Lessons from 2023 for 2024
Dear Friends,
2023 is a year that many of us would choose to forget. Yet, as difficult as this year has been, its multiple crises create potentially historic opportunities in 2024. To seize them, it is vital that we draw the right lessons from the past twelve months. What are those lessons? I will single out three that seem particularly germane to IDI’s mission.
First, the attempt to impose an unpopular overhaul of Israel’s judiciary and the widespread protests it engendered, underscore the critical importance of striving for consensus in a divided society. Just as we must not force through major constitutional changes on narrow partisan lines, we cannot hope to solve complex social problems such as the ultra-Orthodox draft issue, by fiat or force. This is an important lesson going forward, as we work to fortify Israel’s institutions and strengthen Israeli democracy in the wake of the Gaza War.
Second, the debate surrounding the judicial overhaul underscored a stark truth that was not fully appreciated even by experts in the field: power is excessively concentrated in Israel. The hallmarks of this hyper-centralization of power include anemic parliamentary oversight, weak local government, a bloated executive branch, the total absence of entrenched protections for civil rights, and very few checks on the actions of a temporary political majority. Undoubtedly, the judiciary is in need of reform, but genuine constitutional reform must begin with a holistic view of the deficiencies of Israel’s parliamentary system in all three branches of government.
Third, and relatedly, the devastating attacks of October 7th offered a stark reminder that perhaps our most precious asset is our internal solidarity. Simply put, Israel cannot afford the politics of division if it wishes to survive and prosper in a hostile region. Our enemies are not sitting on their haunches as we bicker. When they smell weakness, they will act. And though they have clearly misjudged us in this case, we are all paying the price for their misjudgment.
In the aftermath of this terrible war, a national reckoning, including a thorough investigation into the failures that made October 7th possible, will be essential. Clearly, we need to rethink Israel’s security concepts and interrogate past notions about our ability to deter fundamentalist terrorist organizations in Gaza and elsewhere. But we also need a new approach towards our relations with the Palestinians. A new paradigm that provides Palestinians with a real horizon of hope and self-determination on the one hand, but without compromising on Israel’s very real security needs on the other. At the same time, we must recognize that a national commission of investigation will not produce a blueprint for domestic reform. We do not have the luxury of waiting for a committee of investigation to complete its work—a process that is likely to take years. We must launch the process of internal renewal and reform now.
There are some grounds for cautious optimism. While we entered this war more divided than ever, and with large numbers even saying that they believed civil war to be a possibility, Israelis today are united in their determination to win this war. There are large majorities in favor of the dual stated war goals – ending Hamas’ terrorist rule in Gaza and returning the hostages home to their families – and there is a very high level of trust in the IDF and its commanders, despite the horrible failure at the war’s onset.
The dedication exhibited by the men and women of the IDF, including hundreds of thousands of reservists who have been away from their families for more than two months, is truly inspiring. This is a small country, and we have all been personally affected by loss in this war, but the steadfastness and incredible spirit of volunteerism on the home front has been equally inspiring. Fully 68% of the population has volunteered in some way to help those in need during these trying times. More and more ultra-Orthodox Jews are exhibiting interest in playing a role within greater Israeli society, and Arab Israelis, far from launching the much-feared “internal front,” are expressing a higher degree of identification with their country than ever before. Perhaps this explains why Israelis are more optimistic about the country’s future now, than they were before the war.
Now the challenge is to channel that spirit of unity and good will into reforms that will make sure the State of Israel emerges more secure, more democratic, more prosperous, and better prepared to weather the tough times ahead.
This is where IDI comes in.
While 10% of our staff, and so many of our loved ones, have been called up to defend the country on the frontlines, the rest of our experts are working hard to prepare Israel for the ‘day after’ the war. There is much to be done.
To begin with, the ineptitude of the government’s response to the devastation wrought by Hamas on October 7th revealed how badly our civil service is in need of reform. An IDI team is developing a blueprint for comprehensive reform, including a detailed plan for shrinking the size of government and eliminating unnecessary ministries. A smaller, more efficient government is just one of the components of a set of new budgetary priorities that Prof. Karnit Flug and her team are preparing to help Israel deal with the economic fallout from the war. Our economy is facing a challenge unlike any other we have endured in the past. The war is very costly, and pre-October budgetary priorities will need to be reassessed. Hundreds of thousands of Israelis remain displaced, and we must be ready to meet their every need until – and after – they return to their homes. And, with so many serving in the reserves, our economy will need to play ‘catch up’ with the world markets that have continued to grow and expand while we defended our borders.
But the war also affords a historic opportunity to address some of the bigger and more fundamental challenges that have held Israel back in recent years.
For one, now is the time to rethink the IDF’s outmoded ‘model of service’, finding innovative ways to meet the challenges of the 21st century battlefield while ensuring that all Israelis share the burden of service. Clearly the IDF needs more manpower than was evident before October 7th. Among other things, this places new urgency on the need to draft the ultra-Orthodox while expanding the role of women in the military. On October 7th, and in the months since, the women of the IDF have displayed immense bravery and erased all doubts about the important role they play in defending our country.
Second, we can no longer afford – literally – to allow huge sectors of our society to be left out of our economy. There is much work to be done in broadening economic opportunities for Arab Israelis. No less urgently, we cannot continue to condemn future generations of ultra-Orthodox to poverty by providing reckless subsidies for an unlimited number of yeshiva students and bankrolling schools that refuse to teach a basic core curriculum of Hebrew, math, English and civics. That will require a wholly new approach by government, philanthropists, and civil society organizations.
Third, and perhaps most importantly, we cannot let this moment pass without making a genuine attempt at forging an agreed constitutional framework that will finally guarantee the rights of all Israelis and define the relationship among our three branches of government. The events of the past year demonstrate that we have gotten by without such a structure for too long. It is high time Israel ceased being the global constitutional exception. It is irresponsible to ask Israelis to continue risking their lives for a democracy that is subject to radical change by a slim parliamentary majority.
Ideally, the adoption of a new constitutional framework will come together with passage of long overdue electoral reform that will make our system of government more stable and more responsive to the people it represents, along with measures to strengthen local government as a way of diffusing power and allowing the diverse communities that make up Israeli society to govern themselves with a greater degree of autonomy. While these may seem like lofty goals that will be very hard to achieve, we should take heart from the fact that almost 70% of Israelis now support a constitution based on the principles of the Declaration of Independence.
And as Theodor Herzl famously said of the Zionist project as a whole: “if you will it, it is no dream.” Israel has proven time and again that we are the country that defies expectations, succeeds where others have not, and is willing to make sacrifices to ensure that our future generations are better off than we are. This is being proven daily on the battlefield, with the painful losses of so many of our best and brightest who are paying the ultimate price to make Israel safer. It is up to the rest of us to ensure that the society that emerges from this war is stronger than ever.
If we are able to achieve these lofty goals in the wake of the worst national catastrophe since the Holocaust, then Israelis will be able to say collectively as a nation that we have fulfilled the words of the great Hebrew poet Hayim Nahman Bialik: “in their death they command us to live.”
Yours,
Yohanan Plesner
President, The Israel Democracy Institute