14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A wake up call for the true democrats in Israel, April 25, 2008
This review is from: The Hebrew Republic: How Secular Democracy and Global Enterprise Will Bring Israel Peace At Last (Hardcover)
It takes courageous authors as Avishai to stimulate a dormant generation of Israelis and Jews in Israel and around the world to confront the delicate issue of Jewish/Israeli national identity. The author, ahead of his time, presents the readers with a vivid and relevant description of the major problem that Israel faces today and more so in the future - the lack of a unifying and modern national identity definition that can support the entire citizen population of Israel, Jewish or not.
Since the state of Israel was born, its citizens were habituated to settle for a lesser democracy in favor of security, religion and "winning" the demographics of the Middle East. It has left the land and its people (Arabs and Jews alike) with an intolerable situation - we have failed to put in place a constitution, we did not separate religion and state and for years "security reasons" served as grounds for racial and ethnic discrimination.
Despite the gloomy state of democracy described above, along with the wars and conflict and a number of economic downfalls - surprisingly, the Israeli peace movement and its ideas prevailed. Today the majority of Israelis believe in the concept of two states and agree to territorial concessions - and we are talking about people who were not too long ago the core of the political right wing! But this did not happen overnight, it took over 40 years of occupation and bloodshed.
The people who started the peace movement were also motivated by ideas that Avishai wrote about in previous works such as the Tragedy of Zionism. It is therefore clear that the major contribution of this book is the beacon it will provide for a new generation of Israelis that can in due time catalyze the much needed change of thought and action that will transform if not completely, then in baby steps the reality of Israeli democracy.
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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A New and Pragmatic Vision for Israel and Palestine, May 14, 2008
This review is from: The Hebrew Republic: How Secular Democracy and Global Enterprise Will Bring Israel Peace At Last (Hardcover)
Bernard Avishai is a thinker and writer I've admired for some time. His rather unfortunately-titled 1985 book, The Tragedy of Zionism, was not, as one might think, a statement of opposition to Zionism. Rather, it harkened back to the roots of Zionism, calling for their ideological re-establishment while offering an insightful analysis of how out-moded Zionist institutions, mixed with the ongoing conflict with the Arabs, were impeding the full establishment of Israeli democracy.
In Avishai's 2002 afterword to the updated edition of his book, he gave hints of where he would go in The Hebrew Republic. Even in the original, Avishai began to crystallize his vision of a centrist, business class in Israel, playing the game of globalization as well as, or better, than anyone. In The Hebrew Republic, Avishai goes to great lengths to demonstrate that the current state of affairs-the ongoing occupation of the West Bank and conflict with Hamas in Gaza, as well as the increasing stratification of Israeli society, most particularly the growing numbers and political power of the Orthodox Jewish community and the increasing marginalization of Israel's Arab minority, mixed in with the influence of more recent immigrants from the former Soviet Union-cannot be sustained while also preserving Israel's role in the global economy.
It is in this globalized class of centrists that Avishai places his hopes, and frankly, it's a good place to place them.
Avishai mentions a few times, but doesn't really dwell on, the natural disconnect of capitalist entrepreneurs and left-wing peace activists. But even though he's not explicit about it, this book is a call for a union between those two forces. In this era, where there is considerable overlap on regional political issues between moderate peace activists and independent entrepreneurs, this is not a pipe dream. But neither would it seem to be on the horizon in the immediate future.
Avishai does an excellent job of diagramming how the ongoing occupation of the West Bank and, most crucially, the increased influence of the settler movement in Israeli politics, impact Israel's present and its future. But perhaps his greatest contribution in this book is his presentation of Palestinian pragmatists and business-people, who have every reason in the world to wish the conflict over and a mutually beneficial relationship between Palestinians and Israelis to emerge. It's a group not without influence among the Palestinians, but one whose voice has been much quieter than it needs to be. Avishai reveals the sector among Palestinians that Salam Fayyad represents, and, one can hope, whose influence will continue to grow.
Indeed, it is this sector that must be supported if Avishai's vision of peace, or some form of it, can possibly emerge. Where I find my most profound difference with Avishai is in his vision, after which he titled the book, of a "Hebrew Republic."
Once again, Avishai tempts those who don't read the book to believe he is blaming Zionism for all of the Middle East's ills. He isn't, but he is, I believe, promoting a vision of a transformation of Israeli society that would take a very long time, much longer than is suitable to stop the killing of innocents in Israel, the Occupied Territories and beyond.
Avishai wishes Israel to become a secular democracy similar to many of the countries of Western Europe. Not unreasonable, as Israeli society has, in recent years, begun to resemble Europe more and more, more so than it has the USA, which had been the trend for quite some time.
But it's hard to ignore the sheer magnitude of destruction and bloodshed that brought Europe to where it is now. Indeed, as Avishai envisions, it was a lessening of nationalistic fervor that brought the EU about. But it was also years in developing, and a distance from intra-European conflict was a key ingredient at every stage. Israel doesn't have that kind of time, particularly since it remains situated in a place where its very existence is, at best, resentfully accepted and at worst the target of attack. That's not an atmosphere where nationalism diminishes, no matter what happens inside Israel. Even in the event of peace with the Palestinians and the establishment of relations with the Arab League nations, it will be a long time before true acceptance of Israel takes full hold, and some time after that before Israelis begin to really trust that acceptance en masse.
But Avishai's fundamental premise is a sound one. His view of Israel is more than a Jewish state. It's a state which was built by Jews, will always be culturally Jewish and always be a homeland and refuge for Jews fleeing persecution. But Avishai's Israel must now come to grips with the new Israeli nation it has created and complete the work of creating a democracy begun so many decades ago.
That's a worthwhile goal to pursue, and its various aspects have the potential to greatly improve Israel's daily existence as well as its prospects for peace and place in the world long before the country reaches the point where fervent nationalism has lost its appeal.
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Reality-Based Journalism, July 14, 2008
This review is from: The Hebrew Republic: How Secular Democracy and Global Enterprise Will Bring Israel Peace At Last (Hardcover)
Bernard Avishai has written an important book about present realities in Israel, not by delivering yet another partisan tract but by interviewing leading figures among the warring parties and ethnic groupings within Israel. He poses to them the question of what "nationality" and nationalism should mean in Israel. He explains that Israeli law assigns to everyone a nationality, and as in Jim Crow America this assignment is not voluntary. Citizenship is a separate status, and only those assigned to the vaguely defined category "Yehudim" (Jewish nationals), like whites in Jim Crow America, have full citizenship. The result has been that the state and the principal institutions of civil society are dominated by a primitive sort of nationalism which powerfully unites an idealized version of common ancestry, common religion, and ancient claims to the land: "The nation, in this view, is a kind of biological fact, but also a territory, a common experience, like a family." (Quoting A.B. Yehoshua.) In truth, such nationality is only fully shared by a minority, but it is taken as the ideal for the nation as a whole. With such a definition of nationality, it is plainly impossible for non-Jews to be equal citizens. This kind of organic nationalism feeds on its mirror opposites, pan-Arabism and Palestinian Islamism.
The best parts of the book are AVishai's long interviews with leaders of rival nationalisms within Israel, exploring the question of how much they would surrender their claims to control of the state, and retire into private observance and celebration. He poses to them the hope that a secular state, albeit one rooted in European Jewish history and traditions - a "Hebrew Republic" - would allow room for religious and ethnic diversity, while granting genuine equality of rights. The reward for surrendering control of the state will be peace, equality, and the prosperity that follows entry into the global economy, now blocked by constant warfare. It is notable t hat none of his interlocutors seem to share his optimism about this vision of a secular state.
The model of a secular state, with strict separation of church and state, yet resting on the traditions of the dominant culture, is modeled much more on the United States than Avishai notes and perhaps more than he realizes. If the book has defects, they seem to me to be two. He is excessively optimistic that shared economic interests will trump the passionate nationalisms that he describes. He is touchingly devoted to the rational dialogues he describes in this book. A related defect is the failure to discuss the manner in which the Bush Administration for this last seven years has fed and encouraged and allied itself with just the evangelical Iraeli nationalism that Avishai decries. In both respects, his book resembles arguments being made in this country. Perhaps he is right, but recent history seems to suggest otherwise: Kansas continues to vote Republican, against its economic self interest. But Avishai's saving virtue is that he presents the arguments against his own position, and leaves the reader to form her conclusion.
Those readers interested in an equally realistic and fact-based (and hence important) account of the situation across the border in Egypt might want to read
Inside Egypt: The Land of the Pharaohs on the Brink of a Revolution.
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