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A workshop at the Center for Middle East Studies was held last July to discuss the political impacts of the social, economic and security implications of the Israeli state and entity. The workshop presenting three specialized papers concentrated on the economy, the social and cultural aspects and the security issues and how these interact with the political determinant. For specialists and decision-makers in this part of the world it is crucial to understand how these actually influence each other. On the economic front it is suggested that the state has taken a back seat to the detriment of the poor classes and increasing the gap between rich and poor since the early 1990s. This also led to an increase in corruption. But despite the hardship Israelis did not react. The political docility had its economic reasons and discussed at length during the workshops. Some of the reasons lay with the fact that the issue of class consciousness did not materialize, as well as the existence of a siege and military mentality that lead to a feeling of hopelessness. The Israeli Histadrut has failed to fight for the economic rights of the workers and the sprouting up of different societies to help the poor, a 1000 in the last decade, points to the severity of the situation. The two other perspectives were also discussed at length. The social-cultural aspect discussed Israeli society in terms of a social formation of immigrants and therefore lacking an identity, and to deflect that, the state has built its existence around the so-called external threat. Experts in the workshop—academics from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, institutes in the West Bank and academics from Jordan—analyzed Israeli society in terms of its multifaceted aspects, discussing the different ideologies, cultures, religious fundamentalism and the sectarianism that make up that polity. Academics suggested that these have direct impacts on the state and have created contradictions in the thought processes especially in the political structure and identity especially between the left and right of the spectrum. The workshop ends by suggesting that because of these elements, whose extent are recognized by successive Israeli governments, the state tries to forge international agreements and international backings and security alliances to deflect its domestic concerns
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