ISRAEL Comes of Middle Age / Israel Has Democracy, but Needs Civility ALL EDITIONS

• Published in: Newsday
• Main Author: By Myron J. Aronoff. Myron J. Aronoff is a political science professor at Rutgers University and author of "Israeli Visions and Divisions," "Power and Ritual in the Israel Labor Party" and the forthcoming "The Spy Novels of John Le Carre: Balancing Ethics
• Format: Newspaper Article
• Language: English
• Published: Long Island, N.Y Newsday LLC 08.05.1998
• Edition: Combined editions
• Subjects: Israel

But Israelis are also questioning the sort of society Israel has become. Many Israeli citizens (particularly among the native-born younger generations) are questioning the price paid (by themselves and by the Palestinians) for these notable achievements. At bottom, Israel is undergoing a crisis of Zionism - the dominant cultural force defining the nation's collective identity. Israelis today are asking themselves what constitutes the proper balance between the Jewish and the democratic character of the state. In political terms, this means that Israeli citizens must choose either an ethnically based nationalism that places a more exclusive stress on the Jewishness of the state or an inclusive civic model of more liberal nationalism that stresses its democratic character. Recent polls indicate a third of sampled Israeli Jews identify themselves primarily as Jews, a third primarily as Israelis and a third as both. Those whose primary personal and national identity is Jewish are among the more militant nationalists who take a hard line toward the Palestinians and Arab states. Those who identify themselves primarily as Israelis are in the moderate camp who are willing to make greater concessions.