We need to inculcate the concept of a shared society, where Jewish and Arab citizens are taught from an early age about mutual legitimacy in the citizenship club, and where they learn to recognize and accept each other. Citizens must be given the tools to understand the language and culture of the other, and to experience these things as beneficial to the shared public realm. In this way, a sense of closeness and sympathy will develop between all the country’s citizens.

Learning ways to manage controversies between state and religion can also teach individuals and institutions ways of dealing with conflict in other areas of life. These include interpersonal relationships in matters as simple as how to listen to the other, how to find growth in controversy, how not to abdicate responsibility prematurely, and how to figure out when to choose tenacity and when to compromise.

The State of Israel, does indeed have major accomplishments to its credit in all areas, and this remarkable success is a cause of wonder across the globe. Without going into detail here, this little country has become an international empire in several fields. And yet its worldview, even today, is diametrically opposed to the concept of am haTorah, “the people of the Torah,” which is itself the secret of our survival.

 Countless layers of Jewish-Israeli existence accumulated during the seventy-five years of the state's independence, and in fact began to form years before its establishment. Every moment of Israel's happening contains all the DNA of the twisted, vibrant and turbulent expression of the Jewish state known as the State of Israel.

I believe that the time has come within Israeli internal politics for every sector and tribe to set aside the inter-sectoral conflicts of the past and to think about how we – together – can ensure the future of all Israeli citizens and the state’s continued connection with Diaspora Jewry.

Of all Zionism’s attainments, and of all that Israel has accomplished on the political, military, technological, and economic planes, history will remember, above all, the state’s cultural achievement: the creation of a climate that enabled the Jewish people to write a continuing chapter to the Jewish story.

While I deeply believe that Israel should be a Jewish as well as democratic state, there are many ways to be a Jewish state without elevating one expression of Judaism over the others and denying the fundamental rights of so many Jewish citizens, and without denying non-Jewish citizens equal rights.

The phrase “Israel’s values as a Jewish and democratic state” reflects the uniqueness of the State of Israel and of Israeli society. We are not like all the nations; we are not like other states. We are a democracy, and our values are those of any democratic country. However, we are also a Jewish state, and are values are therefore the values of a Jewish state. Israeli society must contend with this duality.