- Ask an average person what they know about Israel today,
and chances are you'll hear something
about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
And it makes sense.
The mainstream narrative on Israel
seems to focus on the conflict
to the exclusion of everything else.
But for outside observers,
the effect is a view of Israelis through a narrow keyhole.
The reality of day-to-day life for most Israelis
is so much more.
So without diminishing the suffering of Arabs or Jews,
what is it beyond the conflict
that really defines Israeli society?
- We all understand
that we are part of one nation.
And the one keyword
that define Israel for me,
in this regard, is "achi".
"My brother."
But you won't hear it so much in other places in the world,
maybe in the army in some places but
in Israel, every person is your brother.
You call him achi.
Doesn't matter if the guy comes to fix your toilet.
If it's a guy giving you some service.
If it's a
guy from your class.
Everyone is called achi.
And that's a huge keyword that define the Jewish
kind of like co-existing in this place of a family.
In a family you have fights,
but you need to live together
and family you don't choose in the end.
- One of the most common misconceptions about Israel is that
it's made up of white, European Jews.
But in reality,
over half of Israel's Jewish population
identifies as Mizrahi,
Jews from the Arab world.
In fact, Mizrahi culture is a dominant force in Israeli life
from its food and music, to religious traditions,
politics and law.
Another important thread in the fabric of Israeli society
was woven by Jews from the former Soviet Union.
For decades, Soviet Jews had experienced
antisemitism and discrimination
but were prevented from leaving the country.
In 1971, the Soviet exit ban was lifted,
and over the next thirty years,
about a million Soviet Jews left for Israel in waves.
At about the same time Israel was struggling
to welcome and incorporate hundreds of thousands of Jews
from the Soviet Union,
a devastating famine and civil war ravaged Ethiopia,
forcing its minority community of Ethiopian Jews
to flee for refugee camps in Sudan,
in hopes of ultimately making it to Israel.
Operation Moses, in 1984, was a covert mission that brought
8,000 Ethiopian Jews to Israel,
and 14,000 more arrived through Operation Solomon in 1991.
Today, there are about 150,000 Israelis of Ethiopian descent
who essentially moved overnight, en masse,
from a third world country to a modernized nation.
- A lot of students think
my nationality
is American,
my religion is Judaism.
Now the issue is that,
if people are not close to religion,
or don't believe in that,
so yeah, once a year they're going to Passover or
maybe doing something with a religious aspect,
but the main part of their life is only connected
to those religious elements.
- As a Jewish state,
the Jewish calendar,
holidays, life cycle events and traditions
are deeply intertwined with the wider culture.
People unfamiliar with Israel often perceive it
as a country full of religiously observant Jews,
but the truth is that most Israeli Jews aren't observant,
and a fifth of Israelis aren't even Jewish.
Among them, Atheists, Muslims,
Christians, Bahai, Druze, Circassians
and Buddhists.
Tensions between Ultra-Orthodox and secular Israelis
on issues such as conversion, marital law, military service,
and public transportation on Shabbat
have been a feature of Israel's policy debates
and culture wars since its inception.
While these tensions are often flashpoints
in Israeli public life,
they also reveal the strength of the Jewish nation.
A democracy able to freely
and publicly question its own values,
even if the disputes point to deeper divisions
among Israel's social groups.
- I think that we should not forget
Israel is a very young country.
70 years that we combined
Jewish people from all over the world.
All different backgrounds, to one place
and hope they are all gonna get along together
in some miracle way.
And I think step by step we're getting to it.
- At its best,
Israel celebrates its diversity of race,
religion and ethnicity.
Social initiatives like Koolulam,
a crowd-sourced music series
that's become something of a phenomenon in Israel,
brings tens of thousands of Israelis together, in song.
♪ Let's get together and feel ♪
♪ One love, one love ♪
♪ all right ♪
♪ One love ♪ ♪ (One love, one love) ♪
♪ One heart ♪ ♪ (One love, One love) ♪
- Even though Jews make up the large majority
of Israel's population,
for the country's founders,
there were no doubts that Israel's declaration of
independence and representative government
would allow all minorities to participate
in Israeli affairs and public life.
The challenge of effectively governing
a salad bowl society made up of distinct cultures
and people who in some cases even oppose the state
is a sensitive balancing act that can be messy at times,
but reveals the free and vibrant society
that defines Israel.
Just a snapshot of what that free
and vibrant society has accomplished,
speaks to the true character of the Israeli people.
Israel's humanitarian efforts
have taken its first responders out to earthquakes in Haiti,
hurricanes in the Philippines and the tsunami in Japan
and taken in Syrian refugees and Palestinians from Gaza
for medical treatment.
Its high-tech innovations touch every aspect of daily life
for billions of people.
From texting to USB drives,
autonomous driving, drip irrigation,
capsule endoscopy and cherry tomatoes.
Israelis revived an all-but-dead language,
made Tel-Aviv a top-ten world nightlife destination,
produced a leading Basketball team,
Eurovision champion and 12 Nobel Prize winners.
- And Jewish person needs to ask himself two questions:
one is, "Why Judaism?
Why basically it's important to my life?"
and two "How I'm gonna
be part of that
or how I'm gonna find
common ground with Judaism
and live the Jewish life
that I really see value in it?"
And it's a very important question of identity,
it will help you a lot to understand on who you are
and where you wanna go in your life.
And I think that Israel's helping us
to solve those questions.
- Clearly, Israel's story can't be reduced
to the conflict with its Palestinian neighbors,
who call the same land "home".
But a new chapter on Jewish-Arab relations
is also being written.
In 2020 alone, Israel normalized relations
with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco
and Sudan -
Arab countries that counted themselves
among the Jewish state's enemies,
one generation ago.
In only 70 years of statehood,
the tiny nation of Israel has achieved so much good,
for both its Israeli citizens and the world abroad.
For Jews and their friends of every background,
the story of that achievement,
with all of its nuance,
complexity and significance
is worth understanding.