What is Israel's national purpose? And does she have a national purpose at all? Before addressing this question, we have to ask whether Israel is the nation of the Jewish people. This question obviously takes us to the Torah, for it was the laws and teachings of the Torah that molded the Jews into a community having a unique ethnic character.
However, many citizens of the State of Israel do not belong to this ethnic community. Indeed, many belong to ethnic communities quite antagonistic to Jews and Judaism. Since they cannot be counted as part of the Jewish people, should we conclude that the State of Israel is populated by a new nation, tentatively called "Israeli"? Put differently, is the State of Israel ? created by and for the Jews ? the state of the Jewish people or is it a "state of its citizens"?
The present author proceeds from the assumption that Israel is the state of the Jewish people, a people that survived almost two thousand years of statelessness only because there has always been a critical mass of Jews who remained faithful to the precepts of the Torah. It was those precepts that prompted Jews to return to the Land of Israel, a land that was given to their forefathers by Almighty G-d, a land to be cultivated and preserved for all time as the home and haven of the Jewish people, where they can glorify G-d's Name.
The Jewish people and their state are surrounded by the Arab people and by Arab regimes that claim ownership of the Land of Israel. A portion of the Arab people lives on Israel's territory and enjoys, by virtue of the laws of the state, complete political equality. Also, numerous representatives of other ethnic and religious groups live here in the Land of Israel. Some have willingly joined the Jewish "family", while others, having no intention of doing so, have nonetheless chosen Israel as their permanent place of residence.
It is the presence of such a large number of non-Jews, coupled with the complete political equality of all citizens of Israel, regardless of their ethnic or religious affiliation, that has resulted in an otherwise absurd public discussion as to whether the Jewish state is Jewish. This issue magnifies with the rapid increase of the non-Jewish population. This increase of non-Jews encourages their political representatives to initiate legal measures to transform Israel into a nation of "Israelis", such that the citizens of Israel, including Jews, will constitute a new and diverse ethnic community called the "Israeli people".
This will remind those who came from the former Soviet Union of the Bolshevik's gigantic socio-psychological experiment in creating the "Soviet people", in which so many of us were forced to participate. In the course of that experiment, the mutual hatred among its forced participants was only contained by the military power of the dictatorial regime. The result is widely known: the collapse of the USSR was immediately followed by an unprecedented outburst of nationalism, accompanied by ethnic and religious revival and animosity. The new national republics restricted or banned Russians and all other ethnically alien groups, including, of course, the Jews.
There are no logical grounds to expect the experiment of creating an "Israeli people" would end differently. In the case of Israel, moreover, we are not merely engaged in intellectual speculations. At stake in Israel is the continued existence of the Jewish people: not only their spiritual existence - already in jeopardy because of assimilation in this largely secularized society - but their physical existence as well. Should the local Bolshevik-like experiment fail, very few Jews will be able to obtain refuge for themselves and their children in other countries; and most of those seeking refuge will be those very individuals who are now so eagerly and thoughtlessly engaged in social experimentation.
Taking into account that the American Jewish community - the largest in the Jewish world - is rapidly shrinking by virtue of intermarriage and assimilation, and is therefore losing its former political influence in favor of the rapidly growing Moslem community, it is hardly an exaggeration to say that the Jewish people can survive only in Israel. But then, only if Israel is preserved as a Jewish state. This can only be achieved if the Jews, both in Israel and the world over, recognize their debt to past generations and their responsibility for those of the future.
[Eleonora Shifrin is in the United States on a lecture tour, between April 18 and May 9, in New York, Baltimore, Philadelphia and Miami. For more information, contact yamin22@netvision.net.il.]
However, many citizens of the State of Israel do not belong to this ethnic community. Indeed, many belong to ethnic communities quite antagonistic to Jews and Judaism. Since they cannot be counted as part of the Jewish people, should we conclude that the State of Israel is populated by a new nation, tentatively called "Israeli"? Put differently, is the State of Israel ? created by and for the Jews ? the state of the Jewish people or is it a "state of its citizens"?
The present author proceeds from the assumption that Israel is the state of the Jewish people, a people that survived almost two thousand years of statelessness only because there has always been a critical mass of Jews who remained faithful to the precepts of the Torah. It was those precepts that prompted Jews to return to the Land of Israel, a land that was given to their forefathers by Almighty G-d, a land to be cultivated and preserved for all time as the home and haven of the Jewish people, where they can glorify G-d's Name.
The Jewish people and their state are surrounded by the Arab people and by Arab regimes that claim ownership of the Land of Israel. A portion of the Arab people lives on Israel's territory and enjoys, by virtue of the laws of the state, complete political equality. Also, numerous representatives of other ethnic and religious groups live here in the Land of Israel. Some have willingly joined the Jewish "family", while others, having no intention of doing so, have nonetheless chosen Israel as their permanent place of residence.
It is the presence of such a large number of non-Jews, coupled with the complete political equality of all citizens of Israel, regardless of their ethnic or religious affiliation, that has resulted in an otherwise absurd public discussion as to whether the Jewish state is Jewish. This issue magnifies with the rapid increase of the non-Jewish population. This increase of non-Jews encourages their political representatives to initiate legal measures to transform Israel into a nation of "Israelis", such that the citizens of Israel, including Jews, will constitute a new and diverse ethnic community called the "Israeli people".
This will remind those who came from the former Soviet Union of the Bolshevik's gigantic socio-psychological experiment in creating the "Soviet people", in which so many of us were forced to participate. In the course of that experiment, the mutual hatred among its forced participants was only contained by the military power of the dictatorial regime. The result is widely known: the collapse of the USSR was immediately followed by an unprecedented outburst of nationalism, accompanied by ethnic and religious revival and animosity. The new national republics restricted or banned Russians and all other ethnically alien groups, including, of course, the Jews.
There are no logical grounds to expect the experiment of creating an "Israeli people" would end differently. In the case of Israel, moreover, we are not merely engaged in intellectual speculations. At stake in Israel is the continued existence of the Jewish people: not only their spiritual existence - already in jeopardy because of assimilation in this largely secularized society - but their physical existence as well. Should the local Bolshevik-like experiment fail, very few Jews will be able to obtain refuge for themselves and their children in other countries; and most of those seeking refuge will be those very individuals who are now so eagerly and thoughtlessly engaged in social experimentation.
Taking into account that the American Jewish community - the largest in the Jewish world - is rapidly shrinking by virtue of intermarriage and assimilation, and is therefore losing its former political influence in favor of the rapidly growing Moslem community, it is hardly an exaggeration to say that the Jewish people can survive only in Israel. But then, only if Israel is preserved as a Jewish state. This can only be achieved if the Jews, both in Israel and the world over, recognize their debt to past generations and their responsibility for those of the future.
[Eleonora Shifrin is in the United States on a lecture tour, between April 18 and May 9, in New York, Baltimore, Philadelphia and Miami. For more information, contact yamin22@netvision.net.il.]