In the 30s, Democratic President Franklin Roosevelt led a major shift in the character of the United States. As part of the New Deal, Roosevelt promoted dramatic social legislation that fundamentally changed the American economy and brought it closer to the European model of a "welfare state." Roosevelt's changes, some of which were considered radical, had to be approved by the U.S. legislature: more than 20 percent of members of the Republican Party, the opposing party, voted for the Democratic president's bills.
In the first decade of the 21st century, Democratic President Barack Obama passed a major reform of his own, Obamacare, which sought to expand the number of citizens who would benefit from health insurance. How many percent of Republicans voted for it? Zero. The New Deal, a dramatic and radical reform, won large numbers of Republican supporters; Even in the 60s, when Democratic President Lyndon B. Johnson passed significant reforms that continued the momentum of the New Deal, he received support from a significant number of Republicans. When President Obama proposed a much more moderate and conservative plan, Republican support almost zeroed.
Roosevelt. Dramatic social moves, photo: "The Roosevelts". Yes Docu
What's changed? Well, the question has changed. We moved from the question "what" to the question "who". In the past, when politicians were faced with an idea or proposal, they asked what the proposal was; They inquired about its content and asked themselves if it was a good idea or a bad idea.
Between two Basic Laws
Today, elected officials do not ask what the proposal is, but ask who proposed it. If the bidder is "of ours" then we are in favor, and if he is from the opposing team then we are against. The reversal of the question is one of the dramatic and dangerous consequences of the new political climate that many countries around the world have found themselves in as a result of the digital revolution over the past decade – Israel is one of them.
The anti-government and anti-reform protest movement embraces and uplifts the Declaration of Independence. In the new political climate, there is a danger that as a result, right-wingers and members of the national camp will develop suspicion of the Declaration of Independence and distance themselves from it, not because of what it says, but because of the identity of the people who support it.
The Declaration of Independence, photo: Oren Ben Hakon
This is a scroll that sanctifies the Land of Israel and describes it as the historical homeland of the Jewish people. The scroll refers to the Bible as "the eternal book of books" and sees the sons and daughters of the Jewish people as partners in a joint historical project, "the fulfillment of generations' aspirations for the redemption of Israel." These three great values – the Land of Israel, the Bible and the Redemption – merge together to make the Declaration of Independence a powerful national manifesto.
And here's one of the biggest surprises of the era: In 2023, a huge protest movement in favor of defending human rights has erupted, and what is the text that inspires that liberal struggle? The text that sanctifies the Land of Israel, the culture of Israel and the aspiration of generations for the redemption of Israel. This phenomenon should not deter the members of the national camp, but rather excite them and make them happy. The enthusiastic adoption of Israel's Declaration of Independence by hundreds of thousands of Israelis reveals one of the country's best-kept secrets: Behind the controversy that wounds Israel hides an invisible consensus.
"Saving Democracy": Demonstrators in Kaplan in Tel Aviv // Tzachi Dovrat
Each camp in Israel has its own Basic Law. The Basic Law that has become the flag of the national camp in Israel is the Basic Law: The Nation-State; The Basic Law, which has become the banner of the liberal camp in Israel, is the Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty. Anyone who examines the Nation-State Law will easily recognize the fingerprints of the Declaration of Independence, which is the authoritative source for the assertion that the State of Israel is the nation-state of the Jewish people. Anyone who examines Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty will discover that the opening line of the law states that human rights values "shall be respected in the spirit of the principles in the Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel." The Declaration of Independence is the source of inspiration for the flag of the national camp and the flag of the liberal camp at the same time.
The vision of the Declaration of Independence for the State of Israel is a hybrid vision. The text that elevates the Bible is also the text that elevates human rights; The text that elevates the Land of Israel is also the text that states that we must maintain "complete equality of social and political rights." The text, which calls for working together to realize the aspirations of generations for the "redemption of Israel," also states that the state will ensure "freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture." The Declaration of Independence is the soldering of two different ideological universes into one text; One universe is national, the other is liberal, and the Declaration of Independence is a liberal Jewish yin-yang.
Government representative Attorney Bombach notes that the Declaration of Independence is not an authority: "The Declaration of Independence was urgently signed by 37 people who were not elected at all."
The Israeli operating formula
Anyone who tries to learn about Israel from social media may believe that Israel is divided into two camps: the camp of Israelis and the camp of the Jews. Jews are right-wing, traditional and identify with the Second Israel; Israelis are leftist, secular and identified with the First Israel. And according to the prevailing narrative, 5723 was the year of the great clash between the two camps.
But there's also an optical illusion here. Israel's binary is tempting, but it is also deceptive and false. According to in-depth surveys of Israeli society, real Israel is not divided into two, but three. On the far left is a group of people for whom the State of Israel is not supposed to be a Jewish state. According to them, its Jewish character threatens its liberal character, and therefore the Jewish component must be dropped and the liberal component fortified.
In the depths of the political and religious right, there is a group for which liberal values threaten Jewish content, and therefore the liberal component must be dropped and the Jewish component reinforced. But most Israelis are hybrids. Most Israelis fully identify with Israel's operating formula as formulated in Israel's Declaration of Independence: the state is the nation-state of the Jewish people, and at the same time will grant full and equal rights to all its citizens.
Right-wing demonstration in Jerusalem before the hearing on the grounds of reasonableness, photo: Oren Ben Hakon
In general, when we ask the question "who," Israel organizes into two groups, but when we move on to the question of "what," that is, what are the values and ideas that play a role in our political life, we discover that we are divided into three groups: two groups at the extremes and one large and broad group in the middle. The most striking ideological feature of the extremes is value homogeneity.
The end groups have one great central value – nationalism at one end, liberalism at the other – in the name of which they act against other values. In contrast to the extremes, the most striking characteristic of mainstream Israel is a hybrid of values: mainstream people do not seek to decide in favor of one of the two values, but rather to maintain the great tension between them. There are, of course, controversies within the mainstream as well. There are those who want to give more weight to the liberal component, there are those who want to give more weight to the Jewish component, but these are disagreements over the question of how to balance the values. There is no dispute in the mainstream about the goal – and the goal is not a decision in favor of one of the values, but the right balance between them.
In the difficult hour we find ourselves in, a time of struggle between tribes, we are tempted to split Israel into two camps. At this difficult hour, we find it difficult to see that between the extremes is a large and broad mainstream that populates most Israelis. Most of all, we find it difficult to feel the hidden consensus that glues it together, because the mainstream of Israel is split within itself around artificial fault lines. These fault lines are formed when you ask "who" and disappear when you ask "what." When these artificial fault lines are erased, when we reorganize around those shared values, we will all discover that the glue of us, hybrid Israelis, is the Declaration of Independence.
Dr. Micha Goodman is a writer and researcher of Jewish thought, presenter of the podcast "Party of Thoughts"
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