This site presents the ongoing work that The One Hundred Initiative has been engaged in since October 8, 2023, to rehabilitate and rebuild the State of Israel, politically, governmentally and socially.
On October 6, Simchat Torah eve, the State of Israel was deeply divided, fractured and weak; and at the same time complacent, cocky and blind. The public’s attention was entirely devoted to attempting to gain the upper hand in the internal conflict over the character of the state. Security threats were not perceived as existential, and inflexible conceptions blinded us from seeing and understanding what our enemies were planning. Any question of whether the army and the Home Front Command were ready was treated with disregard and contempt. Public services had hit rock bottom after decades of dried-up funding and neglect. The law was not being enforced in broad geographic and societal swathes of the country. The government represented only a portion of the public and was deeply mistrusted by the rest. The entire political system was governed by an organizing principle of tribalism and sectorialism.
On October 8, we began to see once more. We saw and understood the magnitude of the security threat, the threat to our very existence, both as individuals and as a Jewish state in the land of Israel. We saw the threat to our children, our communities, our lives. We saw the costs of sectorialism, segregation, mistrust and the lack of a shared Israeli narrative. We saw the weakness of our defense systems, public services and political leadership. We also saw the evil of the enemy, the moral decay that has spread in part of the Western world and placed itself on the side of Hamas’ barbarity and the antisemitism that threatens the world’s Jews.
On October 8, we also saw the awesome strength of Israeli society. We saw the wholehearted, absolute and immediate mobilization to all fronts: military, civilian assistance and international advocacy. We saw the mobilization of the Jewish people in the Diaspora and of the leaders of the Western world — led by the president of the United States — who stand by Israel.
It is our duty to move from a policy of containment and treading water to one of taking the initiative, protecting our borders, our values as a Jewish and democratic state, and our lives.
It is our duty to take the power back from the fringes that ripped us apart and return it to the center, and from there work together with a sense of duty and determination, based on broad consensus and a shared Zionist narrative, for the good of Israeli society as a whole. To reestablish a state that is more than a collection of sectors, groups, and tribes with differing and contradictory interests, but a Jewish and democratic state that reflects the shared values, vision and purpose of the majority of its citizens.
It is our duty to redefine our values and build our social cohesion. To allow space for sectorialism and parochialism, but not neglect the shared statism. To reinforce our Jewish identity in all its diversity as a unifying force, recognizing that this requires more goodwill and less coercion. To build our governmental systems and the relationships among them, and our political system, based on values of responsibility, partnership, trust, excellence, duty, setting a personal example, courage, diversity, Zionism and an inclusive all-Israeli outlook.
It is our duty to create a cohesive Israeli society based on an Israeli ethos that includes — but also obligates — everyone. To rebuild the people’s army as a shared duty for all parts of society, respecting our differences but also understanding that we do not have the luxury of forgoing anyone. To offer Arab citizens of Israel a covenant of equal civil rights and responsibilities, which requires them to stand by our side against our murderous enemies and gives them true partnership in the tapestry of Israeli identity. To renounce the division into “first” and “second” Israel and to fight together for a diverse, respectful, representative, inclusive Israel with equal opportunity for all. To rebuild our alliance with the world’s Jews. To go beyond the alliance of common dangers and fate and instead deepen the common purpose of the Jewish people.
It is our duty to go back and remind ourselves and the world what we are fighting for. For the existence of a Jewish state in the Land of Israel, which will allow us — Jews who have returned to their homeland after thousands of years of exile and suffering — to realize all our individual and national dreams in the land of our forefathers. To establish a model society based on our ancient and renewed values and culture and on the values of Western democracy — a country that is at the forefront of the free world. A country whose Jewish identity expresses its belief in the sanctity of life and that every human is created in God’s image, and is therefore liberal and humanistic. A country that fosters its alliance with the countries of the free world, led by the United States, in a partnership of values and national and global responsibility. A country located in the heart of the Middle East, surrounded by the threat of fundamentalist Islam, which fights its murderous enemies on behalf of and for the sake of humanity as a whole.
It is intended to define the moral and operational outlines of a plan for rebuilding Israel from a political, governmental and societal standpoint. It does not attempt to answer the question of the necessary diplomatic and defense policy for the State of Israel; but it still seeks to emphasize that it will not be possible to rebuild Israel and return the power from the radical fringes to the Zionist center without formulating a proactive approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
This basic condition requires a government that strives to establish national consensus around political-security goals, and requires the clear expression of these goals in the coalition’s fundamental principles. Israel’s political and security goals must be established in conjunction with our allies in the West and meet the standards of international law.
Hamakom will comfort us. Our victory picture will be one of children riding their bikes in the green fields of the kibbutzim on the Gaza border. Kiryat Shmona is bustling with life, the Upper Galilee is safe and prosperous. Ofakim, Sderot and Netivot double in size and fill up with young families.
Hamakom will comfort us. In this victory picture, the dust of the graves will fill in the pits of hostility and division that have been dug between us for many long years. Our shared fate as we stand together before the gates of Hell that have opened will become a shared calling to revive the Western Negev and the entire country.
Hamakom will comfort us. The victory picture will be one of our Israel, renewed, thriving, growing and developing — stronger, smarter and better than it was on October 6, Simchat Torah eve.
Hamakom will comfort us. And may we be comforted with the rebuilding of the State of Israel.
Authors: Dr. Michal Tabibian Mizrahi., Dr. Reut Fingher Dasberg, former MK Tehila Friedman, Polly Bronstein, Ehud Prawer.
With the help of: Gilad Rubinstein, Ma’ayan Hagage-Kahlon, Meytal Zaydman, Eliran Rubin, Yael Nahum, Shai Mualem, Shaked Ohana, Matanel Buzaglo, Noa Miller, Ray Chihaia, Dr. Asaf Ziderman and Amichai Danino.
A special thanks to Rabbi Shai Piron, who came up with the 50:30:20 concept.
The One Hundred Initiative is a politically independent civil society platform that seeks to confront the crises afflicting Israeli and its society by advancing a comprehensive centrist agenda that meets the needs of our present moment. The initiative is a partnership between senior figures from Israel’s tech industry, business sector, public sector and third sector, and seeks to be a home for fresh ideas, policies and leadership that will shape a new Israeli paradigm.
