Before Abbas recognizes the
Jewish state,
Israel must define it
Is
it Netanyahu and Lieberman’s Jewish state that alienates its Arab citizens, or
Yitzhak Rabin’s inclusive Jewish state that dedicated itself, briefly, to true
equality?
By Peter Beinart | Mar. 19, 2014 |
I
have a suggestion for Mahmoud Abbas.
The next time Benjamin Netanyahu demands that you recognize Israel as a “Jewish
state,” tell him that you’ll agree on one condition. The Israeli cabinet must
first agree on what “Jewish state” means. That should get you off the hook for
a good long while.
Israel
has never been able to define the term “Jewish state.” That’s part of the
reason it lacks a constitution. Nor, I suspect, can the leaders of Hillel, even
though they urge local chapters to make supporting “a Jewish state” a
litmus test for potential speakers.
In
truth, there are as many definitions of “Jewish state” as there are definitions
of “Jew.” For simplicity’s sake, let’s describe two, and imagine how Abbas
might respond were Netanyahu to actually define the concept he’s asking the
Palestinian leader to endorse.
Jewish
State Number One rests on the conviction that given Jewish history, Jews need a
state that safeguards Jewish life. To ensure that the state upholds this
mission, Jews must maintain political power. And maintaining Jewish political
power trumps pretty much everything else.
Such
a state works aggressively to keep its non-Jewish population low and
politically weak. It denies
citizenship even to non-Jewish refugees fleeing extreme
persecution. To prevent its Palestinian population from growing, it denies citizenship to West Bank Palestinians married to
Israeli citizens. It delights in policies that reduce the birthrate among
Palestinian citizens of Israel, as Netanyahu did in 2007, when as finance
minister he noted that cuts in child welfare payments had
had the “positive” effect of sparking “a dramatic drop in the birth rate” of
the “non-Jewish public.” Such a state seriously considers redrawing Israel’s
border so as to deposit Israel’s Palestinian citizens outside the state without
their consent, as Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman famously proposed. It, of
course, denies any Palestinians who left Israel during its war of independence
the ability to return.
In
addition to numerically limiting Israel’s non-Jewish population, Jewish State
Number One limits their political influence. On ideological grounds, it seeks
to ban Palestinian Israeli parties from running for the Knesset, as Lieberman’s associates have done. It insists that to be
legitimate, governing coalitions must enjoy a Jewish parliamentary majority.
Given
his actions, and the actions of his political allies, it’s pretty clear that
this is the kind of Jewish state Netanyahu wants. It is a state from which
Israel’s Palestinian citizens feel understandably alienated. And it’s a state that
mocks the promise in Israel’s Declaration of Independence of “complete
equality of social and political rights…irrespective of religion, race or sex.”
Were
I Mahmoud Abbas, I’d say again and again that Jews have a profound historical
connection to the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea and
the right to live safely in any part of it. But if Netanyahu asked me to
endorse Jewish State Number One, I’d tell him to stick it where the sun don’t
shine.
Then
there’s Jewish State Number Two. It starts with the same conviction: that given
Jewish history, Jews need a state that safeguards Jewish life. It too
acknowledges the value of Jewish political power, and even endorses
non-coercive measures, like the promotion of aliyah, which boost Jewish
numbers. But because it considers the state’s democratic character as important
as its Jewish character, it rejects any measures that undermine the rights and
dignity of Israel’s non-Jewish citizens.
When
faced with brutalized asylum seekers, or West Bank Palestinians who seek to
live inside Israel with their Israeli spouses, it prioritizes not Jewish
demography but human decency. It takes pride in the birth of any new Israeli,
whether he’s named Yosef or Yusuf, and seeks to give him an equal shot in life.
It categorically rejects schemes to divest Palestinian Israelis of their
citizenship. And it possesses the self-confidence to publicly acknowledge that
the creation of the State of Israel—like the creation of the United States and
many other countries—was a profound blessing for some and a historic tragedy
for others.
Jewish
State Number One does a better job of preserving Israel’s large Jewish
majority. But Jewish State Number Two does a better job of creating a national
identity inclusive enough to survive a declining Jewish majority. Jewish State
Number One is the handiwork for Benjamin Netanyahu and Avigdor Lieberman. The
Israeli Prime Minister most supportive of Jewish State Number Two was Yitzhak
Rabin, who between 1992 and 1995 doubled education spending for Palestinian
citizens of Israel, ended the discrepancy between the amount Israel paid Jewish
and Palestinian families per child, introduced affirmative action to boost the
number of Palestinian citizens in Israel’s civil service and gave Palestinian
Israeli parties an unofficial role in his government. Rabin’s death,explained Palestinian Israeli Knesset member Abdul Wahad Darawashe,
“was the first time when Arabs mourned a Zionist leader” because Rabin “was the
first and only [Zionist] leader who recognized the injustices of the past and
actually worked to amend them…There was no [other] prime minister who looked at
Arab politicians the way he did - face to face. That had an effect on the
entire Arab street.”
What
would happen were Abbas asked to recognize Jewish State Number Two? I don’t
know. But I’d like to believe that if Israel’s leaders, following in Rabin’s
path, made clear not only in words but in deeds that a Jewish state can
safeguard the Jewish people while also dedicating itself to the full equality
and dignity of all its people, Abbas’ opposition might soften.
Either
way, the important thing isn’t whether non-Israelis endorse the idea of a
Jewish state. It’s whether Israelis create a Jewish state worth endorsing.
Wouldn’t it be nice if Benjamin Netanyahu devoted some energy to that?
