ABSTRACT
The state of Israel illustrates the inadequacy of dichotomies between secular and religious, modern and traditional. The evolution of the Israeli system, from the early articulations of Zionism through independence to the transformation produced by the Six-Day War of 1967, illustrates the primacy of politics. Both Orthodoxy and Zionism emerged in nineteenth-century Europe in response to the emancipation of Jews from a ghettoized existence. Elite intellectuals of the Israeli left, including a group of scholars from Jerusalem's Hebrew University, formed a group known as Brit Shalom (Covenant of Peace), which distinguished Jewish national identity from the identity of the state. Jewish settlement of Palestine began under Ottoman rule and continued after World War I under the mandate for Palestine awarded to Great Britain. Religious forces have become formidable players in Israeli politics because they have shaped and reshaped themselves to win elections, control ministries, approve budgets, and administer programs.
