Israel in or of the Middle East

It is commonly held that Israel is a western state - 'the last European nationstate,' as Ran Halevi, the French scholar, calls it. For many years before and after the establishment of the state of lsrael, this belief remained unchallenged. It was based on the predominantly western composition of the pre-statehood Jewish community known as the Yishuv. The vast majority of the 650,000 Jews living in Israel when it achieved statehood in 1948 were of eastern and central European origin. The relatively homogenous membership of Israeli/Jewish society as it then existed was soon altered with the arrival of hundreds of thousands of Jewish immigrants from Middle Eastern countries during the early years of statehood. Seeking to retain the western character of the Jewish state, the Israeli government initiated a massive acculturation project aimed at westernizing the newcomers.