Shaharit aims to generate a new vision for Israeli society

Israel needs a new way of thinking. The ideologies underlying the establishment of the State, which once fed public and political debate and on whose basis Israeli society has to date been organized, are unsuited to today's challenges. They have lost their relevance, tenacity and authority. Founded on these ideologies, Israeli politics have become estranged from daily life – even irrelevant, in the eyes of many. Almost every election cycle in Israel has given rise to a new political party that carried the promise of change, won short-lived popularity – and then vanished, once voters realized that it had offered no essential innovation. Our politics are frozen in the past. Often they are alienating and disengaged, cynical and worn; more than anything, they are frustratingly conservative and incapable of renewal.

This sorry state of affairs is even truer of the Left. The parties that once represented the Left have in recent years dwindled to the margins of the public arena. Even in the too-few cases – especially regarding essential, crucial questions – when parties on the Left make their voices heard, all too often it becomes apparent that they have nothing new or refreshing to say. In fact, Israel's centrist Left has been a party to the erosion of social-democratic achievements and to the dismantling of the welfare state, which has increased poverty and economic gaps. The Left has proven too ossified to respond dynamic ally to global questions on the environment and sustainability, or to questions of relevance within Israel, such as those regarding the interaction between religion and State. In its zeal for individual rights, the Left continues to alienate many who seek a better balance between the individual and his obligations to the community, the State and religion. Also, the means proposed by the Israeli Left to ensure minority rights and equal opportunity for all citizens have been shown time and again to be shopworn and inefficient. As a rule, the Left has not managed to formulate responses to the myriad issues being debated in Israeli society. It sometimes seems that it is the Left, paradoxically – obligated, by definition, to openness and attentiveness – which has not learned to adapt its world view to the complexity of Israeli society.

For all of these reasons, there is an urgent need is to establish the infrastructure for a new way of thinking about Israeli society, one that will subsume politics, economics, culture and identity and be relevant to its place and time. Such thinking must address all of the complex questions of Israeli existence: Is it possible to posit a unique connection between the Jewish People and Israel, even while living in a country that is a homeland for all of its citizens? What should be the relationship between religion and State? How can Israel's public arena be used to best advantage? How can we help the many cultures and communities that comprise Israeli society prosper alongside one another, and together? What should Israel's relations be with neighboring countries?

In addition, Israel faces the fraught, world-encompassing challenges borne by globalization, the environmental crisis, and increasing tension between ethnic and religious identities, on one hand, and universalist trends and claims, on the other. To date, the attempts of Israeli discourse to cope with these challenges and offer solutions have been insufficient.

Simply put, our fates are intertwined. Resources – such as water and earth and air – belong to all Israelis and, as we are slowly realizing, to all peoples, as well as to the coming generations. Shacharit therefore suggests taking a new look at the fabric of relations between individuals and communities, as well as at the implications of these relations for our political and social functioning.

We believe that the Israeli Left is correct in insisting on the right of all Israelis – Arabs no less than Jews – to equal opportunities and civil rights; it is also correct in recognizing the rights of Arabs as a community. So, too, is the Left justified in pleading the moral necessity of ending the occupation and enabling Palestinians, too, to live in security and with dignity.

The right, in turn, plays an important role in defending tradition and heritage and in seeking to strengthen the cultural and religious identity of Israelis. We feel that Israeli society has too often demanded that individuals and communities turn their backs on their heritage. The result is distressing. It was Menachem Begin who recognized the importance of heritage in the life of an individual, even as the Left underestimated it. At the same time, it should be stressed that the principle of strengthening identity should be maintained equally for all groups in society, not only for some of them. The Right has also correctly understood that Israel's relations with its Arab neighbors do not depend on Israel's behavior and choices alone. Peace does not depend solely on Israel's decisions. But beyond what has been proposed today by the Right and the Left, we at Shacharit wish to arouse renewed interest in a community that can contain and accept the differences among its members. We wish to engender a truly democratic dialogue, whose aim it is to build a sustainable future, one in which there will be room for us all.

What do we do?

Shacharit was established to flesh out the bare bones of this vision. At our inception, we established a group of some 25 participants, which has met regularly for the past two years. The groups' participants are from varied social, cultural and religious backgrounds, and have various political affiliations: They are Arabs and Jews, women and men, religiously observant and secular, Ashkenazi and Mizrachi, immigrants and native-born Israelis. All of us share criticisms of the current ideological discourse in Israel; we also share an aspiration to establish the intellectual and social infrastructure from which a new approach to Israel's future can emerge. During the past two years we have traveled the country, meeting a variety of people in various places in an effort to simply get to know Israel from multiple perspectives. Through this process and through future activities, Shacharit has involved and will continue to involve thousands of Israelis in a dialogue that will build a vision and an agenda for a shared future.

One and a half years ago, Shacharit set itself goals that were at once both modest and ambitious. We meant to connect among a variety of people who have influence in their communities and who are committed to a new agenda. We have conducted research that will aid in formulating this new agenda, and we are writing six documents that will summarize its essence: How aspects of life in Israel should look, based on the vision taking form at Shacharit. Shacharit partners have met with tens of people and visited local initiatives and influential movements around Israel: from Yerucham and Rahme, via Efrat and Um el-Fahm, Ramat Beit Shemesh and Nazareth, to Tirat Carmel and Tel Aviv. These encounters have enriched the vision and its relevance to the reality of life in Israel. At the same time, they have enabled us to share our ideas with potential partners who are listening, and who are involved. Shacharit's Fellows have published a series of articles in the print and electronic media weaving current events into the principles of this nascent vision. In preparation for expansion of our circle of partnerships, Shacharit will reach out to additional individuals and groups in Israel, write policy papers, and spark public debate to broaden and deepen this dialogue. All of these activities will contribute to the founding of an applied think tank, which will present a new vision for Israel and link the variety of people in Israeli society who share a desire to create common ground among, and for, us all.