Levantinism can provide a conceptual space to connect those torn between the two binary worlds: one liberal, individualistic, achievement-oriented and competitive, attributing supreme importance to self-fulfillment via the pursuit of happiness; and the other, a world that favors collectivism, communal life, and cultural identification.

A Jewish state is a state where the vision of the Jews can be fulfilled: to be together in this land and make it a role model, a human and moral utopia, a land where everyone can live together, and in harmony with the world.

The Israeli legal system should consider opening its doors not only to the liberal value system on which democracy is graciously founded, but also to the local, Middle Eastern and traditional values present in its environment.

Religiously-observant people who see democratic values as a threat are doubly mistaken: They are leaving democracy to manipulative forces that understand democracy’s mission to be one of antireligious secularization. At the same time, they fail to realize that updating Judaism for our times means progressing far along the road toward democracy.

The appropriate path for Israeli society to follow on its way to a Jewish state worthy of the name, a state whose population enjoys high levels of social capital and a high degree of consensus, is the path of Jewish common ground – as seen in our ancient sources that call upon us, again and again, to assist the poor and give aid to the orphan, the widow, and the stranger, the blind and the weak.

Jews and non-Jews can reach full consensus regarding the character of the state as Jewish and democratic, without derogating in any way from the state’s uniqueness as the nation state of the Jewish people, and without derogating in any way from the full equality of all of the state’s citizens.

The melting-pot of Israeli society preserves within it the memory of two thousand years of exile, wars, and pogroms. Despite the disparities, disagreements, and tensions between the different sectors of society, the social melting-pot became the engine driving Israel to unprecedented achievements over the years of its existence.