Secular strain

Meron Medzini limps as he enters the lobby of Jerusalem’s Cassia Hotel. Wearing a neat navy suit and rimless glasses, he has a genteel smile and timeless class. Knee trouble slows his pace as he leans on a cane, but the group of American tourists who’ve gathered to meet him wait patiently. They know they’re about to get a living lesson in Israel’s history.

Medzini was born in Jerusalem in 1932 and grew up with the new country—from its start as a Zionist concept to its declaration of independence on May 14, 1948. He worked as government spokesman for three consecutive Israeli prime ministers and lived through multiple wars with the country’s neighbors. Through it all, Israel has prospered.

But as the modern state of Israel turns 75 this spring, modern challenges make Medzini wonder how long that prosperity can last. “Israel is in a major turmoil, the likes of which I have never experienced, and I’m 90 years old.”

On the surface, the current ­turmoil is about judicial reform. Protests against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s proposal to overhaul the nation’s Supreme Court have waxed and waned since his government introduced it in early January. But Medzini says the judicial reform issue points to a deeper question that has plagued the country since its rebirth after World War II: What role will religion play in public and private life?

Religion has been a vexing challenge for Israel from the beginning. “We don’t have a constitution mainly because we couldn’t agree on the role of religion in this country,” Medzini says. That lack of a written declaration of fundamental governing principles is one reason for the current internal conflict. Another is the ongoing tribalism in a country made up largely of immigrants from the global Jewish diaspora.

Like Medzini’s parents, the majority of Israel’s founders came from Eastern Europe. They were often secular and influenced by Europe’s late 19th-century socialism. Later immigrants came from Arab countries and tended to be more religious. After the fall of the Soviet Union, about 1 million Russian Jews immigrated to Israel, and in 1991, 14,325 Ethiopian Jews facing persecution at home were airlifted in as refugees.

Each of those groups brought their own religious sensitivities and practices with them. So did Arab Israelis, both Muslim and Christian, who make up 20 percent of the population.

Outside the Cassia Hotel, the differences between those groups pop up everywhere. On a Friday night in Old Jerusalem, electric reader boards blink arrows and directions in Hebrew, Arabic, and English: left to the Al-Aqsa Mosque and right to the Western Wall. Families of ultra-Orthodox Jews hurry to prayers as the sun goes down. Men wearing distinctive long black coats and high hats cross paths with Muslims leaving their own prayers on the Temple Mount. Young Israel Defense Force soldiers keep a watchful eye on both groups, fierce weapons slung over their shoulders.

Meanwhile, on Tel Aviv’s sandy beaches, picnickers and bikini-clad volleyball players vie for space as surfers bob in the waves. Seaside restaurants serve non-kosher food like shrimp and clams alongside fish and chips.

The secular Jewish democracy Zionist founders envisioned has provided the stability required for Israel to flourish economically, technologically, and culturally. But now, the nation is at a crossroads. The coalition of conservative and religious parties currently in power in Israel, with Netanyahu at its head, is raising societal questions that will determine the course of the next 75 years. And the role religion will play could determine not only its future, but the support of its closest allies.

NETANYAHU’S proposed judicial reform would radically change the makeup of the commission that chooses Israel’s Supreme Court judges. Another bill gives Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, power to override any Supreme Court ruling.

Critics say Netanyahu’s motivation is personal: He faces an ongoing corruption trial, and the ability to influence who serves on the court could be to his benefit. But Netanyahu’s coalition partners—particularly from the ultra-Orthodox sector—have their own reasons for wanting more control over the historically liberal court.

Ultra-Orthodox Jews, or Haredi, live in tight-knit, separate communities, rejecting modern secular influences. They enjoy an exemption from military service and instead receive government stipends to pursue religious studies of the Torah. It was a concession that Israel’s founder and first prime ­minister, David Ben-Gurion, made to gain their support. Seventy-five years ago, Israeli Haredi numbered only 35,000. But now they have grown to 1.28 million—12.9 percent of the population. The military exemption that originally affected 400 men now applies to 68,000.

As that number has grown, the exemption and the public funds that support Torah studies have stoked resentment among some secular Israelis, who see the Haredi as freeloaders. The Haredi fear a liberal Supreme Court could force their men to serve in the military and in mixed-gender units, violating their belief that men and women should remain separate. Meanwhile Jewish nationalist parties like Otzma Yehudit, determined to expand Israeli control to all of the country’s Biblical territory, want to keep the court from declaring West Bank settlements illegal.

IRONICALLY, it was a deeply religious Christian worldview that made the modern state of Israel possible. U.S. President Harry Truman was raised a Baptist, and though he didn’t have a university education, he had a ­thorough knowledge of the Bible and its history.

Because of that and in light of the Holocaust, along with the influence of a Jewish friend and former business partner, Truman believed creating a homeland for the Jewish people was the right thing to do. Against the advice of Secretary of State George Marshall and his State department, Truman officially recognized Israel just 11 minutes after Ben-Gurion declared independence. “I am Cyrus!” Truman famously said, referring to the Biblical king of Persia who ended the Jewish captivity in Babylon and ordered the Temple rebuilt.

That connection wasn’t lost on the fledgling nation’s founders. Truman “was a deeply religious man,” Medzini said. “He understood the connection between the Jewish people and the land, and he decided he was going to enter not only American history but our history.”

The American support that began with Truman has continued to the present, with more or less enthusiasm depending on which party is in the White House. And thanks in part to Washington’s backing, Israel has flourished. It now promotes itself as “Startup Nation,” citing the high number of new tech companies per capita. That’s brought foreign investment, particularly from the United States.

But amid the ongoing conflict over judicial reform, some investors are pulling out. The New Israeli Shekel has consequently fallen in value against the dollar and the euro. Medzini notes international companies rely on a stable judicial system and the rule of law. Uncertainty is making them nervous, especially as religious factions gain political power. Some have long argued Israel should be governed by the laws of the Torah, a notion Medzini dismisses as impossible. “Can you govern a modern, industrial, technological country by the laws of the Torah? Could you close the airport or electric turbines every Saturday and Jewish holiday? Who would protect minority rights? Who will protect the rights of Arabs?”

During a recent interview on CBS’ Face the Nation, Netanyahu tried to assure an American audience that his Likud party would rein in the more extreme members of his coalition. But he also insisted that judicial reform is an internal affair, to be dealt with free from external pressures. That was a jab at President Joe Biden’s ongoing urging for Israel to not “continue down this road.” The prime minister paused the judicial overhaul plan in March, but the debate will resume now that parliament is back in session. Biden has stated his hope that Netanyahu will compromise with the opposition.

Both Biden and Netanyahu hail their 40 years of friendship and the special alliance uniting their two countries. Still, the tensions between them are real. Meanwhile, a March Gallup poll showed 49 percent of U.S. Democrats sympathized with the Palestinians, while only 38 percent sympathized with Israelis. In response, Netanyahu said he must work harder to persuade American representatives on both sides of the aisle to see Israel’s unparalleled value as the only democracy in the Middle East.

And so, despite exuberant diamond anniversary celebrations, uncertainty in Israel continues. Polls showed 60 percent of citizens don’t feel represented by their government, and a slight majority are pessimistic about the nation’s future.

Meron Medzini isn’t one of them. “I can’t tell you how it’s going to pan out, but we will overcome it,” he said. “I have no doubt, because we are resilient, we are resourceful. We have no other place to go and no other country. Eventually, we will find the proper solution.”