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We will not soon be a nation . . We must guide the progress of history, accelerate it, direct it . . This requires a framework of duty . . ”82 For Ben-Gurion, the state was the primary agent of nation-building. 84 In the narrow sense, mamlachtiyut meant that the state should take control of functions that had previously been provided by political parties or sectarian interests. Ben-Gurion’s disbanding of the Etzel and Palmach militias in 1948, and the abolition of the Labor Zionist stream of education in 1953 are examples of the application of this doctrine.

They were equally, if not more, important (due to their far greater number) than militant religious Zionists in promoting the rise of Jewishness within Israeli national identity. Although the Mizrahim had arrived in Israel en masse from the countries of the Middle East and North Africa in the late 1940s and early 1950s, during the first two decades of statehood their cultural and political impact was marginal due to the social, political, and cultural dominance of Ashkenazim ( Jews of European-origin).

Because the Yid is ugly, sickly, and lacks decorum, we shall endow the ideal image of the Hebrew with masculine beauty. The Yid is trodden upon and easily frightened and, therefore, the Hebrew ought to be proud and independent. The Yid is despised by all and, therefore, the Hebrew ought to charm all. The Yid has accepted submission and, therefore, the Hebrew ought to learn how to command. ’ ”34 This highly disparaging portrayal of the Diaspora Jew clearly resembled anti-Semitic stereotypes, and suggests the degree to which Zionists had internalized the prevalent anti-Semitic perception of the Jew.