ABSTRACT
The characteristic nature and dynamics of Israeli society are outcomes of its history, the specific environmental constraints it encounters, and the challenges it must overcome. In itself, Israel's political system is not unique; its components are those of similar multiethnic immigrant societies that have one dominant ethnic or religious group. But the particular context in which Israel's Western-type democracy developed is distinctly its own. Some Arab intellectuals have proposed Arab cultural and political autonomy in northern Israel. This risk to Israel's stability might be avoided if, as Rebecca Kook's 1992 study suggests, a national identity were redefined in a manner that makes room for non-Jews. Like most other immigrant societies, Israel is made up of a mosaic of groups—Jew and Arab, Oriental and Western, cosmopolitan and parochial, rich and poor. Essentially, one can easily distinguish between two of these groups: those who are Jews and those who are non-Jews, mostly Arabs. The chapter examines the ethnic composition of these groups.
