal (Spring 2003), pp. 49-68.
“No Way Out: Brenner and the War,” AJS Review, Vol. 27, No.1 (2003), pp. 73-88.
“Bialik’s Tsafririm: Innocence and Experience,” in William Cutter and David C. Jacobson (eds.), New Readings of
Jewish Texts in Honour of Arnold J Band, pp. 265-78. Providence, RI: Brown Judaic Studies 2002.
“Two Nineteenth-Century Travellers to the Holy Land,” Israel Affairs, Vol.8, No. 3 (2002), pp. 69-83.
122 Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org
GABRIEL WEIMANN
Authored and Edited Books
Terror on the Internet: The New Arena, The New Challenges. Washington, DC: United States Institute of Peace Press,
2006.
The Theater of Terror: The Mass Media and International Terrorism (with Conrad Winn). New York: Longman
Publishing/Addison-Wesley, 1993.
Book Chapters and Journal Articles
“Caveat Populi Quaestor: The 1992 Pre-Elections Polls in the Israeli Press,” in Arian Arian and Mordechai Shamir
(eds.), pp. 255-271. The 1992 Elections in Israel. New York: State University of New York Press, 1994.
“Measuring Emotional Appeals in Israeli Election Campaigns” (with Galit Marmor-Lavie), International Journal of
Public Opinion Research, Vol. 18, No. 3, (2006), pp. 1-26.
“How Terrorists Use the Internet,” Journal of International Security Affairs, No. 8 (2005), pp. 91-105.
“Cyberterrorism: The Sum of All Fears?” Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, No. 28 (2005), pp. 129-149.
“Agenda-Building, Agenda-Setting, Priming, Individual Voting Intentions and the Aggregate Results: An Analysis of
Four Israeli Elections” (with Tamir Sheafer), Journal of Communication, No. 55 (2005), pp. 347-65.
“Struggles Over the Electoral Agenda,” with Gadi Wolfstahl, in Asher Arian and M. Shamir (eds.), The Elections in
Israel 1999, pp. 269-88. New York: State University of New York Press.
RONALD W. ZWEIG
Authored and Edited Books
The Gold Train: the Looting of Hungarian Jewry. New York: William Morrow, 2002.
Escape Through Austria: the Flight of Jewish Survivors from Eastern Europe, 1945-1948 (with Thomas Albrich).
London, UK and Portland, OR: Frank Cass, 2001.
Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver: A Study in Zionist Leadership (with M. Raider and J. Sarna). London, UK and Portland, OR:
Frank Cass, 1997.
David Ben-Gurion: Politics and Leadership in Israel (ed.) London, UK and Portand, OR: Frank Cass, 1991.
German Reparations and the Jewish World: A History of the Claims Conference. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1987.
Britain and Palestine During the Second World War. London, UK: Royal Historical Society, 1985.
Book Chapters and Journal Articles
“Feeding the Camps: Allied Blockade Policy and the Relief of Concentration Camps in Germany,” Historical Journal,
Vol. 41, No. 3 (1998), pp. 825-52.
Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org 123
“Politics of Commemoration,” Jewish Social Studies, Vol. 49, No. 2 (1987), pp. 155-66.
PAUL RIVLIN
Authored and Edited Books
The Dynamics of Economic Policy Making in Egypt. New York: Praeger Press, 1985.
The Israeli Economy. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1992.
Economic Policy and Performance in the Arab World. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Press, 2001.
Arab Economies in the 21st Century. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. [in press]
Book Chapters and Journal Articles
“Iran’s Energy Vulnerability,” Middle East Review of International Affairs, Vol. 10, No. 4 (2006).
“Two Middle Eastern Inflations: Israel and Turkey 1980-2001,” British Journal for Middle East Studies, Vol. 30, No. 2
(2003), pp. 211-35.
“Egypt’s Demographic Challenges and Economic Responses,” Middle East Review of International Affairs, Vol. 7, No. 4
(2003).
AVIA SPIVAK
Authored and Edited Books
The Palestinian Economy in the West Bank and Gaza Strip: From Imposed Integration to Voluntary Separation (with I.
Luski Arnon and J. Weinblatt). Leiden, The Netherlands: E.J. Brill, 1997.
Book Chapters and Journal Articles
“Monetary Integration between the Israeli, Jordanian and Palestinian Economies,” with A. Arnon. Weltwirschftliches
Archives, Vol. 132, No. 2 (1996), pp. 259-71.
“On the Introduction of a Palestinian Currency,” with A. Arnon, The Middle East Business and Economic Review, Vol.
8, No. 1 (1996), pp.1-14.
“The Pension Fund Reform,” in Avi Ben-Bassat (ed.), The Israeli Economy, 1985-1998, From Government intervention
to Market Economics, pp. 221-42. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2002.
“The Impact of Pension Schemes on Saving in Israel,” with Y. Lavi, Applied Economics, Vol. 31 (1999), pp. 761-74.
“The Relationship Between Deductibles and Wealth: The Case of Flood Insurance,” with R. Barniv and F. Schroath,
Journal of Insurance Issues, Vol. 22, No. 1 (1999), pp. 78-97.
“First Order of Risk Aversion and Non-Differentiability” (with U. Segal), Economic Theory, Vol. 9 (1997), pp.179-83.
124 Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org
“The Potential for Trade between Israel and the Member States of the Gulf Cooperation Council: an Analysis of Input
Sharing” (with Niron Hashai), The Journal of World Trade (December 2000).
“Trade Potential in the Middle East: Some Optimistic Findings,” Middle East Review of International Affairs, Vol. 4,
No. 1 (2000).
MARK A. HELLER
Authored and Edited Books
Israel and the Palestinians: Israeli Policy Options (ed. with Rosemary Hollis). London, UK: Chatham House, 2005.
A Palestinian State: Implications for Israel. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1984.
The Middle East Military Balance (ed. and co-author 1983-85, 1996, and 1997). Tel Aviv: Jaffee Center for Strategic
Studies.
No Trumpets, No Drums: A Two-State Settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (co-authored with Sari Nusseibeh).
New York: Hill & Wang, 1991.
Europe & the Middle East: New Tracks to Peace? (ed.) Tel Aviv: Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies, 1999.
Book Chapters and Journal Articles
“Israel’s Conflicts with Hizbollah and Hamas: Are They Parts of the Same War?” Strategic Assessment, Vol. 9, No. 2
(2006).
“Hamas’ Victory and Israel’s Dilemma,” Strategic Assessment, Vol. 9, No. 1 (2006).
“Political Trends in the Middle East: The Triumph of Identity over Democracy,” in Zvi Shtauber and Yiftah S. Shapir
(eds.), The Middle East Strategic Balance 2005-2006. Brighton, UK: Sussex Academic Press, 2006.
AMAL JAMAL
Authored and Edited Books
State Formation and Media Regime in Palestine. Tel Aviv: Tami Steinmet Center for Peace Studies, 2003.
Israeli Media: Between Structural Pluralism and the Hegemony of the National Discourse. Ramallah: Madar Press, 2005.
Deliberations on Collective Rights and the National State. Haifa: Mada Al-Carmel Press, 2005.
Citizenship Lexicon for Arab Schools in Israel. Jerusalem: Gilo Center for Civic Education and Democracy, 2005.
Book Chapters and Journal Articles
“The Palestinians in the Israeli Peace Discourse: A Conditional Partnership,” Journal of Palestine Studies, Vol. 30, No.
1, (2000), pp. 36-51.
“State-Formation, Media and the Prospects of Democracy in Palestine,” Media Culture and Society, Vol. 22, No. 2,
Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org 125
(2000), pp. 497-505.
“The Palestinian Media: An Obedient Servant or a Vanguard of Democracy,” Journal of Palestine Studies, Vol. 29, No.
2 (2000), pp. 45-59.
“State-Building, Institutionalization and Democracy: The Palestinian Experience,” Mediterranean Politics, Vol. 6, No. 3
(2001), pp. 1-30.
“State-Building and Media Regime: Censoring the Emerging Public Sphere in Palestine,” Gazette: The International
Journal for Communication, Vol. 63, Nos. 2 -3 (2001), pp. 263-82.
“Engendering State Building: The Women’s Movement and Gender Regime in Palestine,” The Middle East Journal, Vol.
55, No. 2 (2001), pp. 256-76.
YOAV PELED
Authored and Edited Books
Being Israeli: The Dynamics of Multiple Citizenship (with Gershon Shafir). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University
Press, 2002.
The New Israel: Peace and Economic Liberalization (ed. with Gershon Shafir). Boulder, CO: Westview, 2000.
Ethnic Challenges to the Modern Nation State (ed. with S. Ben-Ami and A. Spektorowski). Basingstoke, UK:
Macmillan, 2000.
Class and Ethnicity in the Pale: The Political Economy of Jewish Workers’ Nationalism in Late Imperial Russia. London,
UK: Macmillan and New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1989.
Book Chapters and Journal Articles
“The Evolution of Israeli Citizenship: An Overview,” Citizenship Studies, Vol. 12, No. 3 (2008), pp. 335-45.
“Citizenship Betrayed: Israel’s Emerging Immigration and Citizenship Regime,” Theoretical Inquiries in Law, Vol. 8,
No. 2 (2007), pp. 333-58.
“Towards a Post-Citizenship Society? A Report from the Front,” Citizenship Studies, Vol. 11, No. 1 (2007), pp. 95-104.
“The End of Palestine? Debating Middle East Solutions,” New Left Review, Vol. 38, No. 2 (2006), pp. 21-36.
“Ethnic Democracy Revisited: On the State of Democracy in the Jewish State,” Israel Studies Forum, Vol. 20, No. 1
(2005), pp. 3-27.
“The Or Commission and Palestinian Citizenship in Israel,” Citizenship Studies, Vol. 9, No. 1 (2005), pp. 89-105.
“Transitional Justice and the Right of Return of the Palestinian Refugees,” (with Nadim Rouhana) Theoretical Inquiries
in Law, Vol. 5, No. 2 (2004), pp. 317-32.
126 Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org
ILAN PELEG
Authored and Edited Books
Democratizing the Hegemonic State: Political Transformation in the Age of Identity. Cambridge, UK and New York:
Cambridge University Press, 2007.
Negotiating Culture & Human Rights. Edited with Andrew Nathan & Lynda Bell. New York: Columbia University
Press, 2001.
The Peace Process in The Middle East. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1998.
Book Chapters and Journal Articles
“American Neo-Conservatism and Israeli Neo-Revisionism: The Unexplored Parallels” (with Paul Scham), The Middle
East Journal, Vol. 61, No. 1 (2007), pp. 73-94.
“Losing Control? A Comparison of Majority-Minority Relations in Israel and Turkey,” (with Dov Waxman), Ethnic
and National Politics, Vol. 13, No. 3 (2007), pp. 431-63.
“Beyond Hegemony in Deeply Divided Societies,” Nations and Nationalism, Vol. 13, No. 3 (2007), pp. 371-94.
“Israeli Democracy at a Crossroads,” University of Haifa Law School Journal, 2005.
“The Zionist Right and Constructivist Realism,” Israel Studies, Vol. 10, No. 3 (2005), pp. 127-53.
“Jewish-Palestinian Relations in Israel: From Hegemony to Equality,” International Journal of Politics, Culture and
Society, Vol. 17, No. (2004), pp. 415-37.
ELIE PODEH
Authored and Edited Books
The Quest for Hegemony in the Arab World: The Struggle over the Baghdad Pact. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1995.
The Decline of Arab Unity: The Rise and Fall of the United Arab Republic. Brighton: Sussex Academic Press, 1999.
The Arab-Israeli Conflict in Israeli History Textbooks, 1948-2000. Westport, CT: Bergin and Garvey (Greenwood),
2002.
Rethinking Nasserism: Revolution and Historical Memory in Modern Egypt (with Onn Winckler). Gainesville, FL:
University Press of Florida, 2004.
Arab-Jewish Relations: From Conflict to Resolution? Essays in Honor of Prof. Moshe Ma’oz (with Asher Kaufman).
Brighton: Sussex Academic Press, 2006.
Book Chapters and Journal Articles
“Rethinking Israel in the Middle East,” Israel Affairs. Vol. 3, Nos. 3-4 (1997), pp. 336-54. Reprinted in E. Karsh (ed.),
From Rabin to Netanyahu: Israel’s Troubled Agenda. London: Frank Cass, 1997, pp. 280-95.
Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org 127
“The Desire to Belong Syndrome: Israel and Middle Eastern Defense, 1949-1954,” Israel Studies, Vol. 4, No. 2
(1999), pp. 121-49.
“History and Memory in the Israeli Educational System: The Portrayal of the Arab-Israeli Conflict in History
Textbooks (1948-2000),” History and Memory, Vol. 12, No. 1 (2000), pp. 65-100.
“The ‘Big Lie’: Inventing the Myth of British-US Involvement in the 1967 War,” The Review of International Affairs,
Vol. 2, No. 1 (2002), pp. 1-23.
“From Fahd to ‘Abdallah: The Origins of the Saudi Peace Initiatives and Their Impact on the Arab System and
Israel,” Gitelson Peace Publications, No. 24 Jerusalem: The Harry S. Truman Institute for the Advancement of Peace,
2003.
“The Lie That Won’t Die: Collusion, 1967,” Middle East Quarterly, Vol. 11, No. 1 (2004), pp. 51-62.
“Between Stagnation and Renovation: The Arab System in the aftermath of the Iraq War,” Middle East Review of
International Affairs, Vol. 9 (September 2005), pp, 51-72.
LARISSA REMENNICK
Authored and Edited Books
Russian Jews on Three Continents: Identity, Integration, and Conflict. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers,
2007.
Book Chapters and Journal Articles
“Resetting the Rules of the Game: Language Preferences and Social Relations of Work between Russian Immigrants
and Veteran Professionals in an Israeli Organization,” Journal of International Migration and Integration, Vol. 6, No. 1
(2005), pp. 1-28.
“Cross-Cultural Dating Patterns on an Israeli Campus: Why Are Russian Immigrant Women More Popular than
Men?” Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, Vol. 24, No. 2 (2005), pp. 435-54.
“Idealists Headed to Israel, Pragmatics Chose Europe: Identity Dilemmas and Social Incorporation among Former
Soviet Jews Who Immigrated to Germany,” Immigrants and Minorities, Vol. 23, No. 1 (2005), pp. 30-58.
“Language Acquisition, Ethnicity and Social Integration among Former Soviet Immigrants of the 1990s in Israel,”
Ethnic and Racial Studies, Vol. No. 3 (2004), pp. 431-54.
“From Russian to Hebrew via HebRush: Inter-Generational Patterns of Language Use among Former Soviet
Immigrants in Israel,” Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, Vol. 24, No. 5 (2004), pp. 431-53.
“The 1.5 Generation of Russian Jewish Immigrants in Israel: Between Integration and Socio-Cultural Retention,”
Diaspora: A Journal of Transnational Studies, Vol. 12, No. 1 (2003), pp. 39-66.
“Language Acquisition as the Main Vehicle of Social Integration: The Case of Russian Jewish Immigrants in Israel,”
International Journal of the Sociology of Language, Issue 164 (2003), pp. 83-105.
“What Does Integration Mean? Social Insertion of Russian Jewish Immigrants in Israel,” Journal of International
Migration and Integration, Vol. 4, No. 1 (2002), pp. 23-48.
128 Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org
“Transnational Community in the Making: Russian Jewish Immigrants of the 1990s in Israel,” Journal of Ethnic and
Migration Studies, Vol. 28, No. 3 (2002), pp. 515-30.
GABRIEL (GABI) SHEFFER
Authored and Edited Books
Middle Eastern Minorities and Diasporas. Brighton, UK: Sussex Academic Press. 2002.
Diaspora Politics: At Home Abroad. Cambridge, UK and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003.
US-Israeli Relations at the Crossroads. London, UK: Frank Cass, 1996.
Moshe Sharett: A Biography of a Political Moderate. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1996.
Israel: The Dynamics of Change and Continuity. London, UK: Frank Cass, 1999.
Book Chapters and Journal Articles
“The United States and the ‘Normalization’ of the Middle East and Israel,” in Israel Affairs, Vol. 2, Nos. 3-4 (1996), pp.
1-14.
“Has Israel Really Been a Garrison Democracy? Sources of Transformation in Israeli Democracy,” in Israel Affairs,
Vol. 3, No. 1 (1996), pp. 13-38.
“The Current Discourse on the State, Sovereignty and Citizenship in Israel” in Israel Studies, Vol. 2, No. 2 (1997), pp.
118-45.
“A Nation and its Diaspora: A Re-examination of Israeli-Jewish Diaspora Relations,” Diaspora, Vol. 11, No. 3 (2002),
pp. 331-59.
“Is the Jewish Diaspora Unique? Reflections on Diaspora’s Current Situation,” Israel Studies, Special Issue, Vol. 10, No.
1 (2005), pp. 1-35.
“Israel’s ‘Security Network’ and its Impact on Policymaking: An Exploratory Essay,” International Journal of Middle
East Studies, Vol. 38, No. 2 (2006), pp. 235-61.
ARNON SOFFER
Authored and Edited Books
The Struggle for Water in the Middle East. Tel Aviv: Am Oved, 2006.
The State of Tel Aviv, a Threat to Israel (with E. Bystrov). Haifa: Reuven Chaikin Chair in Geostrategy, 2006.
The Urbanization Processes around the Borders of Israel and the Implications on the Israeli Defence Doctrine. (with G.
Avigdor). Tel Aviv: Joffe Center, The Strategic Study Center. (in press)
Erased Borders: The Dynamics of Their Disappearance from the Landscapes (with T. Yaar-Weissel). Haifa: University of
Haifa, 2000.
Book Chapters and Journal Articles
Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org 129
“From Demography to Disengagment, How we Traced the Line of Security Barries,” in Y. Laughland and M.
Korinman, M.(eds), Israel before and after Arafat, pp. 145-54. London, UK: Vallentine Michell Publication, 2008.
“The I.D.F. and highs Education Systems,” in M. Naor M. (ed.), Army, Memory and National Identity, pp. 69-79.
Jerusalem: Magnesse, 2007.
“Territorialism, Nation and State,” Law Review, Vol.21, No.3 (1998), pp. 747-68.
“The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict over Water Resources, Palestine-Israel Journal, Vol. 5, No.1 (1998), pp. 43-53.
“The Litani River—Fact and Fiction,” Middle Eastern Studies, Vol. 30, No. 4 (1994), pp. 963-74.
“The Israeli Arabs Forward Autonomy: The Case of the Arab Galilee Sub-system Region,” Studies in Geography, Vol.
13 (1993), pp. 198-209.
“Use of the Integrative Methodology in Studies of the Israeli-Arab Population,” The Pennsylvania Geographer, Vol. 24,
No. 1 (1991), pp. 38-52.
“Demography and the Shaping of Israel’s Borders,” Contemporary Jewry, Vol. 10, No. 2 (1989), pp. 91-105.
GALIA GOLAN
Authored and Edited Books
Israel and Palestine: Peace Plans and Proposals from Oslo to Disengagement (revised edition). London, UK: Markus
Wiener, 2008.
Soviet Middle East Policy under Gorbachev. Santa Monica and Los Angeles, CA: Rand/UCLA Center for Soviet
Studies, 1990.
Book Chapters and Journal Articles
“The Israeli Disengagement Initiative,” Middle East Policy, Vol. 11, No. 4 (2004), pp. 65-72.
“Plans for Israeli-Palestinian Peace: from Beirut to Geneva,” Middle East Policy, Vol. 11, No. 1 (2004), pp. 38-52.
“Post-Soviet Russian and the Middle East,” in S. Avineri and W. Weidenfeld (eds.), Politics and Identities in
Transformation: Europe and Israel, pp. 71-82. Bonn: Verlag, 2001.
“The Foreign-Domestic Nexus in Gorbachev’s Middle East Policy,” in Keith Nelson and Pat Morgan (eds.), Reviewing
the Cold War: Domestic Factors and Foreign Policy in the East-West Confrontation, pp. 179-202. New York: Praeger
Publishers, 2000.
“The Soviet Union and the Yom Kippur War: Twenty-five Years Later,” in P.R. Kumaraswamy (ed.), Revisiting the Yom
Kippur War, pp. 127-52. London, UK and Portland, OR: Frank Cass, 2000.
“Bridging the Abyss: Palestinian-Israeli Dialogue,” in Harold Saunders (eds.) A Public Peace Process: Sustained
Dialogue to Transform Racial and Ethnic Conflicts, pp. 197-220. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1999.
130 Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org
“Israel and Palestinian Statehood,” in Winston Van Horne (ed.), Global Convulsions: Race, Ethnicity and Nationalism
at the End of the Twentieth Century, pp. 169-188. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1997.
“Moscow and the PLO: The Ups and Downs of a Complex Relationship,” in Moshe Ma’oz and Avraham Sela (eds.),
The PLO and Israel, pp. 121-40. New York: St. Martins Press, 1997.
“Gender and Militarization,” Women’s Studies International Forum, (May-June 1997), pp. 581-86.
MOTTI GOLANI
Authored and Edited Books
Israel in Search of a War: The Sinai Campaign, 1955-1956. Brighton, UK: Sussex Academic Press, 1998.
Book Chapters and Journal Articles
“A Tale of Two Cities: Jerusalem in the Last Fifty Years,” Journal of Israeli History, Vol. 23, No. 2 (2004), pp. 169-73.
“Reassessing Israel’s Road to Sinai/Suez, 1956: A ‘Trialogue’” (with Benny Morris and Mordechai Bar-On), in Gary
A. Olson (ed.). Traditions and Transitions in Israel Studies: Books on Israel, Volume VI, pp. 3-42. Albany, NY: State
University of New York Press, 2002.
“The ‘Haifa Turning Point’: The British Administration and the Civil War in Palestine, December 1947-May 1948,”
Middle Eastern Studies, Vol. 37, No. 2 (2001), pp. 93-130.
“Jerusalem’s Hope Lies Only in Partition: Israeli Policy on the Jerusalem Question, 1948-1967,” International Journal
of Middle East Studies, Vol. 31, No. 4 (1999), pp. 577-604.
“The Historical Place of the Czech-Egyptian Arms Deal, Fall 1955,” Middle Eastern Studies, Vol. 31, No. 4 (1995), pp.
803-27.
EFRAIM INBAR
Authored and Edited Books
Israel’s National Security: Issues and Challenges since the Yom Kippur War. New York: Routledge, 2008.
The Israeli-Turkish Entente. London, UK: King’s College Mediterranean Program, 2001.
Yitzhak Rabin and Israel’s National Security. Washington, DC: Wilson Center and Johns Hopkins University Press,
1999.
War and Peace in Israeli Politics: Labor Party Positions on National Security, The Leonard Davis Institute Studies in
International Politics. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 1991.
Book Chapters and Journal Articles
“How Israel Bungled the Second Lebanon War,” Middle East Quarterly, Vol. 14, No. 3 (Summer 2007), pp. 54-65.
“Israel’s Palestinian Challenge,” Israel Affairs, Vol. 12, No. 4 (2006), pp. 823-42.
“Israel: And Enduring Union,” The Journal of International Security Affairs, No. 11 (2006)
Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org 131
“The Resilience of Israeli-Turkish Relations,” Israel Affairs, Vol. 11, No. 4, (October 2005)
“The Indian-Israeli Entente,” Orbis, 48 (Winter 2004)
“Israel’s Strategic Environment in the 1990s,” Journal of Strategic Studies, 25 (March 2002).
“Security in the Eastern Mediterranean: The Imperative for Cooperation among Cyprus, Greece, Israel and Turkey,”
Middle East Quarterly, 8 (Spring 2001). (co-authored with Shmuel Sandler).
“Arab-Israeli Coexistence: Causes, Achievements and Limitations,” Israel Affairs, 6 (Summer 2000), pp. 256-70.
“Israeli National Security, 1973-1996,” The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. 555
(January 1998), pp. 62-81.
MENACHEM KLEIN
Authored and Edited Books
Jerusalem: The Contested City. New York: New York University Press, 2001.
Shattering a Taboo: The Contacts Toward A Permanent Status Agreement in Jerusalem 1994-2001. Jerusalem: The
Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies, 2001.
Book Chapters and Journal Articles
“From a Doctrine to Solution Oriented Policy: The PLO’s Right of Return 1964-2000,” in Josef Ginat and Edward
J. Perkins (eds.) The Palestinian Refugees: Old Problems, New Solutions, pp. 46-57. Brighton, UK and Portland, OR:
Sussex Academic Press, 2001.
“The ‘Tranquil Decade’ Reexamined, A New Assessment of Israel-Arab Relations During the Years 1957-1967,” Israel
Affairs, Vol. 6 Nos. 3-4 (1997), pp. 68-82.
“Between Right and Realization: The PLO Dialectics of ‘The Right of Return,’” Journal of Refugee Studies, Vol. 11, No.
1 (1998), pp. 1-19.
“Operating the Israeli-Jordanian-Palestinian Triangle by Bilateral Agreements,” in Joseph Ginat and Onn Wienckler
(eds.), Smoothing the Path to Peace: The Israeli-Jordanian-Palestinian Triangle, pp. 46-61. Brighton, UK and Portland,
OR: Sussex Academic Press, 1998.
“Quo Vadis? Palestinian Dilemmas of Ruling Authority Building Since 1993,” Middle Eastern Studies, Vol. 33 No. 2
(1997), pp. 383-404.
“Ikhtarna Laka (We Have Selected for You): A Critique of Egypt’s Revolutionary Culture,” Orient, No. 38 (1997), pp.
677-92.
“The Islamic Holy Places as a Political Bargaining Card (1993-1995),” The Catholic University of America Law Review,
Vol. 45 No. 3 (1996), pp. 745-63.
“Competing Brothers: The Web of Hamas-PLO Relations,” Terrorism and Political Violence, Vol. 8 No. 2 (1996), pp.
132 Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org
111-32.
“The Official Israeli-Palestinian Track: An Assessment,” in Josef Ginat and Edward J. Perkins (eds.), The Middle East
Peace Process: Vision Versus Reality, Brighton, UK and Portland, OR: Sussex Academic Press, 2002.
IAN LUSTICK
Authored and Edited Books
Trapped in the War on Terror. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006.
Unsettled States, Disputed Lands: Britain and Ireland, France and Algeria, Israel and the West Bank-Gaza. Ithaca, NY:
Cornell University Press, 1993.
For the Land and the Lord: Jewish Fundamentalism in Israel. New York: Council on Foreign Relations, 1988.
State-Building Failure in British Ireland and French Algeria. Berkeley: Institute of International Studies, University of
California, 1985, Research Monograph Series, No. 63.
Exile and Return: Predicaments of Palestinians and Jews. Co-edited with Ann M. Lesch. Philadelphia, PA: University of
Pennsylvania Press, 2005.
Book Chapters and Journal Articles
“Negotiating Truth: The Holocaust, Lehavdil, and al-Nakba,” Journal of International Affairs, Vol. 60, No. 1 (2006), pp.
51-80.
“Yerushalayim, al-Quds, and the Wizard of Oz: Facing the Problem of Jerusalem after Camp David II and the al-Aqsa
Intifada,” Journal of Israeli History, Vol. 23, No. 2 (2004), pp. 200-15.
“In Search of Hegemony: Nationalism and Religion in the Middle East,” Hagar: International Social Science Review,
Vol. 3, No. 2 (2002), pp. 171-201.
“Israel as a Non-Arab State: The Political Implications of Mass Immigration of Non-Jews,” The Middle East Journal,
Vol. 53, No. 3 (1999), pp. 101-17.
“Israeli History: Who is Fabricating What?” Survival (Autumn 1997), pp. 156-166.
“Has Israel Annexed East Jerusalem?” Middle East Policy, Vol. V, No. 1 (1997) pp. 34-45.
“To Build and to Be Built By: Israel and the Hidden Logic of the Iron Wall,” Israel Studies, Vol. I, No. 1 (1996) pp. 196-
223.
URI RAM
Authored and Edited Books
The Changing Agenda of Israeli Sociology: Theory, Ideology and Identity. New York: State University of New York Press,
1995.
The Globalization of Israel: McWorld in Tel Aviv, Jihad in Jerusalem. London, UK: Routledge, 2007.
Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org 133
Book Chapters and Journal Articles
“‘The Promised Land of Business Opportunities’: Liberal Post-Zionism in the Glocal Age,” in Gershon Shafir and Yoav
Peled (eds.), The New Israel, pp. 217-240. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2000.
“Historiographical Foundations of the Historical Strife in Israel,” in Anita Shapira and Derek J. Penslar (eds.), Israeli
Revisionism From Left to Right, pp. 43-61. London, UK: Frank Cass, 2002.
“Leaders, Administrators and Entrepreneurs: The Political Class in Israel,” in Jens Borchet and Jurgen Zeiss (eds.),
The Political Class in Advanced Democracies: A Comparative Handbook, pp. 203-222. Oxford, UK: Oxford University
Press, 2004.
“Challenges to the Nation-State: Framework for the Analysis of Israel,” in Adrianna Kemp, Uri Ram, David Newman
and Oren Yiftachel (eds.), Israelis in Conflict: Hegemonies, Identities and Challengers. Brighton, UK: Sussex Academic
Press, 2004.
“Citizens, Consumers and Believers: The Israeli Public Sphere Between Fundamentalism and Capitalism,” Israel
Studies, Vol. 3 No. 1 (1998), pp. 24-44.
“The State of the Nation: Contemporary Challenges to Zionism in Israel,” Constellations: An International Journal of
Critical and Democratic Theory, Vol. 6, No. 3 (1999), pp. 325-38.
“National, Ethnic or Civic? Contesting Paradigms of Memory, Identity and Culture in Israel,” Studies in Philosophy
and Education, Vol. 19, Nos. 5-6 (2000), pp. 405-22.
“Mizrahim or Mizrahiyut? Class and Identity in Israeli Critical Sociological Discourse,” Israel Studies Forum: An
Interdisciplinary Journal, Vol. 17, No. 2 (2002), pp. 114-30.
“Glocommodification: How the Global Consumes the Local–McDonald’s in Israel,” Current Sociology, Vol. 52, No. 2
(2003), pp. 11-31.
“The Big M: McDonald’s and the Americanization of the Motherland,” Theory and Critique, Issue 23 (2003), pp. 179-
212.
DORON SHULTZINER
Journal Articles
“The Puzzle of Altruism Reconsidered: Theories of Altruism and One-shot Altruism,” (with Arnon Dattner).
Scandinavian Working Papers in Economics, No. 103 (2006).
“Altruism and Human Nature,” (with Arnon Dattner), Galileo: Journal of Philosophy and Science, No. 93 (2006), pp.
26-38.
“A Jewish Conception of Human Dignity,” Journal of Religious Ethics, Vol. 34, No. 4 (2006), pp. 663-83.
“Human Dignity—Justification, Not a Human Right,” Hamishpat Law Review, Vol. 21 (2006), pp. 21-36.
“Human Dignity—Functions and Meanings, Global Jurist, Vol. 3, No. 3 (2003).
134 Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org
MARK TESSLER
Authored and Edited Books
A History of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1994.
Book Chapters and Journal Articles
“The Political Economy of Attitudes toward Peace among Palestinians and Israelis” (coauthor). Journal of Conflict
Resolution, No. 2 (2002), pp. 260-85.
“Gender and International Relations: A Comparison of Citizen Attitudes in Israel and Egypt” (senior author), in
Michael Barnett (ed.), Israel in Comparative Perspective: Challenging the Conventional Wisdom. Albany, NY: State
University of New York Press, 1996.
“What Kind of Jewish State Do Israelis Want? The Nature and Determinants of Israeli Attitudes toward Secularism
and Some Comparisons with Arab Attitudes toward the Relationship between Religion and Politics,” in Zvi Gittelman
(ed.), Judaism and Jewishness: The Evolution of Secular and Religious Jewish Identities. Piscataway, NJ: Rutgers
University Press, 2008.
“The Historical Dimensions of the Conflict,” in Aslam Farouk-Alli (ed.), The Future of Palestine and Israel: From
Colonial Roots to Postcolonial Realities. Pretoria, South Africa: Institute for Global Dialogue, 2007.
“Narratives and Myths about Arab Intransigence toward Israel,” in Robert Rotberg (ed.), A Double Helix: Intertwined
Israeli and Palestinian Narratives. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2006.
“The Attitudes of West Bank and Gaza Palestinians toward Governance and the Relationship between Religion and
Politics,” Palestine-Israel Journal, No. 11 (2004).
“The Nature and Determinants of Arab Attitudes toward Israel,” in Derek Penslar and Janice Stein (eds.),
Contemporary Antisemitism: Canada and the World. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2004.
“Israel and the Palestinians: An Historical Overview,” in Robert Freedman (ed.), Israel at Fifty: Promise and Reality.
Gainesville, FL: University Presses of Florida, 2000.
“Palestinian Political Attitudes: An Analysis of Survey Data from the West Bank and Gaza,” (co-author), Israel Studies,
Vol. 4, No. 2 (Spring 1999), 22-43.
“The Intifada: The Uprising of Palestinian Civilians in the Occupied Territories, 1987-1992,” in Philip Mattar (ed.),
Encyclopedia of the Palestinians. New York: Checkmark Books, 1999.
EYAL ZISSER
Authored and Edited Books
Commanding Syria: Bashar al-Asad and the First Years in Power. London, UK: I.B. Tauris, 2006.
Lebanon — The Challenge of Independence. London, UK: I.B. Tauris, 2000.
Asad’s Legacy, Syria in Transition. New York: New York University Press, 2000.
Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org 135
Book Chapters and Journal Articles
“Where is Bashar al-Assad Heading?” Middle East Quarterly, Vol. 15, No. 1 (2008), pp. 15-20.
“Political Trends in the Middle East: Implications for Israel,” Israel Affairs, Vol. 12, No. 4 (2006), pp. 684-97.
“Hizballah, between Armed Struggle and Domestic Politics,” in Barry Rubin (ed.) Revolutionaries and Rerformers,
Contemporary Islamist Movements in the Middle East, pp. 91-105. Albany, New York: State University of New York
Press, 2003.
“A False Spring in Damascus,” Orient, Vol. 44, No. 1 (2003), pp. 39-63.
“Israel-Syria Peace Negotiations-December 1999—March 2000: Missed Opportunity?” in Joseph Ginat, Edward J.
Perkins, and Edwin G. Corr (eds.), The Middle East Peace Process—Vision Versus Reality, pp. 229-45. Brighton, UK:
Sussex Academic Press, 2002.
“On Opposite Sides of the Hill: Syrian and Israeli Perspectives,” in Laura Zittrain-Eizenberg and Neil Caplan (eds.),
Review Essays in Israel Studies, pp. 241-61. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 2000.
“Syria and Israel: Toward a Change,” in Efraim Inbar (ed.), Regional Security Regimes: Israel and its Neighbors, pp. 151-
71. Albany, New York: State University of New York Press, 1995.
“June 1967: Israel’s Capture of the Golan Heights,” Israel Studies, Vol. 7, No. 1 (Spring 2002), pp. 168-194.
“The Israel-Syria Negotiations—What Went Wrong?” Orient, Vol. 42, No. 2 (June 2001), pp. 225-251.
RAPHAEL COHEN-ALMAGOR
Authored and Edited Books
The Boundaries of Liberty and Tolerance: The Struggle Against Kahanism in Israel. Gainesville, FL: The University Press
of Florida, 1994.
Liberal Democracy and the Limits of Tolerance: Essays in Honor and Memory of Yitzhak Rabin (ed.). Ann Arbor, MI:
University of Michigan Press, 2000.
Israeli Democracy at the Crossroads (ed.). London, UK: Routledge, 2005.
Israeli Institutions at the Crossroads (ed.). London, UK: Routledge, 2005.
Journal Articles
“Cultural Pluralism and the Israeli Nation-Building Ideology,” International Journal of Middle East Studies, Vol. 27
(1995), pp. 461-484.
136 Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org
“Reflections on the Intriguing Issue of the Right to Die in Dignity,” Israel Law Review, Vol. 29, No. 4 (1995), pp. 677-
701.
“Administrative Detention in Israel and its Employment as a Means of Combating Political Extremism,” New York
International Law Review, Vol. 9, No. 2 (1996), pp. 1-25.
“Disqualification of Political Parties in Israel: 1988-1996,” Emory International Law Review, Vol. 11, No. 1 (1997), pp.
67-109.
“Combating Right-Wing Political Extremism in Israel: Critical Appraisal,” Terrorism and Political Violence, Vol. 9, No.
4 (1997), pp. 82-105.
“The Delicate Framework of Israeli Democracy During the 1980s: Retrospect and Appraisal,” Israel Affairs, Vol. 8,
Nos. 1-2 (2002), pp. 118-38.
“Israeli Democracy, Religion and the Practice of Halizah in Jewish Law,” UCLA Women’s Law Journal, Vol. 11, No. 1
(Fall/Winter 2000), pp. 45-65.
“The Israel Press Council,” Israel Affairs, Vol. 11, No. 2 (2005), pp. 171-87.
“Political Extremism and Incitement in Israel 1993-1995, 2003-2005: A Study of Dangerous Expressions,” Democracy
and Security, Vol. 3, Issue 1 (2007), pp. 21-43.
EVA ETZIONI-HALEVY
Authored and Edited Books
Political Culture in Israel. With Rina Shapira. New York: Praeger Publishers, 1977.
Classes and Elites in Democracy and Democratization (ed.). New York: Garland Publishing, 1997.
The Divided People. New York: Lexington Books, 2002.
Book Chapters and Journal Articles
“The Religious Elite Connection and some Problems of Israeli Democracy,” Government and Opposition, Vol. 29
(1994), pp. 477-93.
“Civil-Military Relations and Democracy: The Case of the Military Political Elites’ Connection in Israel,” Armed
Forces and Society, Vol. 27 (1996): 401-17.
“Elites, Inequality and the Quality of Democracy in Ultramodern Society,” International Review of Sociology, Vol.
9 (1999), pp. 239-50.
“The Globalization Democracy? Social Movements and the Limits to Transnational Accountability,” International Journal of Contemporary Sociology, Vol. 38, No. 2 (2001), pp. 146-70.

TAMAR S. HERMANN
Authored and Edited Books
National Security and Public Opinion in Israel. Edited with Asher Arian and I. Talmud. Boulder, CO: Westview Press,
1988.
A Weary, Unrewarding Journey: The Israeli Peace Movement 1993-2003 (forthcoming).
Book Chapters and Journal Articles
“A Path Strewn with Thorns: Along the Difficult Road of Israeli-Palestinian Peacemaking,” with David Newman, in J.
Darby and R. McGinty (eds.), The Management of Peace Processes, pp. 107-53. London, UK: Macmillan, 2000.
“Away from War? Israelis’ Security Beliefs in the Post-Oslo Era,” in P. Everts and P. Isernia (eds.), When the Going Gets
Tough: Public Opinion and the Use of Military Force, pp. 163-82. London, UK: Routledge, 2001.
“Blame or Praise: Israeli Contending Narratives of the Peace Movement’s Role in the Oslo Process,” in A. Ben Zvi and
A. Klieman (eds.), Global Politics: Essays in Honor of Professor David Vital, pp. 237-66. London, UK: Frank Cass, 2001.
“The Impermeable Identity Wall: The Study of Violent Conflicts by ‘Insiders’ and ‘Outsiders,’” in G. Robinson and M.
Smyth (eds.), Researching Violently Divided Societies: Ethical and Methodological Issues, pp. 77-92. New York: United
Nations University Press, 2001.
“The Palestinian Refugees in the Eyes of the Palestinian and Israeli-Jewish Publics,” in J. Ginat and E. Perkins (eds.),
The Palestinian refugees: Old Problems, New Solutions, pp. 303-16. Brighton, UK: Sussex University Press, 2001.
“The Sour Taste of Success: The Israeli Peace Movement, 1967-1998,” in B. Gidron, S. Katz and Y. Hasenfeld (eds.),
Mobilizing for peace: Conflict resolution in Northern Ireland, Israel/Palestine and South Africa, pp. 94-129. New York:
Oxford University Press, 2002.
“Reconciliation: Reflections on the Theoretical and Practical Utility of the Term,” in Y. Bar-Siman-Tov (ed.), From
conflict resolution to reconciliation, pp. 39-60. New York: Oxford University Press 2004.
“The Latitude of Acceptance: Israelis’ Attitudes toward Political Protest before and after the Assassination of Yitzhak
Rabin,” with E. Yaar, Journal of Conflict Resolution, Vol. 42, No. 6 (1998), pp. 721-43.
“Israelis’ Perceptions and the Oslo Process,” Peace Review, Vol. 10, No. 4 (1998), pp. 647-653.
“Divided yet United: Israeli Jewish Public Opinion on the Oslo Process,” with E. Yaar, Journal of Peace Research, Vol.
39, No. 5 (2002), pp. 597-613.
“The Binational Idea in Israel/Palestine: Past and Present,” Nations and Nationalism, Vol. 11, Part 3 (2005), pp. 381-
402.
AVI PICARD
Authored and Edited Books
‘Bailing Out the Ocean with Cups’ — The Immigration Policy for North African Jews, 1951–1956. Ben Gurion Institute
and Yad Ben Tzvi. (forthcoming)
138 Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org
Book Chapters and Journal Articles
“From Casablanca to the Moshav or Development Area: Absorbing North African Immigrants and Peopling the
Israeli Periphery, 1954-1956,” in A. Bareli, D. Gutwein and T. Friling (eds.), Israel — Between Economy and Society
(Hebrew), pp. 581-614. Ben Gurion Research Center, 2005.
“‘Who Are They That Shall Go’: Population Dispersion and the Development Towns,” in Z. Zameret and E. Meir-
Glitzenstein (eds.), Development Towns (Hebrew). Jerusalem: Yad Ben-Zvi (forthcoming).
“Between the Establishments: The Traditional Affiliation in Youth Immigration,” in S.N. Eisenstadt and Y. Lerner
(eds.), Remapping the Israeli Society (Hebrew). Tel Aviv: Van Leer Jerusalem Institute and Hakibbutz Hameuchad
Publishing House (forthcoming).
“The Beginning of Selective Immigration in the 1950s,” Iyunim Bi’tekumat Yisrael (Hebrew), September 1999, pp. 338-
94.
“Emigration, Health and Social Control,” Journal of Israeli History, Vol. 22, No. 2 (2003), pp. 32-60.
DONNA ROBINSON DIVINE
Authored and Edited Books
Women Living Change: Cross-Cultural Perspectives. Essays from the Smith College Research Project on Women and
Social Change. Edited with Susan C. Bourque. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, l985.
Politics and Society in Ottoman Palestine: The Arab Struggle for Survival and Power. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 1994.
Postcolonial Theory and The Arab-Israeli Conflict. Edited with Philip Carl Salzman. London, UK and New York:
Routledge, 2008.
Book Chapters and Journal Articles
“Women And The Zionist Enterprise in Palestine,” Israel Studies, Vol. 11, No. (2006), pp. 204-11.
“The Imperialist Ties That Bind: Transjordan and the Yishuv,” Israel Affairs, No. 2 (2003), pp. 1-30.
“Deconstructing Post-Zionism,” Shofar, Vol. 19, No. 3 (2001), pp. 129-37.
“Zionism and the Transformation of Jewish Society,” Modern Judaism, Vol. 30, No. (2000), pp. 257-77.
“From Civil Society to Sovereign State: The Israeli Experience and the Palestinian Quest,” Israel Affairs, Vol. 5, No. 4
(1999), pp. 43-71.
AVINOAM ROSENAK
Authored and Edited Books
The Prophetic Halakhah: Rabbi A.I H. Kook’s Philosophy of Halakhah. Jerusalem: The Hebrew University Magnes Press, 2007.
New Streams in Philosophy of Halakhah. Edited with Aviezer Ravitzky. Jerusalem: Magnes Press. [in press]
Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org 139
Avinoam Rosenak and Naftali Rothenberg (eds.). The Influence of Rabbi J. B. Soloveitchik on Culture, Education and
Jewish Thought, Van Leer Institute Publication, Jerusalem [in press]
Journal Articles and Book Chapters
“Halakhah, Thought and the Idea of Holiness in the Writings of Rabbi Haim David Halevi,” in R. Elior and P. Schafer
(eds.), Creation and Re-Creation in Jewish Thought: Festschrift in Honor of Josef Dan, pp. 309-338. Tubingen: Nohr
Siebeck, 2005.
“Halakhah: Dialectics in Rabbi Kook’s Meta-Halakhic Thought,” Jewish Law Annual, Vol. 17 (2008).
140 Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org
Bibliography
Middle East Institute Viewpoints: Israel: Growing Pains at 60 • www.mideasti.org 141
GENERAL HISTORICAL STUDIES AND REFERENCE WORKS
Baron, Salo. A Social and Religious History of the Jews. (18 Vols.) New York: Columbia University Press, 1952-1983.
Ben-Sasson, H.H. (ed.). A History of the Jewish People. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1976.
Benvenisti, Meron. Sacred Landscape: The Buried History of the Holy Land Since 1948. Berkeley, CA: University of
California, 2000.
Bregman, Ahron. A History of Israel. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002.
Cohen, Michael J. The Origins and Evolution of the Arab-Zionist Conflict. Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA: University of
California Press, 1987.
Dowty, Alan. The Jewish State: A Century Later, Updated With a New Preface. Berkeley, CA: University of California
Press, 1998.
Fackenheim, Emil. The Jewish Return into History: Reflections in the Age of Auschwitz. New York: Schocken Books,
1978.
Fein, Leonard. Israel: Politics and People. Boston, MA: Little, Brown, 1968.
Freedman, Robert O. (ed.). Israel in the Begin Era. New York: Praeger, 1982.
Friedman, Thomas. From Beirut to Jerusalem. New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, 1989.
Garfinkle, Adam. Politics and Society in Modern Israel: Myths and Realities. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 2000.
Gelvin, James L. The Israel-Palestine Conflict: One Hundred Years of War. 2nd ed. Cambridge, UK and New York:
Cambridge University Press, 2007.
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LITERATURE AND THE ARTS
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RELIGION IN SOCIETY AND POLITICS
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Lustick, Ian S. For the Land and the Lord: Jewish Fundamentalism in Israel. New York: Council on Foreign Relations,
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Sprinzak, Ehud. Fundamentalism, Terrorism, and Democracy: The Case of Gush Emunim Underground. Washington,
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BIOGRAPHY, AUTOBIOGRAPHY, AND MEMOIRS
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WOMEN OF ISRAEL
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WATER RESOURCES
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