Introduction: McWorld with and against Jihad (original) (raw)

This special section on Israel marks the Jubilee of the State of Israel. In its fiftieth year of independence, Israel may celebrate many achievements, yet at the same time it is disgraced by the continuous oppression of the Palestinians. Moreover, the "old regime" in Israel is today challenged by social, cultural, and political rifts which at times assume an ugly and violent face. It seems that as the twentieth century comes to a close, Israeli society is undergoing a fundamental transformation. Israel of the next century will be most different from the one that has existed hitherto. With the decline of older structures of dominance and foci of identity-pre-modern Jewish communalism and modern Zionist nationalism-a battle is fiercely waged in Israel between two emergent alternatives which attempt to determine the gist of the "new regime": a globalist, civic, post-Zionist agenda, objectively advanced by the logic of world market "McWorld," and a localist, ethnic, neo-Zionist agenda, subjectively advanced by the logic of fundamentalist Jewish "Jihad." McWorld with and against Jihad. This "glocalization" of Israel challenges both left and right. Everyone is looking forward to it, but no one welcomes it in its entirety. The left faces the following contradiction: glocalization advances democracy in Israel by promoting civic equality. Yet, simultaneously it advances economic liberalization and with it social inequality. And so, while market globalization is today the major force advancing peaceful coexistence in the Middle East, it is also the major instigator of social instability and reactive, localist, ethno-religious fundamentalism. The right faces a parallel perplexity: glocalization advances economic liberalization in Israel and paves the way for foreign investment; it promotes the "free market." Yet, simultaneously, glocalization advances the Americanization of Israeli culture and the pluralization of cultures and lifestyles in Israel, and these are, as is well known, the foremost enemies of nationalism. The left may end up with more political democracy but less social equality; the right, with more capitalism but less national identification. Each may gain something and lose something. In the face of the challenges of glocalization, the old left, the new right, and the