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95 Foreign Aff. 16 (2016)
The End of the Old Israel: How Netanyahu Has Tansformed the Nation

handle is hein.journals/fora95 and id is 688 raw text is: The End of the Old Israel How Netanyahu Has Transformed the Nation Aluf Benn srael-at least the largely secular and progressive version of Israel that once captured the world's imagination-is over. Although that Israel was always in some ways a fan- tasy, the myth was at least grounded in reality. Today that reality has changed, and the country that has replaced it is profoundly different from the one its founders imagined almost 70 years ago. Since the last elections, in March 2015, a number of slow-moving trends have accelerated dramatically. Should they continue, they could soon render the country unrecognizable. Already, the transformation has been dramatic. Israel's current leaders- headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who metamorphosed after the election from a risk-averse conservative into a right-wing radical-see democracy as synonymous with unchecked majority rule and have no patience for restraints such as judicial review or the protection of minorities. In their view, Israel is a Jewish state and a democratic state-in that order. Only Jews should enjoy full rights, while gentiles should be treated with suspicion. Extreme as it sounds, this belief is now widely held: a Pew ALUF BENN is Editor in Chief of Haaretz. Follow him on Twitter @alufbenn. public opinion survey published in March found that 79 percent of Jewish Israelis supported preferential treatment for Jews-a thinly veiled euphemism for discrimination against non-Jews. Meanwhile, the two-state solution to the conflict with the Palestinians has been taken off the table, and Israel is steadily making its occupation of East Jerusalem and the West Bank permanent. Human rights groups and dissidents who dare criticize the occupation and expose its abuses are denounced by officials, and the gov- ernment has sought to pass new laws restricting their activities. Arab-Jewish relations within the country have hit a low point, and Israel's society is break- ing down into its constituent tribes. Netanyahu thrives on such tribalism, which serves his lifelong goal of replacing Israel's traditional elite with one more in tune with his philosophy. The origins of all these changes predate the current prime minister, however. To truly under- stand them, one must look much further back in Israel's history: to the country's founding, in 1948. THE OLD MAN AND THE NEW JEW Modern Israel was created by a group of secular socialists led by David Ben- Gurion, who would become the state's first prime minister. The Old Man, as he was known, sought to create a homeland for a new type of Jew: a warrior-pioneer who would plow the land with a gun on his back and then read poetry around a bonfire when the battle was won. (This new Jew was mythologized, most memorably, by Paul Newman in the film Exodus.) Although a civilian, Ben-Gurion was a martial leader. He oversaw the fledgling state's 16 FOREIGN AFFAIRS

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