Ilan Peleg - The Emergence of a Binational Israel: The Second Republic in the Making

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The Emergence of a Binational Israel

The Emergence of a Binational Israel

The Second Republic in the Making

Edited By
Ilan Peleg and Ofira Seliktar

First published 1989 by Westview Press, Inc.

Published 2019 by Routledge
52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

Copyright 1989 Taylor & Francis

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Notice:
Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
The Emergence of a binational Israel: the second republic in the making
/edited by Ilan Peleg and Ofira Seliktar.
p. cm.(Westview special studies on the Middle East)
Includes index.
ISBN 0-8133-7528-2
1. IsraelPolitics and government. 2. Palestinian ArabsIsrael Politics and government. 3. Jewish-Arab relations1973
I. Peleg, Ilan, 1944- . II. Seliktar, Ofira. III. Title:
Binational Israel. IV. Series.
DS126.5.E48 1989
320.95694dc19 88-38580
CIP

ISBN 13: 978-0-367-29168-6 (hbk)

To the next generation:
Gil and Talia Peleg
Dror and Yaron Seliktar

Contents

Ofira Seliktar

, Lilly Weissbrod

, Susan Hattis Rolef

, Shlomo Aronson

, Ian S. Lustick

, Michael Inbar and Ephraim Yuchtman-Yaar

, Yoram Peri

, Simcha Bahiri

, Don Peretz

, Linda B. Miller

, Ilan Peleg

Guide

This book deals with the State of Israel as a binational political entity. The book's eleven chapters analyze different dimensions of the increasingly binational reality of Israel, but most importantly, the authors attempt to offer a new conceptual framework for the analysis of Israel's central political dilemma. Binationalism is approached as a complicated political reality, a psycho-attitudinal state of mind, and as a legal condition. The various authors offer analyses of binationalism in the past, in Eretz Israel/Palestine of the mandatory era, and in other periods and places; they spend even more time on the uneasy binationalist reality of the present and examine in some detail future binational scenarios. Above all, this book is trying to shed light on the dynamics of an emerging binational polity.

Most of the chapters in this volumeall of which were prepared as original contributions especially for the bookfocus on patterns of political behavior in Israel today in an atmosphere of continuing crisis, growing fragmentation and polarization, and important changes in the country's domestic and international environment. Special attention is given by the authors to the actual involvement of Israeli Arabs in the political process as well as to the subjective, perceptual dimension of this central aspect of Israeli politics. Other chapters dwell in great detail on the changing role of the Israeli army in meeting the state's challenges as defined by those who are at the helm of power and on the economy of the binational Israel; projections are offered regarding potential developments in the future.

The last part of this volume deals with the international implications of Israeli binationalism, with specific focus on its impact on the neighboring Arab states and on the future relations between the United States and Israel. The impact of the Arab uprising in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip on the future of Israel is touched upon by many of the contributors as well.

A number of individuals assisted us in preparing this volume. Susan McEachern of Westview was an efficient, conscientious editor. Ilan Peleg was assisted by Keith Abouchar and Mark Basurto and Ofira Seliktar by Lisa Moore. These individuals carried out their tasks over and above the call of duty, as did Ruth Panovec, Julia McDonald, and Rose Miller, who typed the manuscript's many versions. Dr. Paul Schlueter read some of the chapters and offered useful comments. Professor Lewis W. Snider offered us valuable comments that also improved the quality of this volume.

These are not easy times for the people living between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River in a country called by some Eretz Israel and by others Palestine. We hope that this book may contribute in at least a modest manner to the solution of the area's enormous problems. It is with this hope that the editors dedicate this volume to the next generation, their children Gil and Talia Peleg, and Dror and Yaron Seliktar. May they grow up to witness a holy land more in peace with itself and with its neighbors.

Ilan Peleg
Ofira Seliktar

Part 1
Binationalism as a Concept and as a History

1
Conceptualizing Binationalism: State of Mind, Political Reality, or Legal Entity?

Ofira Seliktar

In February 1896, the first edition of Theodor Herzl's book Der Judenstaat (The Jewish State) appeared in Vienna. The creation of Israel some fifty years later made Herzl's dream a reality. Yet four wars and forty years since its founding the national character of Israel is increasingly being debated.

At the core of the debate is the balance between the group and the territorial membership of Israel. The traditional socialist Zionist ideology has always emphasized the supremacy of a Jewish uninational state over any territorial consideration. The rival New Zionist belief system, composed of neo-revisionist and national-religious ideologies, has advocated the territorial integrity of Eretz Israel. When Likud came to power in 1977, New Zionism became the ideological standard bearer of the Second Republic. Subsequent efforts to implement the vision of Greater Israel galvanized the Israelis into awareness that eventually a large Palestinian population in the occupied territories would turn Israel into a binational state. This was coupled with the realization that the increase in the number of Israeli Arabs was bound to have an important effect on the Jewish state, irrespective of the fate of the territories.

In fact, the discussion on a uninational as opposed to a binational state has rapidly emerged as the most important legitimization debate in Israeli society. An understanding of the extreme complexity of this discourse requires a theoretical discussion of the legitimization process of nationalism. Broadly conceived, a debate on the national character of the state will focus on the question of who are the members and what is the territory. The criteria for group membership are based on such factors as kinship, language, culture, or religion. These traits form the basis of the "admission policy" of a group and are used to grant membership. The criteria for Sovereignty in this context refers to the exclusive rights of members to legitimize the criteria used to define the membership and territorial boundary of the group.

Focusing on these two major dimensions of state legitimacy serves to illustrate the extremely complex and dynamic process through which more primordial groups evolve into a nation state. In ideal situations, in which a fairly homogeneous group is settled in a relatively stable ancestral territory, tension can nevertheless be produced over principles of inclusion and exclusion of new members. Wars, foreign conquest or internal upheaval can open new questions of national or territorial membership. Irredentism, border wars and tensions between ethnic groups unable to agree upon a common national definition of their state are all expressions of difficulties and failure in the legitimization debate.

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