Wander the streets of Israel, and you will find a great number of them are named after historical figures: talmudic sages, medieval theologians, 19th-century poets, and of course the founders of Zionism. Now a new name has been added: that of Rabbi Shalom Tzvi (Harry) Davidowitz, who played a crucial role in crafting Israel’s declaration of independence. The new street sign was unveiled in the coastal city of Herzliya last Wednesday. Mati Wagner speaks to Neil Rogachevsky about Davidowitz:

Rogachevsky said that Davidowitz was uniquely positioned to find a balance between Judaism and liberalism in the fledgling Jewish state.

“He was a fascinating guy—a JTS graduate with a background in Lithuanian yeshiva learning who learned the whole cannon of universalistic Jewish philosophy of medieval times,” said Rogachevsky. “And he also was intimately familiar with the discourse of the American and British political tradition—people like Thomas Jefferson as well as Edmond Burke—and he was a translator of Shakespeare who used to recite from the King James Bible.”

“The rabbi more than anyone else probably saw what you had to do. He took from the best example of free countries in modern times—the U.S. and Britain,” he said. “But he also understood that it can’t be America here [in Israel]; you can’t create a kibbutz or a Start-Up Nation in the Mediterranean that is divorced from history and tradition. We have to grapple with Jewish ideas.”

With the IDF engaged in ground maneuvers in both northern and southern Gaza, and a plan about to go into effect next week that would separate more than 100,000 civilians from Hamas’s control, an end to the war may at last be in sight. Yet there seems to be no agreement within Israel, or without, about what should become of the territory. Efraim Inbar assesses the various proposals, from Donald Trump’s plan to remove the population entirely, to the Israeli far-right’s desire to settle the Strip with Jews, to the internationally supported proposal to place Gaza under the control of the Palestinian Authority (PA)—and exposes the fatal flaws of each. He therefore tries to reframe the problem:

[M]any Arab states have failed to establish a monopoly on the use of force within their borders. Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Yemen, Libya, and Sudan all suffer from civil wars or armed militias that do not obey the central government.

Perhaps Israel needs to get used to the idea that in the absence of an entity willing to take Gaza under its wing, chaos will prevail there. This is less terrible than people may think. Chaos would allow Israel to establish buffer zones along the Gaza border without interference. Any entity controlling Gaza would oppose such measures and would resist necessary Israeli measures to reduce terrorism. Chaos may also encourage emigration.

Israel is doomed to live with bad neighbors for the foreseeable future. There is no way to ensure zero terrorism. Israel should avoid adopting a policy of containment and should constantly “mow the grass” to minimize the chances of a major threat emerging across the border. Periodic conflicts may be necessary. If the Jews want a state in their homeland, they need to internalize that Israel will have to live by the sword for many more years.