Published July 20th, 2009 by Future Atlas
Israel: Becoming Middle Eastern?
The International Crisis Group (ICG) issued a report today on Israel’s religious right and the settlements, arguing that this sector of Israeli society must be dealt with if a peace process is to advance.
The driving trend is that “national-religious and ultra-orthodox Israelis have gained influence and leverage. Entrenched in many West Bank settlements, they benefit from demographic trends: Israel’s army is increasingly dependent on their manpower and politicians on their votes.” The report goes on:
Together, the national-religious and ultra-orthodox carry weight far in excess of their numbers. They occupy key positions in the military, the government and the education and legal sectors, as well as various layers of the bureaucracy. They help shape decision-making and provide a support base for religious militants, thereby strengthening the struggle against future territorial withdrawals from both within and without state institutions.
(For more on the military, see this UPI article from earlier this month; it says that “The infiltration of the military by religious zealots has been under way for three decades, and much of the officer corps — up to 30 percent by some estimates — now consists of men from religious extremist groups.” The ICG report has more detail.)
The ICG continues:
The religious right believes it has time on its side. Its two principal camps – the national-religious and ultra-orthodox – boast the country’s highest birth rates. They have doubled their population in West Bank settlements in a decade. They are rising up military ranks.
The ICG offers a number of ameliorative measures. The most interesting is this: “While some settlers will be determined no matter what to remain on what they consider their Biblical land, here, too, ideas are worth exploring. In negotiations with Palestinians, Israel could examine whether and how settlers choosing to remain might live under Palestinian rule.”
In some sense, Israel seems to be becoming Middle Eastern: Western values are being replaced by religious and nationalist fervor. The consequences could be severe:
- A fundamentalist Israel may simply be incapable of seeking a just peace, suggesting increasingly dark prospects for the nation.
- American values and interests will diverge ever more sharply from such an Israel, straining the bonds between the two countries.
- Secular and moderate Israelis may find their country increasingly unwelcome, which could drive a brain drain that would undermine Israel’s creativity and competitiveness.
- This change could speed the estrangement of American Jews from Israel, a process that some say has already begun. And American Jewish support is the central driver of American support for Israel.