In a speech broadcast via satellite at the General Assembly last month in Seattle, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu predicted that in ten years American Jews will begin to make aliyah "because they will be able to make more money in Israel than in the United States." Economic Zionism? The very idea runs contrary to the images inspired by the thought of young Zionist immigrants working the land, former professors and scientists doing backbreaking labor in order to build the country now known as Israel. Yet Netanyahu, in his first address as Prime Minister to the largest gathering of American Jewish leaders, is appealing to American Jews' pocketbooks, not their ideology.
The notion that an economically prosperous Israel, on par with nearby European countries, would attract Jewish immigrants is not a new element within Zionism at all. In fact, the position of Israel's current Prime Minister closely resembles that of the father of Zionism himself, Theodore Herzl. As we celebrate 100 years of Zionist history, we appear to be entering a fourth phase in Zionism, one more closely resembling Herzl's initial vision than either of the previous two. The first phase can be defined by Herzl's life, beginning with the First Zionist Congress in 1897 and ending with his death in 1904. The second phase, in which the "New Jew" Zionists dominated, begins with Herzl's death and ends with Israel's victory in the 1967 War. The third phase, marked by the death of the "New Jew" and the beginning of Jewish revivalism, has only just recently drawn to a close.
The first brief phase of Zionism was centered around Herzl's ideas. A Jewish state would be a refuge for Jews around the world who were endangered by Diaspora antisemitism. This component has endured throughout Zionism's first 100 years. However, Herzl also saw Israel as a European-style state for Jews. These would be cultured Jews, who looked and acted just like Europeans, spoke European languages, and worked in professions. This Western-European Zionism mirrored the society in which Herzl had been raised.
After his death in 1904, Herzl's vision was quickly replaced by Eastern-European Zionists like Ahad Ha'am, A.D. Gordon and Vladamir Jabotinsky. Despite their vastly different philosophies, they envisioned a "New Jew" who would be represented in all walks of life. A Jewish state would only be a normal country if Jewish street-cleaners and gardeners worked in the same cities as Jewish doctors, lawyers and businessmen, and when Jewish policemen arrested Jewish prostitutes. Jews would also form and maintain their own army. In fact, the initial emphasis was on placing Jews in environments in which they were unfamiliar to help discard what New Voices columnist Mark Wagner recently called "2000 years of accumulated ghetto detritus."
Agriculture became a central component of the second stage of Zionism. Kibbutzim and moshavim were established where Jews could work the land. This affinity for the land had three purposes: to help create the "New Jew," to ensure that Israel would be able to sustain itself - to make the desert bloom, and to firmly reject Herzl's notion that a Jewish state could be established outside of the historical land of Israel, then called Palestine.
In 1967, after Israel expanded it's territory during the Six Day War to include the West Bank, Gaza, Sinai, and the Golan Heights, a new form of Zionism emerged. As Aram Rubinstein-Gillis noted in the last issue, "Jewish revivalism, characterized by militarism, messianism, and an uncompromising attachment to Greater Eretz Yisrael (Land of Israel), became an increasingly significant force in Israel society." These Zionists, often religious men and women from Western countries, took Israel in a new direction. During this third stage of Zionism, the concept of the "New Jew" was largely abandoned. Kibbutzim, once considered at the forefront of Zionism, moved away from their socialist roots‹communal housing for children was dropped, bans on in-home material goods were lifted‹and many hired Arab laborers to perform tasks that were once the core of kibbutz living.
During the 1970s and 1980s, Israel prospered economically. Foreign aid from the United States arrived in unprecedented quantities, Western material goods appeared in Israeli stores, and Arab laborers, now widely available due to the large numbers of Palestinians under Israeli rule, increasingly performed the tasks of the "New Jew," except for military service. Jobs that required hard labor were dubbed "Avodah Aravi" or "Arab work." This third period reached its apex under Prime Minister Menacham Begin, whose Likud party won the 1977 elections over the old-school Labor party and ruled almost without interruption until Yitzhak Rabin became Prime Minister in 1992.
Which brings us to the fourth stage of Zionism. While Shimon Peres has been responsible for many of the economic reforms that have helped to make Israel a Western European-style country, Netanyahu is the first Prime Minister to call publicly for American Jews (and I would assume French and British Jews as well) to make aliyah for economic reasons. Like Herzl, Netanyahu is not a religious man. Like Herzl, he often speaks of a Israel in economic terms. And like Herzl, he studied in western universities surrounded by a society that he apparently wants to emulate. Netanyahu's American-style campaign and his insistence that he will privatize Israel's economy are only the most widely discussed examples.
Netanyahu's recent call for Americans to make aliyah for economic reasons can be seen as the realization of Herzl's dream. Herzl did not want potential immigrants to Israel, like himself, to be forced to drastically change their lifestyles in order to live in a Jewish state. Netanyahu not only shares that vision, but he is the Prime Minister at a time when Israel has already become a step-up for many immigrants. Even discounting the non-Jewish Asian and African immigrants who are making themselves comfortable in Israel, many recent Russian olim are choosing Israel over the United States because their chances of being economicly secure are as good in Israel as in America. During the last wave of Jewish immigration out of Russia 80 years ago this was certainly not the case. Israel has been preparing itself for this fourth stage‹reducing army requirements, proposing an English-only public school for Israeli children, lowering taxes‹and Netanyahu has signaled that he is ready to move ahead. Herzl would be proud.
Mik Moore is the editor of New Voices.