The Israeli State: A Cumbersome Giant

Abstract

HE ISRAELI STATE QUALIFIES FOR the designation ofgiant by virtue of its domination of the national economy, as well as the weight of its military on its neighbors and in the lives of Israeli citizens. It is cumbersome by virtue of the inelegance by which its citizens and institutions manage their power. The results are not all bad. Inelegance adds to the humanity of the Israeli state even while it produces shortfalls from standards of service quality and equity. The reasons for the inelegance are instructive in their own right. They suggest that vexatious problems can further the pursuit of moral subtlety. An intensity of self-criticism is part of the country's morality--a self-criticism which also frustrates any simple judgment of this cumbersome giant. The Israeli state has been strong from its beginning. Like almost all the other new states created with the weakening of European colonialism after World War II, Israel began with commitments to socialism. Like other new states, the lack of resources in the private sector dictated centralized public institutions to marshal resources and build infrastructure. Israel had the additional motivations of Zionist theory (a strong state to protect the people who had suffered from two millennia of statelessness, plus a degree of socialism to protect the weak) and the Central and Eastern European models of strong states. A major war and mass immigration added to the powers of the state, as did a Diaspora that was willing to loan and donate money to the new state and national institutions closely integrated with it. Recent data of the World Bank provides one insight into the continuing strength and relative success of the Israeli state. Table I shows that, in 1993, Israel led a group of western democracies in the percentage of gross national product represented by central government activities. Table 2 shows that, in terms of its record of economic growth, Israel stands apart from other states that aspired to centrally controlled socialist economies some years ago. In contrast to Israel is a pattern of economic decline