44
Developing an Israeli Grand Strategy toward
a Peaceful Two-State Solution
and support them and the process they wish to promote
from within. If the process ultimately succeeds, it will be a
victory not only for universal values, but also and especially
for the countries and peoples of the region who will see a
new light and experience a protected peace in the context
of a democratic relationship between the government and
its citizens. In addition, as has been demonstrated in the
discussion in this chapter, developments in Arab countries
also directly impact the State of Israel and its citizens, and
their importance should not be underestimated – both for
better and for worse.
The Arab Spring: Israel in a changing
expanse – What is happening among its
Arab-Palestinian citizens?
The Arab Spring gave rise to a situation of uncertainty,
anarchy, waves of violence and weakening of regimes in view
of the growing strength of extremist organizations. All these
have been the focus of regional and Israeli interest worldwide,
and efforts to try to map and assess the development of
events and anticipated directions. The Arab Spring was on
everyone’s lips, largely due to the massive presence of the
social media. Its impact crossed the borders of the countries
in which it was occurring to Israel and the wider world.
Elie Podeh and Nimrod Goren pointed to the dangers and
opportunities embodied in the change process the Arab world
is undergoing: “The Arab Spring – contrary to the prevailing
Israeli opinion – poses not only risks, threats and challenges,
but also offers Israel diplomatic opportunities. Furthermore,
the Arab Spring has engendered a change in deeply rooted
beliefs and images among Israelis about the citizens of Arab
countries – from seeing them as passive citizens willing to
live under dictatorships to viewing them now as active and
courageous citizens, who are able to stand up for their rights
and willing to risk their lives in their demand for change. It
was no coincidence that Israel’s social protest in the summer
2011 adopted slogans that emerged from the squares of
the countries of the Arab Spring. Israeli decision makers
can take advantage of the full range of developments in the
Arab world to bring about real change in Israel’s traditional
policy toward the Middle East, and to move from a policy of
defense to one of initiative,” write the authors.
15
This message was acknowledged by Israeli defense officials.
An INSS conference enumerated the five steps that Israel
should take under the heading “Strategic Springboards.”
It was noted that the most significant challenge for Israel
is to identify the points that will give it an optimal strategic
edge through the formulation of new defense-policy options.
The first springboard mentioned by the participants was
the domestic arena. The first priority in this regard should
be to narrow the gaps between the Arab and Jewish
populations, in addition to other important springboards,
such as the Palestinian issue, relations with the Arab states
15 Ibid.
and world powers.
16
Prioritizing the domestic arena as the
first springboard, and particularly the demand to narrow
the gaps between the Arab and Jewish populations, is no
accident. It is a concrete and basic demand on the part of
both Arab-Palestinian Israeli citizens and of experts from
various disciplines and jurists in Israel. The changes that
occurred in Arab countries during the Arab Spring, the fact
that the nations of the region have ceased to be passive
and have come out against their regimes in an unambiguous
demand for social justice have caused Israeli experts to
realize that the plight of Israel’s Arab-Palestinians citizens
can no longer be ignored or shunted to the sidelines. “The
state, through its senior echelons, must take action to close
the gap soon, decisively and clearly, while setting clear and
concrete objectives and timetables,” wrote former Supreme
Court Justice Yitzhak Zamir.
17
Even if experts often ascribe mainly security significance to
the Arab Spring, they are clearly aware of the various gaps and
inequalities that exist in Israeli society, particularly between
Israel’s Arab-Palestinian citizens and its Jewish majority. This
situation of inequality undermines the delicate relationship
that has been forged here since Israel’s establishment and
creates a constant potential for instability that could ignite
under unpredictable circumstances.
The Arab Spring enhanced, intensified and revealed new
subjects and aspects of the discourse within the Arab society
in Israel. These new subjects reflect a trend that has been
evolving inside Arab society, which is essentially criticism
and public debate about various political and cultural issues.
In recent years, and as a result of the discourse in the Arab
world, Arab intellectuals and professors have been holding
a similar discourse within the Arab society in Israel, which
essentially involves scathing criticism of cultural issues such
as the status of women, the murder of women, violence,
the breakup of the family, and harsh criticism of traditional
religious and social leaders, on the one hand, and of the
Israeli government and the establishment, on the other. This
latter criticism focused in particular on the discrimination
practiced by the state against Arab-Palestinian citizens in
all areas.
18
The key actors leading this critical discourse were initially
intellectuals and research institutes, but the debate soon
spread to the population as a whole. The Mada al-Carmel
think tank developed two new research programs: a research
program on feminism, the first of its kind in Arab society,
and a program of Israeli studies to address a need among
Arab readers in Israel and the Arab world to learn more
16 INSS Insight, No. 790, January 31, 2016, New Directions for Enabling
Israel to Overcome its “Strategic Confusion”: Insights from the INSS
Annual Conference, January 2016.
17 Yizhak Zamir, “Equality of Rights for Arabs in Israel,” in The Status
of the Arab Minority in the Jewish Nation State, Tel Aviv: Tel Aviv
University, Konrad Adenauer Program for Jewish-Arab Cooperation,
2005, pp. 59-83.
18 Kamal Ali-Hassan, lecture, “Democratic ideas among Palestinians
in Israel inspired by the Arab Spring,” Mitvim study day, Azari Center
and Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, Haifa University, June 11, 2013.
