US.... stop your funding NOW...
24
Israel built its wall to keep out the Palestinian terrorists (the ones who had their ancestral lands stolen or occupied, were ethnically cleansed - though terrorism is never an acceptable response), and to keep Israel Jewish. Trump and his supporters want a wall to keep out the Mexican/Hispanic rapists/murderers/drug dealers (when in reality, the overwhelming majority do the hard work that most Americans refuse to do, are exploited, are in some instances fleeing violence in their home country - often created by US policies and actions), but above all, to keep America White.
Israel shot/killed/maimed unarmed Gazan (majority whose families were ethnically cleansed and had their ancestral homes stolen) protesters - including killing those clearly identified as Press or Medic - the overwhelming majority of Jewish Israelis support the shooting/killing/maiming to defend their border. Trump/Sessions/Miller/Nielsen/Kelly set a policy to deliberately separate children - including babies and toddlers - from their parents (some permanently, most still separated) - majority of Republicans support this evil policy.
Netanyahu supports autocrats like Orban, who is an anti-Semite. Trump loves all autocrats.
Netanyahu attacks democratic institutions at home and all multilateral international institutions. Ditto for Trump.
Netanyahu loves Putin. Trump is owned by Putin.
Israel is now officially a nation state for Jews. Trump/Republicans will now want America to be a nation state for Whites.
20
What irony: Israel has always been a state for Jews created by the world to provide a home that the world safeguards from another anti -Semitic genocide against Jewish ghettos in Europe. Those ghettos were unable to defend most European Jews from the people of the host countries. And the irony is that today we see the same situation but one where it is Israel creating ghettos out of Palestinian Arab territories.
We have ghettos for Native tribes called reservations, so Israeli supporters justify Israel’s ghettos for Palestinians. But the comparison is as false as it is dangerous, for Israelis will one day, because of this “National Law,” wake up to find that they are living in just a ghetto like their ancestors, only bigger. For the world will shun Israel, and they will still be surrounded by hostile Arab majorities.
20
All this hand waving about a law that is largely symbolic and will actually change very little.
The law is about national self determination and not about individual civil rights, religious rights etc. It changes none of that. It doesn't establish the Jewish religion as a state religion.
So please stop with all the theocracy and apartheid talk - it doesn't apply.
And while you are reading, look at this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestinian_land_laws
which make selling land to a Jew treason and punishable by death.
25
Which Arab Nations are not theocracies?
Which Arab nations did not expel or exterminate tie Jews living there, seventy years ago?
This is a very difficult problem because the Arab and the Jew are brothers, sons of Abraham. Until they find peace and brotherly love, this World will know neither Peace nor Justice.
11
So what about that Temple that is foundational to your nation-state?
Apartheid state was often used to describe the situation in Israel, but it was deemed unfair to the majority of peace loving people there. It will be hard to make that case now with more discrimination enshrined into law.
Palestinians are always portrayed as those bomb-blowing rock-throwing savages behind the wall. They never really earned their right to a motherland and peaceful existence like their civilized torturers from the other side of the wall. After all they are not the only shining beacon of democracy in the ME. Savages have no rights - some still debate if human rights even apply to them.
Today, I wouldn’t want to be one of those arabs living in Israel that imagined themselves having a peaceful life for them and their families if only they played by the rules, all the rules, including the one that apply only to them.
Why Israel is the only country in the world that can do what it does and still get away with it is beyond me.
Emboldened by the unconditional support of the US administration Bibi and his hawks have ratcheted up the rhetoric, the attacks, the blockades, the illegal settlement constructions, and the Palestinian villages destruction for good measure.
This unfair.
It is shameful that the US government continues to protect a criminal regime in Israel despite what the whole world sees as blatant Barbary against the colonized and continued human rights violations.
26
“The nationality law is a mark of Cain on the forehead of everyone who votes for it.”
...Amen.
11
Isn't it ironic that the Jews who have suffered discrimination throughout history have chosen discrimination as the preferred method for dealing with the Arabs in Israel. Maybe they forgot?
21
This unluckily introduced law is ripping off the mask of Zionism. It shows that the more than a hundred years old "dream" of a Jewish State has become a reality.
But we don't live in the times of a Joseph Klausner or Theodor Herzl anymore. Democracy and personal equality, the heritage of the French Revolution, are today's prevalent political ideas.
So the Knesset missed it. Israel is now not a nation of the Western world anymore. Sorry.
11
Israel officially joins the majority of the Middle East as another theocracy headed by right wing politicians who cravenly hold onto power through the support of religious zealots. So far from the ideal of the original founders, who made their way to Palestine shedding the religion of the European ghetto to live in democratic communities.
15
Maybe now the gentiles will finally understand how the Jews felt when they were treated as second class citizens in Christian and Muslim countries. Besides the original point of creating a Jewish State after the World War II was that Jews would have their own state where they would be first class citizens. No more worrying about having bizarre laws and edicts passed which treatedJews as inferior to Christian and/or Muslims. If gentiles residing in Israel don't like this new law they can do Jews were forced to do for centuries--pack up and leave. How does it feel for the gentiles to have the the shoe on the other foot and be treated unfairly? It's not pretty is it?
20
It took decades of unspeakable pain, sacrifice, and struggle for the Jewish people to establish the Nation of Israel, so allow them their Nation-State of the Jewish People. Of course, there are people who believe it would be offensive to say "The United States Of America, the Country of the American People" as it would not be "inclusive" of illegals and the undocumented. Relax a little and let each nation or country decide for themselves what they want to be called.
16
Netanyahu's rabbis in charge of who is and who isn't a Jew could spell trouble for those landsman who don't measure up to their ever narrowing definition. "Shalom" could end up as "salaam" for those accused of being apostates. Banned from the Western Wall, those Reform, Conservative and "modern" Orthodox Jews could end up at Temple Mount.
2
i always believed that Isreal was founded as a jewish state, a much needed place for Jews to be without fear. That is why i believe that the palestians need their own country.
6
I don't see what all the uproar is about.
Hasn't Israel always been a Jewish state, a nation-state for the Jewish people?
20
David ben-Gurion seems to have read his Torah (same as Christian Old Testament), but Netanyahu seems to have skipped it. There are many commandments in it, far more than 1O.
Israel has broken the commandments against murder except in self-defense, stealing (occupied territories) and unfair business practices.
They have igmored a most sacred commandment, particularly stressesd during the Jew's most significant high holy days -- that a person's actions toward their fellow man is far more important than praying to God. And Jews will be judged by their actions toward others, not prayer.
Israel is typically called the Jewish homeland and it's recognized worldwide as such. This new declaration would not be so repugnant were it not for the fact that it codifies stealing--that is, continuing to build on occupied land that really belongs to the Palistinians.
If it instead codified, and stuck to, Israel's original boundaries, and moved Jews out of the occupied territories, that would be fair.
How smug these "occupiers" must feel, living in someone else's homeland, while their heavily equipped armed forces slaughter rock-throwing Palistians who dare to want their land back.
Netanyahu's quasi-religious government seems to have left any Jewish commandments out -- it's just another nationalist, disrespectful victimizer, ignoring the Torah's teachings.
13
Many commenters are still confusing self-determination of a people with theocracy....and self-preservation with apartheid. That’s because the Jewish people, as a nation, are expected by the international community to follow a completely different set of rules than everyone else. Otherwise known as Antisemitism.
20
There are six countries which use Islam as their constitution and an additional 19 which have declared Islam as the national religion and I haven't seen a single report about that. There are at least a dozen states that declare themselves as Christian states.
Yet one state that declares themselves as Jewish, and Jewish becomes an official religion of the country and the world overreacts and once again shows their unity in the hatred of Jews.
24
As I've said, I have concerns about the law. So apparently do 55 members of the Knesset. So do the protesters in the picture, whose signs say, among other things, "This is everyone's house."
But as I have also said, I am far more concerned by the ignorance and bad faith demonstrated by so many commenters here. Beneath all the faulty logic ("two wrongs don't make a right"), misplaced literary allusions ("Animal Farm"), and outright defamation (notably "apartheid") there is a common thread. That thread, essentially, is that while it is acceptable for others (notably Arabs and, more broadly, adherents of Islam) to enjoy self-determination over a broad swathe of the globe, that same right is forbidden to Jews. Yes, Jews. To borrow a saying, a dog can tell the difference between being tripped over and being kicked.
Among many features of this situation that critics ignore:
-there is plenty of internal debate in Israel on many policies. You can see examples of it on this board. External critics add next to nothing, because Israelis can detect the ignorance and bad faith.
-recently, Syrian refugees are heading toward the Israeli border. That's right, toward the border of the nation they have been taught to hate. And Israel is doing what it can to help.
-daily, Arabs from the West Bank are brought into Israel to receive medical treatment.
-last week, about 200 projectiles were launched against Israel from Gaza, and Israel destroyed another terror tunnel.
Go, and learn.
18
By stripping away the facade of democracy and declaring itself a Jewish State, Israel has become a theocratic regime. How long before those of minority religions are isolated and required to identify themselves as non-Jews? This turn of events is an eerie reminder of another period in history that led to the attempted annihilation of Jews throughout much of Europe. History is supposed to teach humanity to avoid the sins and mistakes of the past, instead, Netanyahu’s Israel has chosen to repeat them.
This is the same future Christian Fundamentalists dream of imposing on Americans. We must remain ever vigilant least it happen here.
5
two things should have happened a half century ago.
the first:
israel should have been declared the nation-state of the jewish people at its inception. to the extent that this was not done, the new law has finally gotten around to doing so. jews have been cruelly and senselessly persecuted throughout history; it was long past time for them to have a homeland where that could never happen again. though a noble ideal, a democratic israel does not and could never provide that guarantee. the law is not racist; anyone who wants to can, with a modest amount of effort, become a jew. it's specious to claim that there's any relationship between israel and apartheid.
the second:
following the six-day war, the west bank should have remained exclusively under military occupation, in perpetuity, leaving the door open for the establishment of a palestinian state, in the hope that someday the palestianians would truly agree to live in peace with their neighbor. winding back the clock on west bank settlements now seems like an impossibility. it's to israel's discredit that these settlements were allowed and encouraged.
4
I'm a Jew. One has to state that at the outset in responding to this.
And this? This, coming from the ostensible historic home of Jews, this coming from a nation created in response to Herzl's plan for a safe-land for Jews, this coming from a nation carved by socialist Jewish pioneers out of rock and desert, this coming from a nation given statehood as the world's recompense for 2,000 years of antisemitism, this coming from a nation given statehood out of the ashes, this coming from a nation that fought four wars in its first 26 years to establish its right to be, this:
This coming from that nation is an abomination.
It is an abomination. It defiles the memory and the purpose of all the pioneer patriots, of their case of Israeli statehood beginning with Herzl, of David Green who walked there from Russia and took the name Ben Gurion, of Abba Eban and Gold Meir and Moshe Dayan.
It is as if the United States ripped up the Declaration of Independence defiling the nation's memory of Ben Franklin, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, George Washington - of all the signers.
This proves even Jews, some Jews, even schooled as we are in the worst that can be done to others, are as capable as any of the worst instincts in all people and of inflicting the result on another people.
Israel's founders did not envision or found an arrogant colonial power. They founded a social democracy that has now lost its way and theirs.
15
The overwhelming majority of Israeli Jews are secular. A visit to a Tel Aviv shopping mall or beach on a Saturday would prove that in seconds. These Jews do, however, see Judaism as their national identity. This viewpoint is the basis of Zionism and the basis for the UN decision to re-establish a Jewish state 70 years ago. All this talk of theocracy is down right silly. The question is how will the Jewish state treat it's non Jewish citizens. The fact that the article quotes non Jewish members of the Knesset and refers to the fact that the Arab parties are its third largest political bloc should give you some idea and makes references to apartheid equally silly.
12
Netanyahu & Co. have hit rock bottom, but keep on digging ..... digging the grave for the original liberal democratic State of Israel. They are well on their way leading Israel down the path of self-destruction. The world's Jewish community needs to denounce Netanyahu & Co., in no uncertain terms, to save the State of Israel.
7
What will Bibi do when Donald is not in office anymore? Poor choice in an already incendiary world...
1
If you want peace, why stick an additional finger in the eye of the people you need to make peace with? While not quite there yet, Israel is enroute to becoming a country with two well defined official classes of citizens: Jews and Gentiles (arabs, mostly). The Gentiles in every way being second class citizens. This is what the US is supporting and embracing, most recently by moving our embassy to Jerusalem? Come on!
6
I recently returned from a trip where we visited the sites of many of the atrocities that befell those of the Jewish faith. Sadly, Israel is now engaging in the same behavior - little by little they are scraping away the rights and the dignity of those non-Jewish citizens among them, shame on you.
8
You gotta love the irony. But hey, marginalizing minorities while fostering the notion that a native group is superior has always worked out well in the past, right?
Oh wait. . .
7
There is another point about the Jews in Israel that should not be glossed over. When the U.N. agreed to allow the Jews to return to their ancient state, they--including many exhausted Holocaust survivors --were met with guns and bullets, as all their neighbors united to drive them out, into the sea if need be.
That they survived seemed miraculous to many. And since that time Jews in Israel have constantly been surrounded by threat of annihilation. The intifadas which targeted civilians and the current spate of fireballs carried by kites to destroy Israeli farms and the frequent shelling of the Israeli South are nothing new. Israel is surrounded by hatred and serious existential threats. If in this environment the Israelis turn to a stronger nationalism which shouts out their right to survive in their own land they should be understood and not rebuffed. If their neighbors extended a warm hand of friendship there would be less cause for this proclamation and more acceptance of real equality.
17
None of the commenters here would object to a declaration from France that it is the nation-state of the French, or Germany for Germans, or Russians for Russia, or China for Chinese, even though it is taken for granted that many different minorities exist and enjoy (or should enjoy) equal human rights in those countries. None of them would object to the many countries who have official state including England, with its Anglican Church. But when it comes to Jews, liberating their ancient homeland in order to survive -- that's problematic especially for the Western world. This double standard is fully expressed by many on the left, in spite of Israel's assiduous and diligent promotion of equal rights for all of its citizens, (although not those in occupied territories who still express the wish for the Jewish state to be abolished in war.)
I would suggest that this double standard derives from the ancient double standard applied by the Western Christianized and Islamicized world view deriving reallyl from the time of Christ, if not before which states, namely, that the Jews are a people rejected by God, and forever banished from the Promised Land the "wandering Jew" as it were, for their sins, including deicide. This is the anti-Judaism of the West. This is the basis for non-Jewish hatred of Jews, AND the apologetic nature of the Jewish left which eschews any expression of nationhood or history. All commenters condemning this move should take this into account.
19
According to Hillel the essential principle of the Torah is empathy. Judaism according to the Likud is a gated community.
5
This law does NOT make Israel a theocracy! Israel actually has no official religion.
The following countries are Muslim states *and* have Islam as the official religion: Pakistan, Mauritania, Afghanistan, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and Oman. The following countries have Islam as the official religion: Western Sahara, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, U.A.E., Malaysia, Bangladesh, Brunei, and Somalia.
The following have Christianity as the official/state religion: Costa Rica, Liechtenstein, Malta, Monaco, United Kingdom, Isle of Man, Jersey, Tuvalu, Denmark, Faroe Islands, Greenland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, and Samoa.
The following countries have Buddhism as the official religion: Bhutan, and Cambodia; however, the constitutions of Laos, Sri Lanka, and Thailand give Buddhism "special privileges”.
I expect everyone protesting the existence/declaration of Israel as a Jewish state to be equally upset with the laws and constitutions of every other country listed in this post.
17
I wonder how many here have actually read the law when repeating the claim that it homehow detracts from Israel's commitment to democratic principles or subverts the Declaration of Independence; and how many are simply parroting the statements in the article.
9
Any Jewish person commenting here has full rights to go to Israel and become an Israeli voter. An influx of just 300,000 liberal American and Canadian Jews would change Israel's politics for a generation. Likud would be history. The reason that any Jewish person can go there is because Israel is the national home of the Jewish people, just like Jerusalem is the capital. That does not mean that others cannot live there, or that East Jerusalem may become a Palestinian state capital. What this law does is put reality front and center, which is exactly where reality belongs.
8
Perhaps the 20% of Israel's population that are Palestinian could be allocated 20% of the state of Israel plus the entire West Bank and Gaza to form a nation where they will not be marked as second class citizens due only to their ethnicity or their religion.
What a weird digression Israel has chosen, to go from an idealistic young democracy to a cheap tin horn theocracy.
The occupation resulting from the 1967 war has acted as an acid corroding the entire fabric of Israel until it has become the antithesis of what it hoped to me.
It's really quite pathetic.
5
Winston Churchill said that the worst thing about war is it makes us like (similar) to our enemies. Why can’t Israel understand the current law is a long step into the past?
As a Jew I am saddened and ashamed.
7
What Jewish people? There's no such thing. It's like saying Muslim people or Catholic people. There's no definition or agreement concerning what a Jew is or who is a Jew. This law is therefore window dressing to annex what are occupied territories, including half of Jerusalem. This law is an affront to all law abiding Arabic Christians and Muslims in Israel proper not to leave out the Druze that have been loyal to Israel. They are now second-class citizens at best. This law codifies Apartheid in Israel and flies in the face of international law and numerous U.N. resolutions. If Israel was really serious about peace, it would have followed the Arab League Peace Plan, first promulgated in 2002 and unanimously twice ratified since. The plan calls for mutually agreed to land swaps with the Green Line as the starting border. The world keeps waiting for Israel to respond.
4
For all those pretending that this law turns Israel into a theocracy, it doesn’t. Aside from the fact that nowhere is Judaism enshrined as the state religion, even if it did, that alone would not make it a theocracy. This law, as another commentator pointed out, does no more than state the obvious which was contemplated all along by the international community in the League of Nations Mandate for Palestine of 1922. The Jewish people had a right to return, settle and exercise their right to self-determination in their historical homeland, of which current day Israel comprises less than a quarter. What, frankly, is the big deal behind the fact we are discussing Jews?
For those interested enough to learn which countries actually have either an official or state religion, the list is quite long and few of those countries are actual theocracies.
https://simple.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_religion
12
It is not possible to be a religiously based nation and a democracy. This is true of Israel, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United States. Once you speak of an Islamic republic, or a Jewish State, or a Christian nation, discrimination is inevitable and democracy is impossible.
5
This is the fundamental problem with establishing a democracy on the basis of religion (Judaism). You cannot have a true and equal democracy that is based in religion. Israel’s founders were aspirational about equality given it’s set up as a democracy. But Israel was founded as place for Jewish people to “safely” live. I understand that it was born out of a worldwide “mea culpa” after the Holocaust because many nations (including the US) did nothing or almost nothing. But it is inherently problematic when it comes to equality. And the world turned a blind eye to displacing people (mostly Arab) who already lived there.
I am Jewish and went to a Jewish day school and was fed, what I truly believe is, propaganda about Israel. The Jewish people have often said that we understand suffering given our history of oppression. This reality has been used to justify oppression of Palestinians. And Jews have a huge blind spot to this fact. We have become our oppressors and this action proves this even more.
5
As a Roman Catholic & an American ,I have diametrically opposed views of Isreali "democracy". As a Roman Catholic , I abide by 2nd Ecumenical Council,all humans have a right to heaven . As followers of Jesus Christ ,I lay claim to being a Jew ,in the same vain that Jesus Christ ,the twelve Apostles ,& all proceeding generation of Christians are all Jews. This is in the same vein as many Ashkenazys . I believe that the God,when he established "chosen people" was choosing only those at the time ,not for all time. Too many Jews,like too many Catholics & Christians ,etc., have deceptive beliefs of superiority ,of "being chosen" ,as if superior. This was clarified by the Messiah ,Jesus Christ ,as being bigoted & not in keeping with God the father. The second covenant with God is in the New Testament ,among many other inspired scriptures. So as a Jew,follower of Jesus Christ, I find the exclusivity of Isreal a heresy. Even in 1947-48, over 14,000 American rabbis protested the Isreali constitution over its exclusivity & an anathema to democracy. Jesus Christ died on the cross for all of our sins.Not exclusive to anyone.I believe Isreal is falling into paganism,claiming that this earth was given only to one people.If you read the Old Testament ,how many figures portrayed in it would be excluded by Isreal as Isreallis. Hannah Arendt was right,as soon as you adopt exclusionary laws,you are travelling the road the National Socialists did in their practices.Democracy is Gods gift to all.
2
I cannot imagine why any Jewish group would support a decision which will promote anti Semitism the way this decision will do.
It is simply a bizarre action. The Jewish people have already, historically, been the targets of others and instead of learning the lessons of history, they are encouraging history to repeat itself.
5
Big mistake. The meshuganah are in control in the Knesset. This flies in the face of basic Jewish wisdom and compassion. It's racial and religious intolerance by any other name and invites reciprocal legislation and/or reinforcement of religious and ethnic divides from decidedly non-Jewish states like, oh, say, Iran? How odd is it that Judaism has survived over two millennium of anti-semitism and persecution on just about every continent on Earth without this law to protect it. I'll never be ashamed of being Jewish but I'm for sure ashamed about this law and it's ramifications.
3
This is a great day for all Jews. However, I do worry about secular Jews in Israel and the rising power of the Rabbinate. The world does not need a Jewish Iran.
1
how different is that from Islamic Republic of Iran, Turkey, Saudi Arabia..etc!
This is just isolationist practices.
I am an American Reform Jew, but not considered to be Jewish enough by the current government of Israel. That country must continue to exist, but its government, like ours in America, drastically needs to be changed, and quickly, too. Netanyahu seems to me the third leg of a stool with the other two being Trump and Putin, and that is not a stool that anyone in the world should wish to sit on. I mourn for the loss of both the America and the Israel that I was raised to believe in.
2
Many seem to forget, six Arab Nations attacked Israel in the 60s. Israel responded by kicking their tails. If you were a people who have been downtrodden for thousands of years by others, you might behave a little differently too. Israel was created after World War II by the Allied powers. They are a Sovereign Nation and have as much right to run their country the way they want, as the rest of us.
3
Good job, Jared. You have given birth to yet another regional war in the Middle East.
2
Reminds me a bit of Germany way back when. Rather ironic. Haven’t we been down this road before?
4
DNA encoding is insideous in that DNA's core success is that it propogates and persists. Yet, in us, the encoding finds redemption in the best aspects of humanity. To turn our backs on selfless, shared humanity is to accept the evils that we, as mere carriers of the insideous code sequence so often commit. How ironic that any nation who believes itself to be uniquly constituted by a great and invisible power should conduct themselves as mere vessels for the code. We all suffer from the same potential for meaninglessness, as mere code bearers, and each of us must find a way to win the great internal battle, and find our humanity
3
Speaking from the point of view of an Atheist when the Hebrews invented Jehovah and then proclaimed he promised them Israel they completed a circular fiction. Many Americans support the State of Israel because they are caught up in the same fiction. I guess it is worth adding a couple of epistemological statements at this point: No belief is true. Beliefs are simply propositions that people choose to act upon as if they really were true. And no story is true. All stories are fiction. If it has a beginning, a middle and an end it is a fiction just like tales of the promised land. Israel is Chutzpa of the worst kind.
4
Youngest nation-state in league history?
Didn't the Germans try something like this w/ horrific consequences not too long ago? You would think we would learn but we never really do.
4
What will Israel do now with the Galilee where Israeli Arab citizens are a majority?
Will Jewish settlements be refocused internally to the Galilee rather than Samaria?
What will the US, Germany, France, Sweden and the UK do if Israeli Arabs, holding Israeli passports, start taking flights to leave Israel and apply for political asylum on landing?
Would Israel revoke the Israeli citizenship of Israeli Arabs, rendering them stateless, to keep them off airplanes?
Will the American Jewish community again defend the persecuted?
3
Thanks Trump! He's such a chaos generating machine. Netanyahu and his ilk would never have tried this without Trump leading the way. Is this part of Jared's plan to fix the Middle East?
People can say that is was just codifying what was already general practice but it will have the similar but much worse negative effects that placing "English Only" signs do in certain parts of the US. It is the attitude that inflames.
3
No surprise this, unless you haven't been paying attention for 20 years. Israel's gonna do what Israel's gonna do, certain trends have been perfectly clear.
Israel aside, considering all nations; if you study the humanities, science, and history, you know very well that god worship and religious thinking are crazed expressions of the worst weaknesses of human nature and so should not be given governing power. You also know that tribalism is to be avoided diluted or diminished by any society that can. The negatives of these two unfortunate human tendencies are well proven (whatever PC types wish to declare). These truths have come to light not out of bias but based on the most sincere and unbiased interest in the well being of any people. You might say they constitute "basic law" for civilization.
3
Lots of draconian comments, going along with the "incendiary move" phrase early in this article. How many countries in Europe have political parties called Christian? Why does Switzerland sport a cross on its flag? Why does England have an official church? And these are all democracies. Then there are numerous Moslem majority countries whose official religion is what?
Get off it. Israel is the Jewish state, the nation state of the Jewish people. While I haven't read the details of the law, it's similar to the law granting automatic return of a Jew from anywhere else. Both laws are to protect foreign Jews, including non-orthodox conversions performed outside of Israel, if they need it. It's also a way to deter the Palestinian demand of "returning" over 5 million "refugee" descendants, which is what really upsets the Arab parties. It will deter the family unification which many Palestinians use by marrying an Israeli Arab, politically motivated marriages.
Has any Arab country done anything to "restore" the rights of the Jews who fled those countries in 1948, let alone their descendants? Nobody gives a hoot to those Jewish refugees, who lost everything when they ran for their lives, or were forcibly expelled. Jews are not allowed in multiple countries, period.
13
The people who have been steadfastly denying that Israel is on its way to becoming an apartheid state are again proven wrong, and more solidly so than ever.
Why is the US Congress so silent about the misrule of the dangerous extremist Netanyahu?
2
Russians and Republicans belong together, and Israel is happy to have friends and lapdogs like the United States. The Jewish State is bound for war with the region. The grave is fully dug now.
1
Okay, Israel, please don't expect me to offer up my children or grandchildren to support your theocracy.
3
The oppressed becomes the oppresser
5
It is disappointedly ignorant that to protect Israeli Jews's from future discrimination (if they become a minority) the plan is state authorized discrimination. Short-sighted, cruel and dumb!
3
Duh, no surprise. Israel faces their very existence daily. As we see, Israel flourish's for their own. While we have enemies, I don't rise every morning knowing my neighbors want to annihilate me. So Jews don't encourage immigration of suspected folks who would do them harm.
4
Imagine what the Middle East would look like if an American president reconsidered US aid to Israel. Like “ta ta les” Israel would run to negotiate a settlement with Palestinians. The Israelis like to talk big but they’re nothing without US money. American Jews, where are you?
4
The Jews negotiated when they had nothing. The Palestinian Arabs walked away & it’s been downhill for them ever since 1948. The thing you don’t understand is that the Israelis would find a way without US dollars. That lack of understanding will always work in Israel’s favor.
6
Comparable to Alabama governor declaring the state will privelege it's Black residents over all others or Montana announcing itself as the exclusive "home" for White folks. What's next for Israel? Banning Jews who disagree? Oh wait, Israel already has begun to do that. Any racist law code is a moral and ethical non-starter.
4
This policy is the fruit of the poisoned tree of occupation, an occupation that has lasted 51 years. Israel has devolved from a budding democracy into an apartheid state.
7
Long overdue, congrats Israel
7
Greg,
While I am disheartened and concerned with this news your hyperbole is beyond the pale.
You find the creation of Israel the greatest and most costly mistake of the 20th century?
Not the rise of Hitler?
Not the chain of events that led to WWI or the British and French decisions after the WWI (like the Versailles treaty or theIr arbitrary and capricious division of the middle east)?
Or Pol Pot? Or Stalin? Or Mao and the Cultural Revolution?
Across all the blood and atrocities (including those of France in Indochina and Algeria) you think the creation of Israel the worst?
It is comments such as yours that show the reason Israel must exist
17
Not worse than Hitler but should not exist as it is now. Truman's biggest mistake. A country founded by terrorists and continued oppression not likely to be resolved for hundreds of years.
5
This new law is inconsistent with American values. We support Israel because it is supposed to be a beacon of democracy. It is time to reevaluate this relationship.
6
We ignore international law and United Nations Resolutions at our own peril. Without these controls on the zealous in power, we will dense into chaos.
No where do I read discussion of how this new Israeli law will in direct conflict with international law and UN Resolutions as they apply to the occupied West Bank (State of Palestine) and the Palestinian's right of return.
5
GOOD WORK!
This should help peace efforts immensely.
2
Well then, it isn't a democracy.
5
How many have read the new law? Pretty mild, considering that Jews have had a right to move there and obtain citizenship from the beginning. Hebrew was always the primary language, and the signs in Hebrew, Arabic, English aren't going to change. There is far more language discrimination in Quebec than Israel. As to increased Jewish settlement? All that means is that the Israeli Arabs in the north or south of the country cannot protest the building of new, Jewish communities, which they have, often thru intimidation, until now. Israel is not run as a theocracy; secularists do as they please on Saturday and Jewish holidays. Nor is it apartheid, for reasons even the anti-Israel crowd knows fully well. Democracy is alive and well there, though I do understand some of the Druze may feel somewhat perturbed by the law. The law changes little, but it's a strong, necessary statement to the Palestinians who still demand their right of return: forget it, ain't happening, ever. Rightly so.
So, before condemning the one tiny Jewish country, ask yourself, why so many Muslim countries, Christian countries/political parties/official religions, in democracies across Europe. Not good enough for the goose?
16
@Rosalie Lieberman. There is only one Christian country as far as I know. The one that puts "In God We Trust" on its banknotes and requires incoming presidents to swear the oath on a Bible.
2
@Rosalie Lieberman
The Druse are feeling more than "somewhat perturbed."
And many young Druse men have given their lives
to protect us Israelis! The status of Israel as a Jewish state with the flag and national anthem is defined in the Declaration of Independence. A new law is unnecessary. We are not only a Jewish state we are a Democracy with a substantial non-Jewish minority whose rights need to be protected.
3
@Rosalie Lieberman
"from the beginning"... Do you mean when Abraham was in Iraq? Until they start treating the original inhabitants of the region with humanity. this "tiny---country" has my implacable opposition.
3
What happened here is a natural outgrowth of the premises underlying the creation of the State of Israel in 1948, so it should come as no surprise. All of the non-Jews who up to now have rights of citizenship in Israel may now be concerned about what the future holds for them. As well, a little mentioned *detail* in this law is that all of Jerusalem is claimed for Israel. This contravenes the international understandings and arrangements upon which the State was created and supported - up to now - and probably precludes any real possibility of an Israel-Palestine settlement any time soon.
10
Now it can no longer claim to be the only true democracy in the region. Sad.
14
What bothers me about this comment is that a "true democracy" has never existed and probably never can. Even in ancient Athens there was slavery and the vote limited to those born as citizens; naturalization was impossible. In every democratic government there have always been Orwellian pigs who were "more equal". All over the world, and especially in America-- the importance of money in current elections tilts the balance of power towards the very wealthy. In America today there is gerrymandering, the primary where only dedicated party members vote , the electoral system which tilts electoral clout towards the least populated states--weakening the impact of heavily populated states. Consider that a small state with a population of 100,000 will still have an electoral vote of 3, whereas a bigger state with a population of 1 million (10 times as much) will only have 12 e.v. ( 2 for its senators, and 10 times as much for the rep. part) so that the large state will only have a fourfold increase in total impact in spite of having a tenfold increase in population. The government in power can also make it difficult for all citizens to vote with ease--making it harder--longer waiting time, fewer places to vote, and limits on voting hours and stopping early voting. To manipulate the vote is not too difficult. The closest to a"true democracy" we might achieve is a government where more people educate themselves about what's at stake in the election and come out to vote.
3
As a Jewish American I have to say that I don't consider Israel my "homeland." In the days when it was being settled by Jewish pioneers, I felt hopeful that it could exist as a biracial democracy. That hope has been dashed by the callous way the Arabic population of both Israel and the Palestinian states that were at one time supposed to constitute an autonomous Palestinian homeland.
I deeply resent a government that presumes to tell Jews all over the world that this is their homeland.
14
Isn't this kind of policy going on, in one way or another, all over the world? Right wing immigration policies in democratic countries and Muslim-Hindu conflicts in India to name a few. In the latter, the government sponsors right-wing groups to thrive. Democracies are fragile entities that are manipulated by their leaders to look like democracies but act like autocracies.
Israel no longer stands out as a bastion of democracy. It has joined the race towards a state of religious or racial purity.
16
@Gloria Hanson
Many people need to understand what national socialism is,as implemented by the Nazis. That human rights are exclusive to one people & one nation,& all others peoples are unnecessary & need to be removed from society or from having protected human rights simply because they are not "chosen". A democracy, a "true" democracy does not take away anyone's human rights or claim being more human than others. So ,no, Isreal ceased as a democracy as soon as anyone else in Isreal who is not the "right" kind of Jew was excluded. We are all Jews.
2
I've always felt that the U.S. Constitution is too hard to amend, requiring a 2/3 vote in Congress and ratification by 3/4 of the states. But if it's really possible to change Israel's "Basic Law" with a simple majority vote of the legislature, that's WAY too easy. (I shudder to imagine what Constitutional amendments we'd have today under such a system).
The only comforting thing is that if it's easy to amend, it should be equally easy to reverse. Assuming Israel can avoid the descent into outright fascism (which this law seems to encourage), a more moderate government can someday get rid of this law.
11
Jared Kushner co-authored an op-ed that was just posted to the Washington Post website that essentially says that peace in Israel depends wholly on Hamas - “Peace will provide opportunity to break this stalemate, and peace will be achieved only by (Hamas) embracing reality and dismissing a flawed ideology.”
Now that the embassy been moved, this new basic law passed, and Jarad has solved the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, how long will it be before Trump declares complete victory and ends US aid to Israel?
After all, cutting aid would be a big hit with Trump’s far-right supporters - especially if coached in terms of saving money to shore up Social Security. And there’s also the perennial argument that any nation that can afford universal healthcare (and is now talking about launching a lunar space program) no longer needs our financial support.
Here’s a link to the op-ed: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/help-is-at-hand-for-palestinians...
9
We should be stopping aid to shore up social security. That makes total sense to me. I’d rather help Americans with my tax dollars than support what is going on in Israel today.
4
My heart is in the East, and it weeps.
4
Unfortunately, a good piece of reporting and writing, about an even more unfortunate situation.
If I had written it, however, I would have put the second paragraph first - lest anyone think that most Israelis are happy with this new "basic law." I would also have mentioned that July 19, 2018, will go down in history as a black day for us centrists and leftists, both because of this travesty and the unprecedented arrest of a Conservative rabbi for having conducted a wedding not sanctioned by the rabbinate.
Most unfortunate of all, I often don't even recognize the country I emigrated to 47 years ago.
21
The law itself was enacted for one reason only - a declarative one. No court can use this law in practice to make Arabs inferior than Jews, the wording of the law is just to weak for that kind of legal action.
After being criticized by many of it's voters for not doing enough on the national level, the coalition wanted to at least give the illusion of doing something. The law is just another law that was enacted to make the right wing satisfied with the current, weak coalition, as election year is coming at full swing.
The law is bad and declares another victory in the battle of "Jewish Vs. Democratic", but there is not a big reason to worry, yet.
5
@Daniel Sorry Daniel, there already was a big reason to worry, this just exacerbates it.
A simple visit to Israel makes the Apartheid policies in practice there obvious to even a casual observer. The Arab minority is not accepted as equals in the lands they were driven from in 1948; this law bears witness to my statement.
Bibi always manages to present Israel as a victim state which works well with the right wing politicians of the US rushing to the rescue supplying arms and money on a regular basis while ignoring the plight of our own underclass. I was all for assisting Israel in their time of need, but Israel needs to stop digging the hole they are in deeper by creating a fascist theocratic state and do something meaningful for their underclass, the Palestinians.
4
Act so that the maxim of your action would be adjudged a universal rule.
Morality and religion don't always pursue the same goal. When they don't, that's a problem . . .
2
So if they are not a democracy we don't have to give them aid anymore?
14
This is just another illustration how quickly we human beings forget the trespasses of the past against us to trespass against others today. Neither memory nor morality nor our own civil laws seem to save us from ourselves.
7
Theocracies don't fare well. This is just another bit of proof of the power of the orthodox and ultra-orthodox in Israel. It bodes ill for minorities and women and just plain old atheists,agnostics and progressive thinkers. It boxes in the practices of what should be, and was, a progressive state. It puts women in precarious positions, it puts Israeli Arabs at opposite poles with what is no longer extremism, but accepted state thought. It may very well be end of democracy in Israel, but wasn't it heading that way anyway? Religion is just so divisive.
10
Actually, these are right-wing not-very-religious people. It’s not the orthodox that are behind this, it’s the fascists (compare Trump, who isn’t religious..). In any case this law is formalizing the de facto situation that has been going on since ‘48.
2
I fail to see how Israel can be both a democracy and a theocratic/ethnic state. As such Israel would remain a foreign object embodied in the underbelly of the Middle East - no better than the sunni or shiah theocracies such as Saudi Arabia or Iran wherein one's religion counts for more than one's citizenship. Here in the US I see a similar threat from those who claim the US to be a "Christian" nation. Separation of church and state should be a universal ideal, espoused by peoples of all faiths and unbelievers as well.
9
This law changes nothing. The one thing it has achieved is assigning legal basis to the existing status-quo. Even stripping Arabic of its official status as a second language means nothing since Arabic has never been in use in its former capacity, even less so than Spain in USA.
3
Then why pass it? If it means nothing?
3
Israel is a religious state, not a democracy.
26
@Jordan Davies
No - it still has democratic characteristics (an independent judiciary, free elections, freedom of worship, speech and assembly). The Prime Minister is himself secular and Israeli Arabs serve in the Knesset (parliament). No one is forced to go to the synagogue and non-kosher food is available.
4
@Jordan Davies
Multiple countries in the EU have state religions, including the UK, where the head of state must be a member of the state Church.
Israel - even with this law - hasn't established a state religion, so it is by no means a theocracy.
The law in question gives national status to the Jewish people, not the Jewish religion.
4
Mr. Friedman has pointed out that Israel can't indefinitely remain both a Jewish state and a democracy.
Their democratic status has been among the most solid objective arguments for the US's continued support.
In their defense, there seems to be a lot of self-defeating actions going on among liberal democracies lately.
24
@John Mr. Friedman is not up to date regarding demographic trends, in fact he is two decades out of date but that doesn't stop him or others repeating the erroneous claim.
1
I too, am dismayed by this turn away from true democracy by Israel. It is more evidence of the understandable nationalistic reaction against the homogenizing influence of the globalization of finance, industry, culture, and even morality wrought by the communication revolution. The pendulum will swing back. I invite the angry commenters here, though, to contemplate what is so different about this theocratic move by Israel and the changes in Turkey under Erdoğan.
12
@Epistemology
Gee, I don't know. Do the Turks have enormously wealthy and powerful lobbying groups in DC that very effectively promote their interests over those of America in Congress?
12
There's no difference between Erdogan's Turkey & Netanyahu's Israel in moral terms. It's only that if you're Jewish, the Israeli turn toward religious autocracy is more disappointing.
2
Now its a theocracy...apartheid is coming.
102
Isn’t it already there pretty much?
4
To read some of the negative comments, you’d think that the Jewish people were never victims of conquest, exile, inquisitions, pogroms, genocide... ongoing attempts at genocide...ongoing terrorism, bigotry, and delegitimization.
But they were...and still are....hence, the ‘reconstitution’ of the Jewish homeland upon their own indigenous ground...nation state of the Jewish people. Israel.
60
Yes. The Jews are without question the victims of brutal racism and historic and unparalleled genocide. Half of my blood hails from the same. But creating a non-democratic state that favors a singular “people” and oppresses the minority is not the answer. Israelis could instead look to Nelson Mandela for an example of the victory of righteousness over hatred. Benjamin Netanyahu and Zionism will only bring more bloodshed.
58
Exactly. So you would think that having been through soo much, that such a painful history, would have taught them something about all this and given them some perspective...
6
Quite frankly I think the establishment of a "Jewish" state marks the beginning of the end of any sympathy remaining for the descendants of the Holocaust. How long will it be until the Christian/Muslim inhabitants of this self-proclaimed Jewish state are assigned to their own prospective concentration camps?
2
I am Jewish and I feel there are other stronger ways to show your pride and human dignity than taking a prideful path, and appearing to show less regard for non-Jewish citizens. Israel is a great nation and could be even greater by extending Jewish hands to non-Jews as citizen neighbors. It is not too much to ask to be as human as possible. Israel is Israel, all its citizens are Israeli. This is greatness. It is in the heart, a name change does little to truly enhance the human condition. We Jews should already be proud.
66
@Berkeleyalive Israel is like Nazi Germany and it makes me ashamed. I wanted to raise my kids Jewish and I asked the rabbis to stop pushing Israel into everything as they themselves admit Israel is terrible when you speak to them privately but they wont cause everyone is scared to speak up. Hence I stopped going and my kids dont have their heritage. No decent person can be proud of being Jewish when the facts of Israeli cruelty are placed on the table. Muslims dont have to hear lectures about how great isis is why do decent Jews have to be subjected to Israeli flag waving?
5
@Berkeleyalive I hate to break it to you: Israeli non-Jews are equal rights citizens. There are Arab members of parliament as well as many judges including a supreme court judge.
Israel is doing what it needs to do. In fact, this law is just spelling out what it is said in Israel's declaration of independence, so the whole issue is kind of old news, isn't it?
3
July 19, 2018
Asking to live a bipolarity in the world of national politics is not a best plan of action for the living document of statehood. Either the divine warrants or the people tolerate living in what can only be understood as heaven or earth - This solution ins beyond the reason of politics and yet keep trying to figure it out as there is nothing else to narrative to the world of universal humanity.
3
Dwindling distinction between Baby Boomer short-term strategic gain and a garden-variety cult compound philosophy.
17
Israel was founded to be the nation state of the Jewish people. I have no problem with a country rededicating itself to its core reason for being. It is as if we rededicated ourselves to a government whose purpose was to preserve and protect Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. Come to think of it, that wouldn’t be a bad idea.
There is no country on earth, including the United States, where Arabs have so much safety as a protected minority, civil and religious freedom, political sway in the legilature, government funded schools and services that they run in Arabic according to local and religious tradition, serve on the Supreme Court (let alone there actually having an independent Supreme Court) etc. as all the above is the case in Israel. Arabs in Israel are full citizens and today’s news doesn’t change that one bit. Of the 22 Arab states, is there one where that statement would be true?
If one is a non-Jewish minority in Israel, they live by choice in the only first-world country in the Middle East, a country created from scratch less than one lifetime ago.
I’d challenge anyone who comments that Israel is an apartheid state to indicate (no proof required) whether he/she has ever spent 24 hours in the country. It’s an absurd allegation.
87
I spent two weeks in Israel and the treatment of Palestinians I witnessed called to mind apartheid as it existed in South Africa. What I witnessed made me angry, caused me to shed tears of sorrow and to feel shame at the actions of some of my own people. Israel has many good points, human rights for Palestinians is not one of them. As a result of my experiences in Israel, I am a firm supporter of BDS. I would very much like to return to volunteer as a physician in a Palestinian community in Gaza but I am advised that those with my views are no longer welcome by the Israeli government. To me, such a stance defines the Yiddish term “shandeh” (shame or disgrace) that I heard my grandparents’ generation use when I was growing up 50 years ago.
11
@J.B
I Arabs were truly safe, they wouldn't need to be a protected minority.
@J. I call your challenge. It was an apartheid state even in 1999 when I spent a week - traveling [mostly on business] between Tel Aviv, Haifa, Jerusalem, and a few others I dont recall. It had to be an apartheid state because of its oppression of the Arabs and its arrogance - triggering acts of violence where the Arabs have no weapons to match IDF, and so have NO CHOICE but terror by suicide bombers etc.
Treat the Arabs like humans - dignity. Isarel can live in peace. Or suffer the uncertainty.
1
Can someone please remind me which Arab state offers Jews the same rights as Arabs, or better yet allows Jews to live in their country? If the Jewish people do not provide a home for their own, who will?
89
Is that the standard by which we decide if something is moral? Whether other people are doing it or not?
77
@Charlie
The modern concept of Statehood is arguably the single most counterproductive obstacle to peace between the people indigenous to the Levant. Prior to the creation of Mandatory Palestine, the greatest threat to all of the locals had generally come from the Crusaders.
@Maria
That’s a ridiculous argument, especially if we’re talking about the overwhelming majority of Muslim countries, which comprise over 99% of the Middle East.
1
A millennium from now the school children will learn about causes of the Third World War and the Second Dark Ages that followed. This declaration will be cited as a cause.
Thankfully I have already been to war a couple of times so I should at least be able to avoid Trump's draft call up to support our "ally".
29
@Jason
Where do you get this dark vision from? 7 EU countries have similar nation-state laws. Several also give language preference to the language of the majority ethnic group.
In Spain, not only is Spanish the official language, but all citizens are required to learn it. In Ireland, Gaelic is given preference, even though few speak it.
So again, how is this law the beginning of some dark age? Really?
6
@DH The fact that other nations may choose to discriminate against others does not make Israel´s far right decision a moral one. And by the way, in Spain people were not allowed to speak Catalon under another far right politician: Francisco Franco. Nowadats, some speak Spanish, and others Catalán, Basque, etc. And learning any language as a governmental requirement is not the issue here. It is the discrimination against others who reside in Israel.
1
Israel, even under a Trumpanik like Bibi, is still the only democracy in the entire Middle East and deserves our government’s support and personal condemnation.
It was the rejection of the PLO in favor of Hamas, lit. Violence, that led Israelis to fear a progressive government and get behind a leader as corrupt as Trump.
Bernie Sanders was one of the few candidates for any office in the US who said that he was no fan of Netanyahu. He got 12 million votes.
Are there any other candidates or elected officials who were similarly critical of Netanyahu?
36
He is Israel’s trump.
1
Many- Bibi remains in power through a coalition of those who hate non-Jews as badly as some Americans hate non-Christians, and those Judaic heretics whose claims of supremacy due to their “ultra Orthodoxy” are viewed in Israel the same way radical Charismatic Evangelical Christians are viewed in the US, as models because they believe in behavior far exceeding that considered proper by their holy brooks.
Then again, Bernie is an American, and, like you, I and other Americans have the right to criticize, but not control Israel, as the Russians did, according to our own government, working for the election of, and possibly succeeding in hiving us Donald Trump!
This strengthens the right-wing ultra-Orthodox sector, and will ultimately be damaging not only to Arab citizens of Israel but also to the rights of Jewish women in Israel. (A future of being further squashed under the heel of the rabbinic-ruled family court, excluded from holy places, and kicked off buses.) It will repel Reform Jews, who are not not considered to be Jewish by Orthodox leadership. It will hurt Jews by conversion; most of whom are not recognized as Jews in Israel. What is the expression? Cut off your nose to spite your face?
70
@tmalhab
Nonsense. The law doesn't define Judaism or anyone's Jewishness. It's about national rights, not individual rights.
Reform Jews ARE considered Jewish by the Orthodox-that's exactly what upsets them.
Jews converted outside of Israel, including Reform and Conservative, are recognized by the State of Israel as Jewish. This law changes none of that.
2
This is so sad, and a little terrifying; I fear this will be the end of the Israel experiment, or something far worse.
27
@St George the Dragon slayer
Right, so your proposal is that we go back to a world where only Christian or Muslim countries are allowed to exist. No thanks.
2
@St George the Dragon slayer
Calm down, St. George.
It was said that "Most of Our Fears Never Materialize".
Israel is no better or worse than any other country. In fact that was Herzl's dream that the Jewish State would be no different than any other. Well 70 years after independence and 121 years since the first Zionist congress in Basel we have arrived. The Jewish State has declared itself It is no better or worse than any other state and I would say that Israel's democratic institutions are all still flourishing with Arabs in parliament, attending Israeli universities , and participating in the Israeli economic miracle. Mazel Tov Israel!!!!
38
@mikemd1
Yes, of course. And in the US there have been many black Americans elected to public office both on the state and federal levels, including the highest office. This of course means racism and discrimination no longer exist in the US.
1
A Theocracy in Israel? That’s exactly what Trump and his far right Christian fanatics want for America. A terrible idea for both countries.
64
As an observant Jew, I am disgusted and dismayed. Netanyahu and his racist, misogynistic gang are intent on destroying everything good that Israel has stood for. He even welcomed Hungary's anti-Semitic leader, Viktor Orban! This is a man who has spewed toxic anti-Semitism in Hungary and made Jews there unsafe. No, Bibi, you do not stand for me and you do not stand for Jewish values. We do not support you.
121
@Beth Berman
This article is about Israel. Heads of state routinely "welcome" other freely elected heads of state: We saw Obama bowing to the Saudi king. Viktor Orban is a populist politician who is extremely popular with the only group that counts; his own fellow citizens. Anyone claiming that he is anti-Semitic should cite at least one of his actions or statements to be believable. Otherwise, we just have to believe leaders of Hungary's thriving Jewish community. Unlike Jews in France, those in Hungary are not leaving their homeland.
2
Can Israel be both a Jewish state and a democracy?
Zionism, meaning a homeland for the Jewish people, is not a radical concept. It was in fact mandated by the League of Nations in 1922 and endorsed by the United Nations is 1947. Today, Israel guarantees freedoms of speech, religion and sexual orientation. Arabs serve in the Israeli Parliament and Supreme Court. Yet, Israel only guarantees immigration to Jews and has adopted many Jewish Laws.
At the end of the day, we should ask whether, in a world where (according to a 2005 Harvard study) there are 42 Christian countries and 29 Muslim countries (Palestine would also be Muslim according to its Basic Law), there is room for a geographically tiny democracy dedicated to the preservation of the Jewish people?
83
Do a little research on Israeli and Palestinian demographics and then ask your question again. Israel can be a democracy or a Jewish state, but not both. Demographics is destiny.
2
Mandated by the British Balfour Declaration of 1918.
@Steven Roth
It's not a matter of being a jewish country, it would be that w/o this law.
The US is not a christian country. It is by population a majority of christians though. That is true for most of the christian nations, one can be of any religion, one doesn't have to be christian. And those countries don't have laws stating they are christian nations.
Quite frankly if the Soviets, western europe, and the US didn't desire the elimination of jews from their countries, jews would never have needed their own country. Though I understand the desire.
And that is why the mandate of '22 and the '47 UN, it was the desire to get rid of the jews in their countries that created those mandates. They had hoped all jews would leave, that is why they did it. It was the anti-semetism of those countries that created Israel.
2
I’d assumed Israel was already designated as the homeland country of the Jews since 1948...
55
Well, at last Bibi is being honest. Israel is not nor ever has been a democracy. It's a theocracy. It is the natural end of Zionism.
70
@Michael O'Malley
Israel was ranked 29 out of 167 on The Economist's Democracy Index.
That's better than Belgium, Greece, Cyprus & at least a dozen other European countries.
The highest Arab state is Tunisia which is ranked 69 & Palestine is 108.
3
@Michael O'Malley
Israel is more democratic than Croatia. Israel's government is democratically elected, Muslims and Christians sit in the Knesset, the courts are not religious, there is a free press with t.v. and radio broadcasts on the Sabbath.
3
The Declaration should have added the term, A Jewish State of necessity. It simply cannot be otherwise or Jewish people are again subject to diaspora alienation and repeat efforts to Final Solution annihilate them.
37
@G. Stoya
Well said
14
Nelson Mandela declared South Africa a country for all its citizens, regardless of race or creed. Israel could have followed his example. Instead, sadly, they followed the example of the South African rulers prior to Mandela.
59
@Jackson
jackson you are making a totally simplistic comparison.
the histories and circumstances in these countries differ greatly.
2
Theocracy is inherently despotic regardless whether it's the Taliban, the Holy Roman Empire, or the Jewish State of Israel. The lengths that people will go through to defend their own egotistical belief in being the sole possessors of "truth" never fails to astound me. The irony is that their overlords don't believe one word of their sacred teachings, but they certainly are proficient at leveraging them to maintain power.
75
@Jason Nowhere is Judaism declared the national religion. You are confusing the religion of the Jews with the kin group known as the Jewish people. Given some of the comments, you are far from alone. Nevertheless, the fact remains Israel has never been and is not becoming a theocracy. Under your definition, those European countries that decalre some version of Christianity to be the state religion, let alone all those Muslim states that declare Islam to be the state religion, must be theocracies. Some are, most are not. But Israel is not even in that category.
2
It is out in the open. Israel is formally an apartheid state.One fifth of the population is not Jewish and do not have the same rights. Israel is not a country for all of its citizens.
102
But they do have the same rights.
What is wrong with one “jewish” country in a world that has multiple“Muslim” and “Christian” countries?
39
@David W
Which exactly are the Christian countries? I though the U.S. and Europe were supposed to welcome floods of diversity, leading to Christians being a minority in less than a century? Everyone claims that is a great thing. I'm a liberal, but that is the right-wing talking point about this, and you are giving it a boost.
Everyone needs to decide what kind of country they want, and it seems reasonable to want to preserve one's culture while letting in immigrants who will clearly be a net gain for the country. This is what people who want reasonable immigration laws enforced want. Why does it always have to be all or nothing? Why can't my fellow liberals, esp. the writers here at the NYT, understand that?
Really ? it's 2018 and you actually want people to accept the notion that any one country can only be for one people, exhalting their rights above all others ? who does that ?!! let's see ....... right, North Korea.
Congratulations "State of Israel", you're in great company. You deserve all the condemnation you're getting for this move towards apartheid.
3
And we will continue to give billions of dollars in US tax payer money to a theocracy? The US was founded as a bull-work against theocracies. This continued support for Israel cannot stand.
(P.S. Netanyahu met with Viktor Orbán of Hungary recently and stated that Orbán was his kind of guy. Trump and Netanyahu are buddies, too. A little insight into the true nature of Israel.)
74
@DaveG
1. Israel isn't a theocracy. Even with this law it has no single recognized government religion, unlike the UK and several other European countries.
2. The US doesn't give money to Israel. It gives armaments. The money itself never leaves the US and goes in the pockets of the US arms producers and their workers.
3. The US wasn't founded as a bulwark against theocracies. It was founded to not have an official religion. The US has had no issue having good relations with countries with official religions and even with theocracies throughout its' history.
2
I see a lot of criticism here from people who I can tell have not met many Israelis and have never walked on the streets of Israel. Israel is far from becoming a theocracy or losing its democracy. Neither the laws nor most of its citizens are religious.
3
Articles such as that and a statement like yours is exactly why there needs to be an Israel. How can you believe that Netanyahu has the power to influence Trump? The only one who can seems to be Putin, and he has more to gain from a weak EU than anyone else.
2
The law sounds awful. It is awful.
But every five hundred years or so, somewhere in the world they try to kill all the Jews. And there are people in Israel who will do everything in their power to maintain a place that is Jewish where Jews can go, no matter what. And they have a point.
45
@david
This won't stop any effort to kill jews (Anti-semetism is up in the US.). Making arabs 2nd class citizens is only more likely to add to efforts to get rid of them.
1
Since when can a state be predicated on one set religious beliefs? It’s one thing to seek asylum after being uprooted from one’s homeland but it is quite another to turn around and then do the exact same thing to those people whose country it is that you came to find such safety. For too long Israel has been given passes because of the (clearly) terrible events transpired during WWII but rather than discuss the actions of other countries as they relate to Israel, it is ironically only Israel itself that can truly understand what it means to be stateless and have once’s culture and homeland slowly eradicated by state government-and that is what makes their behavior towards those non Jewish persons living in Israel even more reprehensible.
37
“Since when can a state be predicated on one set of beliefs?” Let’s see...Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Egypt, Jordan, Gaza, Pakistan... and dozens of other Muslim countries.
35
@Perplexed
Your post shows a rather sad level of ignorance.
Israel isn't predicated on one set of religious beliefs. This law recognizes the Jewish people, not the Jewish religion.
Israel has complete freedom of religion and equality of religious belief.
No one's culture in Israel is being eradicated. The Muslim and other religious minority populations in have full religious freedom and their religious courts are fully recognized in Israeli law.
This law changes none of that, and all the whipped up hysteria and false claims around it are unbelievable.
2
Where's the news here?
Read The Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel, dated May 1948:
"The Land of Israel was the birthplace of the Jewish people. Here their spiritual, religious and political identity was shaped. Here they first attained to statehood, created cultural values of national and universal significance and gave to the world the eternal Book of Books.
After being forcibly exiled from their land, the people kept faith with it throughout their Dispersion and never ceased to pray and hope for their return to it and for the restoration in it of their political freedom.
Impelled by this historic and traditional attachment, Jews strove in every successive generation to re-establish themselves in their ancient homeland. In recent decades they returned in their masses. Pioneers, defiant returnees, and defenders, they made deserts bloom, revived the Hebrew language, built villages and towns, and created a thriving community controlling its own economy and culture, loving peace but knowing how to defend itself, bringing the blessings of progress to all the country's inhabitants, and aspiring towards independent nationhood.
In the year 5657 (1897), at the summons of the spiritual father of the Jewish State, Theodore Herzl, the First Zionist Congress convened and proclaimed the right of the Jewish people to national rebirth in its own country..."
Room does not permit me to copy the whole address here, but I'm sure you get the point.
35
@C Bruckman
Jews left Judea in great numbers 150 years before Titus sacked Jerusalem in 70AD. And Titus expelled some Jews, but let the majority stay. The Romans didn't think Jews made good slaves, they preferred Greek slaves.There were so many Jews in Rome pre-70AD that Tiberius expelled them from Rome (for a short time) not from the land the Romans called Palestine. Mostly, the Jews of the ancient world wandered because they wanted to be where the action was.
2
Kind of amazed at all of the comments calling out other theocracies, presumably under the false impression that the existence of other theocracies justifies the creation of a new one. Moreover, there is a blanket assumption being perpetuated here that people who support BDS are not "BDS-ing" other theocracies. Sigh.
26
Sigh. Look up the word Theocracy. Israel does not run the country according to the Torah.
25
@Humanesque
Israel is not a theocracy - it is not ruled by a priestly class and there is freedom of worship. Elected Christians and Muslims serve in the Knesset. Many Jews here are secular and no one forces them to observe Jewish law.
2
Fears of racism aside, the concern here is that the Israelis are dealing with a numbers game. As a democracy, the government know if that one day, Arabs have a majority vote, the issue of self-governance and identity of Israelis will arise.
For those who don't know the history of Israel, which will likely be most of the people writing incendiary remarks here, it was formed by Jews and Zionists as a Jewish state many decades ago. That isn't exactly news.
1/3 of Palestine was mandated as Israel while the remaining majority is in present day Jordan - as Arab land, NOT for Jews or Zionists.
People can continue to drag Israelis through the mud until they are blue in the face.
Israel is a complicated place and the only place in the middle east Israelis or Jews can live.
There are Israeli Arabs and Arab representation and power in Israeli parliament and most people who deride Israel likely have no clue about that and that Israeli Arabs participate actively in all Israeli institutions equally (education, social services etc.)
Also, the assumption that all Arabs are viewed equally and treated fairly in Arab countries is preposterous.
30
Clueless critics still fail to discern the difference between Jews...a nation, a people...and Judaism...a religion. Declaring Israel a Nation-State of the Jewish people does not make it a theocracy. Is the nation state of the French people a theocracy? How about the nation state of the Italian people?
Acknowledging the self-determination of ‘a people’ finally at home upon their own indigenous ground...a people who’ve been persecuted for millennia ...is worth celebrating. Bravo Israel.
31
And yet the ultra-Orthodox who have a strong hand in Netanyahu’s government are traditionally anti-Zionist sting that Israel should not exist until God calls it to exist.
So what’s your point?
3
@WestSider
Your understanding is limited and blind to history.
The Jewish religion is the national religion of the Jewish people. It's always been so, back to biblical times. National religions are an ancient concept, which Westerners find hard to understand b/c they think of religions such as Christianity and Islam which are universal and not national. But that is a "modern" concept that once didn't exist.
You don't have to accept one word or idea of the Jewish religion to be Jewish, that is be a member of the Jewish nation.
In ancient times Hebrew didn't even have a word for "religion". It had to be invented long after the 5 books of the Torah were written, to fit new Western concepts of what a "religion" is.
The things that make Jews a nation are the same ones that make any other people a nation. Maybe you are too caught up in some limited diaspora concept of what a Jew is to understand that.
How revealing is it that naysayers find objectionable the self-determination of the Jewish Nation upon a tiny fragment of their own indigenous ground...but have no problem with Arab self-determination in neighboring countries that were created via the same Mandate, during the same post-war period.
Antisemitism comes in many disguises...doesn’t it?
48
Israel isn't my "nation state," Jew though I am. I'm an American. No declaration of a foreign government can change that.
37
@abg The German Jews and the Jews of all the Western European countries all said the same thing when Hitler came calling. Even Anne Frank's father considered himself a thoroughly assimilated Dutch citizen. Hitler's definition of a Jew extended as far as one Jewish grandparent out of four and you were a Jew. Our President and the growing, powerful voice of the Evangelical Christians and neo-Nazis or White Supremacists and Holocaust deniers have given me pause for concern...weekly. And my entire family are thoroughly non-secular Jews. I am more worried about what's happening in this country...where are all you brave souls who are so willing to deplore the policies of another country and yet stand around helplessly while a single President is doing as much damage to this country as you claim Bibi is doing to Israel.
@abg
No foreign government is asking you to.
Identity is in the end a choice. You choose to identify nationally as an American instead of as a Jew. Your choice. Lots of people change national identities or have two and in some circumstances have to choose which one to "live under".
@MF You missed my point. My point is that Mr. Netanyahu cannot suddenly co-opt me, making me an Israeli and making Israel my so-called "nation-state," simply through a declaration. I'm an American citizen, not an Israeli citizen, and I resent Israel's sudden assertion to the contrary. A "supporter" of Israel (whatever that is) is not the same as a citizen of Israel. As for the analogy to German Jews, I understand what you're saying. But I'll still be an American citizen when Trump's people cart me off to the gas chamber, a day that sadly seems not far off.
2
Every time the Israelites have fashioned a non-secular state, it fails. And it does not end well. The state of Israel is not even a century old; forged by annexation, it shall not last.
17
@VisaVixen we'll see about that
8
Well, yes, but nothing lasts. Given the climate change, over population, and the new love of dictators around the world, I'd give it a hundred years, max.
4
I am a Jewish American. Israel does not speak for me. It is not my nation, no matter what it may proclaim by law. The United States is my nation.
There are Americans who vote in US elections based firstly on what is best for Israel. To Americans who vote as if Israel's interests are more important than the United States'--I suggest that you relocate to Israel.
69
So now some Israeli citizens are more equal than others?
30
Can we stop giving Israel or money now? And also maybe stop calling it a democracy? Or is there some reason we must keep up both charades forever?
39
@Humanesque
Israel is the freest most Democratic State in the middle east area. It is a strong American ally and the intelligence it gives us on our enemies is priceless. Finally,Israel provides many Jobs for Americans with its mega contracts in the high tech and military fields.
14
@Humanesque
The US doesn't give Israel money. It gives aid in the form of armaments. The money stays in the US and goes to defense contractors and their workers.
Israel doesn't have a single state recognized religion - even with this law - unlike multiple European countries, including the UK.
So what are you complaining about?
1
@Humanesque
Major Gen George Keegan, Jr., former head of USAF Intelligence, said, "Between 1974 and 1990, Israel received $18.3 billion in US military grants. During the same period Israel provided the US with $50 - 80 billion in intelligence, research and development, and Soviet weapons systems captured and transferred to the US."
2
America should weep. Another false democracy exposed and lost to history.
We need to cut off all aid to this religious dictatorship.
30
@ArturoDisVetEsqRet.Before we cut off aid to Israel consider the unemployment that will cause-just sayin
4
@ArturoDisVetEsqRet.
According to Freedom House, Israel's Freedom Status is "Free." Israel is rated "1" (on a scale from 1 to 7 where 1 is most free.) in "political rights" and Israel is rated "2" in Civil Liberties."
Israel is the only state in the Middle East that is rated "Free."
1
I think the Jewish people there are afraid, given their history. Why aren't people as much in an uproar about some Islamic states basically doing the same thing? They are surrounded by Muslim countries who do not tolerate anyone who is not Muslim..I don't care how much claim to love their non-Muslim brothers..they just don't. I pray for the Jewish people of Israel. I am a descendant of African slaves in America (black American) and can understand the fear of not knowing if your neighbor is tolerant of you or not. It's concerning.
32
Congratulations Israel, you are now essentially an apartheid nation.
28
@FilmMD
Besides your sloganeering, how is Israel an apartheid nation? Do you even know the definition of the word "apartheid"?
The law referred to in the article is about national rights, not racial or religious ones. And not about individual rights. No one has had their individual rights changed by this law.
Here's what the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Israel/Palestine said when asked about Israel and apartheid:
“The Red Cross was very familiar with the regime that prevailed in South Africa during the apartheid period, and we are responding to all those who raise their claim of apartheid against Israel: No, there is no apartheid here, no regime of superiority of race, of denial of basic human rights to a group of people because of their alleged racial inferiority. There is a bloody national conflict, whose most prominent and tragic characteristic is its continuation over the years, decades-long, and there is a state of occupation. Not apartheid.”
2
Essentially they no where near that.
The Law does however create bigger political headaches and bad press for Israel.
1
Anchored is the last word I would use to describe the Nation of Israel, adrift would be more appropriate.
14
A shameful disgrace.
27
If you want a nation state you must separate your religion from your government...a non-secular nation state is never a good idea; anywhere...The US is also beginning to demonstrate the inadvisability of an evangelical christian nation state, it is not a good idea in America it is not a good idea in Israel...
30
@William
Most European nations have a State religion, controlled by and / or in partnership with their government.
The situation in Israel is complex, and this may be a bad decision, but it does not on the surface disqualify Israel from remaining a liberal democracy. It would be useful to make a more detailed comparison to France, specifically, which prohibits most non-French cultural expression.
@William
Tell that to the UK and other European nations that have a state religion.
BTW, Israel doesn't have a state religion, even with this law. It isn't a law establishing religion, it's a law about national identity and the Jewish people.
1
"Critics" or "any reasonable person," would say a theocracy diminishes those citizens who do not identify with official religion of said theocracy? Thanks for the fair assessment NY Times. The legacy of your journalistic integrity lives on.
12
@Christopher Narducci Not sure I understand your point, unless you've fallen prey to the popular misconception that the US is a Christian nation. For starters, our founding fathers weren't even themselves Christian. Secondly, while we say things like "Under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance (which I'm against), there are no laws saying that the right of self-determination in America is "unique to the Christian people."
14
@Humanesque
But there are some who are trying to shove our country in that direction.
3
@Christopher Narducci
This Israeli law makes no establishment of religion. It isn't about religion. It's about the saying Israel is the nation-state of the Jewish people.
Israel has no official state religion, even today.
1
This represents a dramatic move towards fulfilling the dream of many (not all) of the original Zionists at work during the time of the Balfour Declaration. Some of the most powerful saw a new state with Jews as the dominant civilization--even race--served by a less human Arab underclass fit only for labor.
We've seen this kind of politics before.
If, as its apologists claim, it's really just an acknowledgement of a superior Jewish civilization more able to employ and therefore gradually civilize backward, more primitive Arabs for their own good, it's only going to work out if and when the Arabs acknowledge their inferiority.
We could wait a long time. In the meantime, there is only pain.
11
I remember several months back, Tom Friedman wrote Israel had a choice, become a Jewish State with a Palestinian majority and in effect becoming an apartheid nation, or become a democracy with all living peacefully together as one nation or two nations. Appears apartheid applies now. Israel perhaps ought to ask South Africa how well that works. The words of the Torah seem to be forgotten. "You are not to pervert justice, either by favoring the poor or by subservience to the great. You are to administer justice to your fellow-countryman with strict fairness." Leviticus 19.15
39
@craig80st
"The Red Cross was very familiar with the regime that prevailed in South Africa during the apartheid period, and we are responding to all those who raise their claim of apartheid against Israel: No, there is no apartheid here, no regime of superiority of race, of denial of basic human rights to a group of people because of their alleged racial inferiority."
1
@craig80st
And I guess you think in the Torah they were against there being a "Jewish" country? I suggest you read it again.
This law has nothing to do with apartheid or even anything to do with what Tom Friedman was writing about.
1
How is this any different from the Muslim-majority nations that by their laws are Islamic states? The only difference I see is in the knee-jerk hypocritical criticism that results when Israel does the same thing the Muslim-majority states do with Islam, only with a Jewish twist.
33
@Dan Bruce Are you actually suggesting that the US government and most of its citizens have NOT been hostile to the existence of Islamic states?!
6
@Dan Bruce
As someone who raised money for Israeli bonds in the early years of the nation, I can tell you the difference -- it is that Israel's founding principle was a respect for democracy as inherent in respect for Jewish law and tradition. The justification for the need for a Jewish homeland was the history of oppression in Europe and never meant to be an excuse for becoming a new oppressor, in turn.
The idea that it would become a theocracy was never thought of.
Also, Judaism is not a prostelitizing religion -- conversion is difficult and not recommended. So, there's not even an option of joining 'em if you can't beat 'em.
23
@Dan Bruce I don't think those muslim-aligned governments are to be admired either. A move in that direction towards a religious government for Israel is a move backwards away from Democracy. This is why so many Israelis-- particularly in Tel Aviv-- appear to be protesting it. It would be good to hear how Israeli's really feel about this-- what percent are opposed to it. Practically the whole article describes criticism to this proposal *from within Israel*. How much is this an idea supported generally by the people and how much is this an idea of a minority right-wing government?
22
Wow, so now Israel is allying itself with Eastern European fascists.
That's disturbing on so many levels.
39
So, how much longer is the US government going to bankroll these activities? Is there anything the Israeli government can do-- anything at all-- that would result in us finally pulling our funding away from it?
25
@WestSider
We give $3.8 billion foreign aid to Israel so that it can buy weapons from us to defend itself. However, we spend even more money to defend other countries, but it’s not called foreign aid. For example, 48,000 active-duty American personnel in Germany to defend Germany at a cost of $7.9 billion…In South Korea, 28,500 American troops to defend South Korea…at a cost of $8.1 billion
50,000 American troops in Japan to defend Japan. The cost is estimated at $2 billion in non-personnel costs alone.
1
@Humanesque
Former Supreme Commander of NATO and U.S. Secretary of State Gen. Alexander Haig described Israel as "the largest US aircraft carrier, which does not require even one US soldier, cannot be sunk, is the most cost-effective and battle-tested, located in a region which is critical to vital US interests. If there would not be an Israel, the US would have to deploy real aircraft carriers, along with tens of thousands of US soldiers, which would cost tens of billions of dollars annually"
1
@m1945
Actually the US doesn't give the aid to Israel. It sends weapons. The money never leaves the US. It goes to defense contractors and their workers.
We have seen this behavior before, in 20th century Europe.
Perhaps America should consider immediately withholding all financial assistance to Israel and denouncing this egregious, prejudicial act in the strongest possible language on the Senate floor? Just a thought.
22
@Lawrence Imboden
Should we denounce countries with established religions
e.g. Denmark (Church of Denmark)
Iceland (Church of Iceland)
Norway (Church of Norway)
Finland (Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland)
Greece (Greek Orthodox Church)
Scotland (Church of Scotland)
England (Church of England)?
2
@m1945
you forgot another country and it's religion:
"United Staes of America" (money)
1
Once again, religion divides, not unites. Freedom From Religion should be a hallmark of all civilized nations.
26
The US taxpayers are still on the hook for subsidizing Israel. The new embassy that Trump said would cost $250,000 will cost $21 million or more.
24
@Jacquie
• The U.S.-Israel free trade agreement (FTA) was America’s first FTA when it was signed on April 22, 1985.
• Over the following 30 years, trade has multiplied tenfold to over $40 billion annually.
• Through government-funded U.S.-Israel collaborative research and development programs in science, energy, agriculture, security, technology, and numerous other areas, America has become a more environmentally friendly, healthier, better fed, more advanced, and financially stronger nation. The lives of people in America and Israel have been tangibly improved because of the two countries’ alliance.
1
So it's settled. The US can stop giving money and aid to Israel now. They can let their GDP do the talking for themselves from now on. I'm all for it!
23
Lets not forget that Israel was formed as the nation-state of the Jewish people because they were presecuted everywhere they lived. It is the only place on earth controlled and defended by Jews. Israel successfully cobbles together Jews from all over the world, of all colors from approximately 200 countries. It does so as successfully as done by any other state. Defending Jews is the sole purpose for this country. Whether the law is well-written I can’t opine but at its core it is correct in its assertion. Not everyone gets what they want – ask the Kurds, Yazidis, Taiwanese, Christians throughout the middle east, etc.
23
This is a deeply antisemitic argument that agrees with nazi thinking that there is no place for Jews in Europe. From that antisemitic premise it somehow derived the “right” of Israel (the state) to perpetrate ethnic cleansing of Arabs. It is sick, deeply revolting “logic”.
17
Imagine the response in Israel if Germany declared it a state for the German people. The Israelis are increasingly adopting the rhetoric of the 1920 and 1930s in Germany. They hate it (justifiably) when they are the victims, but they fail to see that they are becoming what they once despised -- the victimizers. Shame.
31
Trump and his far right cronies would like the US to be a state exclusively for Christians. Not surprising considering the power of the evangelicals.
10
@Tomas I actually think that Israelis do see it-- the analogy to pre WW2 Germany, which is why so many are protesting it, as the article describes.
As in the U.S. it comes down to how much a popular protest can influence the actions of a right-wing government, even if those government actions have nowhere near the approval of the majority.
4
@Tomas
Multiple nations around the world, including 7 European ones, have similar nation-state laws and no one says a word about it.
1
I used to think Jimmy Carter made a terrible mistake calling Israel an apartheid state. I have always been suspect of the idea of a theocratic state but I admired Israel effort to walk the fine line of democracy and equality for all while defining itself as a Jewish homeland.
Jimmy Carter is being proven correct. This new law is being instituted to create separate classes of people by law. It's a despicable step into darkness...
27
WestSider-Haaretz is under attack from the Israeli right. Bibi has a lot in common with Trump and Putin.
1
@HL
The nation Georgia has an official church: Georgian Orthodox Church. Has that created a separate class of people by law?
2
@HL
Nonsense. This law has no relationship to apartheid and isn't about religion.
I suggest you write about a country like the UK that has a single recognized state religion.
Israel has no single state religion. Not even Judaism.
1
Saudi Arabia declares itself to be a sovereign Islamic state and executes anyone who tries to practice another religion. Hindus can't enter Saudi Arabia with their religious books, and Christians can't enter with crosses in baggage.
Israel doesn't do that. They are defining the state as they wish without inconvenience to others.
20
@KnownNonVictim Yes, and these are all reasons many Americans condemn the government of Saudi Arabia.
The concern is that this is a first step on the path to that. (Many would argue that it is actually a 2nd or even greater step; the establishment of those settlements in continuing violation of international law was also pretty Apartheid 101.)
8
@KnownNonVictim
And many of us object to the US having the saudis as allies because they are a dictatorial state. Though they don't execute just anyone for being of another religion. It is against the law to try to convert someone. Jews do not practice that at all, it is christians who run afoul of that law.
Jews are not killed for just being jewish.
But that begs the question, if you object to what the saudis do, then why is Israel declaring jews only is good?
Becoming more of a theocracy like the saudis is not a good thing. Democracy demands freedom. And that means of religion also.
1
Israel now really belong to middle-east. Before today, many thought of Israel as a beacon of democracy in middle-east. Not anymore. Today Israel is another nationalist, fundamentalist government in the region who treats minorities the way they have been treated in biblical times. Back to tribal government.
26
If you want to criticze Israel for declaring itself to be a Jewish state, that's your right but before you do that, it's only fair that you criticize the following countries, most of which are democratic, and all of which have had a state religion for many years (This list does not include any of the more than 20 countries in which Islam is the state religion):
Roman Catholic - Argentina, Bolivia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Liechtenstein, Malta
Eastern Orthodox - Grece, Finland
Lutheran - Denmark, Iceland, Norway, Finland
Presyterian - Scotland
Anglican - England
Buddhism - Bhutan, Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar, Sri Lanka
If you don't know where to start, I suggest doing it alphabetically.
25
That’s like comparing apples with screwdrivers. Completely off the point. These countries you list haven’t declared themselves the state for those people, and if stated as desired, for those people alone.
16
@Jay Orchard And which of the "following states) has written into law a permanent majority of that religion?
13
@Jay Orchard @Greg
Please look up the 7 EU countries that declare themselves to be the nation state of the majority group in that country.
1
And the US continues to bankroll this obvious progression towards apartheid because...???
29
As always, the Times reporters take an entirely symbolic (if stupid) act and turn it in to a condemnation of the Likud, and a moment for hand-wringing. The whole point is that Netanyahu keeps asking if the Palestinians are willing to recognize a Jewish state, as opposed to Israel who the Arabs can continue to undermine. Without Israel also recognizing itself as a Jewish state, how can this be asked?
No one asks if there is a place for non-Anglicans in England, for non-French in France, or any other minority community in most other modern states (of course, the Arab world largely excepted). It is far from universally accepted that Spanish should be an "official" language in the US; in most modern societies there are obviously majority and minority communities; minority communities may be honored, protected, given equal rights--but they will always differ in that they are minorities. Democracy means that there is a balance between unfair and unreasonable exploitation of minorities, and the obvious requirement that a democratic society is primarily responsive to its majority.
12
Can we PLEASE stop giving them our money now? We've already continued to support them even after their abusive settlements and even after the shooting of innocent protesters (and people not protesting but who were present at protests for other reasons, such as a lovely young women in her very early 20s who was simply trying to provide medical assistance to the wounded). Now they are basically announcing their intent to oppress Arabs within the borders of Israel proper-- not just in the settlements. How much more of this tyranny are we going to bankroll?
31
Today’s article, “Israel Passes Law Anchoring Itself as Nation-State of the Jewish People” discusses the new law set addressing Israel as the new Jewish state. As this has been a debate for about seventy years, they have just now come up with a “solution”. At first this might have been seen as a good approach, however the effects of the new law will be the polar opposite.
This demeans the Arab group to second class, leaving them as a “special status”. Arabs make up 21% of about a nine million population. Although they are a minority compared to the Jews they still make up a decent amount. Israel had turned their back on their promise of keeping a democracy when this law was created.
As complicated as this debate is and the fact that the Arab group is degraded, Israel had belonged to the Jews first. Arabs were pushed into Israel by the United Nations after the war when Arabs were fleeing from Europe. The U.N. wanted to separate Israel into two. However, the Arabs argue that they have all rights to the land considering they are descendants of ancestors who were in Israel long before the Jews stepped foot. The history of Israel has come so far since 1948 when this had all started. This law did not do anything, except for cause more tension.
6
@Marlena Gojcaj
Actually it belonged to the arabs until the land was stolen by mandate.
It was not arabs fleeing europe, it was jews who fled europe.
And the arabs are a minority because many of them were forced out of the land when the jews took over using force.
The UN has a directive stating self determination which they voided by stating the arabs had no such rights in ANY of the arab lands. So what right did the UN have to divide the land? None by their own charter. They allowed no self determination in the ME, though by charter and law they were suppose to.
All the land in the ME was mandated by the UN, which has caused the problems we have today there since the arabs have never been allowed to have a say and have been ruled by dictators put into place by the western world.
And yes the arabs had lived there for well over 3000 yrs, longer than jews lived there. The jews are former arabs (not muslim, but both jews and arabs are semitic people. They come from the same stock.).
Those are my disagreements. I agree with you in your 2nd paragraph.
1
It is not clear to me why universal democratic principles are inconsistent with the right of the Jewish people to self-determination. I wonder, in particular, whether these principles are inconsistent with the right of Palestinian Arabs to an independent state. In fact, folks seem to have forgotten that the UN Partition Resolution explicitly endorsed the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine.
Certainly, principles of liberal democracy forbid a state from discriminating against citizens who are members of minority groups on the basis of ethnic or national origin. But the fact of a national identity does not by itself entail such discrimination.
The core component of democracy is that of “rule of the people”. If "the people" refers to all (and only) the citizens of the state, regardless of their national-ethnic origin, and if the people are treated equally under the law, I don't see that there is a conflict.
The odd thing is that folks seem to think that this is unique amongst liberal democracies. It isn't: there are a number of European countries that are generally so regarded but have national identifications. Indeed, that is a core idea of the nation state.
15
Remember all the attacks more than a decade ago on President Carter who used the word “Apartheid” to describe the situation in Israel?
Was he wrong? President Carter is a thoroughly decent and honorable human being.
Israel has today given up any pretense of being a democracy. Of a country believing in equality and minority rights.
Israel now officially is on the road of their own “separate but equal”... aka: Apartheid.
They now have no values in common with the United States.
Come at me, Hasbara...
55
@Patrician It saddens (but does not surprise) me that you can look at a country enacting legislation put forth by a racist, nationalist ultra-right wing party in an effort to preserve white hegemony and feel that none of it corresponds to what's happening in the United States.
6
@Alissa
Please appreciate the difference between a racist position that's enacted into the law of the land (Israel) and loony tunes marching with tiki torches...
I'm not thrilled to see the latter. And, as you can obviously identify me as a liberal from my comment, should be able to understand that I stand against and will resist the right wing nationalists in America.
A law (as in Isreal) institutionalizes discrimination and gives it the protection of the law.
It's a false equivalence.
6
@Patrician
"between 1961 and 2007, the average numbers of years of schooling [of Israeli Arabs] rose from 1.2 to 11.3, which signifies a more than nine fold increase." How many countries or groups anywhere have recorded such dramatic progress?
1
An American Jew's support of Israel is not without self interest. My parents went off to fight in World War II (US Army, US Army Nurse Corps, two Uncles in the US Navy) knowing very well that their relatives would not be allowed to find sanctuary in this country. And that the boys on the East Side were being sent to the Pacific Front, for fear, I suppose, of what our government knew they were going to find out about their relatives in Europe. And it's been a long time since I've trusted all American Jews to not be suicidal; I assume it's some sort of cowardice inspired by deep fear of their neighbors and because they're so very comfortable here. There are 50 majority Muslim nations on this planet. There are 20 Islamic nations on this planet. I need to be certain, for the sake of me and mine, that there is one Jewish refuge on this planet. You do whatever you need to do to survive as a Jewish state, and I know that the Jews of Europe, the Jews of South Africa, someday maybe my descendants, will have a place of refuge. And take heart: 1/3 of Jewish American voters voted Republican this time around. And we have a lot more staying power than the whiners of the Democratic party, which is about to demand that American Jewish Democrats self immolate; just consider the way Diane Feinstein has been treated.
16
The United Nations should have established Israel in the middle of Utah... instead the country exist just where Gen. Marshall knew it would be a troubled place forever. Gods chosen people and their state will first act like the people who previously oppressed them and then their nation will die,all for the right to exist in their sacred patch of sand. Fools
5
"My parents went off to fight in World War II ..."
Hundreds of American Jews fought in WWII. Here is a book and a DVD about some of them:
* "Sons and soldiers : the untold story of the Jews who escaped the Nazis and returned with the U.S. army to fight Hitler" by Bruce Henderson.
* "The Ritchie boys" (DVD).
Further, Jews living in other countries have traveled to Israel to fight for Israel during the several wars since 1948.
2
@Mary
This is explicitly the anti-Semitic position the ADL points out. That Jews have dual loyalty... but you are the Jewish person saying you have dual loyalty!
Does this mean the ADL is wrong? You mean you support American boys dieing just for the sake of Israel without American interests at hand? Uhhh.....
The ADL says that you don’t exist and if you do you as a Jewish person have anti-Semitic views. Hahah so maybe dual loyalties is not an anti-Semitic view but just a regular observation. K!
2
That means any Jew should be able to move to Israel and become a citizen. Is that what they truly believe? Have they even thought this through?
12
@Joe Smith That's always been the law though, hasn't it? I don't think that's a new change.
5
That’s pretty much how it works, actually. It’s called the Law of Return. You have to be able to prove that you are Jewish by the legal (Orthodox) definition and then you can make aliyah.
In the 50s, about 150,000 Iraqi Jews, persecuted by the Iraqi government, moved to Israel. In the 70s and 80s, huge communities of Jewish people persecuted by Soviet Communists emigrated to Israel. Jewish communities in Yemen have emigrated en masse to Israel after facing persecution.
9
"That means any Jew should be able to move to Israel and become a citizen."
The Law of Return was enacted in 1950, so that is nothing new:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_Return
For the text in English, Google "The Law of Return site:knesset.gov.il".
10
Disgusting. And, I'm a Jew.
42
@Bruce
You may be a Jew (as I am) but you are apparently happy to castigate Israel but not other countries that take the same attitude and actions - one common definition of anti-semitism.
Examples of countries that have official or affiliated religions (according to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_religion)
England
Panama
Costa Rica
Malta
Greece
Monaco
Thailand
Sri Lanka
Denmark
Iceland
Hungary
Zambia
Samoa
Egypt
Jordan
Malaysia
Oman
Tunisia
Yemen
do you find all of them disgusting too ?
or is it only Israel ?
By the way, if you were to declare Islam disgusting in several of those countries, you would be executed. I dare you to declare your disgust there publicly.
22
I bet the Mormons running my state are jealous they can't do the same here in Utah.
25
the news is?
6
How dare the Jews. Only Muslim and Christian countries are allowed on this Earth! What makes those Israelis believe that in their less-than-one-percent area of the Middle East (the other 99% is totally Islamic) they can have a haven for Jews to be safe from genocide and holocausts? The nerve!
35
You realize that many people in this forum, won’t get your cynical comment?
6
They just made sure that they’ll never be safe
8
@levitical1948
Yes, the nerve! Israel is the only Jewish state in the world so it should be allowed to do just about anything it wants, no criticism allowed. Well, there is only one Hungarian/Finnish/Belgian/Brazilian etc. etc. state in the world so they should also be allowed to deal with minorities, including Jews, exactly as they please.
11
This only puts it in writing what the Israeli government has been doing with its actions over the last decades. As a Jew, I'm disgusted and sick at heart at what the state of Israel thinks it is doing in MY NAME--being an occupying force and the new apartheid. I will continue to refuse to buy anything from Israel, will not travel to Israel and spend money there, and I damned sure didn't send my kids on that indoctrination free trip to Israel, BIRTHRIGHT, which is paid for by Sheldon Adelson, right-wing Trump supporter. He made the largest single donation ever to an incoming president's inauguration when he gave the Trump inaugural committee five million dollars. Do all the liberal Jewish parents out there know what Birthright is about and who funds your kid's free trip? Sheldon decides what your kid sees, and more important, what your did won't see. Wake up.
36
I always wonder why no one complains about China being a nation state for ethnic Chinese, or japan being a nation state for Japanese. Why is it that when it’s comes to the West (well, Israel is part of the West by proxy), it’s always. “damn if you do, damn if you don’t” on issues of democracy and human rights. And while I have no interest in Israel or its politics in the Middle East, this kind of selective condemnation seems myopic at best, and hypocritical at worst.
19
@tiddle With regard to the West in general, I would argue that colonialism comes with obligations: you break it, you bought it. I hear of very few, if any, people born on the African continent speaking Chinese, but a lot of them are francophone—why shouldn't those people have the right to live among the French people who insisted upon becoming their countrymen by exporting their culture and stealing African resources?
5
@tiddle
There are those complaints all the time. Japan needs more immigrants, the uighgurs are prosecuted in China.
You must need to read more.
You are wrong and pushing a false narrative.
1
I think Israel is preparing to face the ever looming question: are we a democracy or are we a Jewish state? This law clearly affirms the latter, and I agree.
Democracy is vastly overrated. The power doesn’t really reside with the people, it belongs to the rich and powerful, viz. the United States and the election of Trump. Democracy is based on the presumption of integrity and enlightened self interest. Integrity is a pipe dream and enlightenment is fool’s errand. That leaves self interest.
But democracy has a more ominous flaw – it is easily hijacked and turned against the people it is charged to represent. The student uprising in Iran in 1979 ousted the Shah only to bring in the ayatollas. Venezuela, a rich oil exporter, elected a communist who immediately changed the election laws to make him president for life. Within a decade the country was bankrupt. The Arab Spring was cheered as the vanguard of democracy in the Middle East. How did that work out?
Another example closer to home. About 20 years ago the growing women’s movement rubbed some men the wrong way when they protested frat orgies. The state college had a regulation that prohibited discrimination by campus organizations. The frat boys all joined the women’s organizations, voted out the women and changed the purpose and the bylaws. Just like in Iran.
There is one and only one Jewish state, and millions of Muslim frat boys.
7
This was the entire purpose of Israel to start with. This should have been law 70 years ago.
30
@Martin X No Martin, the Jews should have been awarded Bavaria to teach the world that genocide should not be an option.
4
@Anita . Nice alternate history -- that wasn't an actual option at the time.
1
@Martin X
Yes the purpose was to get rid of the jews from the western world and the soviets. So they illegally stole land to do so.
1
Israel has melded an information-age economy, a medieval theocratic self-identity, and a reactionary social base. No wonder it’s besties with Saudi Arabia.
18
Bronze Age,not medieval
5
@Bruce Shigeura
Succintly stated.
2
"... and a reactionary social base."
Read the article again. There are Israelis who object to the law:
* '“The end of democracy,” declared Ahmad Tibi, a veteran Arab legislator, charging the government with demagogy.'
* 'Yael German, a lawmaker from the centrist opposition party Yesh Atid, called the law “a poison pill for democracy.”'
"No wonder it’s besties with Saudi Arabia."
Regardless of what you are trying to imply by that, Iran is the current main enemy of Israel. And, in contrast to Israel, both Saudi Arabia and Iran have capital punishment.
1
Yeow ! This can't be good if you are an Arab living in any of Israel. It's funny, if this were happening here people would be all up in arms over the diluted status of the Arab citizens ( I hesitate to call any Arab in Israel a citizen, I don't believe in that seperate but equal stuff, you have to know the Arabs are getting the short end of that stick). Israel has been acting very big for its diminutive size. They should be more introspective, and certainly more repectful of the Palestinians. The way the non-Jewish population is increasing Israel will need to integrate the Arabs more fully into the main stream of Israeli life before too long. This apartheid must stop.
22
@Tom ,Retired Florida Junkman
If you think there is apartheid in Israel, you have never been in an Israeli, hospital, shopping mall or supermarket.
4
@Tom ,Retired Florida Junkman
I don't think you have any understanding of Israel. Arabs live all throughout Israel. They may chafe at being a minority, that has little or nothing to do with this law. They have freedoms that are available no where in the Arab world. They shop in the same malls as the rest of Israelis; they live in integrated neighborhoods in some towns, though most of the smaller "villages" are traditional and often clan-based. Not every society shares the same vision of "equality" that is fashionable in America today; just as it would be weird for a reform Jew to wish to live in Bnei Brak (an ultraorthodox enclave), there are Israeli Arab villages which Jewish Israelis would be unlikely to live in, and vice versa. Language, culture, all kinds of barriers. Bigger towns? Whatever...try Haifa some time and tell me where you find separate....
6
@Israel If you think there isn't, you've never seen Gaza.
7
The right-wing Israeli agenda has always been to get rid of its Palestinian citizens. This is another attempt to humiliate and anger them in the hope that many will leave. They will not leave and other sane Israelis including myself will support them. Not only are the Palestinians and the Druze valuable citizens of Israel, they are the essential bridge to the rest of the Arab world, and hopefully the key to our eventual inclusion in it. Though this 'law' is, as Isabel Kershner writes, 'largely symbolic', Israel is eminently a place where we live by symbols. This law will incur a severe backlash. I for one will vote for the Joint List, though I did not do so in the past. Democracy is being battered around the world. Now is the time to stand up, speak out and act.
43
@Jenifer Bar Lev
Thank you Jenifer.
8
Too many people today react emotionally and without objectivity and without attempt to understand the choices others make that they don’t agree with. Instead they react with rhetoric that is inflammatory. I seem to remember a time when that was not the norm. People used to hold their tongue and consider a situation and attempt to look at it from both sides and then carefully respond.
Nowhere in the article has anyone been asked if they have considered the point of view of Israelis who support this bill. I find it easy to understand why Israel in the atmosphere of criticism, opposition, the global effort to boycott them, denial of the Holocaust, etc., etc. may feel it necessary to underline and support their position and how they see their country, and the identity of their people. More and more, they seem to need to look out for themselves as so few people in the world continue to do so.
And the last line- “Mr Netanyahu ….is acting like we are still in the battle of 1948…”. Apparently, they are.
14
Dear Israel,
Our Constitution in practice said the same thing as your new law. The drafters' use of the word "people" was obviously pigeonholed to include only males who were almost exclusively white (black free men being the sliver of a percentage of an exception). Slaves and women were excluded. It's not abnormal to create a hill on which one class of people stands higher than the rest.
It's also not abnormal for people to fight to the death over that hill. Our civil war was long and bloody.
It's not abnormal for people to fight in the streets over that hill. We continue to deal with racially charged riots over the wounds the founders caused.
It's not abnormal for people to fight in the courtrooms over that hill.
It's not abnormal for all people, even those on the hill, to want equality for all people.
You will fail. We did, and we are the better for it, even as we continue to deal with the effects of our past and struggle to suppress the urges of those who would return to the hill. Our struggles remain real, and we accept that and fight anyway.
You have set your nation on the path of a torturous road. We hope you realize, as we did, that the hill is a lonely, terrible place, and instead strive to return to a truly equal democracy.
17
@htg
Jewish history is different
'Our Constitution in practice said the same thing as your new law. The drafters' use of the word "people" was obviously pigeonholed to include only males ...'
If you are referring to the US Constitution, you should actually read it, because it is *gender neutral*. That is hugely significant considering the gender bias in the US Declaration of Independence.
You can read them both here:
https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs
@htg Please get this circulating so that it collects thousands or even a million signatures, and then have it published so that it can be seen by Bibi and his gang. Please. I promise you, you WOULD get the signatures necessary for this to catch media attention.
3
Man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest (or rabbi, or imam).
Often attributed to Denis Diderot, 17th Century (and me).
18
They have learned to imitate their suppressors and they are no better. Let them go it alone, from now on. They are not sympathetic any longer.
33
@Phil Greene
They haven't been sympathetic since 1973 in my book. I forget the exact events but it was then that I realised 2 things, 1. Israel was a brutal regime regardless of who was in office they murdered at will with increasing frequency and larger collateral damage each time. 2. Every time they did something they knew to be wrong US television was flooded with Holocaust movies and Pro Israel movies to remind everyone that it was OK for them to do the things we all knew to be wrong because Hitler.
23
More like 1967 during the 6 day war when they attacked an American naval ship in international waters killing or injuring over 1/3 of the crew as they tried repeatedly to sink it in what can only be described as an attempt to get the US to attack Egypt.
14
Eh? No big deal, just another theocracy in the Middle East. I'm sure the way things are going here Congress will eventually pass a law making the U.S. a White, english speaking country.
Fortunately I'm to old to fight in the next Civil War
21
Should read “ Nuclear armed theocracy in the Middle East” but also “ the only” rather than “just another”
1
Were the Nuremburg laws the template for the legislation?
Or is this just the first step down that path?
22
@Brian
Do you know anything about the Nurmeburg laws?
Please tell me how this law is in any way like them.
1
Don't like it?
There's always Saudi Arabia....
8
@Kyle Lyles
More simple yet Give the Palestinians nuclear weapons and Israel will make peace before lunch.
8
Interesting, as Israel morphs into a religious state as Iran is, the line is drawn. Let the best state win...
6
Actual text of the bill (Part 3)
9. National Holidays
a) Independence Day is the official holiday of the state.
b) The Memorial Day for those who fell in the wars of Israel and the Memorial Day for the Holocaust and heroism are official memorial days of the state.
10. Saturday and the Jewish Holidays are the official days of rest in the state. Those who are not Jewish have the right to honor their days of rest and their holidays. Details concerning these matters will be determined by law.
11. This Basic Law may not be altered except by a Basic Law that gained the approval of the majority.
6
Democracy failing every where else, why not Israel too?
They make religion and ethnicity discrimination standard just like the Arabs and Persians. Wouldn't want to be any better than them, would you, Israel?
18
funny how things change, 40 years ago I considered myself a FRIEND of Israel, today, not so much. SHAME ON YOU.
23
Actual Text of the Law Part 1.
1. The State of Israel
a) Israel is the historical homeland of the Jewish people in which the state of Israel was established.
b) The state of Israel is the nation-state of the Jewish people, in which it actualizes its natural, religious, and historical right for self-determination.
c) The actualization of the right of national self-determination in the state of Israel is unique to the Jewish people.
2. National symbols of the State of Israel
a) The name of the state is Israel.
b) The flag of the state is white, two blue stripes near the edges, and a blue Star of David in the center.
c) The symbol of the state is the Menorah with seven branches, olive leaves on each side, and the word Israel at the bottom.
d) The national anthem of the state is "Hatikvah"
e) [Further] details concerning the issue of state symbols will be determined by law.
3. [The] unified and complete [city of] Jerusalem is the capital of Israel.
11
The only way to true peace is through recognition and reconciliation. This is not a step in that direction.
26
@Kigal
Is that how peace was brought to Europe and Japan? True Peace was through victory won with guns and bombs, or don't you remember?
2
@Kigal, when you have radical groups like Hamas and the settlers on both sides getting all the headline, you will never achieve peace.
@ toddle: Hamas requires certain actions of Israel to remain relevant. Israel seems only to happy to provide those actions. Collective punishment being one, helping to nurture Hamas in its early days as a counterweight to the PLO being another.
1
There have been Arabs in Palestine/Israel/Jerusalem for a millenium. Today 7 million live in a diaspora as a result the 1948/1967 wars. I consider the relative security/pros[perity of Israel's arabs to be its greatest national achievement which it is squandering which will result in whatever goodwill and legal legitimacy the state has, though they are still second class citizens. All other Palestinians live under apartheid or perhaps worse.
The US embassy in Jerusalem will never be built unless approved by Arabs because there is simply no good place for it. In place of the US embassy on the beach of TelAviv this concrete compound is another ugly
settlement within old Arab neighborhoods and will symbolize expulsion and even genocide. All the Arabs need to do is stay there and it will be a Benghazi situation 365 days a year.
13
Shades of the old Virginia Slims ad: "You've come a long way, baby."
1
Cigarettes ultimately kill the smoker, no matter what fleeting pleasures they bring
4
The actual text of the bill (Part 2)
4. The Language of the State of Israel
a) Hebrew is the language of the state.
b) The Arabic language has a special status in the state; the regulation of the Arab language in state institutions or when facing them will be regulated by law.
c) This clause does not change the statues given to the Arabic language before the basic law was created.
5. The state will be open to Jewish immigration and to the gathering of the exiled.
6. The Diaspora
a) The state will labor to ensure the safety of sons of the Jewish people and its citizens who are in trouble and captivity due to their Jewishness or their citizenship.
b) The state will act to preserve the cultural, historical and religious legacy of the Jewish people among the Jewish diaspora.
7. The state views Jewish settlement as a national value and will labor to encourage and promote its establishment and development.
8. The Hebrew calendar is the official calendar of the state and alongside it the secular calendar will serve as an official calendar. The usage of the Hebrew calendar and of the secular calendar will be determined by law.
5
@TMDJS This one's even more obvious:
7. The state views Jewish settlement as a national value and will labor to encourage and promote its establishment and development.
So they're going to continue their oppressive settlement campaign. But this isn't apartheid because...???
8
@Humanesque
You really are clueless and understand no context.
"settlement" is referring to all places Jews live in Israel - its about establishing more places for Jews to live. It has nothing per se to do with the occupied territories. It could mean the Galilee, the Negev, or a new suburb of Tel Aviv.
I've been a Zionist all my life. I believe in Israel as the homeland for the Jewish people but that means ALL THE JEWISH PEOPLE. I am a caring and thinking American. I am married to the love of my life, my husband of over 15 years. Although raised Orthodox in terms of liturgy, we were not a religious home. I went to Brandeis University, a Jewish "affiliated" school because I wanted to be with smart students and top professors. So what does all that mean? Caring and thinking American: I hate Trump and the GOP whereas Netanyahu defied Obama and admires our capo president. Today the government reneged on it's promise to confirm the rights and dignities of gay Israelis. 70% of American Jews are not Orthodox yet ONLY Orthodox conversions are now recognized in Israel and the country is under the dictatorship of the Orthodox in matters of faith, insulting the very people such as myself who are expected to rally behind and fund the country. I say NO, NO, NO! Above all I will not support ANYONE or ANYTHING that refutes my right to love whomever I chose. The friend of
Trump and the GOP IS MY ENEMY. I will always love Israel and will pray for the safety and well-being of it's people but this government is not one that I support and it is up to the citizens of Israel, my cousins all, to rise up and change that which is evil as we in this country must do with our own current leaders. Today, loving Israel means speaking harsh truths so that tomorrow she will survive.
39
@ManhattanWilliam
You are horribly misinformed.
Not only Orthodox conversions are recognized in Israel. Non-orthodox conversions performed outside of Israel are recognized and you can get Israeli citizenship under the Law of Return with them. None of this has changed recently, it is all the same as it has been for years.
The Israeli government didn't renege on gay rights. It wrote a bill updating the surrogate mother laws and didn't include single men as able to hire a surrogate mother inside Israel. It included gay women. This was actually an advance vs previous law. Yes, it is a form of discrimination, but a very narrow one. Gay people actually have a very good legal situation in Israel. The same government has said it will correct the law soon after the next election, when it isn't in fear of being voted out of office by a minority coalition partner, which isn't the case today.
1
What can be said, human kind continues on its merry destructive path paying little attention to the intended or unintended consequences. Human action is with increasing speed destroying our planet we are still at war with each other. We are truly a sad lot, and we will pay a huge price for our stupidly.
14
It is past time for the United States to disengage from the state of Israel. This means drastically reducing direct financial support and especially military spending. The Israeli state has not engaged in peace efforts in the region, is the main oppressor of the Palestinian people, and illegally occupies and expands territory acquired by military means. The aims of the Israelis no longer coincide with aspirations of peace in the region, and the U.S. must seek and align with other states and peoples that do have such aspirations.
45
@Robert
You do realize that the Arab states are Muslim countries and has it in their constitutions ( go online to check) AND the US engages with them. Don't you have a problem with that?
14
@Robert . So all of the peace offers that Arafat and Abbas rejected are Israel's fault? I suppose it was Israel elected Hamas to rule Gaza and misdirect humanitarian aid to building terror tunnels? And Israel forces the PA to use aid to pay stipends to the families of terrorists that murder innocent people, including Americans? Please tell me about the "other states and peoples that have [aspitations] for peace in the ME". I'm all ears!
7
@ron, "engaging" with countries that also espouse state sponsored religion is vastly different than supporting them with billions of tax payer dollars in arms and money for illegal settlements. Of course, we could name Saudi Arabia as another egregious taker of our tax money for the benefit of war mongers. And of course, these countries are connected. The US seems to be happy to look the other way when the war industry whistles.
2
Israel has always tried to blur the line between theocracy and a democracy. Whether it is Jewish state or a state for Jews.
Unfortunately after this passing this law, I think it's perfectly clear which side of that issue the current coalition government wants to be on.
26
@Max Mouse
Why unfortunate?
1
It's all so sad and ultimately self destructive.
23
@Howard Beale
It promotes Jewish life and culture and is the opposite of destructive
5
Will Israel be included in the next round-up of "rising ethnonationalism across the globe?" This is no different than what Hungary or Italy are doing - and it must be condemned vigorously from every single person who values open societies and the freedom of peoples across boundaries.
25
I am not a legal scholar. What does "declaring the Jewish people’s exclusive right to self-determination in Israel" mean in layman's terms?
What, exactly, is "self-determination"? And if you are among those that don't have an "exclusive" right to it - who is the one doing the "determination", if not your self?
9
@lauren I THINK this means who gets to participate in determining the country's direction-- i.e., who gets a say in its governance-- vs. who doesn't. So presumably, this would allow Jews a greater say in what the administration does than Arabs. But given that in the settlements, at least, that is already the case, I'm not sure there will be much measurable change. It's just a huge slap in the face.
2
@lauren
In practice it doesn't mean much. And it is "national self determination".
In theory, it means groups like the Palestinians can't go to court and demand an end to the Law of Return, or demand that the Israeli flag be changed to not have the Star of David, or that Jewish holidays not be national holidays.
They might not have succeeded in such a case before, now it will be much more difficult.
All the hand wringing in these comments about the end of democracy is just hysterical hand waving.
To this secular Jew, if there was any doubt before, it is now certain that Israel doesn't welcome "my kind," therefore I will neither visit nor support financially that supposedly democratic -- but, in fact, theocratic -- country.
63
@Rob Ordman Thank you. Would you also kindly cease referring to yourself as Jewish to avoid any issues with cultural appropriation? Thanks in advance.
5
@Rob Ordman huh? As you said, you are a Jew, therefore you are "the kind". Instead of being self hating, take a trip and you will see the vast majority of Israeli Jews are secular.
Also, if you visit during Rahmadan, you will see thousands upon thousands of Muslim tourists enjoying the country. (true, but not really publicized in USA).
All are welcome in Israel provided their intent is not to terrorize. The fact that this little country is the only one in the world with a Jewish majority and identification should give you comfort. Lets not forget what happened just prior to Israel's founding as a country.
8
Sorry Dyb, it don’t work that way.
2
By declaring itself a Jewish state, the nation-state will have to pass laws and policies to do population control. Immigration, reproductive rights, citizenship, border security, PR, etc. will all be geared towards keeping Israel a Jewish state. Israeli Jews are embarking on a path that American Jews feared. With questions of legitimacy still floating around, their argument of being a democracy surrounded by theocracies is obsolete.
26
@Nish
No deep state here. Legitimacy = your mama was jewish, period. Nothing to discuss here, move along now.
1
AKA, Israel joins the dark side and becomes everything it said it despises.
45
Bebe...you've done democracy wrong! It will come back to hauint you.
Playing to the base of ultra-orthodox is not inclusive; it selective!! Wasn't there a huge history lesson based on this?
18
This is wonderful news for the security and future of Israel. The Palestinians would like nothing more than to try and destroy Israel from the inside out.
17
Uh, wasn't there a man not too long ago who decried that Germany was an Aryan Nation? Do they not see the irony in all of this?
29
What's the brouhaha? Israel is surrounded by Muslim states whether they "declare" it or not. And I guarantee you, those countries, which have been historic Jewish homelands for years, don't have Ladino or some other Jewish language as a "special" language, must lest an equal language.
Maybe a stupid move, but really....
10
So it'd be OK with you if the US declared itself to be a Christian state? As a Jew I think it's extremely important to keep religion and politics separated. There are a higher percentage of Muslims in Israel than Jews in America.
19
@David
The US IS a Christian state that allows freedom of religion. If it weren't a Christian state, Christmas wouldn't be a federal holiday.
1
Nowhere were the Jews more persecuted and discriminated against then in Europe's nation-states of Russian/German/Polish etc. peoples. In practice, nation state means ethnicity is everything and citizenship is at best secondary. This has always resulted in persecution of minorities. The Jews were AT BEST second citizens in those countries, before being destroyed altogether because, ethnically and religiously distinctive, they were perpetual foreigners. What a great example to emulate.
3
I hate it, but how many Arab states give Hebrew “special status” as a language?
6
In how many Arab States Jews are accounted for 20% of population?
5
In innocent question trolling I have one.
Islam recognizes Jews and Christians as people of the book. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/People_of_the_Book
Do the Jewish and Christian faiths reciprocate? Huh? Huh? Huh?
5
@yulia . None, because ancient Jewish populations in Arabia were ethnically cleansed and most of these Mizrahi Jews wound up in.... wait for..... Israel! It's almost as if there is a historic need for a Jewish nation in the world so that Jews have a one place that will be a guaranteed safe haven. And this isn't just something from the 1940s and 50s. See Ethiopian Jews, Russian Jews and, even today, French Jews.
1
I always thought Israel was a Jewish country, I never knew otherwise.
7
Anyone who opposes BDS should try to defend Israel now. Racism has always been present in Israel since its founding, but now it has been codified into law. Yes, I agree that many of its neighbors are equally racist, but Israel can no longer say it's any different. Why does the US taxpayer give so much money to this backward country?
26
@Inquis with your logics is the BDS movement against the arab countries? the ones that threw out their Jewish ciitizens and now currently terrorize their christian and other minorities?
How about women's rights and gay rights in those countries where to be gay is to be stoned to death. Compare that to Pride parade in Tel Aviv.
All you lefty NYT readers I encourage you to visit before you pass judgment.
10
@Inquis Have fun using the Israeli technology in your computer and phone. Enjoy your cherry tomatoes -- an israeli invention -- and all of the delicious veggies grown via drip irrigation, another Israeli invention. Enjoy cars made safer with eye sight technology (Israel again!) while navigating the streets with the Waze App (Israel again). I hope you never get seriously ill, but if you do, rest assured, you will be surrounded by Israeli medical technology in the hospital. Enjoy boycotting Microsoft and Google and Intel too.
2
@Inquis
Well, I agree that Israel is losing the moral high ground and joining the dark side, but the reason to avoid BDS is that its intrinsically anti-Semitic in its Israeli exceptionalism.
I oppose BDS not because Israel is good. I oppose it because if you believe in BDS it should be additionally applied to essentially all Arab countries, Russia, China etc etc...
But no, lets apply it exclusively to the only state with a Jewish majority.
Hmmm.
6
One racist theocracy embraces another, Israel and Saudi Arabia, both deeply misogynist and bristling with armaments, the latter the source of those who perpetrated the worst terrorist attacks on America, and Iran is the enemy? We owe this to a century of conniving and dirty dealing by the UK and US.
17
Outstanding and overdue. It is high time that Jews assert themselves against anti-semites of all stripes. If you are anti-Zionist you are anti-Jew. The most insidious Jew hater of all is the so-called progressive or reformed Jew. All of us real Jews would appreciate it if you would call yourselves something different and halt your cultural appropriation.
11
@DybbuksAmongstUs
Could you help those of us who are not Jewish recognize the difference between "real Jews" and others? Is this like "real Americans" live in rural Missouri while fake Americans grew up in Queens and winter in Florida? Are Zionists like those Europeans of the last century who hungered for lands to the east? I ask because I really do not want to mess up your enthusiam for Shariah but it sure seems like those of us who believe in democracy might want to give fake Jews a hand.
7
@usa999 I get that your question was rhetorical and as such does not merit a response but I object to your qualification of what determines a "democracy" as it is rather myopic in a progressive/utopian/marxist kind of way. But hey, each of us is free to gild our own ignorance, bigotry and prejudice as we see fit.
@DybbuksAmongstUs If you would rather be a walking, talking Chillul Hashem and support the ethnic cleansing of Israel, I guess that's your right. But don't pretend it doesn't go against everything Judaism stands for. The only Dybbuks amongst us are filthy Jewish Chauvinists like Bibi and yourself.
What is the difference between a country that excludes rights of Jews and a nation that excludes rights for anyone who is not a Jew?
21
@W.A. Spitzer . Why don't you ask the handful of Jews remaining in Morocco, Iran, Iraq, Turkey, Algeria, Egypt and Yemen. Then ask the millions of Arabs living in Israel.
1
The plurality you speak of is rapidly turning to dust
4
@W.A. Spitzer
Israel has excluded the "national right" of self determination of non-Jews. Not individual rights.
A country that disenfranchises 21% of its citizens by religious affiliation is no longer a democracy. The moral high ground is officially ceded as Israel joins the Saudi approach to pluralism.
Our foreign policy should acknowledge and reflect that. US defense of Israel as a state becomes an option, not a mandate. If it serves our other interests, then yes. Otherwise...
29
@Brian
No one is disenfranchised. How many Israeli Arabs are fleeing to Europe. Would they be granted asylum?
1
@Brian
No one has been disenfranchised and no individual rights have been taken away.
Maybe instead of falsely berating Israel, you should ask the US to take into account that there's an official religion in England supported by the state and that you have to be a member of that religion to be head of state?
Or maybe the US should "reflect" on other European countries with official religions?
There's still no official religion in Israel. This law isn't about that.
1
As this article clearly states, the new Law is Symbolic but in a crucial way. The fact of Israels existence is due to the persistent and overwhelming persecution Jewish people have undergone historically. Should that basic fact be lost forever due to political or demograhic forces currently not in place or unforeseen? What would occur if the Palestinian population outnumbered the Jewish population and Jews became the minority party in the Government of Israel? The most basic founding principle of Israel is well stated in the New Basic Law: "B. The State of Israel is the national home of the Jewish people, in which it fulfills its natural, cultural, religious and historical right to self-determination." To somehow ignore the fundamental and inseparable Jewish nature of Israel in the name of Democracy is a completely inappropriate criticism, in my opinion.
8
@NYer, um, the Palestinians (non Jewish "Arabs") already outnumber Israeli Jews in Israel and the occupied territories and the open-air concentration, Gaza. The "founding principle of Israel" omitted one salient fact: indigenous rights.
17
@ghassan ghraiziTell that to the Apaches
The days of nations identified as an ethnic or religious homogeneous entity are gone the way of the dodo bird. That Israel wants to resurrect this model in the 21st century is a recipe for disaster.
20
Well the US press can stop describing Israel as 'the only democracy in the Mideast'. Best we all acknowledge their form of government is clearly that of a 'theocracy'.
34
Any comments from any of our esteemed members of Congress, not even a 'it's not helpful for peace'? Helloooooooo???
23
@John Reynolds, You will not hear anyone on either side
protest this. Want to know why? One word.
Re-election.
That's it in a nutshell. They want to be on the public dole
for life and get re-elected to office so you won't hear a
peep out of anyone, not now, not ever. They all take money from AIPAC too.
14
To all stating that the Jewish people have some preordained right to Israel because of historical precedence: I hope every single one of you moves back to your ancestral homeland and is willing to forfeit your current country from the place your ancestors came. That means all white people must leave America.
To those of us who live in the real world: this dangerous precedent by Netanyahu only continues Israel’s reign of hypocrisy over the region. Self-determination for me and not thee. It is clear Israel has never cared about the rights of others but rather cares solely about the rights of one race. That is incredibly worrisome. Racial hierarchies never lead anywhere good. When you treat people as second-class citizens in a place they have as much right to call home as you do, you invite strife and danger.
34
@Miriam Isabelle
The right of the Jewish people/religion to the Land of Israel is not based on History. It is based on Jewish religion (Bible) and culture.
@Miriam Isabelle
It's about "national self-determination"; nothing to do with individuals and individual rights. Nothing to do with race.
You really don't understand much.
"The nation state of the Jewish people." Don't people see the irony of this? National socialism by any other name is just as hateful, intolerant, and, by definition, genocidal.
22
Deeply racist. What if Sweden said that it is a nation-state for the white people? They are basically making non-Jewish Israelis second-class citizens. Maybe not as blatant as it was in the US and South Africa but that is really apartheid and segregation.
34
@reader78
Sweden does say the Church of Sweden still has a special status in Sweden. The church has its own legal regulation in the 1998 Church of Sweden Act, which regulates the church's basic structure, creeds and right to tax members of the church. According to the Act, the Church of Sweden must be a democratic, Lutheran people's church. Only the Swedish Riksdag can change this fact. The connections to the Swedish royal family are complicated. For example, the Swedish constitution stipulates that the Monarch of Sweden must be a true Lutheran, accepting the doctrine of the Church of Sweden. All members of the royal house must accept the same doctrine to be able to inherit the Throne of Sweden. The parishes of the Church of Sweden were the smallest administrative entities in Sweden and were used as civil registration and taxation units until 1 January 2016.[46]
(from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_religion)
1
@reader78
Sweden gives the Swedish church and the Swedish language preferential rights. Other countries in Europe do the same and more.
1
@G Thanks for the tidbit but it is kind of unrelated.
1
This is a historic day and a defining moment in the annals of Jewish racism. Israeli Jews have at long last become what they hate and fear: fascists.
26
Oy.
So what really is a Jew, a religion? A race? People who like matzo balls & rugelach?
As a person born of jews descended entirely from refugees of the Pale, I again suggest that wealthy Goldman-Sachs & Bloomberg & the Rothschilds & everyone sick of the bloodshed who wants to save Israel from endless forever-war should:
Buy a piece of Baja & airlift the entire Israel there, including the wailing wall.
14
During WWll the resettlement of European Jewish survivors in Alaska was proposed. That was just as racist and separatist as your suggestion we go to Baja.
3
Utah would have been better
5
I am a Jew who served in the IDF. I did my share out of love.
I cannot love an Israel just out for the Jews. That is chauvinism. There is nothing romantic about Apartheid.
Of course the Jewish God is no Jesus, but the Israelis are becoming a warlike people. You and your God are lovers of war, but we Jews are not the center of the world and that means something.It means other people exist and are our neighbors and they bleed if you prick them.
and are fed with the same food and hurt by the same weapons. They are humans and they have rights too. You don't have to be Shakespeare to get this. I'm sure it's in the Bible or Talmud too. To love your neighbor as yourself. The Palestinians are our neighbors. There's nothing wrong with them. They just had the misfortune of getting in the way of the juggernaut of the Israeli Army
52
And why not? It's OK for the surrounding Muslim countries to proclaim that they run their countries according to Muslim law (read their constitutions), so why wouldn't it be OK for Israel to be the nation state of the Jewish people? After all, it does allow non-Jews to live there, worship there, vote there, own land and businesses there, etc. Can you say the same about its neighbors? Only in Israel can Arabs be free.
11
Right, that’s true. Morocco, for example, has a long history of discriminating against Christians (in particular black Christians from countries further south). But that sort of zero-sum logic doesn’t really make much sense here.The existence of countries which have inequality written into their founding documents doesn’t justify other countries doing the same.
I also think that the Israeli example is a bit different, as Israel makes a point of identifying itself as a sort of democratic oasis in a tumultuous region, and this forces them to confront that lie.
12
I strongly believe that the ultimate arrangement that would be ideal in terms of peace between the two sides, is one that is as evenly balanced as possible. Thus, regarding Israeli laws- the ONLY ones that I feel should remain explicitly favoring Jews, are those associated with the nation’s immigration policy (and for EVERYTHING else, Jews and Arabs should be treated 100% equally under Israeli laws). And the pro-Jewish bias for immigration is only to preserve Israel as a Jewish haven, for Jews worldwide seeking to leave inhospitable environments in their home countries (and so the primary impetus behind the need for Israel to continue being a majority Jewish state is not racism BY Jews, but racism AGAINST Jews). And I maintain that a solution can still be balanced, even with this one element of pro-Jewish bias, because an independent Palestinian state should likewise be free to adopt whatever immigration policies it might like (I go into this all in a bit more detail in the following essay- although please note that The Daily Kos is a site for Democrats, hence the pro-Democrat slant in this: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/4/22/1758556/-Envisioning-the-Isri...
1
@Sandra Goldstein would you accept an American Law that only allowed white european protestants to immigrate to the United States?
10
@Antonio Zazueta- one third of the world’s White European Protestants were NOT systematically slaughtered in a genocide, (and denied entry by every country on Earth), so what you’ve suggested is in no way analogous- sorry.
@Sandra Goldstein . As always everyone who wants a two-state solution is barking up the wrong tree. The reason that there has not been one, despite Oslo and despite Bill Clinton "killing himself" (figuratively) to get obe is because Palestinianism, at the leadership level, is NOT a nationalist movement. It is an annhilationist movement. The path towards peace is creating a Palestinian National movement (as opposed to a liberation movement). That would mean focussing heavily on creating a civil society in Palestine that values free speech, regular and free elections, protection for minorities (even Jews), and stopping honor killings of women. To even bring up the idea that Palestinians have agency to make peace is so anathemetic that I doubt the NYT will even publish this comment even if they do allow a lame anti-Jew joke elsewhere in this thread.
2
First thought, on seeing this yesterday (before comments were enabled), now, 100%, anti-zionism = anti-semitism.
7
Wow! Amazing to see the top comments accusing Israel of every evil thing under the sun for affirming itself as the one country in the world where the world's 10 million Jews can be safe. All of Israels neighbors are Muslim countries that either exterminate or forcibly remove Jews from the country. Where is the outrage? Where is the demand for inclusive democracy? And most importantly - where exactly are those Jews supposed to go to live their lives safely?? Or are Jews the only people not entitled to a life free from constant threats of death and violence by their non-Jewish fellow citizens?
20
@Dana Whatabout whatabout whatabout!!!! wrap it up in any bow you want but it's still Apartheid that shames the memory of the 6m. And there's far more than 10m Jews in the world.
22
Jews displaced from Muslim countries? That is rich - why did the Jewish State come to be in the first place? Persecution by Muslims? I don't think so. It was the long-standing anti-semitic nature of Christianity and of Europe itself. To accuse the Arab minority citizens of Israel - the targets of harassment and discrimination at every level of society - of "constant threats of death and violence" is slanderous and an absolutely disgusting falsehood
6
@Dana
Israel goes ahead day after day, trying to make Palestinians 'stateless' population on their own lands. The outrage is over that.
24
To anyone that thinks this is controversial, bare in mind that Israel is a tiny little spec of that entire continent, it's the size of New Jersey while the rest of the continent that surrounds Israel belongs the the Arabs. If Arabs have an issue with this, that is their problem, not Israels. Its been defined as a jewish state since its existence, now that its an official thing it doesn't change anything.
18
@SamThe land of Israel/Palestine has NEVER been exclusively Jewish, just lived by Jews. When Balfor Declaration made in 1917 the large majority of inhabitants were Arabs. They have lived there for a millenia. What you are calling for is expulsion and labelling all Arabs/Muslims/area Christians as the same regardless of history. Then is there any difference between Russians/Ukraines/Kazakhs/Lithianians/Polish and so forth? Palestinians are not Iraqis, Alawites, Syrians, Kuwitis, Saudis
17
Unless the vatican can call itself a catholic state, why can't Israel call itself a jewish state?
8
@drp Because it is racist.
4
The Vatican is the size of a city park, and it doesn't have a large minority native population of non-Catholics. It also did not unilaterally declare itself a Catholic state in a multi-religious/ethnic territory; quite the opposite, it had almost all of its territory taken from it by force in 1870.
@drp
Look at the demographics. Half the population in it's perimeter is Arab.
7
Religious extremism is bad whether it is the Taliban, ISIS, Buddhists killing the Rohingya, extreme right conservative Christian in America, Hindu nationalists killing Muslims, Mullahs in Iran, Wahabi Saudis -you name it . What all these groups have in common is an attempt to impose their version of whatever religion they subscribe to on someone else - and use the powers of the State to achieve that. Israel above anyone else should be aware of the dangers of demonizing "others". This will likely backfire, and will not help make Israel stronger - it will weaken their society and their state.
31
@dairyfarmersdaughter
None of what you wrote in your post is applicable to this law.
"All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”
18
@Publius Yes, the application of that lesson here is that Arabs are apparently entitled to 21 states, and the Islamic Conference can consist of 56 states. The objection is to the existence of one Jewish state. So who is receiving unequal treatment?
8
@Marvin okay then Israel is a theocracy not a democracy.
8
@Marvin: I didn't think Israel wanted to model itself after Arab countries but aspired to be a liberal Western democracy. Two (or 22) wrongs don't make a right.
6
the violence done to the jews over centuries is being replicated now as violence to others
this is wrong in every way
35
@true patriot
The Palestinians are free to leave. The Jews in Germany and Poland were not. big difference. If the Nazis told the Jews they could leave and live, history would be very different.
4
@richguy Ah, I see. So it's OK to replicate a fascist government as long as it politely allows the 'undesirables' to get out of the house.
@richguy
Sorry but you are wrong. They are not free to leave and no one, especially the other Arab countries, wants them.
What `s wrong with apartheid anyway - it `s not like racism - is it?
15
Ask the Palestinians. They have a law that states any Arab who sells land to a Jew is subject to the death penalty.
22
@JW I was recently in Samaria for the weekend and an Arab worker was dehydrated, so the family I was staying with invited him for some water..I doubt it would be the same if I as a Jew was thirsty in Nablus...Why is it that I, living in Jaffa, the mixed neighborhood of tel aviv, Jewish, Arab Christians, Muslims am surrounded by about 10 mosques in a 10 block area and you can't even find 10 synagogues in the ENTIRE MIDDLE EAST, where there was once thousands...I'm waiting...
@JWAnd for someone who lives here, there is a sign forbidding Jews to enter ""Palestinian"" areas because they may get killed pretty much,,Meanwhile, there are thousands working among us ISRAELIS, treated better than any Arabs who refer to themselves as "Palestinian" are in the 20+ countries surrounding us...
But most people just watch too much CNN and the BBC and all the rest of em...
Israel is a Jewish country.
There are many Christian and Muslim countries.
What's the fuss about?
13
there should be no religious countries.
17
@A. Stanton
Please provide us with a list of countries in which identifying as Christian is required for status as a full citizen. I will await your reply--probably for a very long time.
22
Vatican City. You must be a Catholic in good standing to be employed there in any capacity.
1
One more victory for the one ethnonationalist state that liberals support without guilt.
14
Would you feel better if Israel opens its borders to unlimited migration from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador?
7
@JW Yes.
2
@JW, That's just what the left wants the US to
do.
I’m so sorry it is a LAW. Can’t they “Not-See”?
1
The ambivalence I hold towards this law is not absolute because I know Israel, as a pro-Western free-market democracy, has the institutional capacities and mechanisms to change. If the democratically-elected parliamentarians voted for laws like this, then it is very possible they can vote for laws unlike this. The right wing in Israel is having its heyday because it is succeeding in its promises to its constituents: bolstered security, growing economy, infrastructure development, and strengthening biblical Israel in the West Bank. This law should not come as a shock.
While it can be understood why Arab-Israelis would feel offended by the symbolic gestures of this law, don't forget that they have the highest quality of life out of all Arab populations in the Middle East thanks to Israel. Israel is a democracy at work and a Jewish state at heart. The United Nations recognized it as such when it voted on the matter in 1947.
The two-state solution is not feasible. It doesn't accomplish what both sides want. A Palestinian "state-minus" is practical. The status quo in Gaza will deteriorate until Hamas is militarily disarmed. Jewish settlements in the West Bank will grow until their political-security-economic costs outweigh their benefits. Israel will not accept 7+ million Palestinian "refugees" to return to Israel proper. It's time to start recognizing solutions to the conflict that are made for the present instead of propping up a 70-year-old dead dove.
4
I guess being burned out of your house and farm and
having your teen son shot in the back equates to a
high quality of life.
13
Only as much as having your daughter shot in a Tel Aviv bus, or having your mother blown up at a Jerusalem pizza shop or having your cousins murdered as they sat at their Sabbath table...
So, I guess you understand. Now Imagine it happening to you in your own home and not occupied land.
2
I am proud of Israel and its determination to exist as a nation of Jews, the same people the world has spent over two millenia murdering, isolating, discriminating against, and otherwise attempting its best to destroy. The arabs had every opportunity to forge a nation together but are now reaping the rewards of their hate.
17
@Lennie Don't forget that most American Jews would not be accepted as Jews in Israel because the Rabbinate only accepts those who worship with Orthodox rabbis that they approve as Jews. That means that even with 4 Jewish grandparents, some of whom escaped pogroms in the Pale, I would not be considered a Jew in Israel because I was raised as a Conservative Jew. So Israel has decided to exist as a nation of Orthodox Jews, but the rest of us don't count unless we are donating money.
7
@Scientist . Nonsense. Any Jew can emigrate to Israel.
absolutely nothing good will come from this act of blind fanatical stupidity.. how can the US possibly continue supporting an apartheid state? the answer is, it can’t. why do right wing zealots always wind up bringing about the thing they’re most terrified of.
24
The whataboutism on this thread is incredible. I am totally capable of disliking the Islamic theocracies and disliking this move by Israel towards Apartheid at the same time. I have to say I am not surprised by this. After all in the last election Netenyahu, when it looked like he was in trouble made the statement "The Arabs are voting in droves". It isn't hard to see where he was headed.
38
I've always been curious how someone can support Israel but also support openly neo-Nazi politicians like Steve King. Are there any Republicans out there who care to explain?
9
@Randall
The Israeli/Jewish right has become remarkably comfortable with unabashed racists and anti-semites (think Trump, Poland, Ukraine and others). In truth, it's a mutual admiration society. What they share in common is a passion for racial purity, blood and soil. Who thought that we would ever see such an alliance? But perhaps it was inevitable from the very founding of an ethno-religious state.
13
This will increase anti semitism in the rest of the world.
19
Like they needed another excuse.
6
@Imperato. - You might want to consider that this is a reaction to the anti-semitism around the world, from the denial of the Holocaust to the attempt to boycott the country.
2
@liz People are boycotting the country because of what it is doing to Palestinians; not because they hate Jews. The Israeli government does not equal all Jews, and Bibi's attitudes do not reflect the attitudes of all Jews towards Palestinians.
5
I'm not sure why this law was passed, but by all accounts it is merely a ceremonial pronouncement that Israel is a safe haven for the Jewish people while reaffirming that and all citizens will be treated equally. Let's remember that Israel is a democracy, unlike many of its neighbors. There are many openly Islamic Republics in the Middle East and Asia. Some are even professed democracies (Malaysia comes to mind) and the international community does not deny their sovereignty or even take them to task for having unequal application of their laws to their residents depending on their race and/or faith. And, despite our "separation of church and state," we Americans are not immune to having large swaths of our government controlled by religious interests too!
12
@Karen: Israel is NOT a democracy but a theocracy. It is perfectly fine if you are Jewish, but not for its non-Jewish citizens.
15
@Karen: "merely a ceremonial pronouncement "
There is no "merely" in passing a national law that consigns Arabic speaking Israelis to the country's backyard, and gives illegal West Bank settlers more rights than Israeli Arabs.
14
@Peter Schaeffer Have you ever even been to Israel Peter? Spend a weekend in Tel Aviv and then talk to be about theocracy.
Israel has been a nation state for Jews for thousands of years, and it will remain so. People of other faiths are welcome to come to Israel, but at its core, it is a homeland for the Jews.
I applaud the bill they passed.
16
@Phil
Seems you skipped over about 2,000 years of world history between 70 AD (or CE, if you prefer), when Rome defeated the rebellious Jews and the vast majority of them fled the country, and 1948, when the U.K. and U.S. decided to give the land then known as Palestine and belonging to the Palestinians to the newly created state of Israel.
Oops.
12
@Phil: "Israel" (Canaan) was a state for Jews for about 1500 years (Moses to Roman expulsion). Then it wasn't for about 1900 years.
3
3 parts of the law worth underlining:
.
* The lbill explicitly states that ""the realization of the right to national self-determination in Israel is unique to the Jewish people” – i.e. APARTHEID
.
* Part of the law [is] aimed at promoting the "establishment and consolidation" of solely Jewish settlements – i.e. SEGREGATION as a constitutional mandate - basic law.
.
* The illegal creation and expansion of solely Jewish settlements on Palestinian land is now rationalized as requirement of basic law. Muslim and Christian Palestinians now have to pay taxes for their own expropriation.
39
@housedoc
Israel exists functionally as the equivalent of what in the US we call an "Indian reservation", an area designated for the indigenous, pre-Colombian tribes that existed in the US before the arrival of Spanish, French, Dutch, and English settlers.
Israel was founded as a refuge for Jews fleeing other countries. Geographically, it is the size of New Jersey, with a Jewish population of under 7 million. Half, or just over half of those are Jews who fled majority Muslim nations, or whose parents did.
There are 22 Arab countries, with a population of over 400 million.
Would you refer to tribal lands in the US, where you might travel to go to a casino, or buy tax-free cigarettes as bastions of apartheid?
14
@Middleman MD
it is apartheid practised by the United States and Canada who took the Indians land and then put them on reservations. You are illogical. The Arabs were there before the European Jewish Khazars arrived.
4
@Middleman MD
It seems you know less than you think you know about Indian reservations. They were CREATED as bastions of apartheid and anything good that has come out of it says a lot more about the Indian peoples than the U.S government.
That distraction aside, I can't see this new basic law as anything more than a furthering of a long trend in Israel to become narrower and narrower in its definition of who is a Jew and entitled to special status and who is not. Less democracy, assuming that means ALL the people who live in Israel, and more theocracy. Israel can be what it wants but my belief is that the world has become and will increasingly be less sympathetic to its goals the closer it comes to asserting, once again, a status as God's only chosen people. By its very nature that says that the rest of us are NOT chosen, not as worthy and that's not something anyone wants to hear.
2
If you were forced to live in the ME but could have your choice of any country there, which one would you choose? Would you choose the only democracy there (Israel) or one of the other countries where you would be severely persecuted if you weren't practicing the same religion, style of dress, and customs?
12
@jsutton, the first democratically elected government in the ME was Iran, but Kermit Roosevelt and the CIA overthrew the government of Mossedagh because British Petroleum wanted the oil there. The US was directly responsible for installing the Shah, a tyrant at best, who also was sympathetic to Israel. The fact that today's Israel continues to illegally annex/occupy territory that is not theirs, and subjugates the population does not make them, in my opinion make them the shining example of democracy that you seem to bestow on them.
29
@jsuttonA
A theocracy is NOT democratic.
15
The emergence in Israel of hard right nationalist zeal based on one’s status as Jew affects Jews, too. According to Natan Sharansky, a long time emissary for connecting Israeli and diaspora Jews, many Israelis, raised where the sole legal religious authority for marriage, divorce and other acts is a narrow segment of Orthodox Judaism, believe reform and conservative Jews (who overwhelmingly represent diaspora Jewry) are a hostile sect. A conservative rabbi was just arrested before dawn in Israel on charges of illicitly conducting a wedding. This law represents a dark trend of intolerance and greater sanction to discriminate. Many Israelis oppose this law and are fighting for the Jewish and democratic state its founders envisioned.
29
Hate and tribalism is in ascendance all over the world. It is even more hurtful to see Jews supporting this madness. By being more inclusive you will be more powerful, more loved. By excluding others you would become weak. Be a beacon of hope and tolerance and don't create a reason to be hated by others.
34
@RS 'beacons of hope and tolerance' and 'shining cities on a hill' are in very short supply in the world at this time. It seems we're all back wandering in the desert, and hoping there will be a point to all this.
@RS - This is simply your own view of it. There is nothing wrong with a people wanting to remain a people. And your view that being more inclusive can mean so many things, including an intolerance to people who want to remain individuals in possession of their nationality and culture. You believe in one big melting pot - where everyone is assimilated into the lowest common denominator and that is your ideology that you seem to want to force onto the world. You can defend and support your nationality and still have love and and be free of hate to others.
2
Through the years I have often posed the question on which of us, born in 1948, Israel or me, would last the longest.
I win.
I outlived the nation-state of Israel.
I bested the time of of that "state".
Israel is now a theocracy.
It quit.
For 70 years I have remained true to my values of progressiviesm.
Israel chucked its ethics into the toilet of religiosity.
70 years.
That's all there was.
Game over.
85
@rosa a very sad day for Israel. The US is currently headed in the same direction.
16
We rarely, if ever here, MSM proclaiming that countries like Saudi Arabia and other muslim countries are racist, bigoted, sexist, etc.
Of course part of that is due to their worship of former President Obama. And the subsequent acquiescing to false Muslim/Islamist claims that they are not really trying to take over the world in the name of their religion. That'd be like believing that David Duke is not a racist just because he says he's not.
6
Having extensively read about the evil of antisemitism and the horrendous events of the Shoah in Europe, I believe that the Jews finally have the right to have their own country the way they want it. I am unable to condemn them. Nobody talked about human rights or respect for the law, nobody rose up to defend them or take them in, when they were cruelly murdered during WW II. So give them a break! Every country, including the US, should watch its own doorsteps and in particular take care of its own institutions. In sofar as democracy is concerned, there is still a lot to be done on many homefronts.
17
@Renho: When does a people who suffered the horrors of attempted annihilation gain the right to inflict that same horror on another people? Israel's stated goal is to destroy Palestine and make it part of a larger Jewish State. Their leaders have publicly stated that if the Palestinians don't flee, they will be killed. My mother taught me that two wrongs don't make a right.
By your way of thinking, Native Americans have the right to murder those of European origin to regain thod lands.
39
@Jeff . Try reading the Hamas charter, bro.
@Jeff - Israel is not inflicting horror on other people. they continue to defend themselves from an Arab mideast determined to make sure they do not exist. And you have it backwards, it is the Palestinians who daily wish death to all Israelis.
Does anybody expect different outcome from the state that was created as a Jewish state from the beginning despite the fact that almost the half of the population was not Jewish? You reap what you sow.
20
The author rightly asks whether Israel qualifies as an apartheid state. And yet, nowhere in this article is there any mention of the 4.5 million Palestinians living in the occupied territories. Although the territories are not officially considered part of Israel proper, they are completely under the control of Israel's government, which is 100% responsible under international law for the welfare of the people living there. To call the Palestinian residents of the West Bank and Gaza "second class" is a gross understatement. They are not truly citizens of any state. Their lives are severely constricted according to the whims of Jews who see them as trespassers, at best, and vermin to be removed, at worst. They are routinely subjected to violence inflicted by Jewish settlers or by the Israeli government itself. If that's not apartheid, then the word has no meaning.
73
@Robert Please try not to take this as a defense of the indefensible, but didn't the Palestinians choose this by not choosing to have their own state when offered that opportunity more than once? It's as though that part of this sad narrative gets erased. Native Americans were not offered that option and opportunity, if you want to draw that analogy. Why are the Palestinians to be shielded from the consequences of their own decisions & actions?
5
@Citizen60
And of course, you only get one go.
1
@Citizen60 Alas, the concept that Palestinians and the larger Arab world have agency to create their own future and nation is too much for many people. Gazans didn't HAVE to elect the terrorist death cult Hamas in their only election.
I'll never understand why the response to being denied safety in any nation because of the (mythical) concept of race and religion was replicating the very same process.
20
@Justice There's some sort of evidence that the oppressed become the oppressors. Paolo Freire has a book about that, The Pedagogy of the Oppressed.
Either way, what Israel has been doing there is just horrendous. It seems like they're never content with the land they got, always wanting more. Sickening!
30
So Israel is a caliphate? If it where simply a country of semites it would have to include those other semites known as Palestinians
13
@Trumpkin Of Russia Many more Palestinians had more ownership of their homes and farms than the Jews who took them over
1
Could there be a greater irony than the state of Israel stipulating that henceforth it is to be defined as a nation defined by and constituted of blood and soil?
28
Thank goodness that we still have separation of the church and state in the USA.
5
We do? Because it sure feels like that is not true in lots of red states where the Christian right seems intent upon earning the moniker of American Taliban.
6
@John Williams Do we? Why do we have to swear on the bible to tell the truth? Why do politicians swear/take oaths on the bible? Why do all of them, including the president, say god bless America?
3
@John Williams
America incarcerates more than any other, more than the Chinese with four times the population. This (and other horrible stuff) is all on account of the power of the white Christian-Republican Party - now colluding with the Russian Orthodox Church.
3
It's also known as self preservation. If you look at the amount of people of Jewish heritage in comparison to the Muslim population they have a point in doing this.
15
@CC Do you really support that you need to be pure of blood to be a participating and receiving member of a nation/state? I hope you rethink that statement. I understand about defining borders but denying citizens of other faiths (because the Jewish identity is connected to nation and religion)? It is shameful at best and incredible that a people who had been ridiculed and kicked out of countries for their faith would stoop to xenophobic laws in a so called democracy.
24
@CC
With that logic, "we" (the U.S. citizenry) should call for a constitutional amendment of the '1st one', to eliminate it's Establishment of Religion prohibitions, and provide that we are and henceforth shall be a "Christian State" with whatever rights the overwhelming majority of U.S.-citizen "Christians" might deign to give our relatively few Jewish, Muslim and other non-Christian citizens.
P.S. It is generally regarded as mildly (?)ethno/'religious'-racist for a "Christian boy" born (even one who, as I, have to atheism evolved) to say, e.g., "some of my best friends are Jewish." How 'bout, as in my case, "Most of my friends, especially those 'closest,' are Jewish" (as is my non-wife wife of 36 years).
I hope such information is sufficient to establish the bona fides of my "I am no ethno/religious racist or discriminator" resume -- because I have to say that Israel's mere formalization of its long-standing embrace of apartheid is no more newsworthy than the revelation that Netanyahu is as evil, and as much a 'crook' as trump.
P.P.S. If Israel keeps 'Likuding' its way along, its eventual demise is assured -- and its sundering will make South Africa's 'transition' look like a party.
10
Since when was Israel meant to be anything but a Jewish state - in any other country in the world such a hostile minority would have been expelled or completely subjugated, instead in Israel the Arabs are given full rights and votes in parliament. But instead of feeling grateful and assimilating to the dominant culture (like every other Jew has done for 2000 years in other countries that treat them a lot worse) they remain a hostile minority - but gee they do remain dont they, they are very happy to reap the benefits of a modern welfare state and not go to live with their brethren in Jordan or Egypt or any other hellish state where they are the majority. The pure nerve that anyone would think Israel owes its Arab minority anything is astounding. They are tolerated, good enough - they really shouldnt even be there but as they are they are really lucky to get any kind of equal treatment - and should be very happy to let the majority pass a law that simply affirms its foundational rights. To hear anyone call this apartheid is maddening, the history of south Africa and Israel is not even close to the same, the biggest reason is that international law granted Israel the right to be a Jewish state plain and simple, the Arabs who remained were guests not intended to be part of that state - really if they dont like it they can leave.
10
"They (Palestinians) are tolerated, good enough - they really shouldnt even be there....the Arabs who remained were guests not intended to be part of that state - really if they dont like it they can leave."
Reminds me of the attitude of American euro-descendants towards the native (Indian) of North America. No wonder the Palestinians get very angry. You conveniently forget they were there and had been there for a long, long time before the creation of Israel. The land and the country must be shared.
18
@ST
Well, aren't you just the 19th century man?
5
@Denis Pelletier
Excellent point, but one that is not lost on the Israeli far right, many of whom point approvingly to the American example as a justification for their own displacing of native Arabs. Hitler did so as well in the context of creating lebensraum (living space) for the superior German race.
2
I'm curious to know what all of the commenters opposing this law think about the Islamic countries in the world?
10
@T SB
It appears to only be a problem if it's the Jews doing it......
Now of course it doesn't at all mean that a Moslem, Christian, Druze etc doesn't have full rights in Israel as they do. They can also continue to fully practice their religion. Just try to be something other than a Moslem in the Moslem countries of the world. Actually, try to become the next King or Queen of England if you're Catholic, Jewish, Moslem etc.
8
@T SB, I think that Israel is just like them. When Israel was founded as a pluralistic society in a neighborhood of authoritarian states, it was an outlier. Now it's just another Middle Eastern theocracy.
26
@WestSider
About the same but they sure are unfriendly places for Jews, aren't they?
The Arab nations are mostly monarchies with terrible human rights records. Is it shocking that Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East, wants to culturally distance itself from them?
Gay people can walk the streets freely and happily in Israel. In many Arab nations, they're executed for being born.
Women are equals in Israeli society. In many Arab nations, women have less rights than we give to dogs.
You are much safer being an Arab in Israel than a Jew in an Arab nation. Many Arab nations won't even allow entry on an Israeli passport.
We judge societies by how they treat their most vulnerable members. It's important to criticize Israel, but whatever criticism Israel may earn is nothing compared to the awful truth about how Arab nations treat their own people.
13
@Jonathan
And you are more likely to be incarcerated in the U.S. than anywhere else in the world - due to Christian Republicans. Maybe Judaism is the best of all the ancient Religions. Like a Model-T was maybe the best of the old cars. But this is the age of quantum relativity.
2
@Jonathan" We judge societies by how they treat their most vulnerable members. " How about the vulnerable Israelis who disagree with current Israeli policy towards Palestinians? Now they can't even enter schools in Israel.
5
It is not only about 21% Arab-Israelis (Muslims and Christians). The law ignores the rights of Bahai, Druze, Armenian, Assyrian, Circassian and many other ethnic and religious minorities -- all citizens of Israel.
46
@mhg All citizens of Israel, regardless of religion, have the same basic rights. Arabs are represented in the Knesset. Try another country in the ME to find similar rights.
3
Lebanon?
5
I should say, formerly Lebanon before the Israelis fought a proxy war there in the 1980s
2
The Jews are a brilliant people.
Fervently and vocally ultra-Liberal anywhere they live around the world except in their very own country, Israel.
It is by looking at what they do there that the rest of the world can learn what truly matters when it comes preserving a people's culture and national identity.
10
@Jose Pardinas
Identity. National identity. It's all fabrication. Indeed, as is most of our lives. But beyond, within, and underneath our fabrications is the river of reality we must contend with. All discernment of good or bad is best viewed through a the lens of fundamental truth rather than the colored glasses of fabricated preference. Not that fundamental truth is easily discernible by everyone.
1
@Jose Pardinas: "Fervently and vocally ultra-Liberal anywhere they live around the world except in their very own country, Israel. "
Perhaps 30 years ago. Now Americans of Jewish backgrounds are increasing right wing.
2
The Jewish people are the only nation in modern history who’ve succeeded in reclaiming even a slice of their indigenous homeland after centuries of conquest, exile, inquisitions, pogroms, and genocide...defying all (ongoing) attempts to destroy them... to build a modern, technologically advanced state in less than a century.
A remarkable achievement by any standard...Bravo Israel!
23
@Shenoa
Bravo!
2
@Shenoa
Too bad that all those wonderful accomplishments required the forceful expulsion of 750,000 people already living on the land in 1948 and the subsequent oppression of nearly 5 million Palestinian residents in order to keep the Jewish enterprise going. How does one people's ancient claim to a piece of land supersede another people's claim who actually lived on the land for 1500 years? What you are praising is nothing less than settler colonialism. One would have thought that such a system had gone out of fashion, but evidently not in at least one tiny spot on the map.
27
@Shenoa With the help of the US.
11
Israel has now put in writing that it is another tribal racist country just like its neighbors and following the trend around the world towards nativism and nationalism. It’s time to discard the delusion that Israelis’ are principled humanistic intellectuals.
41
@Domenick Zero That is incorrect. Arab citizens in Israel enjoy equal rights and are represented in the Knesset.
With all that's going on in this country especially to children and minorities, I don't see how we can claim the high horse and criticize others. Shouldn't we first examine ourselves and question how we can fix up the mess that we now live in that has caused so much suffering to those who are not seen as the real Americans?
3
@Lynne
Israel, exists because of the U.S. and has always been America's greatest recipient of foreign aid - by far. So, it's not none of our business.
6
The Jews are a traumatized tribe. Let them have their Jewish country until they are confident enough to be a real democracy
5
Beautifully and compassionately stated.
2
They’ve proven quite adapt at “traumatizing” other folks and that is the problem. Most Americans are unaware that they attacked a US naval vessel in the late 1960’s in international waters repeatedly, killing or injuring more than half the crew. Those sailors got the “Palestinian” treatment” I guess? Also unreported in the American press is that a peace flotilla is currently approaching Israel in protest of their habit of “traumatizing” others and that among the crews and passengers of those ships is the former captain of the ship the Israelis attempted to sink all those years ago. Kind of an intelligent move since if the Israelis try to attack this peace flotilla as they have others, they will have a hard time keeping their other treacherous attacks on US citizens out of the news
7
@Trumpkin Of Russia It is easy to re-write history to leave salient facts. The US has not always been an ally and supporter of Israel, which was very true in its early years. Old Russian weaponry was used in Israel's early wars because the US refused to sell any to Israel--things were vastly different militarily. Israel and the US have often been at great odds under several Presidents.
Escape the Ghetto, create a Ghetto
49
I think this is a totally appropriate law. Israel was founded to be a Jewish country, the home for Jews to return to wherever they might be in the world. There are many tens of Muslim countries. There are countries with official Christian religions. It just somehow offends the NYT and the liberal left that there is one Jewish country in the entire world. I truly don’t care if you don’t approve. I commend Israel for doing this.
14
@Greenie Hah! If only Jews could return to Israel. Not Orthodox? Good luck. There is only one “flavor” the dominant hardline right wing religious that run the country and the theological machinery there recognize. I’m a progressive Jew and they do not want me. I highly doubt that if and when another genocide began that we’d be given refuge. We’d be on our own.
2
Partial list of countries with Christianity as the official state religion:
Argentina, Denmark, El Salvador, England, Finland, Greece, Iceland, Norway, Scotland
Partial list of countries with Islam as the official state religion:
Afghanistan, Algeria, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Libya, Morocco, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Yemen
Partial list of countries with Buddhism as the official state religion:
Cambodia, Thailand, Sri Lanka
Now Israel, the only Jewish country on the planet, which has always been identified as The Jewish State (or, by detractors, The Zionist Entity), has enshrined that position in law, and the world is up in arms.
It is still a country where freedom of religion is a protected right for everyone, where three languages (Hebrew, Arabic and English) are all official (Hebrew has been the default language since day one anyhow), and where civil rights are protected by law for everyone. None of that has changed. (Try being a Jew in Iran, or a Christian in Afghanistan, and see how well you turn out.)
It is the world that has gone nuts, not Israel.
23
@Joe : Argentina has no official religion.
7
You forgot US of A as official Christian country. Christmas and Easter are federal holidays!
8
Easter is NOT a Federal holiday.
1
Like the United States, Israel's destruction is from within.
26
@Paul very wise words.
4
Israel continues down the path to apartied and international pariah. Israel was founded as a refuge for the opressed Jews of Europe but has now become the opressor of the peoples of Palestine. We must end our support for Israel and expose the corruption of the Israeli lobby.
45
The provisions are (from today's [Hebrew] ha-Aretz) (comments mine):
1. Israel is the historic homeland of the Jewish People--that is the core of Zionism.
2, Symbol of country- menorah. Anthem: Ha-Tikvah.
3.Capital: United Jerusalem. Those who don't like it- too bad.
4. Official language: Hebrew. Arabic has a special standing. In reality though, the official professional language is (a poor) English.
5.The country will accept aliyah--and that changed what?
6. Funds will be invested in saving sites of historical importance to Jews in the Diaspora- if local communities or countries did so, then there would be no problem.
7. Jewish settlement will be encouraged. Problem with that? Too bad.
8.Calendars: Hebrew and Gregorian
9. Official standing for Holocaust Day, Memorial Day and Independence Day.---Problems with that?
10. Sabbath and Festivals are days of rest. Anti-Arab? Well is Yom Kippur or Sukkot a day of rest in the UK or Germany or the US (NYC is not the US).
11. Needs 61 MKs to change these laws.--This is a "basic law"
So Israel is the homeland of the Jewish people and Jerusalem is its capital. Like it or not, this is the raison d'etre of the founding of the State of Israel. There is an Arab minority? Compare their rights and status with those in Syria, Iraq, or for that matter "Palestine". Ayman Oudeh can rant in rave in the Israeli Knesset. Many Jews in the Parliaments of Arab countries?
So what has all this changed? Nothing really. But it is now the law.
15
"7. Jewish settlement will be encouraged. Problem with that? Too bad."
OK. How about this:
12. Uncle Sam is cutting you off. No more $5 billion per year in military aid. Problem with that? Too bad.
33
@Joshua Schwartz Your commentary on #7 is especially chilling given the subject. "Problem with that? Too Bad." is not civil discourse.
14
@GMooG and to Louisa
You have a problem with Jewish settlement in the Negev, Galilee, Coastal Plain, Sharon, Judean Mountains? Arava? Jews cannot settle in the Land of Israel? This is 1948 Israel? This upsets you?
First and foremost Israel is the home of the Jewish people. Secondly, it is a democracy.
6
Another very bad decision, very serious embarrassment for Israel, and very obvious affront to non-Jews living in Israel.
16
Given Trump's appreciation for Netanyahu, I remain confused by our ever growing population of Skin Heads, neo-nazis and other white separatists affection for Trump. Maybe, these kinds of folks just love the imposition of Jim Crow Laws on anyone who isn't them. Nothing like racial and religious purity.
7
Jews are a people, an ethnic group. There are many Jews who are not practitioners of Judaism but they remain Jews. The Nazis confirmed this in taking all Jews to the camps for extermination and of course they were not alone in this. Jews have long been called out for special "treatment".
Israel was founded as a Jewish state with its capitol in Jerusalem, the traditional center of the Jewish people going back to Biblical times. Religious Jews turn three times a day to Jerusalem to pray the traditional prayers just as Muslims face Mecca in prayer.
This legislation merely reinforces the essential charter that underlies the creation of the State of Israel as the Jewish Homeland.
Many have criticized Israel and the Jewish people before the new law and will continue to do so as time goes on.
Now that the US and other nations have moved or have announced that they are planning to move their embassies to Jerusalem, recognizing it as Israel's capitol, the momentum is gathering.
Israel is now 70 years old. It is not going away. It will only continue to grow and get stronger.
If the Israeli people do not like this law they can vote out the legislators. So far, the country has indicated the opposite. The left has steadily lost power and is now a mere shadow of its former self. Everyone knows that the Palestinians will not make peace.
The Arabs who live in Israel know that they have a far better life than in any Arab state.
Kol ha-kavod. Way to go, Israel!
12
@simon sez
Simon, your rhetoric is straight out of Goebels. No wonder Netanyahu traffics in stereotypical images of Jews and makes nice with Saudi officials who traffic in anti-semitism.
There have been Arabs in Palestine/Israel/Jerusalem for a millenium. Today 7 million live in a diaspora as a result the 1948/1967 wars. I consider the relative security/pros[perity of Israel's arabs to be its greatest national achievement which it is squandering which will result in whatever goodwill and legal legitimacy the state has, though they are still second class citizens. All other Palestinians live under apartheid or perhaps worse.
The US embassy in Jerusalem will never be built unless approved by Arabs because there is simply no good place for it. In place of the US embassy on the TelAviv beach this concrete compound
is a settlement within old Arab neighborhoods and will symbolize expulsion and even genocide. All the Arabs need to do is stay there and it will be a Benghazi situation 365 days a year.
7
I have now untethered myself from Zionism. I will always be a Jew, but now less proud.
28
So now it is official: Israel is an apartheid state. And it should be recognized as such, i.e., not on a par with democracies which respect international law on human rights and freedoms.
48
@ThePoliskeptic - Nothing wrong with that.
Israel, of all countries, should remember where declarations like Germany for Germans could lead.
53
@Ran yes, that makes this particularly disturbing.
5
The first major step towards official apartheid, based on religion and race, in Israel.
22
It's not hard to imagine Nelson Mandela confined to an Israeli jail.
37
Just substitute Christian or Muslim for Jewish "democracy", how's that work for you?
6
@Rickibobbi Still an oxymoron. You can't give people equal rights AND give some people more rights than others at the same time. So a theocracy can never be a democracy. The type of religion it prefers is irrelevant.
3
How sadly ironic. In the 1930's the Nazis passed laws against the Jews to preserve the German nature of their country. America invades other countries to overthrow their leaders and force the peoples to choose our way of government. How foolish we humans are.
25
Israel is a theocratic apartheid state. Not something I can support as a secular Jew.
64
@todji, this disturbs me not only as a Catholic, but the son-in-law of a women who lost all but a few relatives in the camps. She came to America and stayed. She spoke to me of fears that a certain element in Israel would do what has now happened. I miss her, but I'm happy she's gone as seing this would have been emotional trauma for her in a life where she had to much already.
19
@todji Just try living in one of Israel's neighboring countries in the ME, and tell me you have more rights than you would living in Israel, the only democracy in the ME.
1
Let’s just be frank... the object of Israel’s Arab minority and the Left Wing Jewish faction is to eventually turn Israel into a single Jewish-Arab State.
.... and while that may see benign to some people, especially Liberals... the so called “One State for All”will eventually cease to be a country where Jews can exercise their national heritage and exist in freedom- but instead become an Arab -Palestinian Moslem State where Jews will lose their political independence and eventual freedom...
Israel was originally established as a Jewish State for the Jewish People - the Arabs and indeed much of the non-Jewish World - cannot “stomach” that fact -
The Jewish people have come back ( as promised by GOD and foretold by the Biblical Prophets ) to the Land of their Religious and National Heritage ... and will remain a Jewish State for the Jewish People -
7
If you want to end thousands of yrs. of conflict between arab and jew, correct the mistakes made by Abraham, Moses, and Moh. and their followers.
Call Israeli the land of the semites and separate church and state like we did in America.
Of wait a minute, that makes too much sense. Ok, then continue killing each other for the next 4,000 yrs.
8
@Paul. - Seriously Paul - you are pointing to America as the model the world should follow? And the "melting pot" is working so well here. [g]. Why is there only one right way to do things in your view, and America is doing it? That's a pretty narrow viewpoint.
1
@liz--thank you for your reply liz. Yes, America is by no means perfect but:
1-When formed it was the first major democracy since classical Greece.
2-We had our share of horrors, wiping out native Americans, slavery etc. but we in geological time quickly atoned for it.
3-Israel/Palestine do not have to become a melting pot but have to let the two native peoples live there. The way you do it is by not bringing religion into gov't. Both peoples are semites. The people in that area made the fatal mistake that our founding fathers did not. We can thank them for starting it and Lincoln for saving it that we don't live in the horror story that is that area now.
1
Jewish state,Islamic state,Christian state, on and on go those who believe god has chosen them as special and the rest of us are only infidels I hope Israel comes up with a better model than apartheid to deal with the people who have been displaced to make room for their country.
5
Had any other nation done this, it would be labeled as racist and authoritarian.
How very much like apartheid South Africa it is becoming. And how very blind are those Americans who continue to pony up money and arms to support this very racist state that continues more and more to institutionalize its racism.
Israeli Jews are not victims. They are oppressors.
30
@cfxk. - labeling is certainly a problem in all human relationships. Understanding and fairness and tolerance are at the base of all efforts to get along, whether in individual relationships or between countries. Understanding both sides of a situation, not just one.
How do you say "MAGA" in Hebrew? This is how.
7
See? This is how wars start. Not long ago China started to build an military island in the contested China Sea....
Now Israel little by little is taking over and pushing over people who have been there even before them...
Maybe Texas should be a nation sate of the Mexicans too.... after all Mexico used to own that land, right?
8
Israel is no longer a democracy.
21
"Israel has long been accused of being an imperfect democracy."
Name the perfect one: France? How about Sweden, where Jews are being hounded all over the place, especially in Malmo.
This basic law legislation seems an unnecessary one. It only generates more contention in a nation and region that doesn't need it.
Nevertheless, this is the type of story the Times and like minded "blame Israel first" groups love to grab. "Oh, the humanity!"
Meanwhile, Hamas is sending "Molotov kites" to burn out Israeli farms and torch, if Hamas is lucky, a kindergarten playground or two; Iran and Hezbollah are advancing towards the Syrian/Israeli border backed with 100,000 missiles and Russian and Iranian sophisticated military hardware, all while spouting the dogma of destroying Israel; thousands of Syrian wounded civilians are begging for treatment - and receiving it - from IDF personnel (but can't talk about it because back home, talking with Israelis gets you hanged or shot).
But what difference does all that make because the real crime is that Israel is "an imperfect democracy."
11
@EQ - "How about Sweden, where Jews are being hounded all over the place, especially in Malmo."
And, of course, this is being sanctioned by the Swedish government, maybe even about to be enshrined into Swedish law, right? Right?
2
@Annie - It is being passively sanctioned by a government that infantilizes Muslims and excuses their actions, however
violent. This is a fairly common
phenomenon in the supposedly
enlightened west. Sex assaults by
Muslim migrants were covered up in
Germany and Sweden. The growth of Islamic fundamentalism was overlooked
in Molenbeek. (Read "Molenbeck Broke
My Heart" in Politico.) The authorities in
Rotherham covered up years of sex
crimes by the Pakistani community. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/11391314/Rotherham-child-s...
@Annie
Thank you for responding.
Of course my Sweden reference was to the Times' line about Israel being an imperfect democracy, as if one ever or will ever exist.
No Swedish official that I know of stood up to say "harangue the Jews!" but on it goes on, nonetheless, without robust responses by the current Government. Thus, one would be hard pressed to call the Swedish Government representative of a "perfect democracy".
Yes, Israel is imperfect in so many ways. Its a shame because it is a wonderful country and historic story. But ask gays, women, Christians and minorities of all stripes anywhere in the Middle East where they would like to live or hope that their respective countries would emulate and the answer is Israel. Syrians are opening their eyes to what their Israeli neighbors are really like by virtue of the generous care and concern the IDF and affiliated groups are extending to them.
One reason why I believe the US is exceptional is that our founding document is humble and declares us to be imperfect, always seeking to "create a MORE perfect union".
No one would ever call the Israelis "humble" but they strive for a more perfect union. Can Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran or Syria say the same?
Makes sense. Just as Pakistan was designated as an Islamic republic after its partition with India, Israel should be the Jewish state, as was intended by its partition.
There are hundreds of other non-Jewish countries, including many "Islamic State of X" , and only one Jewish one. Critics want to eliminate even this single one in the name of democracy.
12
I'd like to know if there are any other countries in the ME as democratic as Israel. They may state a preference for Hebrew as the language of Israel, but Arab citizens have all the same rights as Jewish citizens and are represented in the Knesset. Where else in that part of the world are people of different religions and heritages treated in this way? Before we rush to condemn Israel, I hope we consider these things.
12
@jsutton
False equivalence.
9
Israel - a jewish state, Saudi Arabia- a islamic state, India- a Hindu state ( want to be), Mayanmar- a Buddhist state, USA- an evangelical state (Trump wishes so).......wow, back to the Stone Age.
10
I am no longer in favor of our government giving huge amounts of money to the nation of Israel. Why do we continue to support a country that has become a perversion of its democratic founding principles?
We can use this money at home, thank you. We have plenty of needs here that should take priority.
64
@Janice
I agree. Israel can do whatever it wants, but not with our money. They are a theocracy, like Iran, and don't share our values, in spite of their lip service to the contrary.
17
Apartheid.
The 21% Arab population figure is pure propaganda too. If you include the Occupied Territory, which Israeli has controlled for decades, Jews are actually a minority.
28
As jews alienate the rest of the world under trump; we wait for the pendulum swing. I don’t think Israelis read the history of the jews. It’s only time before the alienated get the power back and pull the plug on the illegal occupation
20
Israel was once a nation I respected and had reverence for. It instead has become a country I despise for the outright racism.
23
The only thing that is surprising is that we're surprised. After generations of setting up a discriminatory, apartheid, regime in the occupied West Bank, an outdoor prison in Gaza, and discriminated against its Arab Israeli citizens the Israelis have declared what we already know. Israel is not a liberal democracy and is unworthy of our support. Trump is its enabler and friend.
Count this American Jew out.
46
My grandmother, who, with her small band of fellow widows, raised millions for Israel, is turning over in her grave. This was not their dream. These women believed Jews deserved and needed a permanent home to thrive and achieve in, never at the cost of others, never to become the oppressors, never to be less.
55
What astonishing back-pedaling Ms Kershner. This law is 'only symbolic' even though it legally priorizes Jewish-original people in a country where 20% of the population are not Jewish. It rejects Arabic as a national language (which is has been always before), with all the symbolic and rights implications that has. Oh, there are other really important laws that superseded this one, blah blah.
Straight up, this is an unvarnished apartheid law for what already was an apartheid state.
25
Israel's apartheid system has now been more codified than before, with the law applying differently to people based on which group they are in. Perhaps they were trying to slip this in while the world is distracted by Trump's latest disaster.
24
It is inevitable that any state which defines itself by ethnicity or religion (or race!) will eventually, if not immediately, become an unequal state, privileging that manner of its self-definition. We can see that this applies to Muslim states such as Iran. The world is changing, immigrants are on the move, like it or not, and the old ways of defining and classifying human and civil groupings are being discredited scientifically and morally. To me this move by Israel is, regrettably, part of the nationalist and racist backlashes we see in so many places. Eventually, we will turn away from this revanchism.
141
@Lenore Beaky I agree and look forward to a diverse and egalitarian world. Some places will need to catch up and, sadly, Israel may be one of the last.
2
The anti-semitic idea has long been that Jews are identical to Israel. Now Netanyahu, who is friendly with overtly anti-Jewish governments like Saudi Arabia and Orban's Hungary, is embracing that idea. He can embrace it as much as he wants. The home of American Jews is the U.S., of French, France, etc. Israel becoming an apartheid state is the logical result of the far right Likud's creed, which is, incidentally, opposed to century's of the tolerance that was one of the great themes of Jewish thinkers, from Mendelsohn to Buber.
15
We are entering the Trumpian age of anti-immigration, barrier walls, bigotry, Islamophobia and regime change wars, where the most powerful country in the world is being led by a money-grubbing , unread, self-promoting liar.
17
@John Reynolds - Trump came late to the game of anti-immigration. His support of those positions were a response to attitudes that were already forming due to the negative impact illegal immigration was having on this country. And if you bother to look at the European countries where immigration has been promoted out of proportion, you will see a very deep anti-immigration for reasons, that you don't seem to have any interest in. considering. The issue of immigration should be considered on it's own merits and difficulties and reasons for both sides, that have nothing to do with Trump.
Am deeply disappointed in Isreal - they should know better - across time and history they have been persecuted - now - they are with passionate glee embracing the role of becoming The Persecutor -
They are creating a reality of their own demise - sad, very sad.
18
Israel's new law validates every fascist nationalism law based on ethnicity or religion in Myanmar, Hungary, and in many Muslim countries. The only way to grant even a semblance of legitimacy is to create and guarantee a separate Palestinian state.
13
@W. Ogilvie
Where will Palestine be? Israel took all the land!
4
Let's see how else can Israel abuse Palestinians in hopes that increased misery will make them emigrate from the bits of land that Israel hasn't already confiscated or strangled by its water and transportation? It is not in the U.S. strategic interest to support Israel. Treat Israel like any other occupying state. Yet, the U.S. protects Israel at the UN vetoing any amendment curtailing the settlements. In addition the U.S. gives Israel $3-4 billion every year. The specially designed bullets with the points clipped that Israel fires at unarmed Palestinians take out chunks of flesh, not clean entry wounds, are paid for by the American taxpayer. Curb the influence of AIPAC and peace will come sooner rather than later.
14
If the proposed Palestine is to be a Jew-free Palestinian state, why shouldn't Israel be the Jewish state? Do only Arabs have a right to self determination?
14
Why? Two reasons:
1. Because it's wrong. Do you also think we should repeal the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment in the US? After all, why shouldn't the US be the "Christian state"?
2. Because there is no state of Palestine.
10
@GMooG But it's OK for Muslim states to be Muslim states? For the Vatican to be Catholic?
The reason there is no 21st Arab state can be found in the violence that Gaza initiates.
@GMooG. - So - only the United States again - are the model and their constitution is the only one with any validity?
Does this mean we don't have to support them as our 51st state any longer? One can only hope.
55
Make no mistake, this contentious law was done with a wink and nod from Donald Trump and his administration who have been promising for weeks to come up with "the ultimate deal" for Israel and Palestine. It is a proposition for “peace” that violates the most basic requirements for a just and sustainable solution, flouts international law, contradicts the global consensus on peace (which in itself constitutes a major compromise by the Palestinians), and even departs from the declared policies of several previous US administrations. This new law, promoted by Netanyahu and his Zionist buddies in the US administration (e.g. Jared Kushner, Jason Greenblatt and David Friedman), promotes the development of Jewish communities in the occupied territories, thereby diminishing the likelihood of there every being a two-state solution.
It's time to cut Israel loose and let them go it on their own. I'm sick of defending this tribe of immoral hypocrites and apologizing for their apartheid policies. Enough already.
24
Let me know when I can legally carry a bible in Saudi Arabia, when women's rights or gay rights are upheld in Arab countries in general. Let me know when Jews get the right of return to Iraq or Syria or Lebanon.
11
@Joe yohka. Many Arab countries have expanded women’s rights, for example Morocco, but it is not as if women have perfect lives in the US either. Earning less money, being abused and murdered by their partners, and so forth are all part of American women’s lives.
1
At the risk of instantly getting labeled as antisemitic...
Why is the US, a secular democracy, supporting a religious state where anyone who is not of the dominant religion is a second-class citizen at best.?
39
At what point is the US going to sever its ties with Israel? What abomination or atrocity is going to be appalling enough? Or do we keep enabling the Israeli government until they are emboldened to commit genocide or mass deportations "for security reasons"? We are not Israeli's friend if we do not challenge them on principles and practices.
33
@CFB
The US will never cut ties to Israel lest they be labeled
anti semites. And as long as there is a politician running
for office somewhere who promises to stand by Israel no
matter what we will always carry them and send them
palettes of US taxpayer money. Count on it.
8
Were I a citizen of Israel, I would be troubled by this law.
But I am far more concerned about critics including commenters here who, understanding little about the State of Israel and the need for it, use the law as a pretext for defaming the Jewish state.
Commenters on mixing religion with state: 1) you don't really understand what it is to be a Jew. Is there a religious element? For many, yes - but that is only part of it. 2) Which of the 57 member states of the Islamic Conference (stretching from Morocco to Indonesia) should immediately withdraw from that organization? Oh, you haven't thought about that? Is your issue with "religion", or with Jews?
In the nineteenth century, the "good Jews" were the ones who, granted emancipation in much of Europe, copied the civilization of the states where they lived. Decades later, we saw where that got us.
Now "good Jews" in the U.S. it seems, are required by some of the political orthodoxy to stand apart from their Israeli cousins. I have my concerns with the intransigence of the religious political parties in Israel. But by and large the future of the Jewish people is in Israel.
6
How weak must people be who need laws like this to manifest their superiority and privileges? I think the connecting sentiment between the nationalistic “movements” we are facing not only here in this country but basically everywhere in Europe is that they are lead by weak and cowardly people who have nothing else to offer than their heritage, religion or color of skin to differentiate themselves from the “others”. It is not the competition of ideas I expected to rise with the Information Age - it is the competition of petty folks thriving on small spirits....like it has always been for that corner of the political spectrum.
10
So Israel passes a law that says Hebrew is the official language of the land... And that makes some people apoplectic.
Yet many of Israel's regional neighbors consistently call for the annihilation of Israel: Think Iran's and Hezbollah's (Lebanon) official calls for 'Death to Israel!' and these same outraged people don't bat an eye or think anything of it.
I find this really strange.
Hatred of Israel and Jews has deep spiritual roots which need to be closely examined.
19
I have read the comments on this post and ask the question, Is there discrimination against Ar
Young Israeli Arabs as they graduate High School are free to continue their education , enter the workplace or pursue their other goals. Young Israeli Jews, men and women, on the other hand, are required to forestall any continuing education since it is mandatory for them to enter the military for two or three years and serve in the Reserves for much of their adulthood. For the most part the Jewish young people serve willingly and proudly to protect their country and this experience carries through to their adult lives. Young Israeli Arabs do not share in this experience and perhaps this factor, explains in some small part the differing lens through which each community views the other. Is it time for a change?
4
A colonial state founded on the race-based concepts of its 1890s founders cannot survive in a cosmopolitan age.
19
@Bobby - But it sure is trying. And do great harm in the process.
4
How can the United States, a country where the separation of church and state, and the right to practice any faith are fundamental continue to provide billions of dollars in "aid" to countries like Israel?
24
@bwchicago
Well, if things keep going as badly as they are now, Putin's puppet and the spineless McConnell and Ryan and the right are consistently moving toward tearing down the wall between church and state, claiming that we are, first and foremost, a Christian nation. Sad.
5
I am sitting here in Jerusalem, having been here for over 3 weeks. It is my 4th time here and this time it feels very different. I have been reading the Jerusalem Post every day as well as Haaretz, and it seems that only half the news gets printed. I get the other half, or try to, from US sources. Israel seems more and more like a Theocracy. Today I read that a conservative rabbi was detained for performing non-Orthodox weddings. At the Women of the Wall Rosh Chodosh prayer last Friday, Haredi men and women threw stones at us and burned a prayer book. The police did nothing. If Jews in Israel are doing these things to other Jews, there is not much hope for Palestinians, let alone the Arabs who live in Jerusalem. Everyday, whatever few rights they have, much is taken away.
This Nation-state bill is shameful. I would suggest that the original zionists would not be proud of what Israel is doing nor how they are doing it. Just as in the United States, the religious right interferes too much in secular politics and the results are devastating to many.
102
@MaryAnn Just try expressing parallel sentiments while sitting in an Arab state - you could be arrested and even executed. I know that Hamas doesn't allow any objections - you'd risk your life trying to oppose anything as a Gazan. My point: Israel is a democracy.
2
@MaryAnn: I'm sure you are right about the principle founders of Israel. However, I suspect there were quite a few original Zionists who would happily have gotten rid of (by any means) all the Arabs living in Palestine.
3
Is there any greater irony than Jews adopting the politics of the government that tried to destroy them? And, because of our unqualified support, the Unites States is in the unenviable position of having to abet their immoral actions.
No country should ever be entitled to "unqualified" support. Support should be based on that country "doing what's right", not the "name" of the country, or the religion of the people who live there.
For the same reason, the U.S. should be completely ostracized and isolated as the result of Trump's policies.
It works both ways.
Netanyahu and Trump are birds of a feather. Both are morally and ethically bankrupt, and neither can be relied upon to ever tell the truth - ever.
46
The separation of church and state of our constitution should exclude Israel from any and all aid, financial as well as political. We don't give money or military assistance to the Vatican, so why should we American citizens see out tax dollars to the belligerent state of Israel and it's intransigent leadership ?
Their claim to the land which was Palestine for over 1000 years is based on biblical mythology, nothing more. Bogus !
31
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances --- Amendment I of the U.S. Constitution
Our forefathers had it right. Congress shall pass no law establishing a national religion or a national religious identity. If Israel want to do this, fine. But we do not have to support this state with our resources.
49
How much money do you spend supporting Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and other nations that are by law Moslem states in which people of other religions are outlawed or subject to violence sanctioned by the government?
7
@Malagashman, Oh but we will as long as politicians wish to be re-elected we will forever carry them as our 51st
state.
10
@Malagashman - The United States are a model of right behavior. n the world? Right.
What’s the big fuss? In Animal Farm, some animals were “more equal” than others, and all the other animals were OK with that, right? Everything turned out fine in the end, right?
19
@WmC Yes, Arabs entitled to 21 ethnic Arab states, OK to have 57 Islamic Conference states.
One Jewish state - not so much.
That is the lesson of Animal Farm in this context.
5
"Since it was established, Israel has been grappling with the inherent tensions between its dual aspirations of being both Jewish and democratic."
So apparently when push comes to shove, religious identity is viewed as more important than democracy. To wit, "Mr. Netanyahu’s government has sought to exercise more control over the news media, curtail the authority of the Supreme Court and undermine the police amid attempts to thwart or minimize the effect of multiple corruption investigations against the prime minister."
Oh, wait: maybe this isn't about religion vs. democracy at all, but more about a nascent dictator looking to consolidate personal power. One time-tested measure is to appeal to emotion over reason, us vs. them, religion over secular harmony.
Exactly what Trump is trying to do here in America. Now we see his evangelical "Christians" are mindlessly consorting with Russian agents, courting treason in their quest for greater religious authority over all Americans. No doubt Trump will watch Fox News this morning and wonder if he has the power to ban the teaching of Mexican (what we think of as Spanish) in our public schools. You heard it here first.
15
Israel, or Palestine, is just as much the native land of Palestinian Arabs as it is of Jews. This law is further proof that the state of Israel violates its peoples human rights. They, of all people, should know that such discriminatory behavior can lead to terrible consequences.
25
You cannot drive from Bethleem to Ramallah in the Westbank without driving around ultra-protected settlements. Most of the settlements built by religious fanatics who think God gave them this land. The Israeli governments, right or left, despite at times some feigned condemnation, has been supporting the settlements and allowing them to grow. Now, this Law, which honestly does not come as a surprise. It is the natual continuation of the Israeli version (somehow different, but still very efficient) of the apartheid. And the world is watching, arms crossed, contemplating new business opportunities with the Israeli's striving economy. People couldn't care less anymore of the palestinians. So outrageous, unfair and sad.
33
@GD I wonder if they ever thank the United States for those illegal settlements that we support. Our money goes directly to Israel for those settlements among many other entitlements. And by the way You're Welcome.
6
Wrong in every respect. What once might have been considered a democracy is becoming simply another dictatorial theocracy
24
@Richard Frauenglass It already was a Jewish version of an Islamic State!
4
It's worth noting that even the U.S. doesn't have an official language - English or otherwise.
11
@Eric - There have been repeated attempts to pass legislation making English the official language of the United States.
1
@Annie
As well it should. You are free to speak your
native tongue at home but it should be English
everywhere else.
1
Yes, and it logically follows that such a State is not a democracy but a religious/cultural State and should not pretend to be a democracy.
25
So the Orthodox sect is becoming stronger with the passage of time. A dangerous condition. Its great how religion is so helpful to people.
14
There is absolutely nothing wrong with this. Israel IS the Jewish Nation State. The Middle East has many Arab Nation States, so why would there not be one Jewish Nation State ?
Arab Israelis (rightfully) have the same rights as Jewish Israelis though they have fewer obligations (military service) than Jewish Israelis. Arab Israelis have more freedoms than what Arabs have in any Arab country.
15
@Harry Mazal The MIddle East has fair Christians but this is based on ethnicity!
5
As an American this seems so wrong. To have anything in a government’s actions or purpose be determined by people’s chosen faith or heritage is so contrary to our principles. At least it was done in a democratic fashion and can be undone if it proves to be a mistake. But with little actual knowledge, as an American it looks to have laid the foundation to destroy any semblance of a fair and just nation democratic nation. Contrast this law to the U.S. Constitution in which it is a bedrock principle people’s faith and heritage shall never matter. This law just provides ammunition to those wishing to destroy Israel. To this completely uninformed observer, it appears to be a huge mistake and yet another negative result of the the Presidency of Donald Trump. I hope I am wrong. To see a rise in violent Palestinian action is the last thing the world needs right.
4
@Jack Winters
But you're an American and Israelis are Israelis. Why should they try to write laws that will please Americans and agree with their principles? It's their country.
3
@Greenie. - Exactly - my point exactly.
Basically, we are observing, “Might makes right”. Simple as that and real as that.
17
Oh, great. Once Trump sees this, he'll be asking for a new law declaring the U.S. to be an evangelical Christian nation. With the same potential consequences.
20
Foul and immoral. Instead of trying to move to a more democratic society with true equality before the law, Israel flees in in the opposite direction.
The present power structure in Israel is contemptuous of criticism. The only thing they will respond to is sanctions.
21
Israel has succumbed to the same right wing nationalism that has engulfed many states. Rather than accepting the natural evolution of a democracy, and cultivating relationships with those who might one day constitute a majority, it has taken a narrow and xenophobic path. It does not bode well for peace in the region, or for the world.
28
@Paul Baker
Nod. Buber's "narrow ridge" was not this, but a prescient word of caution against theological dogmaticism.
“We shall not, of course, be able to boast of possessing the Book if we betray its demand for righteousness.”
Israel.. maybe it was chosen, maybe not. It is a pretty silly and indulgent question. But, seriously if there is/was a God, would that God "choose" anyone to make the best apartheid there can be in the year 2018? Maybe we need to stop funding the State of Israel and start giving scholarships to far right Israeli Jews to attend our best nondenominational divinity schools.. alongside people of all faiths.
1
The text of the law proclaims a "religious right" of self-determination. Is this a real concept in international law? Hard not to read it as a muffled assertion of divine favor for the chosen people.
16
Thanks, but no thanks.
‘Diaspora’ means refugee forever. If being a Jew means becoming everything that is anathema to me, then I must be an apostate.
21
So glad that my country, the US, gets to provide Israel with an endless subsidy. Another win for the Adelson-Kushner axis.
215
@Dino yea. israel is just such an awful country. awful. the most liberal democracy in the mideast, where gays and adulterers dont have to fear for their lives, where all religions worship with no worries, where arabs fill the parliament and supreme court, who shares with us critical intel and military knowhow...yea..just awful..if only we had more states thee like iran, iraq, turkey, etc. yea, that would be so much better. good thinking, sir.
11
@ari, Yes Ari liberal democracy but only if
you are a Jew. Don't kid yourself.
3
I always believed Israel was a democracy. I can no longer sustain that view.
114
@Sheila. you have no idea what a dmocracy is. its the vote of the people. the people have spoken, no one's rights are being denied here. this law confirsm what everyone iknows..israel is a jewish state, just like how many muslim countries are muslim states. israel is not denying anyone anything.
9
It's a Jewish democracy, much like Turkey is an Islamic democracy.
9
@Ari, more than 20% of Israeli citizens are non Jews, 2nd class citizens, but citizens nonetheless.
1
This law has alienated secular Jews throughout the world, & has turned Israel into a theocracy.It will eventually be the demise of the Jewish dream of a home land.
219
Israel was created as a Jewish state so why not inshrine the truth into law? The anti Israel propaganda machine is working well these days, with its far left, anti semetic, populus driven hate. It's time for the truth to reign and especially for Israel. Its sad and telling the amount of negative press given to Israel while others nations commit real human rights atrocities, and wars. Israel does neither, and its aim is clearly just to live in peace. I hope this law and the world's acceptance of it will help achieve this aim, and lay to rest the war and hate being waged against this peaceful and beautiful nation.
51
It's a peaceful and beautiful nation for only the "right" people. In my opinion, that is immoral. If that makes me (and many many others) anti-Semitic, so be it.
I wonder whether the Times will print this.
15
So these apartheid type Israeli laws are ok with you I take it. Israel is perhaps no worse than its neighbors. But it is rapidly becoming no better.
9
How does rudimentary press coverage of this law amount to anti-Israel propaganda? Please!
13
This is, as my grandmother used to say, a "shonda for the goyim." [This means, as Gene Weingarten defined it: To be a shanda for the goyim is to confirm the most hurtful stereotypes,thereby doing damage twice: a Jew who dishonors Jews by not only doing something bad, but doing something that confirms the worst fears of others about Jews in general.] A sad day indeed.
255
So you'll do what Peter? Join Jewish Voice for Peace now instead and shake your fist against Israel at the next Hard Left/pro-Hezbollah/pro-Hamas rally trying to hear yourself think above the shouts of Iqbad al Yahud -- exterminate the Jew? That'll certainly expiate your "shanda." Yes?
Now please explain how stating in writing what everyone knows Israel was meant to be from the beginning is some sort of "shanda." Even the UN Partition Plan of 1947 clearly stated "a Jewish state, and an "Arab state" (the term "Palestinian" was applied to Jews in those days -- not to the Arabs.) If this is suddenly now a "shanda", where have you been the last 70 years?
9
'This is, as my grandmother used to say, a "shonda for the goyim."'
Not to say anything harsh about your grandmother, but that phrase is bigoted, because it assumes that all "goyim" are too stupid to understand the difference between Israel and Jews.
5
Whether this law passed or didn't it is a fact of life, known by virtually all high school students everywhere, that Israel is a Jewish state and the ancestral home of the Jewish people. It's not perfect; no country is. There is discrimination against minorities in Israel just as here, in Great Britain, France and Germany. It has survived three major wars and smaller conflicts that attempted to destroy it and emerged victorious and stronger after every one. It stands as a beacon to Jews everywhere that there is, on this planet, a nation that will always welcome Jews. That's no small thing after attempts to annihilate the Jewish people that are well known.
59
@alan brown
It is also the ancestral homeland to the Palestinians who have been the vast majority of the population since at least 635 AD and have lived there continually since that time, probably earlier. Shall we move all borders back to where they were in the year 70AD. Actually Jews were leaving Palestine in great numbers and moving to where the action was 150 years before Titus sacked Jerusalem.
20
@Alan brown
Tell that to the Ethiopian and other East African Jews that face government discrimination in Israel. I'm sure they'd love to hear they're welcome.
11
@alan brown
Israel is no the ancestral home of the Jewish people. The Palestinians are the descendants of the ancient Israelites, not the Jews of the Diaspora. See The Invention of the Jewish People by Israeli historian Shlomo Sand.
11
Palestinians, get this through your heads. You will never get a state on the West Bank. The West Bank belongs to Israel. The Israeli state that the UN created in 1948 is no longer viable to accommodate the number of Jews who live in the region. You should have made peace earlier before the number of Jews in the region exploded. Now that ship has sailed.
You will not be uprooted. You can live there with all of the rights and privileges accorded to other citizens of the State of Israel. At best you can perhaps get some accommodations and autonomy similar to what the French have in Quebec in Canada.
If you lost land or businesses or property you should get paid Just Compensation as under the legal Doctrine of Adverse Possession.
As far as Gaza goes, the UN should immediately declare that it is an independent state. Israel gave up on it. Egypt wants no part of it. There's you Palestinian state. Gaza.
25
@MIKEinNYC - You do realize that if Israel annexes the West Bank and affords the inhabitants all the rights of citizens, then in a few years, this Grand State of Israel will have an Arab majority.
Even sooner, Arabs and ultra orthodox Jews will have a majority. How to you think that will work out?
6
@Len Charla Then so be it. That's democracy!
@MIKEinNYC
I don't agree.
Your comment is irrelevant to this new law.
First this law does not is not relevant to most of the West Bank.
This law would apply only in Israel.
Most of he West Bank has not been incorporated into Israel and is therefore not legally Israel and this law would not apply.
Only East Jerusalem and the areas adjacent to East Jerusalem were incorporated
Israel is larger than you think.
There is no need to expand because the land is not large enough to accommodate the number of Jews who live there.
There is more than enough land.
Jerusalem is the place where the Holy Temple was built and for religious reasons has to be a Jewish city and for this reason had to be incorporated
Jews were not even allowed to be there when it was taken by the Jordanians.
That will never happen again.
Jerusalem was and is and will always be a Jewish city.
2
In theory, a liberal democracy takes no notice of those personal characteristics that distinguish one citizen from another. In theory, race, religion, ethnicity, gender and other cultural markers have no consequences for the rights and liberties enjoyed by persons in their capacity as citizens of the liberal democratic state. But in practice, the interests and attitudes associated with personal and collective identities have always been a source of political friction in liberal democracies. This is especially true of nations that are racially, religiously, and ethnically diverse. The largest and historically dominant social groups tend to feel and act as if they and they alone embody the nation. When their historical dominance is challenged and especially when it is undermined by changing demographic realities, they commonly seek to reassert their "ownership" of the state through law and policy. I think this goes a long way toward explaining the rise of authoritarian populism and illiberal democracy in Europe and the United States today. Israel's new addition to its basic law reflects the same trend. It appears to be a largely symbolic measure, affirming the state's Jewish identity without taking away the rights of the state's non-Jewish (and Jewish but non-Orthodox) citizens. But in practical terms the new law reinforces the ethnic/religious minority's second-class status and provides new cover for discriminatory measures directed against them.
103
Twenty years ago, I did on site consulting energy work for both Turkey and Israel (separate projects). I was pleased to do them because I worked with a number of bright young people with progressive thinking.
How disappointing to see how things have gone in both countries ever since. In the case of Israel, my work was finishing up just as the Barak regime was replaced by the Sharon regime. On the eve of the election, they were on the verge of a major breakthrough with the Palestinians, but then it never happened after election day.
I have not gone back to either country as a tourist. My heart just isn't in it. I wonder what happened to all those nice bright people I worked with.
132
Sounds like you missed what happened in Gaza after Sharon unilaterally withdrew all Israelis from the territory. And you obviously also missed the Palestinians rejected every single proposal ever offered to them that would have given them a state.
I'll take your disappointment more seriously if you can show us when your heart was no longer in it upon learning the Palestinian Authority passed a law that any Arab selling land to a Jew is subject to the death penalty.
13
@JW
Sorry, but that's fake history. Sharon redeployed from Gaza to the West Bank to further that colonial effort. And Israel has never made a real peace offer to the Palestinians, only demands that the Palestinians be gone.
1
@RM
"Then it never happened" - Arafat turned it down.
6
I think the article is correct in that as a practical matter the law will change very little in Israel.
Human rights groups have documented that Israeli Arabs have faced discriminatory practices for years.
What this law might do is make it more difficult for Arabs or any non-Jew to challenge discrimination in the courts.
This law seems to be the equivalent of the infamous "separate but equal" decision by the US Supreme court.
We saw that the separate part of that equation was vigorously enforced while the "equal" part was largely ignored. The logic of this law seems very similar.
But regardless of the law's impact within the internationally recognized borders of Israel, West Bank Palestinians live under military, not civil law. And for them, there has never even been the pretense of due process or equal protection of the law.
They are treated as inmates in a minimum security prison and only have those rights that the IDF decides to allow. And those are very few.
265
@WestSiderpractically speaking, so did the US law.
They have just passed a law reaffirming what I always believed, Israel is not a democracy. How can a democracy have laws the say one religion and the people who observe it are predominate over the rest of the population?
394
Why couldn't it? When the U.S. was founded, as a democracy, only land owning men could vote. There are different kinds of democracies.
2
@Thomas Renner
There is a distinction to me made between Jews and people who are Jewish. "Jews" are a people, a nation, like the French or Italians. By far, most Jews are Jewish. This law is for the benefit of Jews, the people, not necessarily those with an affiliation to the Jewish religion. Palestinians are a People. That sliver of land is not large enough to accommodate two Peoples. That's what this law is all a about.
1
"How can a democracy have laws the say one religion and the people who observe it are predominate over the rest of the population?"
If you want to get philosophical, the answer is easy. A mono-cultural democracy could indeed assert the primacy of one religion, because there would be no other religion by definition.
Anyway, the new Basic Law is far more presumptuous than religious, because it claims to speak for ALL "Jewish people":
"B. The State of Israel is the national home of the Jewish people, in which it fulfills its natural, cultural, religious and historical right to self-determination."
(from the English translation linked in the article)
5
No one has a problem with the Hopi reservation favoring Hopi culture, Hopi residents, and Hopi language, or similar advantages for Inuit in Canada, or other endangered indigenous groups on their ancestral lands.
That is what Israel is for Jews, the Jews' ancestral homeland. It is also the sole place on earth where Jews have a chance to live apart and defend themselves from the hatred and violence that have characterized their history for thousands of years, everywhere.
N.B. Palestine was divided by the Brits already: Jordan for Muslims, Judea for Jews.
59
@raphael colb
Those reservations are barren, heat baked rocky outposts with little tillable land. Not places where millions of people that are not Jews live. It's those other people that are the real-life issue, not some academic abstraction.
28
@raphael colb
"Jews have a chance to live apart"
You nailed it. It is this ghetto mentality, the insistence on being 'separate', the abhorrence at the thought of integration (you call it assimilation) that keeps the flames of antisemitism alight.
Nobody will have any problem with Judaism, as a religion. But nobody should accept the thought of a superior race, based on religious dogma either.
93
@raphael colb A vast oversimplification. But the world, and the region, are not so simple.
1
Nothing worse than a government dominated by religion.
518
@John From FL
Not religion.
The law recognizes the "Jewish people", not the Jewish religion.
In practice, the law is mostly symbolic and will have little effect.
19
No, if it were only symbolic, there would be no need for such a law.
18
On the contrary, it sends a needed message to the Palestinians that playing games over the definition of Israel is over. They are going to have to formally recognize Israel as the Jewish State -- just as affirmed in the original UN Partition Plan which the Arabs rejected -- if they ever agree to a peace proposal.
On the other hand, maybe you're right. The Palestinians will never agree to anything ending the conflict once and for all anyway. So why bother?
At the end of World War II, 850,000 Jews lived in Arab countries. Just 8,500 remain today. Their departure was no accident. After Arab leaders failed to annihilate Israel militarily in 1948, they launched a war of terror, incitement, and expulsion to decimate their own ancient Jewish communities.
Palestinian Arabs sat in the state's first parliamentary assembly; as of 2011, 13 of the 120 members of the Israeli Parliament are Arab citizens, most representing Arab political parties, and one of Israel's Supreme Court judges is a Palestinian Arab. As of 2015, there are 17 Arab members of knesset.
This board is full of anti-semitic sentiment without an understanding of the Jewish people and statehood.
67
This isn’t true at all. And people don’t like oppressive religious states. Period.
48
One can understand the Jewish people and statehood and still disagree with the direction in which Israel is heading. It's leadership has taken a hard right turn and even many Israeli's don't agree with its policies. One can debate motive for doing so but Israel is becoming less democratic, with two classes of citizens, one with fewer rights than the other. The state of Israel can no longer claim to travel the high road and the sympathetic feelings long held for Israel by outsiders, even some American Jews, is eroding.
5
@AJB
Hate to break this to you, but Israeli historians have debunked this bit of disinformation.
See "Hitching a ride on the magic carpet: Any analogy between Palestinian refugees and Jewish immigrants from Arab lands is folly in historical and political terms" by Professor Yehouda Shenav of Tel Aviv University (Haaretz, Aug. 15, 2003):
"Any reasonable person, Zionist or non-Zionist, must acknowledge that the analogy drawn between Palestinians and Mizrahi Jews is unfounded. Palestinian refugees did not want to leave Palestine. Many Palestinian communities were destroyed in 1948, and some 700,000 Palestinians were expelled, or fled, from the borders of historic Palestine. Those who left did not do so of their own volition.
"In contrast, Jews from Arab lands came to this country under the initiative of the State of Israel and Jewish organizations. Some came of their own free will; others arrived against their will. Some lived comfortably and securely in Arab lands; others suffered from fear and oppression."
Or is history anti-Semitic?
12
7 EU Member states have Constitutional Nation State laws that are virtually the same as this. Many have national religions, which this does not, and a number of the most "liberal" have laws banning some Islamic practices, which Israel does not. In short this law merely states what should be obvious given the Star of David on the flag and other national symbols from Jewish history taken from the thousands of years old story of the truly indigenous people of the land of Israel. The Jews.
62
@David Sher
There are European countries whose constitutions state that they are the homeland of the Christian people, and Christians have the unique right of national self-determination?
And that the state places national value on the development of Christian settlements and will act to encourage their establishment?
Nonsense. You are drawing false parallels and ignoring what people are angry about. I am all for a strong and independent Israel, but constitutional clauses like these are offensive.
146
@Celia
You, along with many others, conflate the Jewish religion with the Jewish people. They stand as two distinct things. Judaisim is a religion. The new law does not speak to Judaism. It speaks to the Jewish people. Many Jews identify as Jewish but do not practice Judaism. The term Jewish refers to a culture.
So no, there are no constitutions that advocate homelands for Christian (a set of religions) people (that I am aware of), however they do state that they are the homeland for those with the same national identity.
It is, unfortunately, a common misunderstanding of what "Jewish" means.
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"7 EU Member states have Constitutional Nation State laws that are virtually the same as this."
Then name them. And cite a reliable source for your claim about "Constitutional Nation State laws".
"... the truly indigenous people of the land of Israel."
There is no such thing as "truly indigenous people". Or do you know who the first human was to step onto the land at the eastern end of the Mediterranean?
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It just goes to show that Israel is in tune with the times. In Germany, the right is saying “Germany for the real Germans.” In Austria, there is a similar sentiment. Seems like we have been through this before...
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Except of course Germany is not passing laws enshrining minority right wing party thought.
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Another sad day in Israel under Benjamin Netanyahu's perverse leadership.
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Israel has always been a theocracy -- as opposed to the "democracy" it claims to be. Now, they have enshrined that fact in law. No biggie.
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It’s time Israel has to go it alone. I am disgusted that a people who were once the subject of persecution worldwide could so easily turn around to become the persecutor. Enough.
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Persecutor? You are stating just the opposite. Israel is one of the most benevolent states/countries on the planet. It is the 10th largest economy in the world. Without it, you would not have the computer you are typing on. It is a progressive, free state, with freedom of religion, speech and assembly. It is first to aid when earthquakes, tsunamis, and other tragedies around the world occur. This all in spite of hateful Arabs in huge numbers seeking its annihilation purely due to their spite and hate for decades.
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@DMurphy. I don’t think it was easy. They have been at some level of war since their founding. Ask the recent recipients of rockets in Sderot how easy life is.
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@DMurphy WHAuden said it best, in his poem "September 1, 1939": "I and the public know what all schoolchildren learn; Those to whom evil is done do evil in return." Ironically, Auden was talking about the Nazi seizure of Austria.
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All governments based on religion are inherently unjust. Remember the Spanish Inquisition? This is no different.
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@Dave
Maybe so.
Maybe not.
The Spanish Inquisition did not happen because the government was based on religion.
Much of Spain had been conquered by he Muslims and the Spanish needed to remove the Muslims to take the land back from them.
Even if Spain was not a Catholic nation this would have happened.
Most governments are unjust.
Why should a government that is based on religion be any better.
This is nothing like the Spanish Inquisition.
What this decree states isn't that Israel is only for the Jews.
It just recognizes that the land of Israel is both the biblical and historical homeland of he Jews.
There is nothing in this law that states people who are not Jewish have any less rights than anyone else has.
Why is it OK that there are many Muslim countries that
will not only state the country is a Muslim county but will
make Jews at best second class residents and will usually not even permit them to even visit the country.
The Jews have been kicked out of most of he countries in
the world.
They need a place they can call their own.
There would not have been a Holocaust in Germany if there was a Israel.
The fact you ignore this tells me you don't care.
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@Dave By stating 'This is no different.' you're saying that Israel is torturing and murdering secular Jews, liberal Jews, and ANYONE, regardless of ethnic origin, that does not adhere to the 'one true faith.' This is beyond ridiculous.
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@Dave. - So you are anti - religion? And there are no countries that were not based on religion that were unjust? Very selective memory.
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Israel is betraying one of its founding principles:It promised in its constitution to be a Democracy not a Theocracy. This was the basis on which the US recognized Israeli independence so quickly in 1948 and it served as a strong basis for American support over the years.
This latest action coupled with Israeli positions on settlements and Arab rights slams shut the door on any Mid-East peace prospects based on Justice.
Without Justice there can be no Peace.
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@Brian Barrett
"Without Justice there can be no Peace." Are you threatening war?
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@Mel forewarning. Might as well be Cassandra for all the notice the world will take.
Isn't there violence already?
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Anyone who has objected to Donald Trump's fear-mongering and racism over immigration into the U.S. should be deeply troubled by this racist Israeli law. It changes the status of Arab Israelis, people whose heritage in that land spans centuries. Imagine an American law changing the status of people of color born in the U.S. — or, in closer parallel to the Israeli law, an act that would change the status of Native Americans.
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@Hugh Sansom This attitude is the norm across the ME including Muslim countries and some will cynically use this to argue in Israel's favor.
However two or indeed multiple wrongs do not make a right.
The separation between church ad state in the US has taken a knocking with the advent of Trumpism but it is something we should uphold and take pride in.
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Remember that Native Americans were not legally citizens of the US of A until the 20th Century (and despite the plain language of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution). America doesn’t have a great history on these issues.
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This is a really bad law. I feel about it the way I would if Congress passed a law saying the US is a Christian country. Christians are the majority but almost everyone who is not a Christian would rightfully feel unwelcome, alienated , hostile, antagonistic. I'd feel the same way about any country that passed such a law. Why Israelis would want a sizable minority within their country around many others around the world to feel even more that way for no practical benefit is beyond me to understand except as the power of religion to inspire hatred and stupidity.
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@Barry Schiller compelling but a hypothetical non-sequitur nonetheless
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@Barry Schiller Completely agree. I have lived in three countries none of who declare for one religion or another and that's how I like it.
Just another cynical Bibi move to get votes and stay in power. He is in his third marriage his second was to an American Christian.I find it hard to believe that he personally agrees with the religious right.
@Barry Schiller
Is Christmas not a legal holiday in the United States ?
The Jewish state has had to fight off enemies from the first day 's of it's existence in biblical times as well as modern times. Besides external enemies there is an enemy that exists within Israel's borders and it is the Arab population. Further not to forget there is the UNHRC and it's members who are human rights abusers that question Irael's existence and whose ritual it is to condem Israel.. Then there are the anti-semites that exist in both the Muslim and Western world that are sympathetic to the Nazi policy of eradication or murdering Jews. In spite of facing threats to it's existence Israel has thrived and contributes more then it's fair share for the good of mankind. It is a Jewish State and a democratic state and it has the right to declare that proudly. It is the hypocrisy of those that oppose Israel and Jewish values that needs to change it's attitudes towards Jews and the State of Israel and not judge Israel with their double standards.
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Is Israel still democratic for its Non Jewish citizens?
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@Henry Blumner, your comment states precisely what is wrong with this law. In a true democracy, Arabs and Jews should be able to live peacefully side-by-side. You label the Arabs within Israel an enemy. How would you feel if you were labeled an enemy in your own country because of your nationality or religious beliefs?
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It’s ironic that you claim to decry fascism while also labeling an embattled minority as an “enemy that exists within”.
A modern democracy should - at the very least - allow all of its subjects vote for the government that controls their lives. That being said, democracy is a broad term. The Confederacy, Apartheid South Africa and Ancient Athens were all great great bastions of unequal democracy.
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This marks the end of any type of peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians. The behavior of our president has given Netanyahu the cover he needed to push for an Israel first position. With the support of the US, Israel can now do exactly what they are doing, increasing the building of settlements, categorizing Arabs as second class citizens and raising the chant of Israel for Israelis.
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@Manuel Lucero What peace?
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@Manuel Lucero . Shame the Palestinians rejected all of those offers for peace and to have their own state, isn' it? By the way I urge you to see how many rights Jews that live in PA controlled areas in Ramallah and elsewhere have. That was a trick statement, because there are no Jews there! If you have ever been to Judea and Samaria you will see that it is littered with red signs stating that Israelis cannot enter PA controlled areas. Why is it okay for the nascent "Palestine" to have no Jews in it?
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@Manuel Lucero - You mean as opposed to the chant of 'Death to Israel'? Or the chant of boycott Israel? How many years were peace accords attempted and how many times did the Palestinians reject every proposal offered to them?
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This seems the last coffin's nail in Israel's democracy. Their choice of course, sad and shortsighted as it is. It sounds as though any other group, with a different religion (or none) are not welcome, and may even be invited (or forced) to exit the land. Who knows? The world seems upside-down, and voices of exclusion and lack of solidarity and tolerance gaining the upper hand. What a poverty of human spirit. Remember Albert Einstein? He claimed that human stupidity was unlimited. I am beginning to believe, sadly, that his assertion is true.
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@manfred marcus Agree but quoting Einstein for humanitarian sentiments went out of fashion as soon as he was revealed to be both a tremendous misogynist and an unapologetic Anti-Asian bigot.
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Ethno-nationalism is a global movement the internal logic of which is deeply incoherent. Trump supports ethno-nationalism. So, he supports Israelis passing a law aimed to make some Jews feel more dominant and secure while demeaning Arabs and leaving them more insecure. He also supports Poles and Hungarians passing laws that are designed to affirm Christians and to demean and exclude many groups, including Jews. He also supports the English passing laws designed to affirm native-born white English people and demean and exclude new arrivals, including Poles.
It is plain as day that the global ethno-nationalism movement will lead us nowhere good. These laws are not designed to solve problems and thereby ease tensions. They are design to affirm resentment and turn up the heart.
I am an upper middle class, well-educated, highly-paid white, male, Christian citizen of the United States of America and these laws make me nervous. I can't believe that members of historically vulnerable groups would not see the danger if I can see it plain as day.
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Hello, please would you explain what laws the British Government has passed that are designed to affirm native-born white English people and demean and exclude new arrivals, including Poles? I'm British and not aware of any such laws.
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@Paul
Ethnonationalism makes perfect sense. Only people who share a deep bond can truly form a state. The US itself was founded on ethno-nationalism -- read Federalist 2, or the first naturalization or militia laws. Even the Declaration of Independence, beyond the second paragraph (no love for the 'Native Americans' there)
While I don’t agree that this tragic and unjust and anti democratic law is “only symbolic” even merely as a symbol it is—to me—the end of a naive dream. I am a pro-Palestinian, pro-two state activist since 1978: one who ultimately came to strongly support Israel and Zionism the deeper I read the history of the region and the more I visited Gaza, Israel and the West Bank. I (and many others) clung to the vision for forty years of Israel as a country that if ever truly accepted by its neighbors and the world would be a nation of justice and equal rights. This naive belief persisted despite the anti-Palestinian racism; despite the disproportionate response to Palestinian rockets, suicide bombers, car attacks; despite the West Bank occupations and thefts. Someone rightly said: “As two enemies fight each other, the more the they will begin to resemble each other.” Still, coming close via peace talks twice to a two state reality, collaboration and peace based on overlapping mutual interests seemed possible.
Today, Israel declares its Arab citizens second class—no matter the technicality of the law, no matter how you spin it; Hamas continues to call for Israel’s destruction with Iran’s money and guns; Fatah is ineffective and corrupt; middle of the road Israel Jews are tired and don’t want to hear about it anymore. Right wing racist zealots are in ascendency along with their White House ally. Put Israel’s picture in the dictionary under the phrase, “How Democracies Die.”
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@Michael The reason that there is no peace is that Palestinianism is an annhilationist movement and not a nationalist one. It's right there in the letter head "Palestine Liberation Organization" not Palestine Nationalist Organization. That is why Arafat poisoned Oslo and why Abbas rejected several peace treaties. That is why the terrorist group Hamas won Gazas only election. If you care about a two-state solution, then organize to create a nationalist Palestinian movement.
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As much as we Americans are frustrated by our polarized/dysfunctional two party system, Israel is beholden to its parliamentary system that cobbles together minority parties to form a majority coalition. The ultra orthodox and settler parties, each relatively small and not representative of the majority of Israelis, wield excessive power and are behind this symbolic vote.
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@Pragmatist In CTSo they don't need an Electoral College.
-The US is a white protestant Christian country that favors the immigration of white Christian Europeans.
Right...that doesn't sound too great either. Israel has been facing this dilemma for decades. Is it a theocracy or a democracy? Are its laws biased against the non-Jews who live there in favor of Jews? Perhaps this new law just makes it clear cut where the nation wants to go.
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