Israel has an internal conflict between being a Jewish state and a multi-cultural democracy. Though most of the voices you hear speak for Jewish identity, there is a strong (but quieter) stream that will lead to an identity more like that of the US — multicultural democracy with civil rights for all. (True, the US does not often reach that lofty goal, but at least it has such a goal.)

An interesting article states:

The larger question confronting the Israeli society is the increasingly apparent contradiction between being a “democratic” state and being a “Jewish” one.

In the Knesset, a bill was recently submitted by Muhammad Baraka, an Israeli-Arab legislator, which proposed to anchor in law the assertion that Israel is a democratic and multi-cultural state. Parliament’s legal advisers, however, considered the bill so subversive that they recommended that it not be sent to the floor for debate. The New York Times reports that, “Mr. Baraka’s proposal, it seems, cleverly omits a sacred point: that Israel values one culture above all others…Whether parliament lets the multiculturalism bill proceed and be voted down remains to be seen. But inside and outside the legislature, the debate is already raging, a national soul-search about Israel’s identity and just how central Jewishness—much less Judaism—should be.”