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Prime Minister Ehud Olmert today attended an Israel Democracy Institute seminar entitled “The Jewish Character of the State of Israel – Religious Zionism as a Motivating Factor for National Dialogue”. Various senior academics attended the seminar, which dealt with issues such as religion and state, the character of the Jewish state, conversion to Judaism, etc.
Prime Minister Olmert made the following remarks:
“The religious Zionist public is in severe distress in the wake of the harsh public debate that is giving rise to fundamental questions regarding the character of the state according to its worldview. This public has had to cope with the difficult experience of having to accept the concession over territory and settlements. Its distress must be understood and a track for deep and sincere dialogue with it must be found.
But it must also be recalled that there are hundreds of thousands of Israelis who, for 35 years, have served in the territories and participated in enforcing Israeli authority there even though they believe with all their hearts that the state is furthering a mistaken policy that has caused severe damage to our social fabric. Israel society is composed of many strata: Religious Zionism, the population that lives on the periphery and has felt neglected for years, another segment of the population that strongly opposes holding onto the territories and sees them as a source of evil and would like to refuse to serve there, minority populations, etc.
We must create a new atmosphere of dialogue and perhaps aspire to a new definition of Zionism as well. Zionism cannot be defined solely on the basis of support or opposition to the Disengagement. Whoever believes in the right of the Jewish People to have a sovereign Jewish state in any part of the Land of Israel is a Zionist. Agreement on a new, broad definition of Zionism is the essential basis for preserving the internal unity of Israeli society.”
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