Book: Can Israel be Both Jewish and Democratic? Or: Israel between Jewishness and Democracy
Foreword
This book’s origins lie in three lectures delivered in Jerusalem in June 1996, just after the elections that brought Benjamin Netanyahu to power, a bare half year after the traumatic assassination of Yitzhak Rabin. The issues discussed in this boo...
Acknowledgements
I thank The Israel Democracy Institute and the Rabin Center for Support which made this book possible. I also thank the Shalem Center for allowing me to use materials prepared and published in the Bernstein Lecture 2001 on: The Jewish state, Its N...
Chapter I: Compatibility and Justifiability, in Principle, of a Jewish and Democratic State
In this chapter I wish to defend the thesis that the ideal of a state both Jewish and democratic in Israel, under some specifications, is both coherent and feasible. Furthermore, such a state can be morally justified.
Chapter II: Some Central Arrangements
In Chapter I, I have reached the conclusion that, in principle, Israel can be both Jewish and democratic, and that this combination may be justified. It is now time to look at the actual arrangements adopted by Israel in fact. In this Chapter I wi...
Chapter III: Challenges and Directions
In this Chapter I discuss the most difficult question: Has Israel succeeded in striking a good balance between its democratic nature and Jewish distinctness? Under its present constraints, can it be expected to do so? I shall start with a descript...
Chapter IV: A Jewish and Democratic State: An Interim Balance
My basic approach is that it is important and justified to seek and grant meaning to the deep preference of the large majority of Jews in Israel that there state be democratic, but will also be the only state in the world which reflects some Jewis...