Great Britain today is a Liberal Democracy and a multicultural society made up of hundreds of diverse religions, races and ethnic groups. But remnants of its historical past as a Monarchy still remain ever present through the continued existence of the Royal institution and the Queen as the Head of State.
How many people in Britain agree with the idea of living under a monarchy? Probably very few, the continued existence of the Monarchy can have a few justifications. It has a symbolic value; it not only gives Britain a certain identity that is unique from other nations. It has attracted thousands of tourists from all over the world to come to visit the Tower of London, look at the crown jewels, witness the changing of the guard at Buckingham palace and for the citizens of Great Britain they have someone to put on their currency and stamps and a central theme for the national anthem.
The Royal family have also become more like celebrities today and have attracted a lot of media attention. It is this symbolic, figurehead value that has in turn resulted in providing an economic benefit to Britain through tourism. Along with black taxis, Double Decker red London buses, red post and telephone boxes are all part of the character of London. However with the advent of mobile phones we see fewer red telephone boxes or telephone boxes in general and the ones that do remain tend to be newer ones, which are not boxes, most probably designed as such to discourage homeless people from sleeping in them. As well as fewer traditional London buses, the identity of London is slowly changing, in part to do with lack of relevance of previous structures and changing technologies and means of communication.
The Royal family still resembles part of British tradition and in its current form is not particularly offending anyone to the point of people calling for the institution to be removed or overthrown. And for those who do not care much for it as a symbol of identity or tradition or identify with it at all, they can often still see the benefit of it existing economically for the country.
The modern State of Israel is not a monarchy. However had the biblical Kingdoms remained in tact for the past 2000 years I would imagine that Israel would like to have had a similar system where the descendents of the Kings of Israel held a symbolic role within the modern Israeli state. As we know from history though the Jewish people no longer have a monarchy and has no figurehead as such. For the State of Israel, Judaism and its relationship with the Diaspora has become Israel’s equivalent of the Royal family. Of course there are locals who see more than just a symbolic value of Judaism to the states identity but believe that it should be more involved in the public sphere and certainly more involved in Israeli politics.
Israel’s Jewish character is what makes it unique to other nations in the world and also has identified a niche in the global market, targeting Jewish tourists. For observant Jews Israel is one of the few places in the world where they can travel and not have to encounter the problem of lack of Kosher food (however much in Tel Aviv it is becoming harder to find restaurants with a Kashrut certificate). Israel is also a place where public transport stops on Shabbat. Its state symbols are Jewish symbols and the language, Hebrew, is the language of the bible. Judaism is a business, where Israel provides a service to the Jewish Diaspora.
Unlike the British Royal family which does not seem to be having an effect on most of the indifferent British public and stays for the most part out of British politics. In Israel, the Diaspora and Judaism do influence the daily life of Israeli citizens and Israeli politics. The Diaspora in return for Israel remaining Jewish and its ongoing commitment to its safety, invest time and money into supporting Israel through tourism, political lobbying their host nations governments, advocacy, buying Israeli produce and pledging donations to Israeli charities. Arguably Israel is dependent on the work of the Diaspora not only economically but Israel is a relatively small and weak power in the world and relies on the Diaspora acting in a diplomatic role across the globe in the countries they dwell in, enlisting support and exerting their influence. According to historian David Biale:
“The restrictions imposed on the sovereignty of small states have forced Israel to relate to the non-Jewish powers in ways similar to those adopted by the medieval Jews. In order to ensure its survival, the state must follow a medieval strategy of alliance with those in power. In the modern world, this means alliance with one of the superpowers. The state would probably have been aborted at the outset without the convergence of interests between the major powers in supporting its creation. In the 1950’s it was France that became Israel’s patron, but for most of the history of the Jewish state, it is the alliance between Israel and the United States that has ensured survival.” (Biale D. 1986:170)
The dependency on the foreign powers in part depends on the mutual interests between Israel and the favoured superpower to which it becomes its client state combined with whatever relative influence its supporters and allies within these societies have over the superpowers when tensions between the superpower and the client state increase or come into conflict with one another.
The Diaspora has become both a business to Israel, a means for creating economic stability at difficult times and also sees the Diaspora as a means for potential immigrants and investors as well as serving a diplomatic role as unofficial ambassadors abroad.
The effects of this relationship within Israel leads Israelis to be somewhat divided on the question of what role Judaism and the Diaspora should have in Israel. Some believe that Israel simply would not survive without the Diaspora and must remain a Jewish state but should continue the debate over to what extent it should govern Israeli life but without it, the country in the context of its ongoing conflict with the Palestinians and the Arab states and becoming further isolated in the international community see the Diaspora as its only loyal allies in the world and for that reason it must continue to be a Jewish state.
The alternative post Zionist school of thought wishing to see Israel become a state for all its citizens and a democracy feel that by Israel defining itself as a Jewish state and the state of the Jewish people is the heart of Israel’s problems and that Israel’s Arab minority feel very affected by this definition as well as the lack of religious freedom in Israel such as the absence of civil marriage and the religious laws that govern the secular Israeli majority.
The attempts to decrease the Jewish identity of the country and end its relationship with the Diaspora in Israel’s current situation may be quite detrimental to its strategic interests. But if a peaceful solution to the conflict is found, Israel will become a more sovereign power and less dependent on foreign aid and support and as a result will call into question the role of Judaism in the state of Israel. Attempts will be pushed forward to come up with a clear constitution as is already occurring and whether Israel’s monarchy (Judaism and the Diaspora) will still be as involved as it once was will be made perfectly clear.
Israelis, like the British will not attempt to overthrow its own version of a monarchy and see it for its economic value to the country and symbolic identity so long as like in Britain it does not effect their individual democratic freedoms.
The weakening of Israel’s close interdependent relationship with the Diaspora will not eliminate the Diaspora’s connection to Israel. Jews will still go to visit, some will choose to live there and some as is the case today will choose to live outside of their homeland. But much of the Israel based activity amongst Diaspora Jewry in times of peace would become obsolete, Israel would welcome them and individuals would still have ties to it. But we would find that it would become less central to our Jewish agenda.
We are seeing more bridges being built in part as a result of the construction of Israel as the centre of Jewish identity. Where Jews from across the globe have met and exchanged ideas. We are now seeing the Diaspora business, stretching into new areas. In their book New Jews: The end of the Jewish Diaspora, Caryn Aviv and David Shneer on exploring the extent of Jewish travel of the Diaspora business conclude that:
“More students are rediscovering and studying the rich Jewish histories of the United States and Eastern Europe, of Yiddish and klezmer, as viable routes to constructing Jewish identity. And with renewed hopes for Middle East peace following Yassir Arafat’s death late in 2004, tourism to Israel is picking up. Jewish youth- and the Diaspora business that shuttles them around- now have choices about where to travel and what aspects of Jewish culture to explore.
We imagine that ten years from now, diaspora business organizations will spend as much money sending young Jews to Vilnius to study Yiddish or to Prague to study Jewish art and architecture as they do sending young Jews to Israel. While many will still choose to climb Masada at dawn or volunteer for six weeks in the Israeli army, we imagine new Jewish youth travelling to New York to study in yeshivas, visit Jewish museums, conduct family history research at Jewish archives, learn Russian in Jewish immigrant neighbourhoods, and ear their way through Jewish New York as culinary tourists.
Travel is still integral to the new Jewish map, and Israel will always be an important part of that map, but in our “March of the Living,” travel will no longer focus on Jews’ encounter with ghosts and death but will be about new Jew’s encounters with one another. Rather than seeing a Jews “birthright” as a nationalistic claim to land, we see it as a claim to culture, history, heritage, whether that happens to be in New York, Moscow, Buenos Aires, Berlin, or Jerusalem.”
(Aviv. C and Shneer D. 2005:70/71)
The thinking about such changes in Jewish travel is not unique to the Diaspora experience but suggestions are being put forward in Israel too targeting Israelis, albeit less popular and not yet in a position of finding much ground for concrete action enforced by the state or funding from Israeli Jewish organisations. Former labour politician and head of the Jewish Agency Avrum Burg in his believed to be highly controversial book by some The Holocaust is over; we muse rise from its ashes puts forward some alternative destinations for Israeli teenagers to travel to other than to the concentration camps in Poland before they are drafted to the IDF:
“Therefore, in my awakening Israel, the days of the annual summer break will be dedicated to a much more meaningful journey. Instead of a one-way trip to a time and place of pain, humiliation, and ruin, I wish to propose a multidimensional journey to hope and trust. Groups of Israeli students, Jewish and Arabic, will visit Spain: Aragon, Castile, and Andalucía. There they will become familiar with the golden age, when Islam and Judaism had mutually beneficial relationships. Each one of them will see and understand that there was time of spiritual alternatives to military service, suicide bombing, and terror. From Spain they will travel to Germany and Eastern Europe, will study the European Jewish millennium, of which only the last dozen years were that horrible.
They will visit the Muslim concentrations in the heart of Europe, where a new European Islam is attempting to exist. From there they will return home to Israel and tour the confrontational history of Jews and Arabs. In the end, they will sit down to draw their own conclusions of the historic tour. I hope and believe that the unequivocal conclusion of many of the children will be that violence, racism, and extermination are not an alternative. Extermination has no building value and it lacks imagination and creativity. They will understand by themselves that only cultural cooperation, with the acceptance of the other as an equal to be appreciated, will yield for us an optimistic future and a second golden age for the benefit and glory of the entire world.
Israel’s education system should arrange another trip for its students: visiting and staying with Jewish communities in the West, and especially in the United States. There we can learn what it means to live a life free of threats. We can learn about solidarity, and how life with national meaning can be lived without an external enemy, and with full trust between Jews and the non-Jewish environment.”
(Burg. A 2008:237/8)
A recent article from Haaretz titled Is it lack of ideology or funding that's hurting Zionist youth? By Jonny Singer discusses the impact that the global economic crisis is having on the Zionist youth movements and its reliance on funding from the Jewish agency:
“The connection to Israel from Diaspora movements is fading, and the way to bring it back is not through wildly giving out more money, but by helping these movements rediscover some purpose, either by returning to old values or adopting new ones.”
(http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArtVty.jhtml?sw=fzy&itemNo=1143387 Singer J. 18/01/2010)
Not only is there the possibility that Israel will not feel as big a need for the Diaspora anymore but the groundwork is already being laid for a new and broader conception of Jewish identity to which Israel is only but one part and that the Diaspora too will soon find that Israel will not be such a focal point in the Jewish identity of all Jews.
Whilst there are attempts to strengthen the relationship between Israel and the Diaspora they are becoming less homogeneous if ever they even truly were and less united in their views on Israel and Zionism. Zionism and solidarity with Israel became a unifying factor in the Jewish world, but today it is becoming, like religious interpretation something that has too divided Jews as well as united them in Israel and now we are starting to see it more in the Diaspora too. A plurality of Jewish expression is beginning to emerge and transcending the Israel Diaspora narrative into one of a global people with many centres, different cultures, religious sects, languages and dialects.
Judaism and the Diaspora are not quite playing the role that the British Monarchy is playing in Britain today. The tensions of the conflict are drawing this aspect of its character to a point that domestically at least it does at time disrupt and upset many within its population to the point of wanting to terminate this relationship and end its Jewish character altogether.
Hopefully in a time of peace, Judaism to Israel will be able to sit back, and act as the figurehead of the state as a symbol of its tradition and uniqueness attracting both Jewish and non-Jewish tourists, but will not infringe on the individual freedoms of its citizens too much and that they will even come to see an inherent value in it being there.
The British have not complained too much about the inclusion of calling on a deity to save their unelected Queen in their national anthem. Nor the fact that for all its religious diversity the St. Georges Cross appears on the state flag. They are symbols that do not give meaning to many of the cultures that live in the United Kingdom. If Israel can hold on for long enough and resolve most of its problems, this could become the case for Israel too. Britain is a Christian Monarchy and a multicultural Liberal Democracy; its symbols represent the tradition and history of the people. Israel is a Jewish and Democratic state, once it has resolved its problems with its neighbours and issues within the society itself Judaism will become the civil religion of the country and will integrate into the region. Israel has many fields of expertise and will no doubt in times of peace excel in more, it will then continue to contribute to an industry which it is currently leading in, the Diaspora business.
Bibliography
Aviv, C and Shneer D. (2005) New Jews: The end of the Jewish Diaspora, New York University Press: United States.
Biale, D (1986) Power and Powerlessness in Jewish History, Schocken Books: New York
Burg, A (2008) The Holocaust is over; we must rise from its ashes, Palgrave Macmillan: United States
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArtVty.jhtml?sw=fzy&itemNo=1143387
For more articles by Alex Carson, visit: http://alexcarson.wordpress.com/
