The Challenge of What Makes Israel Jewish
One of the givens of Israel as expressed both in its founding document, the Declaration of Independence, and as expressed in the will of the majority of its citizens is that Israel is or must be a Jewish state. By Jewish two core elements are implied: the first, empirically, that the majority of its citizens are members of the Jewish people, and the second is that it is legitimate for Jewish traditions, culture, values, and even in some cases, Jewish law, to be integrated into the public, political, and legal structures of the society.
So long as the rights of Israel’s non-Jewish minorities are protected and the inalienable rights of individuals to freedom of religion are preserved, these principles of a Jewish state can coincide with Israel’s other defining aspiration, and that is to be a democratic state.
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