The Time is Ripe for the Next Chapter of Israel's Constitutional Life

We wish to express our sincere gratitude to all those who took the time to respond thoughtfully to our essay outlining a proposal for the establishment of an upper house of the Israeli legislature. The responses were profound, intellectually challenging, and—no less importantly—constructive and encouraging. There is much to learn from them.

What follows is a partial reflection on these responses, offered without any pretense of exhausting the subject. Our hope is that Israel’s elite will find the courage and creativity required to lead the country into the next constitutional chapter of its democratic life. In our view, the time is ripe for this step.

We concur with the sociological analysis offered by Rafi DeMogge, who rightly identifies demographic shifts and ethno-religious cleavages as central drivers of Israel’s recent constitutional crisis. While we are skeptical about dividing Israeli society into four tribes—as we believe such coarse categorizations do not adequately reflect the complexity of Israeli society and, more importantly, downplay the powerful sense of national unity that transcends sectoral divisions—we can nevertheless appreciate the author’s starting point.