Tell me something. After you pass on at a ripe old age to the world of pure goodness, how would you like to be buried? According to a study carried out by the Gutman Institute, approximately 70% of Israel's Jewish population cites the importance of being buried in a Jewish manner. It can be safely assumed that of the 30% that remain, many do not attach much importance to the religious ceremony and associated prayers, but are nevertheless interested in a burial with Jewish orientation.

It seems that over 80% of Israel's Jews would like to find themselves after their 120 mortal years in a "pose" more or less like that of the rest of their fellow Jews. That is strange, because the man that has had the most influence on the State of Israel's character in the last decade and the most power to determine the norms of Israeli society, has recently declared that he would like to be cremated after his death. 

Personally, I have no problem with that. Former Chief Justice Aharon Barak can instruct his family to do whatever he wishes with his body. Every person lives by his faith -- and dies by it. But isn't the man with the most power to fashion Israeli society supposed to more or less represent the values of that society? The values that Barak represented in the decade that he imposed his judicial revolution were defined by him as the values of "enlightened man." And who is this exemplary "enlightened man?"  If the burial test is any indication, the "enlightened man" after whom Israeli society is supposed to fashion itself is Aharon Barak himself -- and a small elite that ceaselessly attempts to detach the State of Israel from its Jewish roots. 

This week, we learned that the first Arab minister in Israel, Raleb Majdalah, refuses to sing Israel's national anthem, "Hatikvah." In the US, that would make Majdalah a criminal. US law mandates that the national anthem be sung at the opening of large events. It makes no difference if the people at the event are American Jews, Arabs or Italians. But Jewish nationality is not like American nationality. Jewish nationality is not based on residence, but rather on an entire culture founded on ethnic identity, religious identification and of course, on the Land of Israel. Consequently, being an Arab in the Jewish State is problematic. 

Thank G-d for Majdalah. If he didn't exist, we would have had to invent him. Majdalah does not buy the Israeli "enlightenment." He has the courage to look us in the eye and say, "You can deceive yourselves, but you cannot deceive me. I am not an Israeli. I am an Arab. You are not Israelis either. You are Jews. And don't expect me to lie to myself and to identify with your State and your Jewish symbols." What Majdalah is essentially saying is that Israel is the state of the Jews and not the state of the Arabs. "You want enlightenment?" Majdalah challenges us. "No problem. Change your national anthem, surrender the Jewish elements in the Israeli flag and please find a better use for the Temple Menorah that you have adopted as the State emblem." 

Actually, for a long time, the radical Left has been demanding to change the State's symbols to make them applicable to all the State's citizens. It is a legitimate demand. One cannot claim to be liberal and enlightened and simultaneously force Jewish symbols on other religions and nationalities. The problem with the demand is not its legitimacy. It is the quiet tyranny with which it is enforced. 

There is no problem with Aharon Barak's desire to be buried in a non-Jewish ceremony. The problem is that a small minority of elites are industriously erasing Israel's Jewish identity -- even though nobody has elected them to do so. The result is the general collapse that we are all enduring. If Israel is not a Jewish State, Majdalah may feel more comfortable, but the Jews will have no state at all.