A Zionist coalition? Israel’s founders envisioned something broader - opinion

BySAMUEL HEILMANJULY 30, 2026 15:00As Israel prepares for its elections this October, in the campaigning one hears – especially from the political Right – calls for a government whose majority is constituted by a “Zionist coalition.” But what exactly does that mean? Would I be correct in supposing it is an alliance of political parties and voters who recognize and share the state’s foundational character as the homeland of the Jewish people and the goals of Zionism, namely, to sustain such a state? Is that what the Zionist Founders considered essential?A look at Israel’s Declaration of Independence helps to define what they intended the state to be. It promises a “country for the benefit of all its inhabitants,” to “be based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel,” that would also “ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex” and would “guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture” as well as safeguard the Holy Places of all religions.” Many Zionists like me were rightly inspired by this document.Of course, throughout history Zionism has included a diverse array of ideological factions, ranging from Center-Left and secular parties to right-wing nationalist and religious Zionist groups. They often disagreed about a lot, including precisely what Zionism demands, what the boundaries of the state should be, who would be included as citizens, and even recently whether the statements in the independence declaration are legally binding, especially in the absence of a “constitution” which the declaration promised would be “adopted by the Elected Constituent Assembly not later than the October 1, 1948.”Seventy-eight years later, that constitution has yet to be written, much less adopted. Nothing in there about a “Zionist coalition.”Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi are seen in the Knesset plenum during a vote on the minister's communications reform, in Jerusalem, July 16, 2026 (credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)'country for the benefit of all its inhabitants'Among those on the Right calling for a Zionist coalition is the implication that “Zionist coalition” includes only Jews. This demand of course contradicts the promise of “complete equality” and a “country for the benefit of all its inhabitants” in the independence declaration, which is why the right-wing Benjamin Netanyahu coalition in the just dissolved Knesset legislated in May 2022 a controversial new “Basic Law” called “Israel – the Nation State of the Jewish People,” (that will be part of any future constitution). It includes the provision (1c) “the realization of the right to national self-determination is exclusive to the Jewish People.”For those supporting this law, this effectively means a government that excludes non-Jews and non-Zionists, even though there are many such citizens of Israel who have the right to vote.These are Muslims (the majority of Israeli Arabs), Christians, Druze, and other smaller religious groups. Of course, many of them are not Zionists or at least not Jews, though they are loyal to the state, including many Bedouin and Druze who serve in the IDF.There are also many Jews who are non-Zionists, most prominently the Ashkenazi haredim (ultra-Orthodox) who make no secret of their refusal to share in the Zionist cause. Not only do they refuse to serve in the IDF or in mandatory national service, but they also continue to characterize Zionism and the State as a heresy and rebellion against God.Indeed, their particularly vocal opposition to religious and nationalist Zionists, who see Zionism, the IDF, and the creation of the state as a religious cause and a fulfilment of a messianic hope, is often even more hostile than to the secular Zionists because it challenges the haredi conviction that the state was conceived in and founded in sin by Jewish unbelievers.Yet these haredi opponents of Zionism have been part of most of the 37 governments in Israel’s history, including the outgoing one. A “Zionist coalition” is very rare.Only seven governments were formed without these Zionist opponents: three between 1952-1955, Golda Meir’s 1974 government, which collapsed after a few months, Rabin’s in 1974-1977, and Olmert’s from 2006-2009. In the 2013 elections, a political alliance between Yair Lapid (Yesh Atid) and Naftali Bennett (Bayit Yehudi) forced Netanyahu to shut haredi parties out of his coalition. Only one government coalition has depended on an Arab partner. The 36th Bennett-Lapid Government was the first and only government in Israeli history to formally include an independent Arab political party in its ruling coalition, the United Arab List. Certainly not a purely Zionist coalition, yet the Arab party proved to be a responsible partner. That coalition collapsed not because of Arabs in it but because of Jewish defectors from Bennett’s own right-wing Yamina party and the manipulations of the Netanyahu opposition.Those parties in the current campaign who have promised a “Zionist coalition” include Liberman’s Yisrael Beytenu, who has repeated his 2009 campaign slogan “No Loyalty, No Citizenship” (Ein Ne’emanut, Ein Ezrahut), a policy that would exclude both Arabs and the haredim, both of whom refuse to serve in the army and both of whom reject the legitimacy of Zionism in spite of their being full citizens. Disconcertingly, the rising star Gadi Eisenkot, leader of Yashar, has also promised a Zionist coalition, as has the Together party of Bennett and Lapid.As the polls demonstrate, as in the past, no coalition can be formed without the support of either the haredi parties who openly scorn both Zionism and army service, whose policies have been destructive for many in the Israeli public, or the Arab parties who, in their one chance in a coalition, proved to be dependable and responsible.These calls for a Zionist coalition are empty gestures that deny the promise the founders signed in the inspirational and aspirational Declaration of Independence.It’s time for voters and candidates to follow the example of the Democratim, led by Yair Golan. Here is a party that, after a free and open primary contest, has found room for men and women, secular and religious, Arab and Jew, and the promise of democracy and equality. For me, that leads to a more hopeful future than either a Zionist Coalition or an all-Jewish list.Follow us on Google