On Jewish Jews and Israeli Jews in the Post-Zionist Era

It is often argued, both in popular and academic literature, that there are two Israels: one religious, benighted and anti-democratic and the other secular, Western and liberal. The fact that this account dominates public discourse in Israel tells us a great deal, but the account itself tells us little about Israeli society. Actually, the most telling fault line in Israeli society lies between two competing cultures rooted in two disparate conceptions of Jewish empowerment. No analysis of the relationship between religion and state in Israel can be complete without a deeper understanding of these two cultures and the asymmetric relationship between them over the past fifty years.