Most Needed: A National Goal Prof. Paul Eidelberg Israel lacks a national goal. Its leaders have been pursuing the will-o'-the-wisp goal of peace. Peace is not a national goal if only because peace depends on the good will of others. By a national goal I mean one that imbues a people with a strong sense of national solidarity, pride, and accomplishment. Israel can have only one national goal, and that is to become an authentic Jewish State! Only this goal can rally a large and enduring majority of the Jewish people. Progress toward this goal should proceed in a step-by-step manner: it should result from a set of specific, interrelated government policies whose significance is evident to or duly impressed on the public mind. For present purposes it is not necessary to define precisely what I mean by a "Jewish State." Even the secular Left – benighted exceptions aside – is obliged to give at least lip service to the idea of Israel as a Jewish state. Dripping with sweet sincerity, the Left ingenuously calls upon Israel to withdraw from its heartland, Judea and Samaria, ostensibly to preserve the "Jewish" as well democratic character of the State. (Never mind that Judea and Samaria are tied to the teachings of the prophets and sages of Israel.) In any event, it is incontrovertible that Israel's only justification, its raison d'etre, is to be a Jewish State. This fact is emblazoned in Israel's Declaration of Independence. All that is necessary, therefore, is to formulate policies which are logically consistent with the general idea of a Jewish State, and to carry them out in such a way as to make progress toward this goal a vivid public reality. Accordingly, a future government of Israel will: (1) Enact a law that proclaims Israel's raison d'etre as a Jewish State as well as the State's paramount principle to which all other principles are subordinate. (2) Enact a loyalty oath to Israel as a Jewish State as a qualification for voting in Israeli elections. (3) Enforce the 1952 Citizenship Law that empowers the Minister of Interior "to revoke the citizenship of any Israel national that commits an act of disloyalty to the State." (The term "act" should be defined in such a way as to safeguard freedom of speech and press.) (4) Enforce Basic Law: The Knesset, which prohibits any party that rejects Israel as a Jewish State. (5) Amend the "grandfather clause" of the Law of Return to curtail the flow of gentiles entering Israel. (The money saved should be used to strengthen the bond between non-Jewish immigrants and the Jewish people.) (6) Require all public-supported schools, including those attended by non–Jews, to include Jewish and Zionist studies in their curriculums. (7) Terminate Arabic as an official language of the State. (It has no more justification than making Russian or English an official language of the State.) (8) Change Basic Law: The Judiciary by empowering the President, advised by a council learned in Jewish and secular law, to nominate Supreme Court judges, subject to confirmation by parliament. (9) Require the Supreme Court to abide by the Foundations of Law Act 1981, which was intended by the Knesset to make Jewish law "first among equals" vis-à-vis the various systems of jurisprudence used by the Court. (10) Increase the power of the people by making Knesset members elected by and accountable to the people in geographic constituency elections. If these measures were systematically and rigorously carried out – and I have other democratic measures in mind – the people of Israel would actually see their country making yearly progress toward the goal of a Jewish State. This progress would even be susceptible to simple measurement, namely, the increasing ratio of Jews to non-Jews. In fact, as the country becomes more Jewish, the nationalist aims of Arab citizens will wane, many will emigrate, and more Jews will make aliya! Notice that the achievement of this Jewish national goal, unlike the pursuit of peace, does not depend on the vainly sought benevolence of other nations. In its quest for peace Israel has been pursing a mirage. Its political and intellectual leaders do not understand that it is not within the power of any nation or group of nations to give Israel peace. Israel must take its future into its own hands. Only by pursuing the goal of a Jewish State will Israel begin to achieve peace. In the final analysis, however, to achieve genuine and abiding peace, Israel will have to recognize the purpose for which it was created some 3,300 years ago, and that is to sanctify the Name of its Creator. | 
