Despite the dangers mounting all
around us, as we approach Rosh Hashana 5775, for Jews in Israel, in many ways
things have never been better. On Sunday
night, President Reuven Rivlin and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu spoke at
the 10th-anniversary celebration marking the founding of the Menachem Begin
Heritage Center in Jerusalem. In his
remarks, Rivlin described the impact of what he referred to as the “revolution”
Menachem Begin led in Israeli society. Through
his victory in the 1977 Knesset elections, which marked the end of the Labor
Party’s monopoly on power, Rivlin explained, Begin began the process of
expanding the definition of what it means to be an Israeli. Until Begin rose to
the premiership, entire sectors of society, Mizrahim from Arab countries, new
olim, religious Zionists and haredim had been shunned by the establishment. Begin changed that.
Begin opened the doors to
everyone, facilitating their entry into society on their own terms,
transforming
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Israel from a melting pot, where everyone was supposed to aspire
to become a member of the in-group, into a multicultural society, where all
expressions of Israeli-ism were welcome.
The goal of Begin’s revolution was to develop Israel into an open,
dynamic and inclusive society. Begin ushered in its first phase – inclusion. He
didn’t live to see the next phase, that of integration. In the first phase, the
spurned sectors Begin embraced defined themselves more by what distinguished
them from other Israelis than by what united them with their fellow
Israelis. Today, Rivlin explained, we
are in the next phase of Begin’s revolution as we see the integration of more
and more Israelis into a new, dynamic, inclusive model of Israeli-ism. This is
a model based on what unites us, rather than what drives us apart.
In his remarks, Prime Minister
Binyamin Netanyahu also highlighted the sense of national unity that
increasingly defines the Israeli experience. Netanyahu dwelled on its
foundations – the shared Jewish heritage and values that form the basis of
Israeli society.
Both men marveled at how far
Israel has come in this direction over the past decade and a half by recalling
the uncertain beginning of the Begin Heritage Center when, during Netanyahu’s
first tenure as prime minister, the Knesset passed a law mandating its
formation. At the time, Israeli society
was suffering from an unprecedented level of polarization. Many Labor members responded to Begin’s rise
to power by turning to the radical Left. In 1993, with the inauguration of the
so-called peace process with the PLO, the Labor Party transformed itself from
the party that encompassed the national ethos into one that undermined it.
The ethos that Labor had
developed in its years in power was one of collective security and shared fate.
The peace process, predicated as it was on Israeli culpability for the Arab
world’s rejection of the Jewish state, subverted the national ethos. After all,
if Israel itself was responsible for the absence of peace, and until 1993,
Israel’s strategic posture was based on activist defense, then Israel’s
strategic posture, and the social understandings it was rooted in, were
responsible for Arab hatred and aggression, and therefore they had to be
rejected.
After Netanyahu defeated Labor
leader Shimon Peres in the 1996 elections, Labor and its partners rooted their
strategy for returning to power on exploiting the sectoral identities
cultivated by Begin in order to turn Israelis against one another. The results of the 1999 elections
demonstrated the strategy’s success. Likud and Labor – the big tent parties –
were vastly weakened as sectoral parties rose in power and influence,
reflecting the unraveling of society’s sense of shared destiny. This disintegration, together with the
so-called peace process’s subversion of the national ethos of collective
security, brought about a situation where when the PLO rejected statehood and
peace at Camp David in 2000 and Yasser Arafat turned to jihad, Israeli society
was weaker than it had been since the early 1950s. It took the efforts of Israelis from all
walks of life, and from all sectors of society, who read the writing on the
wall, to forge a new national ethos. The new Israeli ethos is built not only on
security and shared fate, but on the far firmer foundation of a shared Jewish
heritage.
Unlike what Israel’s many detractors claim, there is nothing
fanatical about Jewish heritage.
To the contrary, being loyal to
that heritage means not only that Jews of all walks of life can feel at home in
Israel, but that Israel’s non-Jewish citizens can integrate into Israeli
society without having to surrender their unique cultural and religious
identities. It is this new sense of
national identity and purpose that enabled Israeli society to stand as one
through the disasters we absorbed this summer. And as Netanyahu emphasized on
Sunday evening, it is this inclusive unity, that Menachem Begin did so much to facilitate,
that forms the basis of Israel’s ability to survive in a regional and
international environment that grow more dangerous and hostile by the day.
As Israelis work to maintain our unity while
embracing our diversity, American Jews find themselves divided and increasingly
polarized across ideological and social lines. While what unites American Jews
is more significant than what divides them, many key groups appear to have lost
sight of this basic truth. Radical
groups that reflect the views of almost no significant American Jewish
constituency, have jumped in to fill the void. And owing to the absence of a
clear, strong message from key components of the community, they are making
headway in their goal of unraveling and disempowering the Jewish community of
America.
In Israel, as traditional elites
failed in the 1990s, new forces emerged to take up the charge of rebuilding
Israeli society. Their success paved the way for the unity of Israeli society
that today enables Israel to stand fast against a rising tide of military and
diplomatic threats. It is my fervent
prayer for 5775 that the American Jewish community will take a lesson from
Israeli society, and unify against the growing forces of anti-Jewish bigotry.
May they embrace our shared Jewish heritage and stand with one another to
secure the rights and freedom of the Jewish people in the coming year and into
the future.
Caroline B. Glick is the author of The Israeli Solution: A
One-State Plan for Peace in the Middle East. http://carolineglick.com
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