AH Challenge: Secular Israel in 2009

Preferably with a POD before 1980. Bonus points if it becomes a Jordanian-style Monarchy.

Here is the challenge mates:
It can be considered that Israel today was founded as a 'Jewish State', but there were many within the new nation that believed it should be founded as a secular country focused on recreating a 'hebrew' culture regardless of race.
My dear friends, I beseech you to make this happen. By (almost) any means necessary. No ASB's please!
Thanks in advance :D
 
I understand that, yes, legally Israel is indeed secular. I was referring to the creation of a state less focused on Judaism as a primary focus. I apologize if I was unclear.

It wouldn't be Israel then, if that were not the motivation behind the nation's founding.
 
Weren't several of the founders atheists? I'm not terribly knowledgeable on the subject, but I remember hearing that somewhere. Maybe I'm thinking of Ben-Gurion?
 
They were not atheists, but rather secularists. B-G was the only Prime Minister who ignored the rabbis and got off scot-free, which his successors have forgotten, which partially has to do with the electoral system, partly because Likud formally allied to the religious right. According to Friedman, the idea that the ultra-Orthodox would become "the nun sister who prayed for the family" (to paraphrase) was prevalent among leading Labourites at the time.
 
Yeah; the whole idea of Zionism is actually a secular one, involving the Jewish nationality rather than the Jewish identity.
 

Deleted member 1487

Yeah; the whole idea of Zionism is actually a secular one, involving the Jewish nationality rather than the Jewish identity.


Not entirely. If that were the case, then any land would have been fine, so long as Jewish people had their own country. There is very much a religious component to Zionism, as it involves a connection with the traditional land of Israel itself. Many Zionists, specifically the religious groups doing the colonizing of the West Bank currently, view the entire area as god-given. While most Israelis and Jews today are secular, the underpinnings of Zionism and the Jewish identity are wrapped up in the faith itself.

For Israel to be a truly secular state, it probably would not be in the Middle East.
 

Hendryk

Banned
Many Zionists, specifically the religious groups doing the colonizing of the West Bank currently, view the entire area as god-given.
Those, however, were the second-generation Zionists, who came, so to speak, to the rescue of victory once the secular first generation had done all the work of getting the country started up and securing its strategic situation.

It should be remembered that, according to Orthodox Jewish dogma, Israel was only supposed to be founded by the Messiah himself. There are still those who regard the modern state of Israel as illegitimate for this reason, while others have simply done a theological about-face for the sake of convenience, not that they see it that way.
 
About Israel being secular, that is not ENTIRELY the case. Marriages and the like are still decided by Orthodox rabbis, who question the Judaism of the non-Orthodox.
 
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