"Israel was born a Jewish state. That is what it will remain." These are the clear words of Ra'am leader Mansour Abbas, which were welcomed in the Jewish discourse. These remarks are extremely significant when it comes to the basic issue of Israel's future: will it continue to be a Jewish state, or will domestic and international forces gradually turn it into a state of all its citizens? The unequivocal manner in which Abbas presented his outlook for Israel's future identity is a call to Israelis to go back to the way in which former leaders used to treat the country's Jewish identity.
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The late Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin demonstrated in practice what it meant to be a Jewish state when it came to the rights of the non-Jewish citizens. It happened at a cabinet meeting at which the events of Land Day of March 1976, in which six Arab citizens were killed, were summed up. Rabin accepted the recommendation of an inter-ministerial committee to improve equality of rights for Arab citizens, but saw fit to make it clear that the recommendation had to be accepted "while stating clearly that what the state was offering to Arab Israelis was to honor or foster their cultural and religious heritage, nothing more. We are not creating any special ethnicity or nationality here, but rather an Arab minority whose religion and culture will be respected in the Jewish state … without understanding and agreeing among ourselves on the areas of government policy, we will lose the North," he said.
Mansour Abbas, when he made his statements, also explained that while accepting Israel as a Jewish state, his efforts were focused on promoting the status and rights of Arab citizens. In response, MK Ahmad Tibi said, "A Jewish, democratic state is an oxymoron."
The beliefs of David Ben-Gurion include an in-depth answer to Tibi's claims. Ben-Gurion laid out, in addition to a far-seeing Zionist vision, the foundations for political theory about the identity of Israel as a state that from its inception was rooted in dynamic tensions. Prior to the establishment of the state, in a speech to the Histadrut Labor Federation in 1944, Ben-Gurion stressed the obligation of a future Jewish state to equality for all its citizens, saying, "In Eretz Yisrael there are Arabs and other non-Jews, and a Jewish state that does not offer full and total political, civil, and national equality to all its residents and citizens cannot even be considered. It is possible that an Arab will be elected prime minister or president, if he is worthy. But the significance of a Jewish state is not only that Jews comprise a majority, but also the role the state will play – it will be a country not only of and for its residents, but also a country to which masses of the Jewish people in the Diaspora will move, and set down roots in their homeland."
In the same speech, Ben-Gurion emphasized the essence of the Zionist political vision. What Ahmad Tibi saw as a logical contradiction that traps Israel, Ben-Gurion's theory held to be the starting point of its unique identity.
The obligation to balance and synchronization amid tensions that appear to be unsolvable is the fundamental idea of governance that Ben-Gurion set down, as a compass for the country's leadership – to ensure Israel's continued existence as a Jewish state. The Israeli people must be brought back to this path, through a broad consensus.
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