ABSTRACT
This chapter presents six topics: survival in the Jewish foreign policy tradition; Jewish identity and the Land of Israel; religion and the Jewish state; the nuclear option; Jewish universalism; and finally, the Palestinian challenge. Traditional Jewish prudence regarding state power has undoubtedly contributed to its democratic strength. The concept of return to the Land of Israel accompanied the Jewish people in the Diaspora and re-emerged strongly with the awakening of nationalism in the nineteenth century. The linkage between religion and land is not shared by all Jewish religious sectors. Religion in Israeli politics is not the sole province of religious Zionism. Zionism from its inception as a nineteenth century movement surrounded by other nationalist movements and influenced by its biblical sources faced the dilemma of choosing between Universalism and Particularism. The Land of Israel versus the Palestinian demographic threat became intensified with the Jewish settlement drive following the Likud coming to power in 1977.
