More Than War

BY ARYEH MELLMAN

When Israel appears in American discourse, it is inevitably as a precursor to the words “—Palestine conflict.” The vast majority of Americans have no real reason to care about Israel beyond this discussion, so their knowledge base is restricted to what they see on the news. Inevitably, only wars can make far-off foreign countries salient to the public, so all that makes it into the news, and into people’s minds, is conflict. While the conflict does permeate many segments of Israeli life—mandatory army service, armed guards at public locations, and the separation barrier—thinking about a country only in terms of its conflict does a disservice to the daily lives and future aspirations of its average citizens. Israeli civil society is a symphony of ancient cultures and ingrained traditions, which plays in harmony with its booming economic sector.

Considering Israel’s economic situation as a whole, we see a country that is anomalous in at least one respect: it barely experienced a recession in 2008, contrary to most developed economies at the time. This is attributed largely to the banking wizardry of Stanley Fisher, the former World Bank chief economist who headed Israel’s central bank from 2005-2013. Fisher is just one of a large community of Jewish-American olim (immigrants to Israel, literally, those who went up) who felt the internal pull to move to the Jewish homeland. Under Fisher’s guidance, Israel has experienced relative economic prosperity in recent years, making it an attractive destination for Jewish-Americans disenchanted with their own troubled economy.

In addition to Fisher’s work at Israel’s central bank, the country’s booming high-tech industry, famously documented in the Dan Senor work Start-up Nation, is a primary determinant of Israeli economic success. Israeli companies have developed many commonly used technologies, like the Intel dual core processor and the flash drive, and have stayed au courant by creating apps like Waze (sold to Google for $1.3 billion) and Viber (sold to Rakouten for $900 million). Accordingly, many Israelis have jumped on the high-tech bandwagon, working at high-tech companies
and looking to make the next big app and cash out.

However, economic policy is currently clashing with military policy, in a way that also brings Israel’s Jewish character into the conversation. In the 1940s, Haredi Jews (ultra-orthodox, characterized by their uniform of white shirts and black hats, strict adherence to ritual law, minimal interaction with secular culture, and maximum separation between men and women), negotiated an agreement with the Israeli government to support a small portion of very bright students to study Torah full-time, allowing them to bypass the mandatory military service required of Israeli citizens. This agreement began with just a few hundred students in the 40s, but by 2014, this enterprise has ballooned to a massive 60,000 Haredim studying full-time, supported almost wholly by taxpayers. As the Haredi population continues to increase, the tax burden falls even more heavily on other segments of Israeli society. Lawmakers have pressured Haredim to join the army and the workforce, introducing legislation that would mandate army service for most Haredim. In response, Haredim—who comprise one of the most loathed categories of Israeli society—have launched massive protests (one consisting of over 300,000 people) and have vowed to be sent to jail rather than serve in the army, which they believe to be morally corrosive and threatening to Jewish values.

Typifying the reasons for popular anger at Haredim was the behavior of the past Chief Rabbi, Yona Metzger, who was indicted last year for bribery, fraud, and money-laundering. Metzger’s arrest only solidified the perception of the Rabbinate (a government institution) as a vehicle for Haredi theft and patronage. This behavior is especially dissonant as it comes from a sect of Jews that is supposed to be scrupulously observant of Jewish law.

Though Jews make up the majority of Israeli society, other religions and cultures, most notably Israeli-Arabs, are part of society as well. Interactions between Jewish Israelis and Israeli Arabs are strained; residential areas are somewhat segregated (de facto, not de jure), and Arab communities tend to get less government funding than Jewish communities, a situation not unlike that of some African-American communities in the United States. Now, political figures, like Finance Minister Yair Lapid, are attempting an overdue solution: purposefully expanding economic opportunities for Israeli-Arabs by increasing investment in education.

This is all not to minimize the importance of coming to a peaceful resolution of the conflict. It is vital for the continued prosperity of both Israelis and Palestinians that a fair and secure agreement be reached soon. That said, understanding Israeli society in its entirety humanizes some of the actors in the conflict. While conflict is the only color we see in many countries, in the countries themselves, it is just a shade of a much richer portrait.