Completely agreed with Parrotguy on Eshkol; but don't see what's wrong with the melting pot as long as a) Jewishness remains the principal part of Israeli identity (the Jewish vs. Israeli discussion) and b) groups are not forced to do away with their centuries-old diaspora heritage; instead, this Jewish heritage from all the different regions should be cherished.
I agree that general unitary melting pot issues are good- for example, Hebrew as the unviersal Israeli language and various traditions. But the early generation of founders tried very hard to stomp out the traditions and culture brought by the diaspora, and generally acted disrespectfully to impose Hebrew etc. That caused quite a few divides which are clear even today. You can see the difference between the first migrations from Russia and the last one, during the 90s- the Jews coming in the first few lost much of their culture and traditions, becoming essentially an indistinguishable part of the population (for example, Shimon Peres) while the later Jews brought with them their own traditions and were allowed to keep it (for example, Novey God, the secular Soviet New Year's Eve celebration). Of course, this also has the effect of many Russian Jews from the 90s migrations speaking soley Russian and not Hebrew (usually the parents of the migrants who didn't have to learn it for working and interacting, like my own grandparents) and a creation of a group of voters that added another divided sector to the country (which is seen in Lieberman's Yisrael Beytenu Party, for example). So I can't say that a melting pot is always bad, but I do believe that the founding generation should've acted more respectfully towards the migrants and didn't make them feel inferior.
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