Joel Pollak has a review in the latest edition of the Palestine-Israel Journal of a new book by Yosef Gorny looking at federal concepts in Zionist political thought.
Once the pre-state Zionist leadership was aware of the importance of the Arab question in Mandate Palestine, it was inevitable that shared sovereignty and common institutions would be included in the political models being discussed - Joel notes that David Ben Gurion proposed federal arrangements in the mid 1920s and early 1930s . Ultimately, though, these and other overtures foundered because of the lack of response from the Arab side. “What is the point of reaching agreement between ourselves,” wrote the Zionist notable Arthur Ruppin to Judah Magnes, one of the leaders of the binationalist group Brit Shalom, “if there is no-one on the the other side?”
As Joel Pollak observes in his review, in our own time the federal idea is on “the margins of Israeli discourse.” But he adds:
“If the next few years should indeed see some form of Palestinian state emerge, there will also be a need for institutional arrangements between the two states to govern affairs that must be dealt with in common, such as water. The economic success of the Palestinian state will also depend on its ties to the Israeli economy, which will require continued political cooperation…For practical reasons, if not for idealistic ones, the federal idea still lives.”
Which is precisely why, even if you are not able to read Gorny’s book, you should have a look at Joel’s review.
Hi, I created the Wikipedia article on Federal Zionism (I came up with the name in order to describe such ideas as proposed by Pollak and Gorny, since the idea isn’t new). I wanted to ask your opinion on my assumption that, if a federal method for apportioning areas of the Israeli state between Jews and Arabs were to take place, it would then follow that both portions would be further subdivided between the secular and fundamentalist groups within their respective populations.
I’m asking this in light of the ongoing controversy in the Israeli interior between secular Israelis of Jewish ancestry and those who they accuse of furthering the “Haredization” of several residential areas within municipalities.
And on an unrelated note, what is your opinion on the usage of the word “Hebrew” as an ethnic, non-religious descriptor for the entire Hebrew-speaking population of Israel (both religious and secular), as in Bernard Avishai’s “The Hebrew Republic”?
Thanks.
I also forgot to mention that the Dutch Protestant writer Petrus Cunaeus also titled his most popular work “The Hebrew Republic” in the 16th century; it was basically a treatise on his ideas for creating a republic with a “Sanhedrin” of noblemen, and he also appealed for toleration of the Jewish minority in the Dutch Republic.