DEMOCRACY AND THE RULE OF LAW

One of Israel's most impressive achievements has been to maintain the level of sacrifice and alertness necessary to handle its security problems, while sustaining a democratic political system. Just as features of Israeli democracy are often criticized by observers and participants, so too is the fit imperfect between security-related issues and democratic practices. Tensions between the two were often near the surface. Israel's short history has been replete with dilemmas concerning the rule of law, censorship, freedom of organization, the politicization of the military, and the multiplicity of roles played by the military (Negbi 1987; Hofnung 1991; Kremnitzer 1993). As Yaniv (1993, 227) put it, “The most fundamental flaws of Israeli democracy are revealed … when the system is evaluated against the universal standard of the rule of law.”

Most Israelis who were born abroad and not in Israel came from non-democratic countries; most born in Israel lived only under democratic government. As a native-born generation becomes more dominant, the bulk of the population will have grown up under democratic government. But, of course, it will have been an experience of growing up under Israeli democracy, with that peculiar blend of Eastern European factionalism and Jewish communal focus. The individualism and emphasis on civil liberties which characterize many Western, postindustrial regimes were never important features of Israeli democracy, although recent trends have highlighted that direction.