Abstract
In the first decades of the State of Israel an elitist group of scientists and scholars from academic institutions organized itself into a powerful status group. Its members participated in the establishment and development of programs and processes that had a significant impact on Israeli society. The power of this group (which we term “scientific strategists”) derived from personal and institutional cooperation between its members and leading political figures who had a strong influence on its agenda. This interaction was based on mutual trust and loyalty and contributed to establishing the infrastructure for the main political tradition at that time – mamlakhtiyut (the centrality of state interests). The article examines the activities of the scientific strategists, their ability to participate in government institutions without forfeiting their academic bases, and the ways in which political leaders promoted their symbolic status, financially supported their scientific activity, and endowed them with rewards and public recognition.
Acknowledgments
This article was originally published in Hebrew in Iyunim Bitkumat Israel 20 (2010): 1–27.
Notes
1 Discussion on 5 May 1955 in the Ministry of Defense, regarding the need to invest in scientific research. See CitationCohen, Yisrael veha-ptzatzah, 66; and CitationMardor, Rafael, 121.
4 For an extensive and important discussion of the sources of mamlakhtiyut see CitationKedar, Mamlakhtiyut.
6 CitationKatzir, Be-kur ha-mahapekhah ha-mada'it, 19–22, 34–45, 74–87.
7 On the studies led by Eisenstadt during the 1950s, see CitationYair and Apeloig, “Ha-sotziologiyah be-Yerushalayim.” We should note here that Eisenstadt was connected with the Jewish Agency's settlement division, advising it regarding the absorption of immigrants into the agricultural sector.
9 For a description of the founding of the Academy and of Aharon Katzir's involvement in it, see CitationGelber, “Ben-Gurion ve-hakamat ha-akademiyah ha-leumit le-mada'im,” 66–83.
12 Horowitz and Lissak, Metzukot be-utopiyah, 59–68.
15 A prominent example is Professor Yuval Ne'eman, who established, among others, the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Tel Aviv University, as well as the Institute for Space Science and the Observatory near Mitzpeh Ramon. While president of Tel Aviv University in 1971–75, he also served as a senior advisor to Minister of Defense Shimon Peres in 1974–75 and chief scientist of the Ministry of Defense in 1974–76.
19 On Pinhas Sapir's role in the shaping of the Israeli market during the period of mamlakhtiyut, see CitationLavi, Pinhas Sapir.
21 For an important confrontation between Hebrew University professors and Ben-Gurion in connection with the Lavon affair, see CitationCohen, “‘Ha-intelektu'al ha-tahor.’”
25 The unique lifestyle of academics is related to the idea of collegiality, a term from which the word “college” is derived, meaning “gathering together”. One of the definitions of a college as an academic institute is a group of people gathered together for the intentional and long-term purpose of academic learning. See CitationGraham, Universities, 87–90. For more on the uniqueness of academic culture in the West as a collective lifestyle centered on fostering study, dissent, and a plurality of points of view, in short, institutionalized curiosity, see CitationO'Malley, Four Cultures of the West, 77–126.
29 See CitationHabermas, “Technology and Science as ‘Ideology,’” in idem, Toward a Rational Society, 81–122.
30 Cohen, “Ha-universitah ha-ivrit be-Yerushalayim.”
32 Sometimes Ben-Gurion also joined those who criticized “expert” scientists: “He [Ben-Gurion] repeatedly reminded that the ‘experts’ had opposed the establishment of the state of Israel, since they had predicted it would face ruin, they had been against mass immigration, since the country could not absorb them, and against the settlement of the Lakhish area, and he listed a long series of experts and planners who only knew how to raise difficulties.” CitationTzahor, Ha-hazon veha-heshbon, 223.
33 The Higher Education Planning and Budgeting Committee was first named the University Budgeting Committee of the Council for Higher Education, along the lines of the British University Grand Committee (UGC). Committee members were appointed on the recommendation of the minister of education, with the approval of the Council for Higher Education and the president of the state.
34 In 1974 Israel had seven higher education institutions: the Hebrew University, the Technion, Tel Aviv University, Haifa University, Bar-Ilan University, the Weizmann Institute of Science, and Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. These institutions had about 50,000 students and 17,000 academic and administrative staff members. They operated with an annual budget of about 1.2 billion liras, including about 300 million liras of development budget and about 900 million liras of standard budget. Out of this, the role of the government and of public bodies was about 800 million liras – including about 150 million Liras of development budget and about 650 million liras of regular budget.
35 Letter from Minister of Education and Culture Yigal Allon to Professor Nathan Rotenstreich, 3 July 1973, in Hamo'atzah le-haskalah gvohah, 3–5.
36 Letter from Minister of Education and Culture Yigal Allon to Professor Nathan Rotenstreich, 3 July 1973, in Hamo'atzah le-haskalah gvohah, 4.
37 We consider VATAT as a kind of “democracy school,” in the sense that heads of institutions of higher education learned how to become deeply involved in their dealings with the government from a position of power rather than as “beggars on the doorstep.” This move required them to exhibit tolerance, mutual acceptance, and willingness to compromise and to cooperate with the government. To this one should add the fact that VATAT controlled information and organized the planning of institutions of higher education.
40 Ben-Gurion was well known for his effort to promote new immigrants from Asia and Africa by fostering communal leadership, especially from among the IDF command rank. For more on this point see CitationTzameret, “Ben-Gurion ve-Lavon.”
41 Letter from Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion to Dr. Chaim Sheba. Quoted in Bondi, Sheba, 257.
44 Keren, Ben-Gurion veha-intelektu'alim, 11.
50 See Ephraim Katzir, “Edut” (Testimony), in CitationEshbal, Ki mi-tziyon, 37.
52 CitationKatzir, Sipur hayim, 165, 191. Another perspective on the central place of science in Israeli politics is found in Shimon Peres's memoirs: “When we went to the 1965 elections, we reviewed Prof. Bergmann's plans, and following these discussions we [Rafi] came out with the call for ‘state scientification.’ Basically, Bergmann's 1964 plan is the foundational plan for the state of Israel in the fields of research and development.” CitationPeres, Lekh im ha-anashim, 139.
53 The BSIR was founded in appreciation for the scientific effort of the Hebrew University's Departments of Physics and Physical Chemistry during World War II.
54 Among the Board's members were heads of research institutes, such as Shlomo Kaplinski of the Technion, Benjamin Bloch, head of the Ziv Institute in Rehovot, Yitzhak Volcani, head of the Jewish Agency's agricultural research station in Rehovot, and Moshe Novomeysky, head of the Dead Sea Works. The British gave the Board an annual budget of 10,000 Palestine Pounds – a considerable sum at that time – which the Board used to fund research activity in the fields of agriculture, veterinary medicine, construction, and physics.
58 Peres, Lekh im ha-anashim, 133.
60 Dostrovsky, “Hakamatah shel ha-va'adah le-energiyah atomit,” 47.
61 Dostrovsky, “Hakamatah shel ha-va'adah le-energiyah atomit,”, 48.
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