Rosner’s Domain— A Declaration of Consensus

The road to hell is paved with good intentions. The road map showing the way to hell was hung last week on the Tel Aviv City Hall.

Good intentions: This is what caused the mayor of Tel Aviv and his team to hang a large banner on City Hall with the important text of Israel’s Declaration of Independence on it. Where do good intentions lead? We have already said where they lead. And in this specific case, they lead to the politicization of one of the only texts that have survived the test of time and have not yet been politicized. If Israel’s Declaration of Independence is merely another tool in the arsenal of the opponents of the government, the leftists of Tel Aviv, it will quickly lose its appeal to the many supporters of the government.

In other words, the mayor of Tel Aviv wanted to advance the message of the Declaration. He wanted to boost it at this time not because Israel is nearing its 75th anniversary. This was a confrontational move, suggesting, in a nutshell, that what the new coalition plans to do would contradict the principles of the founding fathers. Mayor Ron Huldai wanted to boost the status of the Declaration and may have ended up eroding it. Here is a comparison that may upset some readers: A similar process eroded the consensus around the day of mourning for the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin. This is what happens when an issue in agreement is utilized for political confrontation.

The Declaration of Independence is not a document known to every Israeli. Forty percent of us do not know exactly what it is (the declaration made by David Ben-Gurion when Israel was born). Some Israelis think the Declaration is related to something that happened at the U.N. Some believe it was signed in Jerusalem (the actual place was Tel Aviv). 

So, an initiative aimed at widely publicizing the text of the Declaration (the state “will be based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel“) is a good idea. If someone wants to hang it on a building, that’s great. Put it on billboards, even better. Advertise it on the radio — by all means, let them do it. 

This works provided that it will be everyone’s Declaration, or at least that an effort will be made to keep the Declaration a consensual text, dear to everyone. This was important for Ben-Gurion, who agreed to pay a price in drafting the Declaration, so that everyone would sign. Meir Wilner the communist, Haim Moshe Shapira of the Orthodox Mizrahi, Yitzhak Meir Levin of the ultra-Orthodox, Yitzhak Gruenbaum the liberal, Zvi Segal the rightwing revisionist. The Declaration ought to belong to everybody, those who support the new government and to those who oppose it. If it doesn’t belong to everyone, its importance will decrease and its status will erode.

The Declaration of Independence cannot be held as a hostage in the hands of extremists who may or may not like the use made of it. 

What could be done? One option was not to hang the Declaration as a political statement at this tense time. City officials would probably reject such suggestion. They’ll say that the other political camp cannot dictate when it is and when it isn’t the appropriate time to mention the Declaration. The Declaration cannot be held as a hostage in the hands of extremists who may or may not like the use made of it. 

This is not a bad argument. But it can be answered with a second proposal: In these highly charged times, when everything that becomes politicized by one side, and also becomes toxic in the eyes of the other side, leaders should search for middle ground. In this case, instead of hanging the Declaration on the Tel Aviv City Hall alone — making it a case of “the State of Tel Aviv” against the new government of the State of Israel — hang it on several city halls of several municipalities, not all of which are politically identified with one political camp. How beautiful it would be if the important text of the Declaration of Independence were hung in parallel by the mayors of Tel Aviv and Petah Tikva, Elad and Bat Yam, Nazareth and Eilat. Of course, not every mayor was ready to do such a thing. But it was worth a try. You know what? It is still not too late to try.

Something I wrote in Hebrew

em, or a sharp conflict over Iran, Israelis have an opinion about the American president that is derived from their politics. Only right-wing Israelis sometimes say a Democratic President is “bad” for Israel. On the other hand, there is not a single right-wing or center-right supporter who says Biden is “excellent” for Israel. Similarly, there is not a single left or center-left supporter among those who responded to our survey in both 2021 and 2022 who said of Biden that he is “bad for Israel.” Quite a few of them said he is excellent (27%) or good (54%).

A week’s numbers

Here’s how a group of Israelis change their minds on Biden from Dec. 2021 to Dec. 2022 (or didn’t change it). 

A reader’s response:

Avi Dagan asks: “Shmuel, can Israel survive without American Jewish support?” My response: Possibly, but why would Israel need to survive without American Jewish support? I am confident it will always get American Jewish support. I see no alternative to such future. 

Shmuel Rosner is senior political editor. For more analysis of Israeli and international politics, visit Rosner’s Domain at jewishjournal.com/rosnersdomain.