This article propounds that Israel is not Americanized enough. In particular that part of American political culture that enables minorities (such as the Blacks) to actively oppose the consensus of majority opinion as a minority in order to create a new consensus.
What is special about America is that the right to contest and oppose the consensus is part of the consensus itself. The writer uses the example of the Blacks fighting the Southern consensus by way of the constitutional consensus.
He posits that the institutionalizing of the process of amending the constitution is a consensual method of challenging the consensus and that the right to criticize the consensus actually strengthens the consensus. He claims that contrary to this, in Israel it is the general consensus that it is forbidden to challenge the consensus. He goes on to criticize those who attack (in the name of the consensus) groups and individuals who want to change the very nature of the country – by changing the anthem for example, or those who support the separation of the concept of nationality from religious identity – unlike the US.
