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posed by this immigration with its lower socio-economic status. Yet,
despite the fact that, generally speaking, most non-European immi–
grants are today better off economically and socially than they have
been when immigrating, and many of the socio-economic gaps have
been visibly closed, the impact of this new immigration on Israeli life
is much wider than can be expressed merely by economic or edu–
cational statistics.
The liberal, social-democratic nature of much of Israeli society
as it has evolved prior to the establishment of the state and in its first
decades owes most of its impetus and character to the European
immigrants who were the Founding Fathers (and Mothers) of Israeli
society. Labor Zionism was a product of this Eastern and Central
European immigration: most of these immigrants came from a more
or less secularized background, were imbued with the ideas and
heritage of the European enlightenment as reflected in the re–
awakened Jewish self-consciousness of the massive Jewish commu–
nities in and around the Pale of Settlement. Liberal , democratic,
and socialist ideas were dominant, and since the 1920s the major
political struggles in the Jewish community in Palestine and later in
Israel were among the various brands of Labor Zionism. The kib–
butzim and moshavim, the Histadruth and the Hagannah were the
various expressions of this socialistically oriented tradition, which
over the years became synonymous with the emerging
'Establishment' of Israeli society. A mixed economy with a strong
public and cooperative sector, an egalitarian wage structure and a
basically moderate policy vis-a.-vis the Arab population became the
hallmarks of this tradition. Out of this ambience, identified with the
hegemony of the Labor movement, grew the willingness to accept
partition in 1947 and to abide by a situation in which the realization
of the Zionist dream would be achieved at the cost of not claiming
Jewish control over all of the historical Land of Israel. A vision of
social reconstruction coupled with pragmatism in foreign policy
emerged as this unique blending of social vision and national
moderation .
True, even during the halcyon years of Labor ascendancy there
always existed the right-wing nationalism of the Revisionist Party
under Jabotinsky, the Irgun, and after 1948, Begin's Herut party
(later to become the main component of the Likud). Yet while the
Hagannah was a people's militia numbering almost 100,000
members, the Irgun never had more than 5,000 activists; and after
Independence, when Begin emerged as a head of a political party, he
