Many believe that Israel faces a binary choice today: it can either give the Palestinians the right to vote, in which case Israel will lose its predominantly Jewish character, or deny them this right and lose Israel’s democratic character. The current stalemate undoubtedly cannot continue indefinitely, but real life is more complex.

Three million American citizens, residents of Puerto Rico, as well as those of the Virgin Islands and other U.S. “territories,” cannot vote for Congress or the presidency, just local government. Despite this blatant discrimination, no one would argue that the United States is not a democracy, just an imperfect one. Essentially, the same will hold true of Israel. Israelis will vote for the Knesset, Palestinians for the Palestinian Authority, as they are entitled to do today, or a future state. The quality of Israeli democracy will certainly take a hit, but this will not spell its demise. The real problem is the inability to separate and reach a two-state solution.

Fifty-five years after the Six-Day War, Israel has become an established state, whose existence is no longer truly in doubt. Israel has relations with more states today than ever before, including six Arab ones, and informal ties with others. It has become a global center of high-tech and a leading cyber power. The Six-Day War ensured Israel’s physical survival but posed new challenges of existential importance.

Chuck Freilich is a former deputy national security advisor in Israel and the author of “Israeli National Security: a New Strategy for an Era of Change” and the forthcoming “Israel and the Cyber Threat: How the Startup Nation Became a Global Cyber Power.” He teaches political science at Columbia and Tel Aviv University and is a senior fellow at the MirYam Institute.

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