Nimrod Sheffer and Koby Huberman started developing this vision and plan in 2022. It reflects the knowledge, insights and comments of approximately 80 experts and friends who stepped up to support the effort to present a vision for the State of Israel in 2048 – its 100th anniversary – and to outline a strategic plan to turn the vision to reality. They dedicate this work to the memory of the hundreds of fallen and murdered in the October 2023 War, and to the futures of their children and our next generations who are worthy of the unfathomable price Israel has paid in recent months, and deserve living in a role-model country.
Watch Nimrod and Koby introduce the plan here:
Introduction — No Illusions, Toward a new Takeoff: Vision and Plans
On the eve of the 75th Israeli Independence Day in April 2023, after around a year of work, we finished writing the draft of a vision for the State of Israel’s centenary year — called ‘Takeoff to 100’, as follows:
Israel is a regional power and a secure, prosperous and sustainable role-model society
that is a blessing to the world
In 2048, Israel will be a safe national home for the Jewish people with a solid Jewish majority
thanks to a broad regional agreement and gradual separation from the Palestinians
A Jewish, democratic and liberal state in which all citizens enjoy freedom, equality and security
in the spirit of its Declaration of Independence
A vibrant, creative and prosperous country
that has a sustainable infrastructure and is ready to cope with climate challenges
And a role-model society that makes a meaningful positive contribution to the world
As background for the vision we then wrote:
We are currently experiencing a surge of destruction… Political and governmental chaos, lack of trust in our leadership, potential for a multi-front conflict with the Palestinians and other regional actors, manifestations of anger and violence that reflect deep ethnic-religious-societal rifts, economic problems, and an international diplomatic crisis.
Unfortunately, our fears were proven right. Thus, in the wake of 7 October, it is necessary to translate the vision into a strategic plan and initiatives that engage with our new reality, and to encourage their adoption by future governments. What we propose here is an infrastructure for a strategic and achievable plan for realising the above vision, which will shape our path for the coming generation — thanks to immediate strategic decisions and investment in education.
The underlying organising concept of the plan is to reinforce and strengthen all the components in the equation of our national resilience, centred around four key concepts—decisive victory, political agreement, recovery, and leadership — and based on seven overarching plans:
– Decisive Victory — A plan for restoring security (and a sense of security), and combating threats, terrorism and crime.
– Regional Political Agreement — An Israeli plan for separating from the Palestinians based on a principle of two states as an integral part of a regional agreement framework.
– Socioeconomic Recovery — A plan for rehabilitating the economy and generating renewed growth based on initiatives that revolutionise national priorities in education, science and technology, and increasing the Arab and ultra-Orthodox sectors’ participation in this growth.
– Environmental-climate Recovery — A plan for preparing Israel for population growth and immigration, developing the Galilee and the Negev, and preparing to face environmental and climate challenges.
– Identity Recovery — A plan for healing the rifts in society, building social cohesion and consolidating a broad Israeli identity (including all minorities), a renewed Jewish identity based on inclusive diversity, and an ethnic identity that balances Sephardi and Ashkenazi heritage.
– Governmental/Constitutional Recovery — A plan for reversing the steps of the anti-democratic judicial overhaul, bolstering governance and the rule of law, and advancing a constitution that will establish a strong democracy with a clear separation of powers, based on checks and balances.
– Leadership — A plan for consolidating a new backbone of leadership for Israel, which will be able to be integrated into the national and local political leadership, positions of influence and decision-making centres, while ensuring gender and minority equality.
When closely examining these seven plans, we listed 99 specific initiatives that we consider necessary; but in order to focus and effect a fundamental change in directions and trajectories by 2028, we identified 19 key transformational initiatives, that will have maximal, optimal impact overall.
The challenges ahead are unparalleled. We will need to battle to achieve decisive victories and deterrence; lead a daring diplomatic agreement; and promote recovery and takeoff for rebuilding our national resilience — all this under new leadership. We will need to leverage budgetary resources and accept a short-term drop in the standard of living in order to invest in defence, education, agriculture, healthcare and the periphery — to ensure our long-term existence and quality of life. Based on our familiarity with the strength of Israeli society, we are optimistic and see an opportunity to heal, strengthen and take off — and we call on young and courageous leaders to lead the political system and civil society in pursuit of this vision.
The plan reflects the efforts of many good people, and while we thank them for their contribution — the responsibility for the plan is ours.
Nimrod Sheffer, Koby Huberman — February 2024
Premises
The events of 7 October require a deep reckoning and a sea-change transformation in the strategic thinking and conduct of the State of Israel. The responsibility to lead these moves will fall on a new Israeli government and new leadership team. Here we present 13 basic premises of the plan:
- Israel cannot continue to contain daily threats on its borders or within its territory without confronting them.
- Israel must prepare for a prolonged process that goes beyond crushing Hamas’ immediate capabilities in Gaza. It must be prepared to face all the threats emanating from Iran and its proxies, including Hezbollah, the Houthis in Yemen, Iranian backed militias in Syria, and additional threats in the Palestinian theatres — in order to restore its security and its regional dominance and deterrence, even in the face of fanatical and religious entities that are not necessarily deterred by their weakness or the damage and suffering they experience.
- Israel must win the fight for hearts and minds against antisemitic and anti-Israel forces around the world, and must neutralise the toxic influence of Qatar and all its media sources, as well as others aligned with its interests, such as South Africa.
- Alongside restoring deterrence, Israel must proactively push a political agreement for the Palestinian issue as part of a regional process with its partners in the region. This includes expanding the Abraham Accords and normalising ties with Saudi Arabia — while simultaneously creating opportunities for partnership with Israeli Arabs, in the spirit of the country’s Declaration of Independence.
- Without rebuilding its deterrence, Israel will be unable to achieve stable security and reach a political agreement; but without a political agreement, Israel will be unable to realise its potential for regional collaboration on security arrangements, advance the region and its welfare, and will be unable to realise its vast potential for growth and prosperity.
- Israel’s new situation, our aspirations and challenges, require a new form of coordination with the United States and our friends in Europe on combatting Iran, terror organisations, Islamist radicalisation and antisemitism.
- Coordination is required with Israel’s regional partners in order to establish security arrangements, curb Iran and its offshoots, initiate resolution of the Palestinian issue, and maximise the potential for regional collaboration.
- Simultaneously addressing the challenges of resolution, agreement and recovery will require changing our national priorities and investing resources in education, infrastructure, defence and internal security. It will require a new perspective on our capacity for rehabilitation, stabilisation and socioeconomic growth, as well as national resilience as a component of Israel restoring its power.
- The financial reality of the plan requires expanded budgets for security, growth of Israeli communities, education, health care and welfare — which will require changing national priorities, social solidarity, cuts to sectorial payments, and taking on national debt that will be repaid by bringing many new people into the labour market for the purposes of accelerating growth.
- The plan will come with complex challenges within Israeli society: Each political sector or community will be challenged; every political or sectorial body forced to compromise on principles and make sacrifices of ideology or interests in order to ensure national security and social cohesion.
- A different type of leadership is required, one with the ability to engage the younger generation, young Jewish people, and Israelis in the Diaspora, and engage them in processes of supporting Israel, including renewing Jewish immigration, periphery rural and urban new communities and realisation of Zionist values.
- Israeli society has proven that it is willing to mobilise and capable of overcoming crises and difficulties. It is in need of direction, of healing and courageous leadership, one free of corruption, and gender balanced, which speaks the truth and advances politics of hope and a different kind of discourse — to forge a renewed Israeli identity.
- We need visionary and transformative leadership capable of leading Israeli society into a decade of combined challenges — continued multi-front fighting and restoring deterrence, processes of political agreement and building national resilience — while rehabilitating social cohesion, unifying rifts and divisions, building a partnership with the ultra-Orthodox and Arab sectors, and driving processes of economic growth and takeoff.
Overarching Plans and Key Initiatives
1. Decisive military victory Plan
Background:
Israel must accept that it will continue facing threats from enemies in several arenas for the foreseeable future. These groups model themselves after Iran and are fuelled by nationalist and radical Islamic ideology. They seek to weaken and destroy Israel, while thwarting any opportunity for diplomatic solutions. Israel cannot ignore these threats, and it must proactively exercise power to impede them or prevent them from forming.
Overall Goals:
– Providing security (and a sense of security) to the residents of Israel.
– Grounding the State of Israel’s deterrence.
– Fortifying secure borders that allow residents to live quietly and securely in Israel’s centre and periphery.
– Preventing the formation of existential threats to the State of Israel.
Initiatives and Processes for Immediate Change of Direction
1. Preparing and implementing a long-term plan for building the IDF’s military power. Until this happens, assessing how much ‘operational resilience’ is required of the IDF and the implications of this for its freedom of action and dependence on partners.
2. Preparing a dedicated plan for coping with Iran and its ‘tentacles’ (nuclear, conventional military, militias, terror forces).
3. Formalising the ‘people’s army’ and its implications in legislation (draft law, length of service, service for women, compensation for soldiers, ‘national service’ programmes, military/society relations and more).
4. Reinforcing the Shin Bet / Israel Security Agency and expanding its capabilities in all arenas of operation including within Israel, coupled with reinforcing and rehabilitating the Israel Police and all its branches — to be prepared for enforcing public order and fighting terrorism and crime.
Additional Initiatives and Processes
5. Rebuilding the systems of collecting and analysing intelligence, with an emphasis on HUMINT (human intelligence) systems and open source intelligence.
6. Significantly bolstering collaboration with other militaries in the region (Egypt, Jordan, the UAE, Bahrain, Morocco and Azerbaijan).
7. Reinforcing and strengthening our military alliance with the United States, while examining our reliance on American military aid and its implications.
8. Expanding and reinforcing the IDF’s alliances with other militaries.
9. Leading an initiative to reduce crime and eliminate organised crime, especially in the Arab sector.
10. Restraining the ‘hilltop youth,’ Jewish terror groups and figures stirring up the Temple Mount and Jerusalem.
11. Eliminating sources of incitement and radicalisation within the Arab population.
12. Defining awareness and advocacy as a ‘battlefield’ entrusted to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, for the purpose of de-radicalization and shifting consciousness in the region and around the world, while launching civilian advocacy initiatives in Israel, in Jewish communities abroad, and around the world.
13. Building our capacity for fighting the economic sources of terrorism — from organisations for collecting donations to systems for transferring money and assets.
2. Plan for a Regional Political Agreement
Background:
The events of 7 October proved that Israel cannot continue with the policy of ‘managing the conflict’ with the Palestinians. On the other hand, there is no feasibility for an immediate solution that includes a permanent arrangement. At the same time, Israel and several Arab states share interests from common threats and desire to stabilise the region, on the basis of the Abraham Accords, the Negev Forum and the spirit of the Arab Peace Initiative of 2002. A daring regional political plan is therefore required, with a new paradigm for a road map for security and progressive political agreement with the Arab states that will also lead to an agreement on the Palestinian issue. It includes leveraging the Abraham Accords and creating regional alliances for security collaborations as well as in economics, combating climate damage, promoting normalisation, fighting radicalisation, and changing perceptions of Israel.
Overall Goals:
– A change of direction, from “conflict management” toward an eventual two-state solution, in the framework of a regional arrangement.
– Building a security-political road map to achieve stability and a solid Jewish majority in Israel.
– Strengthening axes of power and collaboration with the Arab world for curbing the threat from Iran, the Muslim Brotherhood and terrorism.
– Curbing radical Islamist forces in the Arab and Muslim world by diplomatic means.
– Bolstering pragmatic Arab-Palestinian leadership while incorporating technocratic actors in political agreements.
Initiatives and Processes for Immediate Change of Direction
14. Advancing a political initiative for a regional road map — which will gradually lead to building blocks being put in place for Palestinian self-governance, and in the future to a two-state solution as part of a broad and comprehensive regional agreement (in the spirit of the Abrahamic Initiative formulated by the Israeli Regional Initiative (IRI) for Track 2 diplomacy, and the proposal of former Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad). The road map includes:
– Gradually implementing security arrangements in Gaza and the West Bank, relying on the IDF and gradually also on a multi-national force.
– Agreeing on a long-term political horizon that includes variations of the two-state solution, a regional security arrangement, a regional economic arrangement, and an arrangement for normalisation — and their gradual implementation.
– A plan for gradual separation from the Palestinians while establishing borders that will ensure a solid Jewish majority and continuous security.
– Reform in the Palestinian Authority implemented by a transitional Palestinian leadership, with a technocratic government, for civil administration in Gaza and the West Bank.
– Leveraging the Negev Forum as an Israeli-Palestinian-regional diplomatic infrastructure and a basis for regional committees.
– A regional plan for stabilising security, curbing Palestinian terror and creating incentives for preventing radicalisation.
– A plan for improving the Palestinians’ situation through international investment.
– A plan for Palestinian ‘state building’ and its economic development.
– Setting timeline and preconditions for negotiating transitional and permanent arrangements.
Additional Initiatives and Processes
15. Advancing a regional security arrangement for curbing Iran’s nuclear ambitions and expansion into Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, and parts of Africa; and a security arrangement for Israel’s eastern ‘iron curtain’ — the Golan Heights, the Jordan Valley, the Arava, and the Red Sea arena.
16. Rehabilitating ties with Egypt and Jordan, strengthening the Abraham Accords and expanding them to Saudi Arabia, Oman and additional countries.
17. Strengthening collaboration with the countries of the eastern Mediterranean — Cyprus, Greece, Egypt and Malta.
18. Rehabilitating and strengthening our special relationship with the United States, working ‘across the aisle’.
19. Strengthening ties with NATO and the leading countries in Europe and creating broad international legitimisation.
20. Enlisting international institutions and the free world to the war on fundamentalist radicalisation and antisemitism.
21. Strengthening bridges with rising powers (India, China) and emerging countries (South Korea, key African states) while also bolstering ties with large Muslim countries — Turkey, Malaysia, Indonesia – and states in central Asia.
3. Socioeconomic Recovery Plan
Background:
The investments required for building strength, rehabilitating the economy and localities in the Galilee region and the western Negev, supporting the periphery and dealing with the potential fallout of a possible confrontation with Hezbollah and Iran will necessitate the rebuilding of Israel’s economic power. Rehabilitating Israel’s resilience and internal strength will require reshaping its socioeconomic resilience — based on a return to Zionism, building a productive economy, facilitating Jewish immigration, creating full partnership in the job market and national service — and renewing investment in Israel by restoring the faith of the international community.
Overall Goals:
– Generating major strides in the GNP by investing in the state education system and higher education.
– Expanding participation in employment and tech by integrating ultra-Orthodox, Arabs, women and residents of Israel’s periphery.
– Kickstarting the Israeli economy’s competitive advantage in high-tech and science.
– Ensuring food security by investing in advanced agriculture.
– Building infrastructures that facilitate sustainable and inclusive growth, with minimal damage to environmental and natural assets.
– Strengthening Israeli society’s emotional and physical resilience and treating post-trauma in the wake of the war.
– Creating engines of growth by collaborating with countries in the region.
Initiatives and Processes for Immediate Change of Direction
22. Reform and significant investment in education — significant and core changes for reshaping the content and structure of the education system:
Content reforms
– Defining the core curriculum in state education so that it includes mathematics, science, English and civics — in all sectors (State, Religious Zionist, Arab and ultra-Orthodox).
– Jewish studies and Israeli cultural studies (in State, Religious Zionist and ultra-Orthodox streams).
– Compulsory Arabic studies in Hebrew-language schools and Hebrew studies in Arabic-language schools, starting in primary school.
– Incentivising science and innovation studies, especially life sciences, environmental science and modern agriculture.
– Adding balance to studies of the history of the Jewish people and Zionism, increasing exposure to the heritage of Jews from the Middle East, Ethiopia and the former Soviet Union.
– Teaching civics and instilling democratic values, a culture of critical thinking and investigative abilities.
Structural reforms
– Improving the status and salary of teachers and creating an incentive to attract outstanding graduates to teaching.
– Reducing classroom size and updating teaching methods based on independent thinking, creativity and technology.
– Training school principals and granting them autonomy in determining the spirit of their school.
– Prioritising and reinforcing formal and informal education in the periphery with a support system [recognising the Mishmar Hachinuch Hamamlachti (‘State Education Guard’) as national service], as well as by significant incentive payment and favourable employment conditions.
23. Investing in the health care system — Establishing hospitals, training human resources and expanding services in the periphery.
24. Bolstering higher education — Bolstering budgets for academia, applied research and scientific R&D, including incentives for bringing back high-quality scientific human capital of Israeli scientists living abroad.
25. Encouraging Jewish immigration — Building an action plan for encouraging immigration of Jews from the United States and Europe (inspired by the major strides that occurred in Israel thanks to the wave of immigration from the former Soviet Union in the 1990s).
26. Integrating the ultra-Orthodox and Arab populations — Training and bringing these communities into the cycle of employment, especially in jobs with high added value.
Additional Initiatives and Processes
27. Drastic changes in the structure of the budget for 2024 onward, diverting away non-productive investments (such as supporting population groups that do not work or serve in the army). In addition, directing resources toward bolstering security, education, health care and social services, and encouraging core curriculum studies, employment, and enlisting in the security and rescue services.
28. Defining the rehabilitation of the western Negev and the localities of northern Israel as top-priority national projects and making them priority areas for residence, agriculture, industry, and encouraging young people to strengthen and expand the localities that were affected.
29. Creating one-time Bond fund-raising and other tools to cover the deficit (including taxes and budget cuts on one hand and budget expansion and investments in growth areas), while streamlining and saving on public service.
30. Reducing the number of government ministries to 18, in keeping with the version of Basic Law: The Government, passed in 2013.
31. Investing in a mental health rehabilitation system to significantly bolster the physical and mental resilience of Israel’s citizens, including social work, community support, and teaching assistants in early childhood education.
32. Bolstering technology and engineering education, with an emphasis on green technologies for construction, developing infrastructures, water and the environment.
33. Establishing a national target for tech leadership in cybersecurity, AI, climate and life sciences.
34. Investing in regional economic collaborations based on political initiatives and arrangements — especially in transportation, energy, climate, agriculture, cross-border tourism, water, and exporting products and tech services.
35. Significantly investing in encouraging innovation and funding tech, business, and social entrepreneurship in all parts of Israel, especially the periphery, while engaging local government.
36. Investing in supporting ‘under-served’ populations, especially in education, health care and social services.
37. Minimising incentives to high birth rates (to prevent an unsustainable demographic explosion) and educating low-income families on proper saving and economic practices.
38. Advancing modern agriculture with innovative technologies, making Israel an exporter of quality agricultural products with high added value, and exporting agricultural knowledge and technology.
39. Creating incentives for workplaces in the periphery and establishing infrastructures for industry while reinforcing the ‘regional clusters’.
40. Implementing a national plan for integrating all Israeli Arabs (with a particular emphasis on the Bedouin communities) into the fabric of Israeli life by advancing civil equality, rehabilitating economic infrastructures, and at the same time, working to curb extremism and deter incitement and terrorism (see the outline prepared by the IRI and other similar plans).
41. Creating industrialised construction capabilities for quickly erecting residential buildings and neighbourhoods to facilitate population mobility.
42. Reducing dependence on and use of private vehicles by improving the public transportation system, particularly operating trains on Saturdays to facilitate a high level of mobility and quick return on investment for developing railway infrastructure.
43. Encouraging sustainable transportation and building a national plan for accelerating the transition to modern public transport based on electric and autonomous vehicles.
44. Leveraging opportunities for building industrial zones (based on knowledge-rich industries and the Qualifying Industrial Zone protocol) at meeting points on the borders such as Sha’ar HaYarden, the southern Dead Sea, Aqaba and Eilat, and Kerem Shalom.
45. Collaborating with Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Egypt to advance a plan for protecting natural assets and marine tourism in the Gulf of Eilat.
46. Encouraging multi-religion pilgrimage tourism as a stimulus for bringing in foreign currency, using package tours to holy sites in the Middle East and connecting Mecca and Medina, Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Nazareth, and other sites holy to different religions.
47. Leveraging opportunities for building logistics, energy, transportation, communications, health care, agriculture and tourism regional cross-border economic projects (see the ‘Regionomix’ outline from the IRI).
4. Environmental-Climate Recovery Plan
Background:
Alongside working out on its security, diplomacy and economy, Israel must safeguard its environmental and infrastructural resilience, and not ignore climate damage, the lack of clean and modern infrastructure, the dangerous overcrowding of the Tel Aviv metropolitan area, and the neglect of the Negev and the Galilee region.
Overall Goals:
– Preparing for 15-16 million residents in 2048 (after separation into two states) and later for 20 million residents.
– Reducing the rate of population growth in Israel.
– Spreading the population to the Negev and Galilee regions and reducing population density in the Tel Aviv metropolitan area, while improving the status of the Bedouin communities in the Negev.
– Meeting the COP-27 targets for greenhouse gas emissions and gradually improving and transitioning to cheap renewable energy.
– Preserving undeveloped areas.
– Preventing pollution and recycling efficiently.
Initiatives and Processes for Immediate Change of Direction (based on the OR Movement’s ‘Israel 2048’ plan)
48. Bolstering the periphery — advancing the Negev and Galilee regions and reducing population density in the Tel Aviv metropolitan area, while providing solutions for the Bedouin community.
49. Planning clean infrastructures — energy, transportation, recycling.
Additional Initiatives and Processes
50. Investing in growth-accelerating infrastructures — modern mass transit (high-speed rail) and data communication.
51. Earthquake preparedness and retrofitting buildings — plan for construction and retrofitting in danger zones.
52. Advancing a plan for accelerating Israel’s transition to renewable energy.
53. Building power stations for generating electricity in preparation for predicted demand.
54. Building infrastructures for collecting and conveying electricity from solar energy.
55. Expanding the desalination and export of water to countries in drought — as part of a ‘soft influence’ strategy.
56. Cleaning rivers and preventing groundwater pollution.
57. Improving the sewage system and reclaiming water for agricultural and industrial uses.
58. Transitioning to burying infrastructure lines and eliminating dangers and landscape hazards.
59. Implementing a programme for recycling and non-polluting burial of waste.
60. Preserving undeveloped areas and scenic sites.
61. Implementing a programme for preserving Israel’s beaches.
62. Protecting Israel’s bird migration corridors as ecological and tourism assets.
63. Preserving the rural community as a core and a model of sustainability, while empowering communities to lead ecological initiatives.
64. Promoting the planting of trees and ‘green lungs’ in cities.
65. National plan for identifying hazards and removing them from undeveloped areas.
5. Identity Recovery Plan
Background:
In the past year, Israeli society was shaken by an identity crisis that tore it apart from within. The crisis passed through three fault lines — Israeli identity, in a society of different ethnic groups with a Jewish majority and various minorities; Jewish identity, of various denominations and affiliation to the State of Israel — between ultra-Orthodox, traditional, Religious Zionist, Reform, Conservative and secular Jews — and the question of the State of Israel’s Jewish identity, the relationship between religion and state and the connection with Jewish communities abroad; and the third fault line — ethnic identity and the tension between Mizrahi and Ashkenazi Jews, which broke out again in the context of identity and socioeconomic disparities. Israeli society, however, has been fighting side by side since 7 October, and there is now an opportunity to redefine the fault lines as those enabling dialogue and reconnecting with renewed cohesiveness.
Overall Goals:
– Educating for a diverse ‘statist’ (mamlachti) Israeli identity for all the country’s citizens, in the spirit of the Declaration of Independence.
– Redefining basic concepts — Jewish democratic identity and its significance as part of Israeli identity.
– Redefining the core components of East and West in the Israeli experience and culture.
– Reducing societal divisions and creating social cohesion.
– Rebuilding ties with all diverse Jewish communities throughout the world.
Initiatives and Processes for Immediate Change of Direction
66. Amending the Nation-State Law — Incorporating the principle of equality in an amended Nation-State Law, in the spirit of the Declaration of Independence.
67. Educating for collaborative citizenship — Instilling the principle of ‘a diverse statist society’ as the formative basis for Israeli society’s nature, as a society that celebrates diversity and difference, subject to maintaining the banner of ‘statism’ and creating a pact of ‘collaborative citizenship’ as the basis for an Israeli identity that views ‘statism’ as its fundamental principle.
68. Balance of Eastern-Western identity — Promoting exposure to the heritage of Mizrahi Jewry and amending the curricula accordingly.
Additional Initiatives and Processes
69. Reshaping the country’s Jewish identity — establishing a diverse public council to brainstorm a blueprint for Judaism as an inclusive synthesis between different streams (such as Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai, Maimonides, Rav Kook, Abraham Joshua Heschel, Ovadia Yosef, Jonathan Sacks from the religious perspective) and different approaches to secular Israeli identity — for the purpose of creating a new version of a ‘pact for Jewish identity’ in the State of Israel (based on the Declaration of Independence and the Gavison-Medan Covenant).
70. Building common ground regarding the relationship and appropriate balance between religion and state, in the spirit of the principles of the Declaration of Independence, and reflecting it in the framework of the law and the de-facto practice of the state and its institutions, while openly trying to find common ground through dialogue.
71. Rehabilitating ties with the Jewish world and creating a mechanism of renewed dialogue with Jewish communities.
72. Creating education systems and teachers who ‘cross’ between different educational philosophies for the purpose of exposing students to a range of opinions and cultures.
73. Creating a national reconciliation programme to hear the struggles and narratives of minorities — in the style of a truth and reconciliation commission (e.g. New Zealand).
74. Establishing communication systems and dialogue sessions for advocacy and promoting the mending of societal chasms, while providing exposure to cultural and volunteering collaborations between people from different sectors and incentivising cross-sector collaborations through a special initiative by the President of Israel and the Israel Prize.
75. Bolstering and prioritising civil society entities, nonprofits and local government bodies which invest in reinforcing ‘statism’, tolerance and recognition of the other in Israeli society.
76. Promoting the status of Jerusalem as a magnet for all monotheistic religions and a source of inspiration for all citizens of the world who choose religious freedom and mutual tolerance.
6. Governmental-Constitutional Recovery Plan
Background:
Before the events of 7 October, Israeli society had been experiencing nine months of massive upheaval following the attempt to impose a plan which the liberal camp saw as a government coup by stealth. Meanwhile, we must not ignore the fact numerous rifts were exposed not only in Israeli democracy, but also in the balance of the justice system — at least according to broad swaths of Israeli society. Therefore, Israel must redefine and anchor the principles of the government and its governance by shaping a constitution through dialogue, and building constitutional, governmental and democratic resilience in all its aspects — governance, rule of law and elimination of crime.
Overall Goals:
– Establishing a constitution for Israel, based on the accumulated Basic Laws as a preliminary foundation, which will codify the relationship between religion and state, and define new ‘ground rules’ and a clear system of checks and balances between the three authorities.
– Changing the electoral system.
– Expanding the freedom of action of local and regional government.
– Redefining the structure of the government and those who serve in it — returning to the 2013 version of Basic Law: The Government.
– Bolstering the justice system and addressing red tape and delays of justice.
Initiatives and Processes for Immediate Change of Direction
77. Constitution and anchoring the Declaration of Independence in law — As an ‘introductory chapter’ to ‘constitution by consensus,’ based on democratic principles.
78. Reforming the judiciary — Ensuring independence, increasing the number of judges, method of appointment, representation, transparency and a plan for closing the gaps in the justice system over the next decade in order to shorten delays of justice.
Additional Initiatives and Processes
79. Reform in the Basic Law: Legislation — anchoring the accumulated Basic Laws in legislation, an updated override clause.
80. Reform on the issue of legal counsel, the status of the State Attorney’s Office, separating legal advisers from the prosecution.
81. Reforming the structure of the government — setting term limits, restricting anyone accused of crimes from serving as an elected official or public servant, limiting the number of government ministries (in keeping with the Basic Law limiting it to 18) and delineating clear areas of responsibility.
82. Election law reform — raising the electoral threshold and restricting the registration of parties responsible for incitement, damaging the security of the country, activity that goes against the foundations of democracy, or led by people convicted of crimes carrying moral turpitude.
83. Amending Basic Law: the Knesset — establishing regulations for appropriate conduct for the Knesset and its committees and legislative proceedings, with an emphasis on obligating MKs to participate in its deliberations and committees and on stopping the erosion of the status of legal advisers; while increasing transparency to the public and media.
84. Anchoring the status of the National Security Council in law as the body in charge of national strategic planning, creating action plans, and supervising their execution; while establishing the Prime Minister’s Office as the body in charge of coordination and execution, and the Ministry of Finance as responsible for financial oversight.
85. Transferring authority to local government, strengthening civic cooperation, freedom to shape the local sphere and the character of the community.
86. Reform on issues of religion and state based on equality for all denominations of Judaism — for codifying the status of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel, the rabbinical courts, kashrut, conversion, religious sites, family law, marriage and divorce, status of the yeshivas and Torah study — and in parallel, codifying the status of Muslim and Christian institutions.
87. Advancing women’s rights and legislating 50 per cent representation in centres of decision making and in every government ministry.
88. Establishing systems to empower women in the ultra-Orthodox and Arab communities.
7. Leadership Recovery Plan
Background:
The State of Israel has been suffering from a longstanding trend of a loss of trust in its political leadership (especially since the convictions of former PM Olmert and President Katsav, and the filing of charges against PM Netanyahu). This feeling has only grown stronger since the COVID-19 pandemic, the series of repeat elections, the attempted judicial overhaul and protest movement, and in the wake of the events of 7 October. At the same time, there are manifestations of entrepreneurship and extraordinary managerial capabilities in Israeli society, expressed in a thriving business community, civil society and a significant portion of local government. In preparation for the future challenges we have outlined for Israeli society, the country will need leadership resilience — a reserve of high-quality leadership that enters the political system and central and local government and bases itself on the values of courage, cooperation, professionalism, public service, integrity, and the good of the country before all else, without sectorial favouritism.
Overall Goals:
– Eliminating corruption and cleansing systems of government from people and conduct that border on corruption, favouritism, general lack of responsibility and favouring political sectors at the expense of a ‘statist’ perspective.
– Establishing a new capacity for long-term planning, based on national strategy and a long-term vision.
– Developing the ability to make courageous decisions and unite a divided and diverse public behind difficult decisions.
– Integrating modern management systems based on public transparency, standards, supervision, learning and continuous improvement.
– Building a foundation of young, shared, collaborative leadership, and based on gender equality.
Initiatives and Processes for Immediate Change of Direction
89. Eliminating corruption in the public service — Making sweeping changes in the system of the Civil Service Commission and implementing new criteria for selecting senior officeholders and new processes — e.g., the principle of the public hearing in the Knesset, and more.
90. Leadership and political training — Building a managerial reserve of hundreds of young people from across the ‘statist’ political spectrum to lead the implementation of the ‘Takeoff to 100’ programme in the next five years and in the coming generation.
Additional Initiatives and Processes
91. Accelerating legal processes for reaching verdicts for white collar crimes and toughening sentences and enforcement.
92. Building a programme to support the promotion of women to key positions with the goal of creating a gender balance and equal representation in decision-making centres, anchoring equal representation for women in the law.
93. Building a plan to encourage the promotion of minorities to key positions in the public arena and decision-making centers, to create representation in keeping with their percentage of the population and to create a sense of partnership and responsibility.
94. Legislation that will lead to the prohibition of appointing people with a criminal past and/or moral turpitude to ministerial roles, as candidates for prime minister, high ranking officials, or mayors — including amending the Basic Laws on government, legislation and the judiciary.
95. Legislation that limits the tenure of the prime minister and heads of local authorities to two terms.
96. Legislation that defines rules for leadership transparency regarding health status, income sources, donors, affiliation with research bodies, and conflicts of interest, in accordance with their position in the public service.
97. Creating a plan that encourages high-profile individuals in the business sector, in academia or former central and local government officials to go back and serve in senior positions in the public sector.
98. Shortening the ‘cooling-off’ period required of those leaving the security establishment before they can enter the public service and the political system.
99.Fostering ethical, managerial and leadership capabilities as part of a system of ongoing learning for public servants in academic frameworks in Israel and abroad, while gaining experience in the business world and in civil society.
