Word: seculare
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...conflict is rooted in an old and unresolved question of national identity: Is Israel a Jewish state, with the emphasis on Jewish, or is it a state for the Jews, a regular, modern, democratic place where Jews are in the majority? Israel's Zionist founders were almost exclusively secular--in many respects, antireligious--and they saw Judaism principally as a nationality. But in deference to tradition, and as a way of securing the support of the Orthodox minority, they made certain concessions to religion: restricting commerce on the Jewish Sabbath, for instance, and leaving such matters as marriage and burial...
Today Israel's secular majority is signaling that it has had enough. Says Ronni Milo, the mayor of Tel Aviv and a leader in the secular vanguard: "We are talking here of the basic rights of people to choose their own way of life...
...secularists have been reinforced by the immigration to Israel in the past decade of more than 800,000 people from the former Soviet Union, the vast majority of whom are nonreligious. Today two-thirds of Israelis define themselves as secular. Included within the religious third are 10% of the general population who belong to the ultra-Orthodox, or haredim (literally "those who fear"), distinguished by the black hats and robes worn...
...Secular women are riled by Orthodoxy's chauvinism. Last June in Jerusalem rioting haredim pelted men and women with excrement for praying at the Western Wall in a mixed group. In 1996 haredi "modesty patrols" began attacking women on Jerusalem's streets for exposing their arms or legs. Secular women were offended last year when Rabbi Yosef pronounced that men should not walk between two women, just as they should not walk between two donkeys, lest they take on the attributes of these lesser beasts...
Relations with the Palestinians are another fault line. Some 56% of secular Israelis support the peace process, compared with only 9% of the haredim and 24% of the so-called modern Orthodox. One group of rabbis went so far as to instruct army soldiers to disobey any order to withdraw from parts of the West Bank, an invitation to insurrection. A survey last fall showed that 27% of religious teenagers condone the murder of Rabin...