"Ignorance and prejudice are the handmaidens of propaganda. Our mission, therefore, is to confront ignorance with knowledge, bigotry with tolerance, and isolation with the outstretched hand of generosity. Racism can, will and must be defeated." (Annan, 2001). In the past two years I have been taking part in the Lauder School of Government, Diplomacy and Strategy Mentors Project. Last year, we held meetings and went on tours to better understand the tribes that President Rivlin defined in the "Tribal Speech" at the Herzliya Conference. In his speech, President Rivlin pointed out that demographic and cultural processes have reshaped the face of Israeli society in recent decades: from a society composed of a clear majority and minority, to a society composed of four major sectors or "tribes" approaching each other: secular, national-religious, ultra-Orthodox and Arab. …show more content…
Throughout the various tours, many questions began to arise: Should the change come from the civil movement or the political leadership? Is there a need not only for conceptual change, but also for structural change in the political system? For example: raising the electoral threshold, creating two large parties. Moreover, how do we prevent the more extremist sectors, who do not want to be part of the state, from disengaging from Israeli society? How do we integrate the minorities who are interested in this, but Israeli society does not accept