Opinion
OTHER \ I
S
Struggling With Israel's 'Character'
Jerusalem/JTA
U
ninformed readers of the gen-
eral American press these days
learn only two things about
Israel. One is that it is consumed with war
and peace. The other is that this small
state of 7 million people deploys — or
does not, depending on whom you are
reading — the most powerful, homog-
enous lobby in Washington, bending the
American government's actions to its
interests at will.
American Jews know better, of course.
The quest for a fair and sustainable settle-
ment to conflict in the Middle East is
indeed central, but the peace process is
not the only challenge of Israel's continu-
ing struggle for survival as the state its
founders intended it to be.
Important, too, are issues that define
Israel as a society, as a homeland for Jews,
as a democracy. In the long run, these
and related topics will contribute as much
as military and diplomatic matters to
answering the question of whether Israel
will survive another 60 years.
Insider's View
Since serving as deputy speaker of the
Knesset, I have spent more of my time
on what I call the struggle for Israel's
character. As a democracy with a thriv-
ing civil society, there is plenty of scope
for argument in Israel over issues ranging
from minority rights to religious freedom.
However, there are also voices of extrem-
ism, intolerance and ultra-
nationalism that threaten not
just the Israeli ideal of a liberal,
democratic state, but also the
very mechanisms that allow us
to fiercely debate the issues that
will define our future.
For example, the indepen-
dence of Israel's High Court,
the most important guarantor
of rights in a country without
a written constitution, is under
siege from right-wingers inside
and outside the government who would
like to subject it to political manipulation.
The struggle to impede the theocratic
objectives of religious parties continues,
with progressives working hard just to
prevent further encroachment on what
should be a firm religion-state divide.
Perhaps most important, and difficult, is
the growing chasm between Israel's Jewish
and Arab citizens, as some of the former
continue to perpetuate de facto inequality,
and the latter react with an increasingly
radicalized vision of an Israel bereft of any
identifying Jewish characteristics.
Moreover, Israel is a country facing
increasing socio-economic discrepancies.
The widening gap between the prosper-
ous Israeli center and the struggling
peripheries in the Galilee and Negev was
exacerbated by last summer's war against
Hezbollah in Lebanon and the difficult
recovery in the north.
Overall, the prospects for immigrant
youth, Israeli Arabs, mizrachim — citi-
zens from Middle Eastern
and North African lands
— residents of development
towns, Bedouin and all the
other outsiders to Israel's
thriving economy remain
severely constricted.
Women confront gender-
rights issues every day, and
not just in the Orthodox and
Israeli Arab communities.
The disgusting parade of
Israeli politicians accused
and found guilty of sexual harassment
and worse is the most visible indicator of
a society struggling to overcome serious
problems with patriarchy.
These and similar issues constantly,
if not always consciously, affect the rela-
tions between Israel and world Jewry. The
notion of a single-minded American pro-
Israel lobby that only reflects the world-
view of the American Israel Public Affairs
Committee — Walt and Mearsheimer
notwithstanding — is ridiculous.
Moving Ahead
In the next week, I will be engaging, along
with other Israeli progressive social activ-
ists, in a nine-city national conversation
sponsored by the New Israel Fund titled
"Towards a Progressive Vision for Israel:'
Much of the American Jewish commu-
nity is to the left of some of its "official"
spokesperson organizations, and that this
large segment deserves a louder voice on
key Israel-related issues.
Achieving a more powerful voice for
these Jewish voices in the United States
is crucial for two reasons. First, the taboo
of criticizing Israel must be broken. The
issue is not whether Israel is always right
or always wrong, as the current discourse
aridly asserts. Rather the question is how
to deal constructively and creatively with
Israel's very real problems. The debate
about Israel must be reframed.
Second, the majority of Israeli citizens
— who have achieved real successes
advocating in an open, argumentative,
self-critical society — need support from
their American counterparts. When the
most visible American backers of Israel
are the Likud-fellow-traveler Jewish
groups and the Christian right, it is almost
impossible to counter those powerful and
well-financed voices and the retrogressive
values they champion.
Most Israelis see the threat of religious
ultranationalism, minority repression
and economic inequity all too clearly. It is
time for true democrats in both Israel and
the United States to challenge themselves
with the reality of Israel in its 60th year: a
vibrant, thriving country still striving for
ideals not yet attained. I
Naomi Chazan, former deputy speaker of the
Knesset, is professor emerita of political sci-
ence at Hebrew University of Jerusalem and
head of the School of Government and Society
at the Academic College of Tel Aviv-Yaffo. She
is a member of the New Israel Fund board of
directors.
Statehood: A Vision to Reality
T
here are two very
significant dates for
the Jewish people as a
whole and the State of Israel in
particular in November.
First, there's the 90th anni-
versary of what is known as the
Balfour Declaration of Nov. 2,
1917, by the British high official
Arthur Balfour, who was first
influenced by Theodor Herzl,
the father of Zionism, and later
by Chaim Weizmann, the sci-
entist and Zionist leader who
became Israel's first president. The Balfour
Declaration stated that the British govern-
ment viewed with favor the establishment
of a national home for the Jewish people
in Palestine.
The second date is the 60th anniversary
of the Partition Resolution by the United
Nations, which took place on Nov. 29, 1947.
A32
November 1 • 2007
It involved partitioning Palestine
into a Jewish state and an Arab
state. I had the privilege to be an
eyewitness to that historic event.
I can never forget that evening
when a number of our neighbors
in the house on Herzl Street in
the south of Tel Aviv gathered
in our small apartment and
waited with trepidation, pencils
in hand, for the fateful vote that
was to take place in the United
Nations General Assembly in
New York.
I was still a child and fell asleep on
my parents' bed only to be awakened by
my father, Yosef, who, with tears of joy,
informed me that we have a state; the
spontaneous, unbridled joy of all present
was indescribable, a joy that was repli-
cated throughout the yishuv (the Jewish
community of Palestine).
The vote was 33 for, 13 against and 11
abstentions, including Great Britain, which
ruled Palestine and was extra careful to be
seen as objective.
But while the Jews of Palestine went to
the streets to celebrate, the Arabs didn't
agree with the resolution and declared war
on the not yet born State of Israel.
This was but the first in a succession
of wars that the State of Israel had to
fight with its Arab neighbors in order to
preserve its independence, which was
officially established on Friday, May 14,
1948.
As the daughter of pioneers and found-
ers who left their homes and families in
order to rebuild the Jewish homeland in
the land of Israel, there are a variety of
aspects of Israeli life today that I don't
particularly like, to put it mildly.
I am sadly disappointed by the rampant
corruption and daily scandals, and mostly
by the tragedy that occurred 12 years ago,
on Nov. 4, when Israeli Prime Minister
Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated by a fellow
Jew, something no one thought possible in
the Jewish state.
Not unlike any modern democracy,
there is good and bad; reality often falls
short of the dream. In the final analysis,
I can never forget that night of Nov. 29,
1947.1 can't imagine what life would be
like if the vote turned out differently.
To celebrate the fateful vote, the Israeli
Knesset is planning to invite the U.N. sec-
retary as well as representatives of the 33
countries — including the United States
— that voted in favor and made it all pos-
sible.
Despite it all, a blessing of Shehecheyanu,
the Jewish blessing of gratitude, is certainly
in order. I I
Rachel Kapen is a West Bloomfield resident.