Yael “Yuli” Tamir (b. 1954)

Liberal nationalism and the power of home.

While some religious and conservative critics blasted Aharon Barak for privileging democratic values over Jewish ones, some from his left believed that in “abstracting” core Jewish values, Barak had minimized the tensions between the two. Other Israelis, such as Yael “Yuli” Tamir, have acknowledged the tensions and believe that democratic values must dominate. Tamir nevertheless justifies incorporating a Jewish dimension into the Israeli public sphere, as long as the Israeli majority desires it.

Rejecting modern liberals’ push for neutral states and against nationalism, Tamir argues that “every nationalism privileges a group.” She appreciates nationalism because, she says, she was “born into” Zionism. Tami helped found Peace Now in 1978 and served in Israel’s cabinet and Knesset on and off between 1999 and 2009. “My Zionism defines my identity,” she writes, “my core beliefs, my historical perspective, my own private history, the language I speak, my way of life, the place I live in, the issues that irritate me, my hopes, my fears, my pride and shame, as well as my dreams.”

Tamir’s 1993 book Liberal Nationalism prioritized “liberalism” over “nationalism,” while justifying nationalism. “Underlying nationalism is a range of perceptive understandings of the human situation,” she wrote, “of what makes human life meaningful and creative, as well as a set of praiseworthy values” including “belonging, loyalty, and solidarity.” In 2000 she explained how the “ideal state of neutrality misconstrues the role of culture in public life,” failing to create a “home” for a majority of its citizens. A pillar of what critics dismiss as “The Republic of North Tel Aviv,” the caricature of Israel’s metropolis as too cosmopolitan and unpatriotic, Tamir continues her Zionist twist on modern universalism, insisting that the world can be bettered by deepening liberals’ connections to their democratic communities and cultures.

A Jewish and Democratic State (2000)

This ideal state of neutrality misconstrues the role of culture in public life. Trying to restrict culture to the private sphere, it empties the state of its symbolic role. The result is a state that can serve all its citizens impartially but cannot be a home to any of them. A home is not an institution, not even a fair and efficient one, but a place to which one is tied emotionally, which reflects one’s history, memories, fears, and hopes. A home cannot have merely universal features; it must always be embedded in the particular.

So here is the source of the tension: if Israel is a home to the Jewish people, its non-Jewish citizens will feel estranged from it. Must it then shed its particularist nature, be a state like all others? Israel should indeed aspire to normality. But every state must operate within a cultural-historical context; it must have an official language(s), a flag, an anthem, public holidays, and public celebrations. It must build monuments, print money and stamps, adopt a historical narrative and a vision of the future. As feminists and members of national and racial minorities discovered long ago, the idea that a state can be void of any cultural, historical, or linguistic affiliation is a misleading illusion—which is not only naive but also oppressive.

It is therefore one of Israel’s advantages that it openly declares its cultural national bias. This allows those who are harmed by this bias—mainly its Palestinian citizens, but also other non-Jews—to explain the source of their grievances. . . .

Democratic life constantly produces losers, and is always a source of discontent. The modern conception of democracy is, in many ways, majoritarian. It assumes that all citizens must be allowed to participate in an open democratic process, and then the majority wins. . . .

Israel can be a Jewish and democratic state if its citizens aspire that it be one, and if Judaism and democracy concur on a wide enough range of practices to allow such a state to function. At present, both conditions are fulfilled.