Jewish Israel

If Israel Isn't Jewish

by Amnon Rubinstein
Ma'ariv

If Israel is not the Jewish State it may not be called Israel. Israel is synonymous with Jewish.

If Israel is not Jewish, the Declaration of Independence must be annulled, because it deals with the establishment of the Jewish State called Israel.

If Israel is not Jewish, the November 29, 1947 UN General Assembly resolution must be annulled, because it deals with the partition of Palestine into two states - A Jewish one and an Arab one.

If Israel is not Jewish, one should also annul the Law of Return and the Human Dignity and Liberty Basic Law, which establishes the values of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state.

If Israel is not Jewish, a new national anthem must be found in lieu of the Tikvah. If Israel is not Jewish it will not be Catholic. Nor Buddhist. It will be Muslim Arab, even if in order to get there it may have to be a bi-national state for a while. If Israel is not Jewish, there will never be two states for two peoples.

If Israel (interim name) becomes Muslim Arab, it is hard to believe it will be democratic.

If Israel is Muslim Arab, the first to flee will be the learned anti-Zionist journalists, while Jews from Arab countries will stay put. They have already fled Arab rule in order to live in a Jewish state, but the same regime that once humiliated and oppressed them, will have caught up with them.

All of this is not likely to happen, but it is important to understand that it is right to define Israel as a Jewish and democratic state. We are being told that the large Arab minority in our midst should preclude this definition, as it is undemocratic to disregard this minority. However, the UN accepted the establishment of a Jewish state in the Land of Israel, when the Arab minority here constituted over 40%. The General Assembly saw no discrepancy between the facts on the ground and the definition of Israel as the Jewish State. The anti-Zionists will argue: the facts on the ground have changed. We are living in the post-national era (this is what I call the multi-crappy-culti). But even in this day and age most European countries are being defined as national states, even though many of them have very large minorities.

The truth is there is no justification in not recognizing Israel as a Jewish and democratic state. The Supreme Court has defined on several occasions the main characteristics of the Jewish state, including the following elements: Hebrew is the main official language, the days of rest are those defined by Jewish tradition, and there is a Jewish majority in the State of Israel (yes, that too).

We are being told that the Jewish State is redolent of religious coercion, and that it is at most the State of the Jews, as per Herzl's book. However, Herzl saw no difference between the two, and even allowed his book to be translated into several languages either as The State of the Jews or The Jewish State. The UN General Assembly surely did not think of a religious state; neither did Ben-Gurion when he declared independence; nor did ex-Supreme Court Justice Aharon Barak, who defined the hard core of the Jewish State. Besides, what good would a name change do? Would the Palestinians agree to a Jewish State? Quite the contrary, they would argue that it would be ten times worse, as it makes no mention of its Arab citizens.

If Israel shouldn't be Jewish in the religious/Jewish law meaning, what does Jewish mean? In fact, the meaning has not changed since Herzl: Jews, at least since the emancipation, are a people, a nation. A people just like any other people, with an important religious contingent, a link to its religious past. This religious past is the source of modern nationalism. Yes, Jews were late in this respect too, that is why there still is an on-going struggle to divide between nationality and religion, whereas other nations are past this point in their evolution. However, the process is similar. The State of Israel is the state of this people, of all denominations, and it must also be the state of its non-Jewish citizens, including the large Muslim minority whose leaders preach dissent from the state.

The state cannot be identified with a certain part of the Jewish people. It is the home of all: Jews and non-Jews, religious, traditional and secular, and therefore it must not discriminate between is different constituents. It's true, there are flaws in our governing, such as the absence of civil marriages. The very submission of Israelis to religious courts does not sit well with its democratic character. But this is not why the Arab leadership in Israel and the Palestinian president object to Israel being the Jewish State. On the contrary, they aspire to establish a religious state, fanatic and anti-democratic at that. They object to the very existence of a Jewish democratic state in "their" region. They envision a nightmarish non-Israel state, as described above.

[The beautiful illustration I chose for this post shows how each and every Hebrew letter has its place in the Star of David, the eternal symbol of the Jewish people, which has also become our national symbol. Courtesy of Hazofen (The Code) by Rabbi Zamir Cohen].