The Government And Politics Of Israel

Third Edition

Donald Peretz, Gideon Doron

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9780813324098
• eBook ISBN: 9780429974120
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Middle Eastern Politics
• Index: Politics & International Relations

This book offers a comprehensive and up-to-date overview of the dynamics of Israeli politics. It aims to familiarize those interested in Israel's government with that country's origins; the way its political institutions, practices, and traditions have evolved; and the way the government works.

1

Historical Origins of Israel

No other nation of Israel’s size is as well-known throughout the world or as influential in its relations with other countries. During the early days of the state, a delegation from the U.S. Congress visited the country and concluded, “What Israel needs is a good mayor and a good sheriff.” Israel is a very small country in both area and population. Its area of nearly 8,000 square miles (about 28,000 square kilometers) makes Israel similar in size to New Jersey, Slovenia, Wales, or El Salvador; it is considerably smaller than countries like Belgium and is half the size of the Netherlands or Denmark. A person driving 55 miles an hour could cross Israel from Metula in the north to Eilat in the south in about four hours and could travel the width from Netanya on the Mediterranean coast to the Jordan River in less than an hour. Among its Middle East regional neighbors, Israel is larger than Lebanon, Qatar, and Kuwait. Jordan is almost five times larger than Israel, however; Syria is nine times as large, Iraq is twenty times as large, Turkey is forty times as large, Egypt is fifty times as large, Iran is eighty times as large, and Saudi Arabia is over one hundred times as large.

The Centrality of Israel

With a population of over 5.3 million in 1994, Israel has fewer or the same number of people as at least thirty-five of the world’s largest cities, including London, Paris, Moscow, Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York. Three Middle Eastern cities—Cairo, Teheran, and Istanbul—have up to twice the number of inhabitants as Israel. Its population equals 15 percent of California’s, or a little under 2 percent of that of the United States. Iraq and Iran, two of Israel’s declared regional enemies, have about four and twelve times more people, respectively, and Egypt, an active enemy until 1979, is more than ten times larger.¹

Although it is one of the smaller political entities in both the region and the world, Israel has become a focus of unusual attention, especially since independence in 1948. Israel’s conflict with surrounding Arab states, its central role in major Middle Eastern crises, and its social, economic, and political development constantly arouse interest around the globe—particularly in the United States and Europe. Some studies place Israel among the ten countries with the largest foreign press corps during 1992; 270 news organizations keep a permanent representation there. When a superstory breaks in times of war or other major crises, Israel becomes, after the United States, the country most covered by the foreign press. There are several reasons for this phenomenon.

First, Israel is the birthplace of the two Western monotheistic religions, Judaism and Christianity, and it is also sacred to Islam. Events that affect the “land of the Bible” and its holy sites are of major interest to believers of these three faiths. Tom Friedman, the noted U.S. journalist, defined events in Israel during 1987 as “the translation of the Bible to news items.”² Events that involve the resurrection of the Jewish people in their native home are theologically problematic for Catholics; they are significant, however, for fundamentalist Protestants who see their religious visions approaching fulfillment in Israel’s revival.

Second, Israel has acquired prominence in Western consciousness because it shares similar values with the West. Israel is one of the most democratic countries in the Middle Eastern region. Much of Israel’s political and economic leadership is either Western-born or Western-oriented. Indeed, many enemies as well as friends tend to perceive Israel as an extension of Western civilization or even as a colonial outpost of late European imperialist expansion to the Third World. In addition, the trauma or perhaps some profound guilt over the actions and inactions taken during the Holocaust draws sympathy and support from Europeans. In 1992 fifty-one German news organizations had representatives in Israel, second only to the fifty-six U.S. representatives.³ The transformation of yesterday’s victims into a vibrant force has been noted with great interest and even with respect, if not admiration. Until 1967 Israel was generally perceived as the weak David facing the mighty Goliath but able to overcome him. After Israel’s victory in the 1967 war, the power and moral equations seem to have been reversed; in the eyes of the world, Israel’s sheer power replaced its moral strength.

Intellectually, Israel constitutes an exciting social and political experiment. Its propelling national ideology, Zionism, is no doubt the most important underlying force that has profoundly revolutionized Israelis’ private and collective lives. There is no historical parallel for an ethno-religious group that for two millennia was placed in an exilitic situation and was effectively able to restore its independent national life. The process of Jewish resurrection also includes the revival of a “dead language,” Hebrew, which, like Latin, was used primarily for religious rituals and is now the principal means of daily communication. Experimentation in various forms of collective living—most notably the kibbutz communal arrangement, which relies on the principles of equality among members, joint property, and direct democracy—also draws attention to this old-new society.

Strategically, Israel’s importance belies its size. Located at the crossroads of three continents—Asia, Africa, and Europe—in ancient times the land of Israel became a common battlefield for ambitiously expanding nations, a situation that changed little during the second half of the twentieth century. Israel’s several rounds of all-out wars with some of its Arab neighbors and many violent border and terrorist incidents constituted a risk that these conflicts would not be contained within the region but would spill over to the international level as well. This risk became acute when Israel sided with the Americans and against the Soviet Union and its Arab clients during the Cold War. The fact that Israel is generally perceived as one of the nations with nuclear weapons has intensified the potential danger to international security. Moreover, its special economic, military, and diplomatic relationships with the United States are not unnoticed by other nations.

The development of the U.S.-Israeli friendship rests on several factors, including the support Israel has traditionally obtained from American Jews. By 1992 one-third of the world’s Jewry lived in Israel, a number almost equal to the U.S. Jewish community. Israel is the world’s only state in which the majority of citizens and many national institutions such as holidays, diet (Kashrut) laws, and regulations over personal affairs (including birth, marriage, and death) are Jewish; thus, Jews everywhere are interested in Israel. Whether because of sympathy, identification, or a direct interest in creating a shelter in case of persecution, events in Israel are discussed regularly in U.S. synagogue meetings, and requests to assist the country in overcoming its mounting challenges are important in Jewish communal life. U.S. Jewish organizations and individuals help financially, but more important, they use their influence in the political system to rally various forms of support for Israel.

Large concentrations of Jews are found in New York, Los Angeles, London, and Paris—cities that are national and international centers for printed and electronic media. Local Jewish residents’ demand for news about Israel is transformed to the national level. Thus, for example, the New York Times often carries as many detailed accounts of Israeli issues as do Israeli newspapers. The existence of such a large market for news about Israel is the prime reason major U.S. and European television networks keep permanent crews in Israel.

Wars, terrorist activities, heroic behavior, and human despair tend to produce “good” stories. Likewise, acts of reconciliation between enemies draw much media coverage because of the hope that if protracted conflict, however complex, can be solved in one place, then perhaps other conflicts can also be resolved.

A Changing Society and Its Problems

What is actually known of this popular political entity? Some preliminary generalizations are in order. First, the formal name of the Jewish state is not Israel but rather “the State of Israel” (Medinat Israel). This distinguishes the political entity of the state from the physical and spiritual entity of the Land of Israel (Eretz Israel). Eretz Israel is a biblical territory that includes both banks of the Jordan River (and thus the Kingdom of Jordan) according the League of Nations Mandate for Palestine, discussed later. Jews maintain internationally recognized political sovereignty only in the state; although since June 1967 they have also lived in the West Bank (captured from Jordan), which was part of the land, and the Gaza Strip (captured from Egypt), these territories do not legally belong to Israel. In July 1967 Israel annexed East Jerusalem to its state. Fourteen years later, in December 1981, the Golan Heights, an area belonging to Syria, also became part of the state.

By the end of 1994, Israel had internationally agreed and fixed borders with only two neighbors: Egypt and Jordan. The border with Egypt was determined by the March 1979 peace treaty and that with Jordan by the October 1994 peace agreement. In the second half of the 1990s, Israel was still waiting to alter the status of the “armistice lines” (the so-called green lines) to define its borders with Syria and Lebanon and to redefine borders with the emerging Palestinian entity. The armistice lines were drafted in 1949 armistice agreements with Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria following the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.

Although most citizens of Israel are Jews, about 18.5 percent of the population is non-Jewish (i.e., 77 percent Arab-Moslem, 14 percent Arab-Christian, and 9 percent Arab-Druse).⁴ A small, undetermined number of residents is neither Jewish nor Arab. Most of the latter group arrived in Israel because they married a member of the Jewish faith or came to find work in the labor market. Although most Arab citizens were born in Israel, that is not the case for the Jews. Only during the 1980s did the number of Jewish natives surpass the number of those born beyond Israel’s borders. Between 1948 and 1994, more than 2.35 million Jews arrived in Israel from 130 countries.⁵ Prior to 1948, most immigrants had come from Europe. Immediately after independence they came primarily from Middle Eastern countries—including Egypt, Syria, Iraq, and Yemen—and from North Africa. Between 1960 and 1990, most immigrants came from countries belonging to the Soviet bloc (Poland, Romania, Russia, and Georgia) and from the United States. The largest single wave of immigration (about 500,000 people, or over 10 percent of the population) came during the period 1990-1993 from the collapsing Soviet Union and from Ethiopia.⁶

A creation of the Zionist movement, the State of Israel does not officially belong to all its citizens but belongs to the Jewish people, an undetermined entity that also includes individuals and groups that are explicitly anti-Zionist (like the Satmar Hasidim of Brooklyn, New York) or that never plan to visit the land of their “forefathers.” According to Israeli law, however, these people potentially have more legal rights in many matters in Israel than do the country’s indigenous non-Jewish citizens. As a nonliberal democracy whose basic values and laws are deduced from a commitment to the interests of Jewish people, Israel has no written constitution. Its single-chamber parliament, the 120-member Knesset, serves as both a legislature and a constituent body. Regular laws, regulations, and acts are drafted through the first function, and basic laws embodied with constitutional status are enacted through the second. The Knesset also selects, approves, and supervises the operations of the government.

Representation in the Knesset is obtained through election. The entire country constitutes one voting district. Voters cast their preferences among party lists rather than for individual candidates. Because no party has ever obtained a majority of votes in an election to the Knesset, public policy has been conducted by coalition governments. Through membership in the world Zionist movement, most parties included in this extensive multiparty system (on average, twelve parties are represented in the Knesset) have overseas affiliates in the Americas, Western Europe, and South Africa.

Since independence, the country and its people have experienced tremendous change. The population has increased nearly ninefold. Excluding the 1991 Gulf War, when Israel’s role was that of a “passive victim,” Israel experienced major wars in 1948, 1956, 1967, 1973, and 1982, as well as the War of Attrition with Egypt (1969–1971). As a result, Israel has become a garrison state whose society constantly encounters security tensions exacerbated by frequent guerrilla and terrorist activities.

In spite of this violent background, Israel has built a relatively sound economy, moving from an agriculturally based Third World type to a modern industrialized system based on the most advanced communication infrastructure. This situation has made Israel the principal, if not the largest, economic power in the Middle East region.

Demographically, Israel has been transformed from a country whose Jewish population was mostly European to one in which Jews of Afro-Asian origin constitute nearly half the citizenry, thereby strengthening the Middle Eastern element in the culture and society. Among the Jews, until the end of the 1980s immigrants from Arab countries constituted the largest subgroup, compared to those of European, American, or Israeli origin. By 1994, however, Afro-Asian Jews were outnumbered by the Russian Jews, who began pouring into the country during the 1990s and became the largest subgroup—replacing those who came from North Africa during the 1950s. Regardless of their original background, most latecomers were able to adjust—often with difficulty—to the basic political, cultural, economic, and military norms and institutions laid down by Western Jews during the prestate era.

European Zionists who immigrated to Palestine before or soon after World War I dominated Israeli leadership until the early 1970s. Only after the 1973 October War was there a native-born prime minister (PM). Until 1996, Yitzhak Rabin was the only Israeli-born prime minister among the seven men and one woman (i.e., Golda Meir) who served in that position. The gerontocracy of the early twentieth-century Zionists, which was so influential in party leadership, the Knesset, and other political institutions, has largely disappeared. The first generation of leaders, the founding fathers and mothers of modern Israel, has faded. Even in 1994, some of the country’s most prominent politicians—Rabin, Shimon Peres (foreign minister and former PM), Yitzhak Shamir (former PM), Ezer Weizman (president), and others—were past age seventy.

Despite the changes in social composition, in most aspects of life leadership is still either Western or of Western origin. Most members of the cabinet and Knesset, the party leadership, and high-ranking public administrators, as well as those in state-owned enterprises, large industrial companies, the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) high command, academic institutions, and the like, are Western Ashkenazi (of European origin) males. The Afro-Asians (Mizrachim) dominate local-level politics and many small businesses. Tensions created by the resulting economic and cultural disparities are often transformed into political issues. For example, the Likud’s Ashkenazi leadership, headed by Menachem Begin (1948–1983), was able to upset Labor’s domination in 1977 and to control the government until 1992 by mobilizing the political support of the Mizrachim, especially those of North African origin.

The non-Jewish citizens of Israel present two of the most serious dilemmas to maintaining political stability. In 1994 they constituted about 18.5 percent of the total population and were divided into three subgroups: Muslims, Christians, and Druze. On one level there is a problem of the relationship between state and religion. Because these two are not separate, non-Jews who are not Arabs find it difficult, if not impossible, to legally conduct their personal affairs through state institutions. Attempts to obtain citizenship, to marry, or even to find a burial plot can become major obstacles. The only branch of Judaism recognized by the state is the Orthodox. Consequently, Reform and Conservative Jews, the two largest U.S. Jewish movements, are denied the freedom to conduct certain religious functions in Israel.

The Israeli Arabs encounter problems on a different level. Residing largely along or near the borders of the adjoining countries with which until recently Israel was in a formal state of war, the Arab minority has been perceived by many to represent a potential security problem. But tensions between Jews and Arabs in Israel would remain high even if Israel did find peace with its enemies because Israel is legally a Jewish state in which no separation exists between religion and nationality. The Arabs are therefore excluded from many basic institutions of the state, from the state’s collective memory, and from most national symbols. No Arab citizen of Israel has ever held a leading position in any state political institution. The highest ranks obtained by an Arab have been deputy minister, mayor, or district court judge. Socioeconomic, cultural, linguistic, and political differences between Jews and Arabs in Israel have increasingly politicized the situation and have raised serious questions about the future of Israel as a Jewish state or, alternatively, as a democracy.⁷

The protracted war with the surrounding Arab states has been decisive in shaping Israel’s economic structure and policies. In some years, especially during the first half of the 1970s, levels of expenditures on security relative to the country’s gross national product were among the highest in the world. In addition, the national goal of bringing all Jewish exiles to their promised land, coupled with a fundamentally socialist ideology, greatly strained the economy. Since 1948 Israel has almost cyclically muddled through one economic crisis after another, albeit with relative success. Instrumental to this success were the millions of new immigrants who came to the country without material resources but with advanced knowledge and high levels of motivation.

At the same time, the state has maintained a very generous welfare system, which directly supports many new immigrants for extended periods. Widows, orphans, invalids, veterans, elderly people, single-parent families, and the like are assisted by the welfare system. Living standards of most citizens are maintained at Western levels through government subsidy of many necessities such as food, housing, transportation, and education. As inflation and soaring defense costs increased, however, economic pressures—especially during the 1970s and 1980s—created tension between the government and organized labor that was manifest in frequent strikes.

Closely related to the dilemma of economy and ethnicity is the issue of class. Since independence, when most of the Jewish community was relatively close-knit and homogeneous, class distinctions have become more visible and politically relevant. A new bourgeoisie has emerged, and enough people have become rich to almost constitute a class. On the other hand, with the immigration from Arab countries, especially from North Africa, Oriental Jews have found themselves at the bottom of the social and economic scale, and poverty has become commonplace. Urban and rural slums have sprung up, and tensions have grown between the Mizrachi poor and the affluent Ashkenazi. Generous government measures undertaken during the 1980s in the form of neighborhood renewal programs somewhat eased the tension. However, the half million immigrants who came to Israel from the former Soviet Union and Ethiopia during the first half of the 1990s revived the tension between those who have and those who have ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Tables and Figures
• Preface
• 1 Historical Origins of Israel
• 2 Political Culture
• 3 Political Parties and Ideologies
• 4 The Electoral System
• 5 Interest Groups
• 6 How the Government Works
• 7 Government Administration and Public Policy
• 8 Second Transition of Power
• 9 Challenges of the Israeli Polity
• Notes
• Bibliography
• About the Book and Authors
• Index