The State of Israelâand the small right-wing Herut faction with itâwas born into an identity crisis, torn between two values that each demand primacy over the other. Nationalism treats the state as a technical, secular entity. âThe Prayer for the Welfare of the State of Israel,â by contrast, calls it âthe beginning of the flowering of our redemption.â One vision is democratic and Israeli; the other is religious and Jewish. The 70 years of Israeli politics that followed are, at bottom, a long argument over which of the two comes first.
The alliance between nationalist and religious partiesâsome of which are now both at onceâhas obscured how unfriendly the two once were. Jabotinsky, who imbibed Italian nationalism in his youth, warned of an unavoidable âculture warâ with the Haredi element and noted with regret that among Jews âwho cling onto difference, many primitive customs have been preservedââa woman, for instance, âto whom a man does not extend his hand.â David Ben-Gurionâs Mapai, by contrast, understood its limits, and instead of debating theology preferred good old-fashioned compromises: the famous âstatus quo,â draft exemptions for yeshiva students, government funding for religious institutionsâthe entire machinery by which a secular state agreed to keep its Jewish question permanently unanswered. âI donât go to synagogue,â Ben-Gurion said, âbut the synagogue that I donât go to is Orthodox.â
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How did the "national camp" form, and what is the question that defines Israeli society more than any other? Find out in today's edition of It's Noon in Israel.
amitsegal.substack.com/p/itsâŚ