BICOM

Key points

• More than six decades since Israel was established in May 1948, Israel is a country still striving for normalcy despite circumstances that would be considered anything but normal elsewhere.
• Since pre-state times, the Zionist goal was to establish a modern Jewish state that would live in peace and security with its neighbours and enjoy the same status as other nations in the international community.
• Israel today has the democratic institutions and recognizable characteristics of other advanced liberal societies, but continues to face a unique set of security threats and political circumstances.

Introduction

On Monday evening and Tuesday, 19-20 April, Israel celebrates its 62nd Independence Day. Parties and barbecues will be held up and down the country. These annual festivities follow on immediately from a national remembrance day for fallen soldiers. The timing is intended to remind people of the price paid for independence, and the ongoing price Israelis pay for their security. The transition is emotionally tough for a society where most people serve in the armed forces and many have stories to tell about loved ones lost during military service. This unusual context for Israeli independence celebrations reflects the everyday idiosyncrasies of Israelis experience. This analysis examines how Israel is still striving for normalcy, despite circumstances that would be considered anything but normal elsewhere.

The quest for normalcy

Israel has been seeking to become ‘normal’ since before its birth. Theodor Herzl, the father of political Zionism, outlined his vision to create a secular Jewish nation-state in Basel, Switzerland, in 1897. He and the architects of the Zionist movement sought to normalise the status of the Jewish people by achieving political sovereignty, enabling Jews to become ‘a nation like all other nations’. David Ben Gurion, who became Israel’s first and longest-serving prime minister, took the most significant step to realising this dream when he declared Israel’s independence on 14 May 1948.

In many ways the open and liberal characteristics of Israel today are an unlikely achievement.  Israel was established in a region with no democratic traditions. Though the pre-state Zionist movement was democratic, much of Israel’s population, with roots in Eastern Europe and the Middle East had little experience of democracy. Israel has also been challenged by complex social and ethnic divides.

Israel’s first Prime Minister, David Ben Gurion, played an unparalleled role in shaping the emergent character of the new state. His dominance helped to patch over some of the bitter divisions which remain prevalent in Israel today between the various religious, secular, Israeli-Arab and other minority communities on a wide range of social and political issues.

Though the complex tapestry of Israeli society is unique, many of the policy and social challenges the state faces today are familiar to other Western countries. The public agenda features issues as varied the content of the national curriculum in schools, family law reform and tax breaks for couples in same-sex partnerships.

‘Cleaning up politics’ is also as much a feature of Israeli public concern as it is in Britain and elsewhere. Reflecting on Israel’s Independence Day, Israeli commentators have written gloomily about numerous political scandals and corruption cases, including fresh accusations against former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. However, Israel has the proven to have institutional mechanisms required for dealing with public interest issues and holding individuals, including its leaders, to account. For both good and bad, Israel in 2010 has many of the hallmarks of a ‘normal’ country.

Unique context of threats

Whilst Israel has many of the characteristics of a country like any other, it is also challenged by a unique set of circumstances and threats. Israel has struggled with since its inception in a hostile neighbourhood without diplomatic relations with most states in the region. On some measures, this issue has improved over time. On the positive side, Israel has maintained formal peace with Egypt for more than 30 years, and, current frictions notwithstanding, with Jordan since 1994. Israel also has low-level economic ties with some of the Persian Gulf emirates and other Arab countries. In the 1990s, the peace process with the Palestinian gave some Israelis hope for what Shimon Peres described as a ‘new Middle East’, in which Israel would thrive in economic partnership with the neighbouring Arab states.

These dreams were shattered by the collapse of the peace process and the violence of the last decade. In other critical ways, circumstances have clearly deteriorated. Iran’s expanding nuclear programme is perceived by many Israelis as an existential threat, and is widely seen as deeply damaging to regional stability at large.

Whilst Israel has enjoyed a year of remarkable calm, security concerns are never far from the thoughts of ordinary Israelis. Concerned about the possibility of a regional war at some stage, the Israeli cabinet decided earlier this year to redistribute gas masks to every Israeli household. Israel equipped its citizens with protective kits during the first Gulf War in 1991, during which Iraq fired Scud missiles at Israel. Israel’s Home Front Command is presently running a nationwide television campaign encouraging people to arrange delivery via the national post office. The campaign is strikingly light-hearted for what it is. Could gas masks be issued in 21st century Europe or America without causing mass hysteria? It is typical of Israel that the public simply take this in their stride.

The security threats facing Israel are distinct not only because of Iran. The militant groups Hezbollah and Hamas present threats of a different kind to that experienced by other countries fighting terrorism, enjoying political control on Israel’s borders in Lebanon and Gaza respectively. Whilst the last year has been quiet, in the past, Israelis living in small peripheral cities, such as Kiryat Shmona on the Lebanese border and Sderot in the south, have lived under the of attacks for years at a time. Normal life for these Israeli citizens has often meant life within close reach of a bomb shelter.

The autonomy of Hamas and Hezbollah has enabled them to grow stronger militarily, with external backing from Iran and Syria. Just last week the Kuwaiti daily Al-Rai Al-Aam reported that Damascus has been supplying Hezbollah with Scud missiles, increasing the range and accuracy of their arsenal. Israeli and US officials have expressed deep concern about this development, which potentially changes the region’s delicate strategic balance. Israel fears that in a future conflict, the whole of the country will be on the front line.

It is not only rockets that threaten Israeli civilians. Also in the headlines at present is an “urgent” warning issued by Israel to its citizens holidaying in the Sinai, which borders Israel to the south, to return home immediately. It reportedly follows “firm intelligence” of an expected attempt to kidnap Israelis in the peninsula.

Besides security threats, other recent developments point to just how far removed Israel is at times from the normalcy enjoyed in other countries. Last week the British Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) issued an adjudication against Israel that has caused deep offense in the Jewish community. It determined that Israel’s inclusion of a picture of the Western Wall, with the Dome of the Rock in the background, in a flier promoting tourism to Israel, was likely to mislead because these landmarks are in East Jerusalem. It instructed Israel “not to imply that places in the Occupied Territories were part of the State of Israel” in future advertising material.

The status of the Arab neighbourhoods of East Jerusalem is a divisive political issue in Israel as it is elsewhere, but the ASA decision has raised eyebrows because the Western Wall (known to Jews as the Kotel) is the most sacred site in the world for Jews. Religious and secular Jews and non-Jews frequently visit the site when holidaying in Israel, either to pray or because they consider it an important cultural attraction. Israel has always granted responsibility to Muslim (and Christian) religious authorities for managing their respective holy sites, including the Dome of the Rock and nearby al-Aqsa mosque. The idea that the Kotel is not regarded internationally as legitimately Israeli is absurd to most Israelis and Jews. For a seemingly innocuous tourism leaflet to cause such controversy is a stark demonstration of Israel’s unusual circumstances. 

Conclusion

What do recent developments show about Israel today? Despite all the political, social and technological progress Israel has made in recent decades, the everyday experiences and circumstances in which Israelis so frequently find themselves would undoubtedly be seen as extraordinary in Britain today. Even so, the success of Israel’s vibrant democracy and economy, despite its complex circumstances, represent a remarkable achievement. It is the desire to live in a state without these unusual challenges that drives Israel to persevere with its struggle to live in peace with its neighbours. This is, after all, the basis upon which the state was founded sixty two years ago.