The Resilience of Israeli Democracy

Abstract

What conclusion can be drawn from the way the IDF has conducted war during the al-Aqsa Intifada, the starting point of which is known, although there is no telling whether it has ended? Did it handle the fight against terrorism in a satisfactory manner? Many specialists of Israel see it as an undeniable success and proof that a democracy can face up to such an ordeal. In an article that fairly well represents this viewpoint, Nadav Morag at the American Jewish University in Los Angeles holds up as evidence: the decrease in the number of attacks against Israeli civilians; the upturn in the Israeli economy after a period of being on the verge of collapse during the great wave of terrorist attacks in the years 2001–2004; the resilience Israeli society displayed at a time when there was a fear that it might founder; the victory of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in the 2003 elections, proof of the broad support his policies had earned among Israeli public opinion; the eroded status of the president of the Palestinian Authority; and, finally, the fact that “Israel’s international standing does not appear to have been significantly impaired by the ongoing conflict with the Palestinians.”¹ According to one of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s closest advisors, it has even been an “overall success,” given the virtual cessation of suicide bombings and the return to normal life for the Israelis, “which no other democratic state faced with terrorism has managed to achieve.”² This positive assessment must nevertheless be qualified.