By GADI TAUB

Tel Aviv

WILL Israel remain a Zionist state? If so, what kind? These are the important questions in Israeli politics today, and will be looming over the direct talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority scheduled to begin Thursday in Washington.

Golan, a Peace Now founder and Executive Committee Member, is the former head of the Department of Political Science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and currently professor of Government at the Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya.

(This article first appeared in Maariv.)

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What we are experiencing here in Israel with regard to the attack on academia and civil society may resemble more the Soviet Union than America of the '50s.

Summary

The Israeli-Palestinian situation today is eerily reminiscent of the situation in 2000 when plummeting expectations, coupled with events in Jerusalem, triggered an eruption that devastated the political process.