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more pluralistic. The definition of who is
an Israeli has expanded from one type to
many, and there is a great deal more
tolerance of cultures and customs that
don't come from within a fifty-mile radius
of Minsk. During the past decade the
Oriental Jews have made almost
unbelievable progress in becoming an in-
tegral part of society. In 1971 the Black
Panthers shocked the establishment with
their inflammatory rhetoric. Today,
Sephardim make up a large part of that
establishment: two Deputy Prime
Ministers, half a dozen Cabinet ministers,
the chief of staff of the army, the head of
the Histadrut Labor Federation, and a
great many senior civil servants,
diplomats and wealthy businessmen. Even
more important, an increasingly large
number of ordinary Oriental Jews feel they
are no longer outsiders.
s
There are still ethnic divisions in Israel,
of course, and there will be for some time.
On the Sephardi side there are activists
who fan the embers of old resentments,
just as on the Ashkenazi side there are
Ethnic Purity diehards who see the rise of
the Sephardim as synonymous with social
decay. But in truth, the tensions that have
accompanied the integration of Sephardim
into Israeli life have been remarkably mild.
More important, such tensions are a sign
of national health, the inevitable by-
product of any successful struggle for ac-
ceptance and equality.
In recent years Israel has become a far
more open society than it was during its
first two decades. There was a time when
David Ben Gurion used the Shin Bet—the
Israeli secret service—to spy on his
political opponents, including his fellow
Labor Zionists. For a long period senior
civil service and army posts were available
only to those with the right party affilia-
tions and voting records, and a large part
of the population was excluded from posi-
tions of authority and responsibility on
political grounds. Those days are long
gone, however; and if abuses of power and
patronage still exist, they are no longer
built into the system.
Over the years, freedom of the press has
also flourished. Until 1965 the government
ran the national radio directly out of the
Prime Minister's Office, and the establish-
ment refused to allow the introduction of
television until 1968. Today, both TV and
radio are run by a public, BBC-type
authority, and while they are not com-
pletely free of government efforts to in-
fluence them, they are usually critical and
reliable in their news coverage. The
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