ISRAEL Michael Wolffsohn , Born in 1947, Studied History, Political Science and Economics at the Free University of Berlin and in Tel-Aviv
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About the Author ISRAEL Michael Wolffsohn , born in 1947, studied history, political science and economics at the Free University of Berlin and in Tel-Aviv. He received his PhD from the Free University of Berlin in 1975 and holds two higher degrees (Habilitation) in political science and in contemporary history (both from the Polity, Society, Economy University of the Saarland in 1980). He has taught modern history and international relations at the Hochschule der Bundeswehr (University of the West German Armed Forces) in 1\lunich since 1981. His publications 1882-1986 include: Public Works in Gnmany 1930-/934 (1977) , Dif Drbattr iiber dm Kallen Krirg (The Cold War Debate) in 1982 , Politik in Israel (Politics in Israel) in An Introductory Handbook 1983, Politik als lm·rslilionsmotor? /Jrut schr Mullis in Lattinamerika (Politics as an Investment Incenth-c? German 1\fultination<~ls in Latin America) in 1984, r• 'rst Gmnan_v 's Forfi,t;n Pofic;· in thr rra of flrandl and Schmidt ( I ~}fl()), German lsrarli Relations /952- 1983: Jl'nal tht Poffs Sl!l' (I 986), and Gmnan~ !Jaudi Arabian Arms /Jrals, Pa.ll and Pmrnl: 1936-1939 and 1981- 1984. With an Esra_r on West Grrman_J·'s jrll's ( 1986) as well as O\Tr fortv scholarl y articles on topics including Israel. the !\fiddle East, \Vest German and EEC foreign policy, Michael W olffsohn and other issues in intern<~tional relations. He has also contributed articles on !\fiddle East and German foreign affairs for the major \Vest German daily and weekly newspapers and has appeared as a foreign affairs commentator for German TV and radio networks. In 1987 he produced a three part TV series on the Arab-Israeli conflict since 1917. He is currently working on a study of German- Israeli relations since 1918/4 9 and the American-- Europran--1\fiddlc Eastern Triangle 1948--1957. An enlarged and updated translation of the German edition: Israel. Grundwissen Liinderkunde. Politik. Gesellschafl. Wirtschaft Translated by Douglas Bokovoy Humanities Press International, Inc. Atlantic Highlands, NJ First published 1987 in The United States of America by HUMANITIES PRESS INTERNATIONAL, INC., Atlantic Highlands, Contents NJ 07716 "Michael Wolffsohn, 1987 Ill us trations IX Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Preface XV Introduction XVII Wolffsohn, 1\fichael. Israel : polity, society, economy, 1882-1986. I Israel as a Party State XVII 2 Political Geography XVII An enlarged and updated translation of: Israel. 3 The Past as Present: Historical Foundations XXX Bibliography: p. Includes index. l. Israel. 2. Zionism . I. Bokovoy, Douglas. I I. Title. A POLITICS DSI02.95.W65 1987 956.94 87-3702 ISBN 0-391-03571 - 1 I System of Government 3 ISBN 0-391 - 03540-1 (Pbk) I From the Ottoman Empire to Independence 3 2 'Constitution', Legal System, Citizenship 5 3 The Knesset 9 All rights reserved . No reproduction , copy or transmission of this 4 The State Comptroller 38 publication may be made without written permission . 5 The Executive 39 6 The President 51 7 Local Government 52 I I The Parties 59 Manufactured in The United States of America I History 59 2 Organization 65 3 Decision-Making 65 4 Party Finances 70 5 Structural and Ideological Characteristics 71 III The Military 92 IV The Media 96 V Foreign Policy 99 I Relations with the United States of America 99 2 Relations with the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics 102 3 Relations with the United Kingdom 104 4 Relations with France 105 5 Relations with the Federal Republic of Germany 105 6 Relations with the European Community 110 7 Relations with the Third World Ill v VI The Population 1 DEMOGRAPHIC DEVELOPMENTS AND STRUCTURES (a) JEWISH- ARAB POLARIZATION The modern demographic history of Palestine dates from the arrival of the first Zionist-motivated Jewish immigrants at the end of the nineteenth century . In 1815 there were 11,800Jews li ving in Palestine. In 1882, on the eve of the first ali)•a, there were 24,000 (Ency•clopaedia 1/ehraica, 1958: 674; Friedlander and Goldscheidrr, 1979: 14. These numbers arc based on estimates hy experts rather than on actual census counts.) On the eve of the First World \\'ar there were 85,000 Jews in Palestine; and there were 84,000 according to the census of 1922. By 15 May 1948 the Jewish population had reached 650,000, and it stood at 1,014,000 in December 1949 following the War of Independence. The Arab population of Palestine grew from approximately 500,000 in the middle of the nineteenth century to some 600,000 by the beginning of the First World War (Friedlander and Goldscheider, 1979: 16; Encyclopaedia Hebraica , 1958: 707; Gerber, 1979). At the time of the census of23 October 1922,6611,000 Arabs were li vinR in Palestine. ny 1917 there were approximately 1,200,000 and on 1.11\1ay 1918, only 156,000 (sec Table 23). These last two statistics arc, however, not infrequently su l ~jcc t to misinterpretation as the figures for 1947 cou nt the population of the entire region encompassed by th e Mandate for Palestine, including the \\'est Bank and the Gaza Strip, whereas the figures for 1948 count only the population within th e borders of the newly founded State of Israel and exclude the \Vest Bank and the Gaza Strip. Nevertheless. the basic fact remains that even in the remainder of Palestine (excluding Transjorclan) the proportional relationship between the Jewish and Arab populations had been so radica ll y reversed between 1922 and 1948 that the once O\'erwhrlming Arab m;0ority had, by 1948, been reduced to a minorit y. The number ofJews li\·ing in Palestine in 1948 was roughly equivalent to the number of Arab residents in 19 22, whereas the number of Arabs li vi ng within the territory of Israel in 19,18 was approximately twice the size of the Jewish population of Palestine in 1922. That this massive shift entailed enormous political and psychological consequences for both sides is self evident. (The reader seeking geographical orientation is referred to the maps in 119 THE POPULATION 120 SOCIETY 121 3,5 Mill Table 23 Arabs and Jews in Palestine and Israel, 1882-1985 (figures for the population in thousands) Year jews Arabs 1 Total 18822 24 426 450 19142 85 600 685 19182 56 600 656 1922 84 668 752 175 1931 175 859 I ,033 1935 355 953 1,308 1910 464 1,081 1,545 1915 554 1,256 I,RIO 850 000 19111" 650 156 f!06 1951 I ,101 173 1,577 425 000 1951 I ,526 192 I, 71 fl 19.'">7 1,763 213 1,976 1882 1922 1961 1,932 247 2,179 19G7 2,381 393 2,777 c::=J Arabs 1973 2,845 493 3,338 {::::;:;:;:;:~ Jews 1977 3,077 576 3,653 1981 3,320 658 3,978 1983 F(i!,rm 3/ Arabs and.Jm·s in Palrstinr and lsrnrl , 1882- 1982. 3,410 710 4,120 1985 3,510 740 4,250 Notes: I 2 Designated' as 'non-•Jews' in official statistics• Figures 2- 11. Figure 31 demonstrates the shifts in the .Jewish and Arab All figures for these years arc estimates populations.) • 15 May l~Hf! Hy the end of 1981 the number of Arabs )i,·ing in Israel was approximately Sources: Rn~)'r/ojJardia Hrbraica 1958: 503, 518, 671, 707; Friedlander and equal to the Arab population of J~qfl. ColdJchridrr, 1979: 30; Gertz, 1947: 46 f.; Horou•il<. and Lissak 1978· If Israel were to annex the occupird territories. the state would then appendix I; Sta~istical Abstract of Israel, various vols .; Haa:et<., IB include slightly less than 2 million Arabs. as opposed tn 3-4 million Jews. October 1983 with data from the Central Bureau of Statistics. En·n if thrse Arabs wrrc denied the right of participation in Knesset elrctions. the basic f.1ct of a mixrd Jewish and Arab population could not be ignored. (b) INNER-JEWISH POLARIZATION E\Tn the 720.000 Arabs Ji,·ing within the pre-1967 borders represent a ~igure ~3 d~JCtnnents. minority of sufficient size a~ to make it all but impossible to drscribe Israel a process of increasing 'Orientalization', that is, the accurately as ' purely· .Jr"ish. (her the long term it will not be possible to 1mprcss1vc 1ncrcase 111 the proportion of Jews of Afro-Asian descent in Israel's pnpt~lation sinre 1948. This fundamental quantitative development escape confronting this most fundamrntal problem: the .Jewishness of the has necessanly led to long-term qualitative changes, as discussed in section .Je"·ish state. B/VI/2. ()f tflf' a\Trage annual .Jcwi~h population growth of 9% in the years Wh.erea~ Jewisl~ l'etween 1922 and 1948, 75% was due to immigration. the remaining 25% to the society of Israel was almost exrlusivcly Euro ~mcncan •natural growth. The annual increase of 2·75% in the Arab population over 111 character 111 194-8, it has since then become structurally polar IZed. the same period was almost entireh· due to natural population growth and ~yas not related to migratory mo,-cments (Friedlander and Goldscheider, Statistics on immigrants' countries of origin for the various alil'ol can be ·1979 : 17 fr.). This finding i~ ofhistorical-pnlitiral significance, as it has often found in Friedlander and Goldscheider (1979: 38) and in the publications of bren claimed that the rconomic dn-clnprnent of Palestine ciuring this period the Isra.cli Crntral Bureau of Statistics (Immigration, 1975: tables I and 2). had acted a~ a magnet attracting numerous Arabs from other states and Desp1te thr process of Orientalization described above, it must he noted that even in 19f! I the majority of voters were still of Euro-American descent.