The people across the globe have no idea what system they live in. You are exclusively that what you protect at all cost.
Israel has never been democracy but ethnocracy. Ethnicity is at the top pedestal.
America isn’t democracy either but a capitalistic country. The capital is protected at all cost. The alleged national interests spread across the globe are just a camouflage for the protection of capital.
The Islamic countries are actually Arabic because they adhere to the Arabic culture without any hesitation, even going so far to claim that God only understand the Arabic language and prefers the Arabic dress code, Arabic melos, Arabic architecture, Arabic alphabet and Arabic personal names.
I could keep going on an on, but that could be your homework. Please decipher what the other societies actually believe in…
So precisely what is a "Jewish" state? Does it include Reformed and Conservative Judaism? Or only Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox Judaism? Israel today discriminates against Conservative and Reformed Judaism. Jewish women who try to pray at the Western Wall get arrested because Israel has given the ultra-Orthodox control of religious matters for Jews in Israel. Israeli authorities recently arrested an American rabbi for officiating a wedding. His crime? Not being ultra-Orthodox.
See https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/israel-detains-conservative-rabbi-fo....
Leading ultra-Orthodox rabbis, including those controlling the official Rabbinate and are members of the Knesset, have publicly and officially called Reformed Jews "a group of clowns who stab the Holy Torah,” “literally idolaters,” and "mentally ill."
See https://ejewishphilanthropy.com/if-i-am-a-clown-and-mentally-ill-so-be-it/.
The US should never, ever support this rank discrimination against American Jews by any nation. And recognizing Israel as a "Jewish" state really means recognizing it in large part as an ultra-Orthodox state--one where the vast majority of American Jews and their rabbis are not welcome.
My support of Israeli survival is not without self interest. There are 50 Muslim nations on this planet; 20 of them have Islam as their only official religion. I need to be certain, for the sake of me and mine, that there is one Jewish refuge on this planet. So Israel can do whatever she needs to do to survive, and we'll have somewhere to send the Jews of Europe and South Africa, who are being beaten and mutilated and killed on the streets of their own nations and in their childrens' schools.
And concentrate, Mr. Boehm: you'll get no credit for being a decent human being, as long as you're also a Jew. The New York Times, as near as I can find, didn't even report the Canadian thank you to Israel for making it possible to save the White Helmets of Syria. And the White Helmets, of course, didn't include Israel in their official thanks for saving their skins. You'd better say thanks to the Israel Defence Forces, and the minority of Jewish Democrats who have switched to the Republican Party; Mr. Boehm, I'm sure you're a marvelous, thoughtful, empathetic philosopher, but noone else is interested in your or your childrens' survival.
2
Read Miko Peled.
The theory that ethnicity commands citizenship was made most famous by the Nazis. However it is one of the oldest, most primitive, and deleterious, not to say savage, lethal and criminal, ideology. All great empires triumphed, because they rejected it. This is what made them great. For example, the Achaemenid empire, which extended from Greece to India and Ethiopia to Central Asia, was extremely multiethnic. The Greco-Roman empire was extremely multiethnic (and so is its descendant empire, “The West”). China, India: multiethnic.
A multiethnic empire is forced to admit that there are higher principles than origins and appearances.
Those higher principles are well known: Liberty, Equality, Fraternity.
These principles are secular, they don’t depend upon the common superstition that the tribe at hand was chosen by “god” to be the elected people”, or even the definition of “man” (as was in many tribes).
The “Elected People” theory backfired spectacularly in the confrontation between Judaism and its their mental offspring. In the Fourth Century, Roman emperor Theodosius I legislated that the Christians were the Elected People: “heretics” (“those who made a choice”) were to be burned. Finally the “Elected People” theory, reinforced by the Christo-Darwinist mindset led to apply the “selection of the fittest” to Judaism: the Nazis insisted that they were the “Elected People”, elected by their own will, not a “god” scared of shrimps and hogs who insisted on sexual mutilations...
3
For all those comments suggesting a two state solution, I urge you you to visit the West Bank and try to figure out where that state would be located. The WestBank is a series of Bantu Stands with hundreds of checkpoints in between, settler roads and colonies for Jews only. The highways do not even have exits for the Palestinian towns.
Settlers have sprinklers on their lawns and swimming pools while Palestinians have water cut offs during the day.
Why no concern for Palestinians as human beings?
3
Israel is not a democracy - never has been. It is, similar to but not exactly ,like Iran, a parliamentary theocracy, a form of government, which if America were true to its values, would not ever support.
3
Hamas says it will never accept Israel's right to exist, meaning it will never accept a Jewish majority state. In reality this is the overall Palestinian position. Christian majority US and just about every other country doesn't have a comparable law, because it doesn't need one to maintain its majority. You can be sure they would have such a law if it was necessary to maintain its majority. Many countries don't even tolerate minorities. How about Japan and the muslim countries? Hungary and Poland won't let in refugees, because they want their countries to be as Hungarian and Polish as possible. Sweden took in refugees, but not so many to put the Swedish majority at risk. American Christians would be up in arms if their majority was at risk. Israel is in an existential position, because the Palestinians believe that over time they can get rid of the Jewish majority state and don't need to make peace. Don't apply the standards of countries with secure majorities to Israel. Israel is a tiny state, the only Jewish state. Israel has an Arab on its Supreme Court. Arabs have better representation in Israel's parliament then Blacks or Hispanics do in the US Congress.
2
The key problem in the Jewish-Arab relationship is not that they are diametrically opposite but completely identical.
Both sides believe in the same principle – a local culture…
The problem is that the they believe in two different cultures.
That’s why they are unable to compromise or find a common language.
If either side truly believed in the Almighty or were faithful, they would focus on what they have in common, not on what makes them different.
The key trait of a devoted believer is a quest for what all of us share and have in common…
It is unbelievable that the individuals with the doctor, master and bachelor degrees are incapable of conducting the basic logical operations.
Israel has never been democracy. Islam is not the faith. The wars don’t make us safer but are killing us on a massive scale. There is no free press as long as it’ s run by the private corporations with the private ownership. The political parties don’t serve the people but themselves.
That’s the truth and nothing but the truth.
Democracy cannot be based on the ethnic cleansing and preventing the refugees from returning home.
The faith cannot be spread by the swords, the brute force and the invasions because such behavior is strictly forbidden by the Holy Book.
Did the WWI and WWII make us safer or were instrumental in killing the dozens millions people?
The sole objective of the private businesses is not to inform you properly but be profitable.
The politicians that depend on the campaign donations from the global corporations serve the donors, not the voters!
1
When I was a California teenager in the late 50s, I was confused that Nationalism was the great sin of the Nazis and Fascists, but the Nationalism of Chiang Kai-Shek and Israel was laudable.
How could the Principle of Nationalism (Nazi is a related word) be at once atrociously wrong and laudably correct?
It isn't. Taiwan tossed Nationalism a long time ago.
Now we see even the nicest nationalism, Jewish nationalism, follow the concept's inevitable road to tyranny.
Reductio ad absurdum.
Reduced to a contradiction.
1
It would be perversely racist of me if I felt that individuals of the Jewish ethnicity were obligated to demonstrate the best qualities of human beings, rather than the worst, more than individuals of any other ethnicity, but I admit that I feel peculiar despair - given the history of their people - that any collection of individuals of the Jewish ethnicity, could send any collection of individuals of another ethnicity, into exile from their homeland, or submit them to being a subject people.
I understand that Israel was once a source of pride to Jews, but I do not understand how it could be for those of intelligence and good will today. Ethnic nationalism is "so last century" and theocracy is positively medieval. It is not David Ben-Gurion's or Golda Meir's Israel anymore. It has nothing in common with the soaring humanity of Albert Einstein or Carl Sagan. Like the United States, it has fallen down, it is no longer "a light of the world", "a city upon a hill".
1
All this hatred and conflict over an idea that has not a single shred of evidence to support it.
Embarrassing, just embarrassing. Humans can do better.
Don't be so quick to pronounce the death of democracy in Israel. A sign of any vibrant democracy is freedom of speech. Mr. Boehm, an Israeli citizen, writing an article critical of this law, can expect no retribution from the Israeli government. Could the same be said of the Palestinian Authority were the writer Palestinian and the article even vaguely critical of any aspect of Palestinian society? Or of Hamas in Gaza?
4
Look at the USA--- going further out to contradict our professed ideals, it's a nation state run by the 1 percent corporate mega donors to our elections. All legalized and supported by our once admired supreme court calling big money influence in elections constitutional free speech per 1st Amendment.
Full equality is ebbing in America. The vast majority of citizens have little influence on the lawmaking of the officials they elect for their interests. In a once proud America, we see an increasingly insecure and exploited population presided over by a politicians subsidized by the super rich who accumulate political power.
The rationalizations are ready---- "freedom from big govt intrusion into private enterprise and capitalism."
So instead of elected govts regulating big business monopolies, the business monopolies regulate the elected govt.
Distortion of democracy is becoming the norm. Average Americans are becoming like colonial subjects in their own land.
9
Religion, the gift that never stops giving. And not just conservatives, but religious conservatives. How soon the forget the sins visited on them in 1939-45.
I no longer care how this ends, but I don’t want my tax dollars propping up dictatorial regimes opressing and incarcerating millions of people, even if they are religious.
18
Stop? When did it start? Israel is an ethno-religious settlement. It may very well be "democratic" within its own closed-society format, but it clearly is not a republic, or a democracy if by democracy one means a pluralism. None of its neighbors are either. The Middle East is not a modern city-state network or union, although it is intellectually interesting to consider what broader colonizing entity could aggregate the region (the US has militarily done so, to some extent). But in that regard as well, Israel and Saudi Arabia have much broader territorial ambition. Except for two problems: one is the US; the other is Russia, both of whom have their own designs on geopolitical but especially resource hegemony, short of cooperation policy (which isn't an incoherent idea except in the minds of Israel and Saudi Arabia, both of whom play the two superpowers against each other, and then clean up as middle men in their serial contention). Otherwise, Israel's fantasy of Iranian destruction may be gaining traction as the current US administration was specifically cultivated for that chapter of the larger GWOT. Then Israel will be more at liberty to express its own pan-Israel ambitions, which are at the center of Likud Party policy.
4
The current Israeli government is a disgrace. As a Jew, I am appalled. All people should see Israel as a place of welcome, as a place of acceptance. If we can't do that, we are no better than those who persecute us on the basis of our beliefs and culture.
4
It looks like Israel has picked it's identity over democracy. Most countries and people's do this.
3
July 26, 2018
It takes for mature minds and leadership to obtain a working Democracy any where on Earth. So the answer Israel is land of great faith in humanity's struggle to follow laws and policies where every individual loves to connect to home and God know t he heritage that is ever lived by good neighbors and herein lies the struggle - we for all nations educate ourselves to our highest obtainable writ and accommodations to generating hope and audacity as our beloved President Obama was to live by and successfully remains a leader of and for the Democratic party of our two parties - whereas in Israel to parties must put there minds and hearts to the best for the modern nation of Israel and all of its inhabitants to live by example for the best in history universal.
jja Manhattan, N.Y.
2
The author cares so much about Israel- Jewish, democratic, or not- that he resides in New York City. These types love to begin their criticisms of Israel with "as a Jew . . ." as though one couldn't tell from their first or last name.
How many countries where the vast majority of people are Muslims? How many countries where Islam is the official religion? (Twenty five.)
How many Jews in Israel were expelled from Arab countries where the Jewish communities there predated Islam itself, if not Christianity? Do they get democracy too? Contrary to myth, the Arabs that fled Israel in 1948 were not expelled. The Arab leaders told them that after they drove the Jews into the sea, they could return and claim Jewish property as their own.
I wonder if the author knows that in "democratic" Britain, the top 36 bishops in the Anglican Church are automatically members of the House of Lords.
Poor undemocratic Israel. Where the Arabs vote, elect politicians to the Supreme Court (many of whom say things that would bring treason charges in any other country!), and have one of their own on the Supreme Court. If things were that bad for them, maybe they would have emigrated to the neighboring countries were most of them came from a century or so ago. Except those countries won't have them, we know how they treated the Palestinian "refugees."
There are more things in shamayim ve'aretz (heaven and earth), Omri, than are dreamt by your philosophy.
13
I guess after 70 years of being attacked continuously and in some of the most gruesome ways possible, Israeli Jews have given up on having a partner for peace and are hunkering down for survival.
10
Israel was founded as a refuge for Jews.
While Jews had always lived in the Holy Land, more and more came as anti-semitism worsened in Europe and in Arab countries. It was the original homeland of the Jews, recreated.
It's fair to enshrine in law what has always been: Israel is a Jewish homeland. Arab countries are Muslim countries, many with Sharia law; expelled and murdered, there are very few Christians and almost no Jews left.
In Israel, Arabs can vote and sit in Parliament. Very different from the way non-Muslims are treated in Muslim countries.
It's very different from evangelicals who opine that America is a Christian country. It isn't.
Rigorously religious countries do not innovate. Israel does. Its people are for the most part secular and well-educated. Medical and technological discoveries come out of Israel, a very small country, at a pace unequaled by other, larger countries.
I wouldn't worry about Israel declaring itself a Jewish state. It is. Case closed.
If the Palestinians could ever stop eating and breathing destruction of Israel long enough to become a sane people, they'd have a country. It would be Palestinian, and no doubt Muslim.
A two-state solution is as possible now as it was before. But it's hard to envision Palestinians, who think nothing of tying incendiary devices to falcons, so that they could fly over Israel and burn down Israeli fields and nature preserves, making peace even if it would mean their salvation.
18
Like any sovereign state, Israel will do whatever is in Israel’s best interest to do to protect and preserve their sovereignty and their national character as a Jewish Homeland, reconstituted upon their own indigenous ground.
After suffering millennia of conquest, exile, inquisitions, pogroms, and genocide...added to that, decades of war and terrorism...the Jewish people are in no mood to appease and capitulate. In any case, neither appeasement, capitulation, nor compromise on their part has ever gained them one day of peace.
11
Yes. Fascism, disguised as Nationalism, has arrived in Israel. Having spent my entire adult life working for the USG, mostly in the Middle East, I have witnessed Israel do great things, and really stupid and dangerous things. Israel has been touted as the one true democracy in the Middle East. Not any more.
5
https://www.britannica.com/event/Balfour-Declaration
The Balfour Declaration, issued through the continued efforts of Chaim Weizmann and Nahum Sokolow, Zionist leaders in London, fell short of the expectations of the Zionists, who had asked for the reconstitution of Palestine as “the” Jewish national home. The declaration specifically stipulated that “nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine
4
This article is a whole load of nonsense. How exactly and specifically do you propose that the law negates any rights of the Arabs? By the way, the whole thing that only the Jews will have the right to national self determination precludes the Arabs from demanding that Israel become a binational state. It does nothing to their chances of creating their own state alongside Israel, if they are ever willing to negotiate a deal instead of sending burning kites over the border.
10
Everybody , before commenting , - and yes , even Mr. Boehm the "philosopher" - should read the article "State Religion" in Wikepedia . One's eyes will open up .
Just one anecdote from this Wikepedia piece . Egypt , of which population Millions are Christian Copts . has a constitution that says that Islam is the official religion of the state.....
Israel , you are a beautiful state for the Jewish people . Be proud of what you did !
7
I want to bring this up, just to be clear: antisemitism and religious bigotry is wrong. This doesn't make Judaism, Islam, or Zoroastrianism right. Religion is a lie. The Hebrew myths especially, the foundation for Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, are particularly vile (at one point, God kills everything on the planet but a token few with a flood!). Founding a state on these ridiculous legends and stories is bound to create a state hostile to democracy and reason.
6
This article would have made more sense has it contrast Israel laws and aspirations with the Palestinians or any other Arab/ Muslim country for that matter . Continuing holding only Israel to the highest standards , right or wrong helps no on understanding the situation and in fact feed the hate. This death dance that Jews and Arab keep practicing with such devotion would have been funny if not for all the real death and suffering it cause.
2
“The founding principle of Zionism, a National home for the Jewish people, was the vision of Theodore Herzl in 1896.”
Let’s remember the other moral standards from that era.
The colonialism was the world order with the hundreds million people deprived of the basic human and democratic rights.
The racism in South Africa was a mode of living.
The USA was a country of legally equal but effectively separated races.
The Indians were effectively annihilated across America.
The bunch of countries were the kingdoms where the rulers were considered as God-given.
The women did not have right to vote.
In the households there were no rape.
Why should anybody be surprised that the founding concept of Israel is completely anachronic, undemocratic, unjust and unfair?
7
If you allow religion and government mix, you will harvest a bitter fruit.
Look at Turkey. All middle eastern nations are suffering from this plague.
8
The people across the globe have no idea what system the live in. You are exclusively that what you protect at all cost.
Israel has never been democracy but ethnocracy. Ethnicity is at the top pedestal.
America isn’t democracy either but a capitalistic country. The capital is protected at all cost. The alleged national interests spread across the globe are just a camouflage for the protection of capital.
The Islamic countries are actually Arabic because they adhere to the Arabic culture without any hesitation, even going so far to claim that God only understand the Arabic language and prefers the Arabic dress code, Arabic melos, Arabic architecture, Arabic alphabet and Arabic personal names.
I could keep going on an on, but that could be your homework. Please decipher what the other societies actually believe in…
3
"Did Israel Just Stop Trying to Be a Democracy?"
Yes.
2
duh.
1
Thank you for this insightful piece.
By definition a Jewish state makes non-Jews, Christian Palestinians among them (unbeknownst to most Americans substantial minority of Palestinians are Christians), second class citizens. As the author has noted, already laws and the administrative state discriminates against Palestinian Arabs living inside Israel.
In the West Bank Palestinians’ existence is effectively tantamount to living under Apartheid. A Palestinian in the West Bank who wishes to visit his mother living on the other side of an Israeli settlement will have to go through humiliating check points on his own lands, and if caught on a road that connects Jewish settlements, he can be legally charged as criminal, or worst treated as terrorist.
The larger issue is the demographic time bomb: given the Palestinian exploding birth rate and the stagnant Jewish birth rate, Israel will find itself as an overlord over a population nearly twice its size who are Christians or Muslims, and either stateless (West Bank) or second class citizens (Palestinians inside Israel).
In the Origins of Totalitarianism, the Jewish philosopher Hanna Arendt wrote eloquently about how the rights of citizenship denied to minorities and stateless, effectively created the conditions a vast mass of stateless Jews in Europe. Here we are: a Jewish state creating a vast innocent population of stateless of its own, and denying the same rights denied to them. The irony would not be lost on Arendt.
13
@Jim Bob
The occupation is the result of the Palestinian attack against Israel. Unlike other occupiers, Israel has offered to end the occupation in return for a peace treaty No occupier ever treats the occupied the same way that it treats its own citizens, but no one ever calls that Apartheid unless Israel is involved.
5
@Jim Bob
Does an official religion by definition make those who don't practice that official religion second class citizens? Are Catholic, Jewish & Muslims second class citizens of England?
2
They aren't second class citizens especially when they have the same rights the Jews have along with having the same jobs and even having the right to vote and run for political office that the laws won't be changing.
3
In America, the Constitution isn’t put up to a democratic vote every couple of years.
3
I've been arguing vigorously about this very issue with my friend for years now. We have to be careful not to destroy our relationship, but we're both flexible enough to know that even when our conversation got to the red-faced table pounding stage, we knew that if we just backed off a little the feelings would blow over and we could go back to talking about anything but this subject. But it's eerie that I got him to admit once that if he had to choose between Jewish and Democratic, he'd choose Jewish with no qualms. It probably does not add much to this portrait of our relationship to say that I am an unaffiliated atheist Jew and he is a Modern Orthodox Jew. The most I ever wounded him on this subject is when I said that Israel is damaging the brand with its actions. He found that completely unacceptable, but it certainly is true in my case. Not that I would ever stop being an atheist, but I no longer want to be any part of the Jewish Community while Israel is acting like a petulant, sometimes lethal bully at great cost to entire generations of the refugees, doing everything possible can to keep the demographics in their favor and dehumanize them. Racist, disgusting, hateful, not worthy of my respect or support.
11
@Danny - the majority of what you term "the Jewish Community" in the US is highly critical of Netanyahu, his policies towards the Palestinians, the occupation and the settlements.
Please don't conflate American Jews with Israel.
And by the way, Christian evangelicals make up the bulk of the "Israel Lobby".
1
@Danny
Can you name even one country that has similarly been under continual threat, that has done better?
1
Dear Professor Boehm,
In reference to the last line
of your article, Israel can be both a
Jewish state and a democracy.
It is not as liberal as we secular
Jews may wish. We have opted
out of the democratic voting
process by living in the United
States, a country not bereft
of troublesome issues.
We can opine as, many do, with liberal outrage.
The founding principle of Zionism,
a National home for the Jewish people,
was the vision of Theodore Herzl in 1896.
The phrase relating to a national home for
the Jewish people was in the Balfour Declaration
of 1917 and was reiterated by Ben-Gurion
on May 14, 1948 when the Jewish State
was established and recognized by the world.
The new laws do nothing to change Israel
as a democracy or undermine its protection
of the civil rights of non-Jewish Israelis.
Israeli polls consistently measure the desire for
the establishment of a Palestinian State that
does not threaten Israel's existence.
Palestinian words consistently call
for the destruction of Israel and the
annihilation of Jewish Israelis. The issues
of the occupation, wars Israel has fought
to survive, on-going terrorism and the
complex history of Antisemitism are
too complicated to address in this response.
As much as I appreciate the reporting of
the New York Times, on the issue of Israel
your first response is criticism without
any depth of coverage.
14
This is an excellent article where the author tries to come to terms with the fallacy that Israel was ever a democracy except maybe for Jews living there.
The more we find out about the "founding" of Israel, the more dirt we find swept under the rug of history. No matter what propaganda is disseminated about "the founders" of Israel and its origins as a modern nation-state, the bottom line is that there was never going to be an equal place for anyone but those determined to have an equal place.
Most of the most equal were Jews of European origin. It was only after the rise of the right wing, that Jews from the Middle East and North Africa were allowed a few crumbs of equality.
Jews of America, like me, were propagandized from a young age in the 1950s and sixties about the great egalitarian Israel. Nothing was further from the truth. But, for Jews in America, this was not open for discussion. Israel was always right and always under threat. Turns out, this was not exactly the case.
When you marginalize a population and take their land and alter their history for your convenience, trouble will occur. How is it that Israel, the nation-state, didn't understand this? Now, they make this law codifying what they have been doing from the start, separating and marginalizing in the name of security. Wrong. Remember how angry Jews were when Zionism was designated as akin to racism? Turns out, it is, thanks to this new law. Israel is now the most anti-semitic country on earth.
14
@Brian
In 1948, the Palestinians could have declared independence. Instead, the West Bank Palestinians asked for union with Jordan so when Jordanians attacked Israel, it was also Palestinians attacking Israel. Israel pushed the Jordanian & Palestinian soldiers back into the West Bank. That's how Israel ended up occupying the West Bank. Israel didn't marginalize a population and take their land and alter their history for their convenience. Israel was attacked.
2
The model for a Democratic state has always been the USA. The difficulty of others , including Israel is the concept of no common bind in its citizens. We have managed to be bound together without a common bind. No test of religion , ancestry , or even language. What binds us is our zeal to remain whatever we are and willingness to grant that to everyone else.
But up to now we have shared with Israel a bond of decency. The state of Israel has remained decent under siege from it's neighbors, and has remained a friend of ours that supports us as we shave always supported them. But our current governments may be tearing that bind.
7
Interesting that the very same critics of a declared Jewish state are ready and willing to accept a Palestinian state governed under Islamic law with complete exclusion of Jews. This law does nothing to affect the civil rights of non-Jewish citizens. Since Israel's founding, non-Jews have enjoyed the complete civil and human rights that are the hallmark of a liberal democracy. The very fact that there is an Arab party in the Knesset is a testament to Israel's firm commitment to democracy, despite its ideological disagreements with those who do not believe in the right that Israel has to exist. The fact that the assertion "Judaism and democracy cannot coexist" is widely accepted, while the more proven claim that "countries governed by Islamic law are extremely undemocratic" is considered bigoted, demonstrates the blind and unthinking anti-Israel bias rampant in the media.
17
"Did Israel Just Stop Trying to Be a Democracy?"
No, that happened decades ago.
24
Israel didn't stop being a democracy because of this law. As far as I read on the news, the law has been discussed and passed in a democratic system defined by Israeli constitution. Tyranny of majority is one of the shortcomings of democracy, as is Tyranny of minority (e.g., US electoral system that incidentally favors Republicans in our time).
That said, a bad law or behavior by an elected official can still be abominable (and Jews know this better than most). Numerous instances of which are notable here at home with the current administration and congress.
5
Thoughtful opinion though this is, still it partially begs the question of legitimacy. The U.N. resolution (sic) at the outset in 1948 was little more than a rubber stamp of the Balfour Declaration and as such an imperious catering to British interests, among others. Within a week, some brigade or other had massacred Palestinians who refused to give up their land to Jewish expansion. Since then, such incidents have been and continue to be widespread, with no repercussions whatever, despite numerous "resolutions" about which nothing whatever is done. The new law, invoking nationalism, is really no more than a paraphrase of Hertzel and the peculiar notion of Zionism. If it is a waste of time to recall that the area in question has not been Judea for a long time, and that the refusal of the U.N. to recognize the illicit nature of the Jewish state seizure of the Golan Heights falls on deaf ears as with the numerous "resolutions", then it is most assuredly a waste of time to consider Israel a democracy...rather, a protofascist dictatorship of ethnic origin. There is no "Israel proper", only an illicit state, a proxy of the U.S. designed to assure the exploitation of the region's natural resources, few of which belong to the Jews. It is said that many younger people of Jewish ethnicity have a wish to "be American". I, for one, think that the answer to the problematic nature of the area is another exodus, of 8.5 million people to the U.S.
3
The Merriam Webster dictionary defines "democracy" as "1 a : government by the people; especially : rule of the majority."
Are you sure you are not using "democracy" to mean something else?
6
Here's the sad part. The Isrealis have won the religious wars in palestine. The problem is they have not learned be gracious winners. It's over - don't keep rubbing it in.
Unfortunately, very similar to the usa indian wars where there was always one more slaughter and land grab to be had. At least now indians on reservation can vote in use elections. After there were too few to matter....
10
@Wayne
Israel’s hostile neighbors are STILL trying to win the war they started, and lost, 70 years ago. Yes, the war is over...but the ‘losers’ didn’t get the memo.
6
Just how Israel can secure its future by continued hostile acts against its neighbors and non-Jewish citizens, escapes me completely. The lessons of history are pretty clear, compounding the hatred between different ethnic groups ultimately leads to some variation on ethnic cleansing. Without choosing sides, warning the competing groups about the probable outcome of their conduct can only be helpful if it results in a shared will to avoid bloodshed.
So far, there seems to be no indication that sufficient wisdom, generosity and good-will exists to change the trajectory of this conflict. Ultimately demographics are destiny.
3
The question of whether settler states are democracies follows a sad historical pattern. They are democratic, at least for the settlers, but for everyone else they are disasters.
Every modern settler state was established on the assumption that some portion of the indigenous population would have to be exterminated. Israel is no exception. Neither is the United States or Australia.
Within those parallel worlds, the dominant racial or religious group established a democracy, but for American Indians, Aboriginal people and Palestinians it was understood by the settlers that they would never be considered full citizens of the settler enterprise.
This most recent law in Israel is simply the current expression of that original logic. There are many who will argue different versions of "exceptionalism" to justify these conditions. We know the arguments so there's no point debating them.
One can claim as a justification historical necessity. One can claim Devine selection. One can even claim retribution and restitution.
But with these laws, one cannot claim to be an advanced, humane democracy.
3
@drspock
If you dig in Palestine, you will find ancient Jewish synagogues, ancient Jewish ritual baths & ancient Jewish coins.
If you dig in America, you will NOT find ancient Christian churches and ancient coins.
Jews have lived in Palestine for thousands of years.
Caucasians have not lived in America for thousands of years.
The European colonists had a mother country which protected them.
The European Jews did not have a mother country to protect them.
When Zionists moved to Palestine, the native population increased.
When European colonists came to America, the Native population decreased.
3
This editorial seems reasonably accurate to me, but I'm surprised that so many people seem to have considered Israel to be a democracy, and are now questioning how it has changed. Few non-Israelis have ever considered Israel to be a democracy. It's been a theocracy since 1948, Nothing has really changed much in that regard, Israel simply discarded the pretense.
4
@SPQR
Define theocracy. Iran certainly is; it has rules for women's dress outside the home, no dancing at home to be shown on social media, etc. It doesn't accept Christianity as a recognized religion, and it considers the Bahai faith to be illegal/forbidden, and those people pay a high price for it. Israel recognizes the main Jewish holidays, but the majority secular do exactly as they please, be it on the Sabbath or high holidays. The main consequence of the Rabbinate is control over weddings, divorces, funerals, and conversions in Israel, all of which arouses ire in some circles. To compare it to overtly Islamic countries is disingenuous and/or displays a profound lack of knowledge. In 1948 the secular were so strong in Israel they essentially drummed the religion out of the formerly pious Yemenite Jews. As an orthodox Jew, I only wish the Jewish state exhibited more genuine Judaism outside its official role.
7
@SPQR
Israel was ranked #26 by Global Democracy Rating.
A theocracy is rule by clergy. Netanyahu is not a rabbi. Israel is not a theocracy. It's a democracy.
4
Mr. Boehm's use of the evocative term "apartheid" is inappropriate and inflammatory, albeit fashionable. It substitutes an appeal to emotions in place of a precise understanding of facts.
Apartheid describes a historical phenomenon in South Africa which involved much more than the geographic separation of racial/ethnic groups. Most essentially, it was based on the involuntary and often artificial designation of individuals as members of an ethnic group which defined their political and civil status. The key word here is "involuntary".
The essential fact of Israeli-Palestinian relations is that Palestinians voluntarily choose to maintain their distinct Palestinian identity. There is nothing involuntary or artificial about the identification of individuals as Palestinian or Arab, or the existence of separate Palestinian communities. (Indeed, Palestinian leadership has made it clear that a separate Palestinian state would have no room for Jews.) When Arab residents of East Jerusalem were offered Israeli citizenship, almost none accepted.
While I oppose the presence of Jewish settlements in the occupied territories, the occupation itself resulted from two factors outside Israel's control. Israel filled a vacuum left by Jordan, Egypt and the failure of Palestinian leadership to create a functioning polity. Israel was forced to do so to defend its residents from repeated attacks.
"Apartheid", like "Holocaust", should not be used out of historic context.
16
At this point, given the facts on the ground, the most equitable way forward is a single state solution where everyone (including Arabs in the West Bank and Gaza) have full political and civil rights. This would be more equitable and perhaps compel more cooperation across ethnic and religious communities.
5
@Jacob
The ‘one-state solution’ is code for the destruction of Israel...to be replaced with yet another Muslim-majority, Islamic-controlled state. There are already 57 Muslim-majority states, and the world doesn’t need another one.
Israel defines itself as the one and only Jewish-majority state, granting equal rights to its minority population. THOSE are the facts on the ground.
13
@Jacob
It would make more sense for the one state to be Palestine & Jordan - same language, same religion, same culture, same people.
2
Sorry, Israel. Sorry, Brett. Sorry, Sheldon. Sorry, AIPAC. Sorry Bibi. You can have either a theocracy or a democracy. You cannot have both. So join your intransigent Arab neighbors in doubling down on religion, intolerance, and hate. See where it gets you. Oh - same place it's gotten you for the last 70 years. An armed camp. Brighter Jewish minds than these have said the settlements are unsustainable. Keep it up. Maybe someday, when America wakes up, you'll have to go it alone as you seem bent on anyway. Good Luck.
13
"Israel’s foundational twin pledge (to be both Jewish and democratic) was hypocritical: Arabs would be equal (in rights) so long as Jews were superior (in numbers)."
But that was the whole point of the UN Partition Plan: A Jewish state with a Jewish majority, and an Arab state with an Arab majority.
It is ironic that Mr. Boehm blames Israel that Palestinian self-determination never materialized. The Arab state never came into being, because the Arabs didn't accept a Jewish state, and went to war to prevent it.
16
Years ago, I interviewed conductor Daniel Barenboim and asked him why his family decided to move from Buenos Aires, with its sizable and well-established Jewish community, to Israel. He told me his parents wanted him to grow up in a country where he was part of the majority, and not a minority. As a white male whose family has been here since the early 18th century, being in the majority was something that I had taken for granted. For centuries, Jews were "the other" no matter where they lived. Israel allowed Jews to cease being "the other." Unfortunately, this latest Israeli law will make the Arab residents of Israel "the other" in a land that they have inhabited for centuries. It seems all the options (returning to the 1967 borders in a two-state solution, or destroying the Jewish state by granting equal rights to a rapidly growing Arab population) are undesirable. I'm glad I don't have to make this decision.
7
@JTBence: Where have you been the last few years? "Jews will not replace us," lesbian Jews waving a rainbow-colored flag with a star of David being thrown out of a gay-pride parade (just a few examples) preceded the new Israeli law by only a few years. We always have been and will always be an "other." And while Jewish Americans may not need to be extremely fearful at the moment, if you are not following what is happening in the British Labour party today, I suggest that you familiarize your self with it.
6
@JTBence
The 1967 borders are the 1949 cease fire lines. Both Arabs & Israelis said that these were not to be considered permanent borders.
People used the results of World War 2 to reset the borders of Europe. No one said let's ignore World War 2 & let's ignore World War 1 & let's go by the results of the Franco-Prussian War. However, when it comes to the Jewish State, people say we should ignore the Yom Kippur War, we should ignore the Six-Day War & we should ignore the 1956 War. Why do people treat Israel differently?
1
And on the terribly misused word "apartheid" - It is an Afrikaans word and very unique to the situation that was in South Africa (or maybe the US prior to the Civil Rights Act). It also refers to the forced separation by race of people within a sovereign country's borders who are actually or should be rightful citizens. This does not occur in Israel proper - No the West Bank Palestinians do not enjoy such rights, but nor should they, they are not Israeli citizens nor were they ever meant to be. Israel does not owe any guarantee of rights to an occupied people - now you might not like the occupation but that is different, it is not the same thing as apartheid- Please get this stark difference in terminology right, otherwise it confuses the real issues and honestly is disrespectful to those (including a disproportionate number of Jews) who fought the real thing in South Africa.
15
@ST
Apartheid has an emotional appeal that supersedes its factual meaning, so the word is hurled as a powerful insult. I think some folks who accuse Israel of it are either very ignorant of what transpired in South Africa, or in Israel, OR, more likely they know much of the history but choose this word because it's so damning. I.E., Israel can do no right, the Palestinians no wrong. Can't argue with this mindset-factual truth gets in their way.
2
I would like the Times readers to think about how their news of Israel/Palestine is filtered for them. Many reporters and commentators from the region have children serving in the Israeli Defense Forces including David Brooks,Isabel Kerschner (her husband also worked for an Israel think tank), and Ethan Bronner. Bret Stephens was former editor of the Jerusalem Post. Doesn't this indicate bias toward one side? Their writing on the subject cannot help but be protecting the side of their own children.
4
@penney albany
Sometimes it has the opposite effect where people tilt against Israel to show that they are not biased in favor of Israel.
2
@penney albany: David Brooks hardly ever comments on the Israeli-Arab conflict. Friedman, Cohen, and recently, Goldberg are all Jewish, op-ed writers for the NYT, and usually highly critical of actions made by the Israeli government, and of course you neglected to mention them. Also, not too long ago Diaa Hadid was a correspondent in Israel. So do you have a point or do you just like to cherry pick to make it seem so?
1
I find it ironic that the same Jewish people who were nearly exterminated in WWII, now find it necessary to themselves create an apartheid state that depends on punishing a minority. The Holocost was vile, evil and wrong. Punishing the Palestinians who reside in Israel and the West Bank is wrong as well; this punishment in part has led to the continuing conflict. Thankfully, the Israeli government has not turned to extermination and, I believe, would not.
Even so, two wrongs do not make a right.
I pray that reasonable leaders on both the Israeli and Palestinian sides come together for a real solution.
1
@Bob
Self-defense is not punishment.
3
Some comments on this board seem to think that the Basic Law shows that Israel is, or is soon to become, a theocracy. This is completely absurd. Israel is a secular state.
Of the 188+ countries in the world, 40 percent have a state religion, including 29 Muslim, 22 Catholic, 10 Protestant, 8 Orthodox Christian, 4 Buddhist, and 1 Hindu. Among the countries in Europe with a state religion are Belarus, Bulgaria, Croatia, Denmark, Finland, Georgia, Greece, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Moldova, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Ukraine, and the United Kingdom. A number of these states are widely regarded as liberal democracies--despite the fact that Boehm's claims, if sound, would apply to those countries as well as Israel.
Two additional points:
1st, many of the foregoing European countries explicitly declare in their constitutions that one particular creed is the established state religion. E.g., the preamble to the Greek constitution begins with "In the name of the Holy and Consubstantial and Indivisible Trinity", while article 3 asserts that "the prevailing religion in Greece is that of the Eastern Orthodox Church of Christ". Nevertheless, Greece is liberal democracy and protects freedom of religion.
2ndly, if one actually reads the Basic Law, one will see that it contains nothing remotely like that. In particular, it does not establish a state religion.
17
For over 100 years, Jews have endeavored to build and sustain a nation for the Jewish people, a haven to assure survival, resilience and growth. After 2000 years of pogroms and the Holocaust, the state MUST retain its Jewishness, even at the expense of world approval. As Golda Meir said, “There is only one thing I hope to see before I die, and that is that my people should not need expressions of sympathy anymore.” Amen.
17
It pains me that Israel has embarked upon the course it has followed as I understand the tragedy & history of the Jewish people, but the path they are on is not likely to end well.
If one looks at the geography & demography of the Levant and then factors in climate change, resource depletion and an ever growing population in that whole region of the world, there is not honest way to think that passing a stupid law or building a wall is going to stop the forces already on the move in our world. I do not see Israel as Holland holding back the sea, but someone with cancer that is in deep denial as in time is not their friend.
The only hope for a peaceful future for Israel and all the people who live there is for a just solution and resolution to the very real issues that the Palestinian people present and rightly raise. Building settlements on occupied land to crowd those already there out is not going to bring peace, justice or a resolution to the conflict between these people. Following the current Likud policy will store up fuel for the fire next time and the conflagration will be ugly, unkind & deadly.
I am an American and am not Jewish or Israeli and am an agnostic, so I do not get a vote in the elections that select the government of Israel. However, I am an American and our foreign policy is deeply intertwined with Israel's and this unwise policy may eventually mean we have to send our troops into a mess they have created. I hope not, but I fear that it is coming.
4
@David Gregory
In 1947, the scholars at Al-Azhar University (The highest authority in Sunni Islam.) declared holy war to return Palestine to Islamic rule. Therefore, as long as most Palestinians are devout Muslims (85% of Palestinian Muslims want sharia law.) and as long as the Jewish State controls even one square inch of land, peace is impossible.
2
Did Israel just stop trying to be a democracy?
Yes, decades ago. To bad the US just figured the deception out.
6
I really do not care what Israel want for ot self. or in that token, Palestinians.
I would like to live in a world, we can be liberated from this nonsense Israeli-Palestinian conflict and its consequences
( incessant terrorism). they will sort out their middle eastern type troubles in middle east.
1
Israel was founded by Zionists. Wasn't this kind of the point?
9
The Jewish people, as a group, have been severely persecuted for centuries. A Jewish state provides them with a safe haven where they can defend themselves against those who hate Jews, by force of arms if necessary. The recent history of the extermination of a large fraction of the Jewish people amply proves the justification for this.
Democracy is not a suicide pact. Israel has always been a democracy, up to the point where its primary raison d'etre is threatened. There is nothing inconsistent or wrong with that.
19
@Steve
Does past persecution of Jews in Europe entitle Israel Jews and the American money (10$ million per day) justify treating another group of people as less than human with no rights? How can one walk into Hebron and not see apartheid? How can one drive on a new highway that is meant for Jews only and not see that Palestinians are being pushed out of their homes? Palestinians were expelled from their land and homes with those lands given to "military zones or parks" and then given to settlements for Jewish only homes.
5
@penney albany
"treating another group of people as less than human with no rights"
That statement is utterly false, and much of the rest of your comment is laced with half truths and distortions parroted from pro-Palestinian sources. I can only urge you to read unbiased sources, but this can only happen if you start with an open mind. I can't help you with the latter.
1
I believe the founders of israel would be very disappointed in the present Isreali administration and the world's largest open air prison in gaza.
4
I am anxiously waiting for your opinion piece telling us how Palestine is a democracy like the other dozens of Islamic states already in existence. Never a criticism of Islam...
22
@derek Hard to be a democracy when you are occupied by another state and given no statehood rights of your own. Even harder when your occupier ripped you from your land and your homes you and your ancestors have lived in for millennia and forcibly placed you in displacement camps or herded you into ghettos where you are virtual prisoners. But this will not last. Given the path Israel has embarked on, it will not be long before it will be unveiling its final solution for dealing with the Palestinian problem.
$12 Billion for the corporate farms and their CEO’s and stockholders. Mom & Pop farmers just got plowed under by a Trump tractor. Typical GOP move, create an economic catastrophe, and use it as an excuse to pour more money on the rich.
I bet the bloggers have no problem with Iran calling itself The Islamic Republic of Iran or China by its full name The People's Republic of China.
9
Both countries known for their tolerance! It's a one way street once start down it.
However, neither of those countries call themselves a democracy.
1
Israel never really tried to be a a true democracy. It has given its Arab population citizenship but without making a serious attempt to invest equally in their education, infrastructure,police protection and almost anything that the government provides for the Jews.
It got much worse after the 1967 war , when Israel took control over the West Bank and Gaza, where Palestinians live without rights of any kind and with no hope that Israel is going to change their status any time soon.
5
@Ran
After World War 2 Germany had a choice. It could sign a peace treaty giving 25% of its territory to Poland or it could resist the occupation. Germany chose to sign the peace treaty & has now had more than 70 years of peace & prosperity. The Palestinians had a similar choice. They could have accepted the Clinton Parameters giving up 3% of their territory or they could resist the occupation. Palestinians chose to resist & have had many years of war & poverty. Who made the better choice?
1
Let's try this experiment:
India has nukes pointed at Pakistan.
Blogger response: who cares?
Pakistan has nukes pointed at India.
Blogger response: who cares?
Putin's Russia has nukes.
Blogger response: So What?
Israel has nukes.
Blogger response: Oh No!!! Israel is going to blow up the Middle East!! Hide under the bed!! We 're all gonna die and it's Israel's fault!! How did Israel get those nukes!! They have to be destroyed immediately!!.
20
Nuclear weapon symmetry is what jeeps the peace. That is why the nuclear asymmetry in the middle east is destabiliizing. The key acronym - MAD - mutally assured destruction keeps the fingers off the button!
2
@Wayne Unless of course the people on the other side are literally mad, as in some of the more fanatical mullahs. MAD worked because the leaders of the Soviet Union were not insane and were not religious fanatics bent on bringing the end of days. The same cannot be said for some of Israel's neighbors.
2
@Wayne
MAD doesn't work with countries like Iran which value martyrdom.
1
What do we mean by 'Jewish people'?
I understand that Mizrahi Jews and Palestinians are genetically identical.
Does that mean Palestinians are 'Jewish'?
3
Petfect! It 's like when I read anti-semitic acts by arabs who are by the way also semitic!!!
1
@Loup Palestinians are not Jewish, but they are historically related through Abraham via his sons Isaac and Ishmael. Both Jewish and Arab traditions recognize this, with some differences of perception. Think of Mizrachi Jews and Arabs as cousins of different, albeit related, religious backgrounds. Or consider the many Christian Arabs in Israel, Lebanon, and Egypt; Arabs, but not of the same religion.
@Loup No, Mizrahi Jews are not genetically IDENTICAL to palestinians. Similar yes, as they are to Druze and other peoples of the Levant, but then Mizrahi Jews are also very similar to Ashkenazi and Sephardi Jews. As for palestinians, quite possibly some of their ancestors converted to Christianity or Islam when the Levant was overrun by the crusaders or Mohammed's warriors, respectively, with the latter intermarrying with those from the Arab peninsula. And yes, many Jews consider themselves as having a nationality. My heritage as a Jewish American is bound up in Jewish traditions and history, not those of Russia, Belarus, or Romania where my grand- and great grandparents came from. Answer your question?
1
The question should rather be did the New York Times just stop trying to bash Israel. And the answer is definitely not.
The author is ultra-leftist (what else?) and wrote in the past equating zionism with racism. Enough said
10
YES
Israel has not tried to be a democracy for many, many years -- if it ever did at all. Religious states are all inherently anti-democratic -- whether they are Jewish, Islamic, Christian, or any other religion. When, and if, we as humans can remove religion from the public arena, it will be a great step forward.
"Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people living life in peace, you
You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope some day you'll join us
And the world will be as one."
John Lennon
4
There was an article in NYT recently that many israeli mixed religion or agnostic couples go to Cyprus to get married. No civil union in Israel - how very tolerant! It's almost as if they don't want to mix religions and cultures.....
4
@Wayne
Muslim Israelis are against civil marriages.
1
@Wayne There is also no civil union for Muslims and Christians in Israel either, but that's on the authorities of Islam and Christianity in Israel, and btw, unless a Jewish woman converts to Islam, she cannot marry a Muslim man in Israel. So your point is? Criticize the Orthodox rabbinate, but let other religious leaders off scot free?
1
What a conundrum.
Is France a French state and both a liberal democracy?
Is Germany a German state and both is it a liberal democracy?
Is Japan a Japanese state and both is it a liberal democracy?
All three fit the bill for both and yet no one bats an eye, I guarantee ask the average citizen in any of those nations and you'll have no hand wringing or long winded answers about what it means to be a German or what it means to be French.
I think Israel is unfairly held to a higher standard than other democracies. I don't think an affirmation of Israel as a Jewish state is a denunciation of it's Arabic citizens, it's more of a declaration of truth as Israel's enemies continue to diminish it's identity and marginalize it by using political correctness and accusations of racism. To reject Israel's Jewisheness is a rejection of the Israel's right to exist.
10
@David,
While France is French, Germany German and Japan Japanese, all citizens of these countries have the same rights and privileges regardless of their religion or ethnicity. That is not even the case for Israel's Arab citizens, never mind the Palestinians who are, in effect, stateless while living under Israeli control, very much like blacks in Apartheid South Africa.
6
@Juvenal
Israel's Arab citizens have the same individual rights and privileges as every other citizen in Israel. The law doesn't change that. Arab Israelis vote, get elected, attend university, are appointed judges to Israeli courts at all levels, and serve as doctors, nurses, and pharmacists in major hospitals. At this very moment Israelis are hearing the voices of responsible Druze representatives (a minority religion within the Arab population) who are discussing the law in question and its various nuances and potential ramifications. Since it's a simple law passed by a small majority of Knesset votes - 62 to 56 - any reasonable adjustments needed could be made with only a few vote shifts. As for the Palestinians, however, they have had several opportunities since 1947 to exercise national self-determination, opportunities which they flat-out violently rejected. Right now the Palestinian Authority refuses to even come to the table, while it pays its terrorists according to the number of Jews killed. Where is the outrage about that?
2
@Juvenal
The blacks in South Africa were in South Africa. Palestinians in the West Bank & Gaza are not in Israel.
The blacks in South Africa did not have the option of rejecting Apartheid. The Palestinians in the West Bank can end the occupation whenever they want to by agreeing to live in peace.
2
As usual with this kind of article about Israel, the thread contains scores of comments upholding the absolute right of Israeli Jews to re-define their country as a theocracy. After, the Jews are a majority, and, after, all Arab states are Muslim states.
Here's a thought experiment: Christians are a majority in the United States, so they have the absolute right to re-define their country as a Christian theocracy.
Would that be okay with American Jews? Why not?
4
But Christians are favored in almost every respect in this country.
And no law in Israel - none - prevents an Arab Muslim from practicing his religion so long as he does that peaceably. Some theocracy.
Another thought experiment - if the situation were reversed, would the Palestinian nation give the rights to Jews that Arabs hold in Israel today?
6
@camorrista you've mistakenly called the new law a step to theocracy. Whatever else is true you seem to misunderstand how an israeli understands jewishness.
Nonetheless, before the law Rosh Hashana was a national holiday; after the law, Rosh hashana is a national holiday. In the United States, Christmas is a national holiday. How does the "theocracy in Israel" differ from the "christian theocracy" which is so engrained in the american mind that it's not even noticed?
9
Read your history!! Jews in europe were much more persecuted by christians than jews in moslem areas.
Remember the spanish inquistion?
Jewish problems in the middle east began in 1948!!!
1
Is Israel disallowing Arab Israelis to vote? No. So how exactly is Democracy being curtailed? There are dozens of countries that have an official religion. Some make it mandatory to profess such religion as a requirement to become President. Argentina is one such example, but there are others. How many Arab countries have Democratic systems of Government? And yet the fuss always seems to be about Israel.
21
Because professes to be a liberal democracy but does follow the rules too closely. There is a "homeland" government on the west bank but all decisions that affect their lives are made by israel, where they cannot vote....
1
@Wayne
Should Germans have been allowed to vote in French elections when France occupied Germany after world war 2?
1
It is absolutely impossible for a democracy to have a state religion and pass laws that allow discrimination based on race or religion. Israel is not a democracy, it is a religion-supremacist apartheid state.
This is from Adalah:
Adalah’s Discriminatory Laws Database (DLD) is an online resource comprising a list of over 65 Israeli laws that discriminate directly or indirectly against Palestinian citizens in Israel and/or Palestinian residents of the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) on the basis of their national belonging. The discrimination in these laws is either explicit – “discrimination on its face” – or, more often, the laws are worded in a seemingly neutral manner, but have or will likely have a disparate impact on Palestinians in their implementation.
These laws limit the rights of Palestinians in all areas of life, from citizenship rights to the right to political participation, land and housing rights, education rights, cultural and language rights, religious rights, and due process rights during detention. Some of the laws also discriminate against other groups such as gays, non-religious Jews, and Palestinian refugees.
1
You mean like the UK, which has a state religion, a head of state who’s the head of the religion & has laws against blasphemy only w/r/t that state religion? Or Ireland, Greece, Denmark, to name a few who give “right of blood” citizenship to descendants of the primary ethnic groups in those states but not to minority groups within?
11
True, but they don't regularly bomb their minority groups or put their neighborhoods on lock- down.
@Jerry
We American have Affirmative Action that discriminates on the basis of race, ethnicity & gender. Does that mean that the USA is not a democracy?
1
I have misgivings about the recent law.
However, columns such as this one, in this forum, primarily have the effect of giving aid and comfort to the enemy. This conclusion is evidence by many of the comments.
Of far more relevance to the situation:
-the terror tunnels
-the rocket shelling from Gaza (over 200 in a period of a few days recently)
-continuing West Bank/Arab support for rewarding families of terrorists
and on the plus side, for example:
-Israel's gradual normalizing of relations with some of her neigbors. Ex: -https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/articles/2018-05-07/program-a...
-Israel aid to Syrian kids
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/20/world/middleeast/israel-syria-humanit...
14
Who is this "enemy"? The palestinians on the west bank who want to live a normal life? Or some nefarious idea used by the government to instill hate and fear...
2
@Wayne...the enemy are the Arab League of nations who met in Khartoum in 1967 after the war and declared “no negotiations with Israel, no peace with Israel and no recognition’. They have kept this promise by rejecting every offer made by Israel. These countries continue to teach their 3 year olds that killing Jews is something to aspire to. If Gaza didn’t continue to fire missiles into Israel and use all their contributions to help their citizens instead of building tunnels, there would be peace there EXCEPT that their charter still calls for the destruction of the Jewish state. THESE ARE ISRAEL’S ENEMIES.
2
@Wayne
son's death was "best day of my life," says Palestinian mother
How can a mother who loves her son say that his death was the "best day of my life?" The explanation is that she believes that her son's becoming a martyr by dying while attacking Jews gives him instant access to Paradise & eternal happiness. People who believe as she does don't want peace. They want conflict because conflict provides an opportunity for martyrdom.
1
The old apartheid slander once again? Tell that to the Arab students at the Hebrew University, the Arab patients receiving
the best medical care in the region at Hadassah, and the Arab women shopping in Mamillah.
18
Israel exists on the stolen land of the Palestinians. Nothing will ever change this fact, just as the USA exits on the stolen land of the Native Americans.
5
@Massimo Podrecca...The US, Canada, New Zealand, Australia ALL live on stolen land. Unlike them, there has always been a Jewish presence in the Holy Land. In the Middle Ages, towns like Zefat in the Galilee had large Jewish populations. From the mid 1800s, Jerusalem has been majority Jewish. From the early 1900s, there was already a de facto Jewish government in the area. And btw, for many centuries during the Ottoman Empire, this area was treated as a backwater...read Mark Twain’s description in his book ‘Innocents Abroad ‘. So unimportant was Jerusalem, that it was never even designated as a provincial capital in all the years of Arab rulership.So to claim that Israel exists on stolen land and comparing it to the USA only reflects on your ignorance of the subject.
4
Any Jew who truly believes in real democracy lives in a country like the U.S. of A. else they are just intellectual posers.
1
So one people, the Semites, are divided by bronze age superstition into Jewish and Muslim tribes that treat each other horribly. May the secular on both sides come together and bring the common sense needed.
7
Israel quit trying to be a Democracy when it began practicing apartheid. The two things cannot co-exist
6
Israel has more and more become an apartheid state, the new law simply solidifies that.
4
The “NYT Picks” in this commentary section largely highlight support and justification for this watershed move by Israel. Reader Picks, in contrast, overwhelmingly are opposed and point out its folly and the tiered system it inevitably creates. Not the first time we see this clear support from the NYT regarding conservative, (anachronistic) policies, Netanyahu and Israeli right. The NYT is amongst the most influential journals in the world - why is the NYT a forward thinking newspaper, except on things Israel.
7
@Sam
The last thing we need is more acronyms for use in email, but let me introduce you to PEP, "progressive except for Palestine." Some NYT columnists deserve that label, but even though I have many pro-Palestinian instincts, I think the NYT does a reasonable job of separating news from commentary.
2
With Netanyahu continuing to be re-elected, it’s pretty clear that Israel stopped being a liberal democracy and became an illiberal democracy years ago. Israel is not alone in this, it’s clear that the United States is becoming an illiberal democracy, too. Trump is already our first authoritarian plutocratic President and enjoys the near full support of Republican voters who clearly are fed up with the liberal democracy as much as were the people in the Southern states leading up to the Civil War.
4
Israel never stopped trying to be democratic, but it cannot be liberal to the point of self annihilation, with Israeli Arabs, let alone the Palestinians outside, calling for a full "return" of the latter to pre-67 Israel. This new law remind them Israel will remain a majority Jewish, with equal rights to voting, speech, and residence for the minorities. Nowhere did Israel promise self determination within its borders for yet another Arab country.
How about cajoling the Palestinians, plus the rest of the Arab world, to rally around democracy, and to amend its varying its laws or charters granting legitimacy to the Jewish faith on equal footing. Start out by granting equality to women, first. Then maybe they can be believed about welcoming Jews to a Palestinian state.
8
Both sides in this conflict have blood on their hands.
To quote the late great Canadian songwriter, Stan Rogers, when he was speaking of "The Troubles" in Northern Ireland:
"Causes are ashes where children lay slain."
However, based on this latest move, Israel seems intent on creating an atmosphere where it is impossible to negotiate in good will. It becomes harder to see Israel as the poor victim when they seem to be constantly goading the Palestinians.
I would be delighted to be proven wrong in this observation; however, the more illegal settlements that are built and the more pronouncements like this that continue to be forthcoming, the less likely that seems.
5
Mr Boehm:
Good analysis. But let’s look to the future. These recent events move us closer to a unified Israel. So rather than lament to loss of the two state solution, and dwell on the fact that ISRAEL has not always occupied the high moral ground, let’s ask the powerful state of ISRAEL to exercise wisdom and compassion with respect to the Palestinians as the future unfolds.
1
At least now we can officially dispense with the the notion that Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East. It never was. It is a theocracy like all the others , and it is why there can never be peace there.
4
The main problem with Israel is the nature of American support.
In the past, American Jews - a group generally aligned with Israel's founding principles of equality and social liberalism - were Israel's chief supporters in the US.
Now, American Evangelical Christians - a group supportive of nationalism, Trumpism, and equal rights only for white "Jedeo-Christian" males - are driving US support.
It's no wonder that Israel's right wing can operate with impunity: while its big brother is still America, it's a very different America.
5
There are 6.5 million non-Arab Israelis. There are 380 million Arabs, most of whom are hostile to Israel, but also hostile to each other in many cases. Israel has to exist in this environment, and it has to do what it can to exist in the short-term. But in the long-term the fact that they've settled the West Bank will come back to haunt them. Those 380 million Arabs will not remain disunited forever.
5
In my gut the law doesn’t feel right but I’m an American. Of course, we have our own own mythology about rights and justice, and equality that doesn’t quite square with reality if you aren’t white. That aside, the Palestinian leaders had several chances to have a state and they chose belligerence, Intifadas, tunneling, riots, and flaming kites instead. If the other 20-plus Arab countries cared a whit about their “situation” they’d have taken them in and worked out an arrangement with the Israelis. They chose to whine and moan about their “brother’s” plight, crank up the hate machines, and ignore reality. I’m not a fan of the current Israeli government, but even if you had a super-liberal prime minister, there isn’t anyone on the other side of the wall trustworthy enough to make peace with. What else are the Israelis supposed to do to avoid a seemingly permanent existential threat?
7
@A hands-on consultant
The Palestinians were never offered a fair deal. They have only been offered what Israel was willing to give. Israel was created out of Palestine. Too bad we didn't offer the Zionists Massachusetts. Well a big chunk of Wyoming or Montana we could better afford. Actually, it would have been more economical than what the US has spent on the problem in blood and cash and world respect.
3
Are the flaming kites really an existential threat? Or just an act of desperation...
1
@an observer
Israel has always fought its own battles.
How many American soldiers did we send to help Israel in the 1948 war? ZERO!
How many American soldiers did we send to help Israel in the 1956 war? ZERO!
How many American soldiers did we send to help Israel in the 1967 war? ZERO!
How many American soldiers did we send to help Israel in the 1973 war? ZERO!
...
2
I don't see how Israel passing such laws makes them any less of a democracy. Many others that are democracies have done similar laws with especially having their holidays observed more yet when Israel does it, this is seen as a theocracy and discrimination. By such logic no holidays should have their holidays observed even if it's the country's majority. As long as minority groups are still getting the same rights as the Jews are, nothing wrong has occurred. I can easily say how the US and western European nations are Christian theocracies for closing places on Christian holidays. Keep in mind that many of the Muslim nations that complain about this are real theocracies and do constantly discriminate against minorities especially with Shariah Law yet nobody seems to complain about that. Once again, another historical revisionist tries to claim that Israel is a theocracy and an apartheid state even though no actual evidence to back that was ever found nor proven. If Israel is truly a theocracy and apartheid state, then how about explaining why the Arab population along with other minorities can have the same jobs as the Jews as well as vote and run for office, which is something that non-whites living in South Africa under that apartheid regime didn't have? Overall, Israel may have its flaws, but it's still a democracy nonetheless unlike so many other countries in the rest of the region.
9
In israel it's like the jim crow south. In the west bank it is apartheid. Why do remote settlements in the west bank get connected to full utilities before arab villages in israel?
1
@Wayne
In the Jim Crow South, there were separate water fountains & separate lunch counters, Blacks had to sit in the back of the bus, separate colleges. Blacks couldn't vote or run for office & there were lynchings. None of this is true in Israel.
1
Much of the non-Jewish areas in the West Bank are under Palestinian control, not Israeli control. In other words, the PA is supposed to be responsible for that, not the Israeli PM or Knesset. Also, the Jews are living in the areas that are considered to be part of what's known as the Clinton Parameters, which are basically the portions that will be going to Israel should a Palestinian state ever come. More importantly, nothing you said even proves that Israel has anything like the Jim Cro Laws especially when an autonomy has control over such areas and is supposed to be responsible for their people under a document such as the Oslo Agreements.
1
Of course Israel could and should remain a democracy. And if most nations, let alone a tiny state amidst an antiSemitic, sectarian Muslim world, whose only genuine democracy is rapidly being destroyed in Turkey, had Israel's problems, they'd have caved long ago. Yet given the rejection, warfare, and hatred that's been directed at it from the start, it's amazing Israel has survived at all.
That being said, the occupation was a dire mistake from the
start. But after the Six Day War most Israelis believed the
other side would finally make peace. Yet when it didn't happen,
as the Khartoum Conference proved soon afterward, their feelings turned to bitterness and cynicism, and it took two more wars before any Arab country would even sit down with them on a one to one basis.
Yet as he stated in 2014 Benny Morris, Israel's preeminent historian, finally concluded that because the Palestinians have rejected every genuine peace offer all along things now look pretty hopeless. I too have feared this from the time I watched Camp David 2 fail, the Second Intifada dash what hopes were left, then as the evacuation of Lebanon of Gaza led to nothing but more violence and terrorism. But unlike Likud and its revisionist historians like Daniel Gordis, rather than do his reserve duty in the territories Professor Morris went to jail.
5
Isreal lost the moral high ground in 1967. The occupation turned into oppresion.
The usa lost the moral high ground when they invaded iraq in 1991 on fabricated grounds.
I don't know how to get the moral high ground back but until you war department budgets increase regularly. To the detriment of the civil society.
1
@Wayne
Palestinians have been oppressing Jews for centuries.
In 1839, the British consul, William Young, said that the poor Jew in Jerusalem...lives from day to day in terror of his life....Young attributed the plight of the Jew in Jerusalem to “the blind hatred and ignorant prejudice of a fanatical populace,”
JEWS IN JERUSALEM.
New York Times December 29, 1878
Crowded together in the worst lodgings, or in the dark cellars under a synagogue building, without food, fuel, or water –even water at Jerusalem being a commodity of price – numbers died of starvation and various diseases, while others went raving mad. Those who could labor were denied employment by the bigotry of the Mussulmans and of the Oriental Christians.
Notice the date. This was before the first Zionists arrived in Palestine. Notice the word bigotry.
Jews had lived for centuries in Hebron & Gaza until they were ethnically cleansed from those areas in 1929.
During the week of riots from 23 to 29 August, 133 Jews were killed by Arabs and 339 others were injured,
and now Palestinians oppress Israelis
Running over Israelis is oppression.
Stabbing Israelis is oppression.
Shooting Israelis is oppression.
Firing rockets at Israelis is oppression.
Blowing up Israelis is oppression.
Throwing rocks at Israelis is oppression.
Setting Israeli crops on fire is oppression.
2
Israel has never tried very hard to be a democracy. It rules over millions of Palestinians in the West Bank who cannot vote, while settlers can vote in Israeli elections (and many in US elections as well). Today it is demolishing a kindergarten for Bedouin Palestinian children and seizing 80 acres of Palestinian land for a road for settlers only. Palestinians in the West Bank live under military law while settlers live under civilian law. Inside Israel, there is segregation and discrimination in over 30 laws which declare Palestinian citizens of Israel do not have the same rights as Jewish citizens of Israel. The people of Gaza who formerly had homes within Israel and were forced out cannot return to their homes and are being shot at.
4
These developments have been heartbreaking for many Americans, many Jewish Americans in particular. The question at this point, though, is whether the current Israeli administration cares in the least about that.
4
No, Israel did not "just stop trying to be a democracy." They stopped several years. Now they made it official/
15
Boehm’s otherwise excellent analysis of the progress from de facto to de jure apartheid in Israel curiously omits any acknowledgement of Israel’s continuing sovereignty over the Palestinians of Gaza.
Israel’s apologists often do this, imagining that the absence of permanent IDF boots on the ground inside the open air prison that they created means they don’t count. Include them in your population figures and the fact that a minority of Israeli Jews rules over a majority of Palestinians promptly decides the question of whether Israel is a democracy.
We need to stop talking about Israeli apartheid in the future tense. Israel was an apartheid state when it deprived Palestinians of the vote up until 1966. It continued to be an apartheid state when it occupied Gaza, and the West Bank and subjected the Palestinians in those territories to military law. The new law makes matters worse but it also makes them clearer: The two state solution is dead. Israel strangled it with settlements. The path forward now is for the Palestinians to ditch the corrupt collaborator Palestinian Authority and to fight for reparations and full equality in a democratic and secular binational state.
16
As always, New York Times coverage on Israel is:
a. Israel is bad, racist, "apartheid" or
b. Israel used to be decent, but it has lost its way, and we "progressives" must save it from itself
14
Exactly, these are the unfortunate facts
1
Israel has been struggling to be democratic and Jewish for 70 years, far longer than any of its neighbors - Arab nations - have undertaken any such struggle. Israel has also been under attack by its neighbors and some of its Arab-Israeli citizens for those same 70 years. Though I do not think the recent Knesset enactment was a good idea, I certainly understand why, after 70 years, Israel felt the need to put more emphasis on its Jewishness than its democracy.
If and when its Arab neighbors back off their threats of the last 70 years to destroy the State of Israel and help their Palestinian Arab brothers and sisters recover from the mistakes the Arab nation-states made 70 years ago in opposing a Palestinian state in part of Eretz Yisrael (the land which, under Jewish interpretation, God promised to the Jews in the Pentatuech), life for Palestinian Arabs will get dramatically better. Israel has made some mistakes, which the author correctly cites, but Israel has demonstrated a remarkable amount of patience, and the Knesset's recent declaration is thoroughly appropriate.
4
No, Israel cannot be both a non-sectarian democracy and a Jewish state. That will become even more true as the difference in birthrates between the Jewish and non-Jewish populations brings the ratio even closer, perhaps until Jews become a minority. This is indeed not an easy problem for you to resolve, being committed both to a Jewish homeland and democratic principle.
4
The problem with this discussion here and elsewhere, is which Israel are we talking about? The Israel that is recognized by the international community with the 1967 borders with Tel Aviv as its capital, or "Greater Israel" with Jerusalem as its capital and the occupied West Bank and settlements?
1
I do feel that this might be political grandstanding on the part of the Israeli government, and is moot in the long run, as the difference in birth rates between Jewish and Arab Israelis will indicate.
Israel is unique in that its very creation was proposed as a Jewish homeland. Its purpose, its reason for being, and the way it is viewed by Israel itself and the rest of the world is, the Jewish homeland.
For Israel to now formalize this pretense is incidental- only anti-Zionists and anti-Semites will have a problem with it.
10
@Martin X Antizionist does not mean anti-Semite. It means antioccupier of another peoples land.
2
Pretty simple - you can’t be both a religious state and a democracy.
15
For crying out loud - who says Israel among all the nations has to be a democracy at all! Is Israel somehow supposed to be concerned with the rights of a minority of Arabs who, if they gained power, would quickly throw them into the sea or worse! Is the world as concerned about every other minority in every other country that does not have complete equality and democratic rights?! As it is Israel does the best job in the middle east of ensuring democratic rights to its population including Israeli Arabs. Why does the world ring it hands and shake its finger at Israel for somehow not quite living up to some democratic ideal and fantasy of having their sworn enemy accorded the equality that would result in their demise. It is pure lunacy. That all said, I think Israel should jettison the West bank or make it a Palestinian state - I dont know why they want to hold onto that land at this point - but that is for them to decide not the moral hypocrites of international community.
16
But don’t we provide for Israel because it’s “the only democracy in the Middle East?”
1
@Cold Eye that is my point, they are a democracy they just dont have to be
I would hope the people in Israel want to be a democracy!!!
1
In 1948, the secular Jews pushed for a State that was a home for Jews and NOT a religious-based state. From the 1948 Declaration of Independence, " THE STATE OF ISRAEL will be open for Jewish immigration and for the Ingathering of the Exiles; it will foster the development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants; it will be based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel; it will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex; it will guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture; it will safeguard the Holy Places of all religions; and it will be faithful to the principles of the Charter of the United Nations. "
[SOURCE: Ministry of Foreign Affairs- State of Israel http://www.mfa.gov.il/mfa/foreignpolicy/peace/guide/pages/declaration%20... - accessed on 7-26-2018] Within the text, the new State's aspiration was to be equal handed to the minorities. For many years, the Israeli Government did not have a vision of government an Israel different from the founders until Menachem Begin with the first Likud led government in the 1970's. The hard right of the political spectrum has been pushing for a Jewish State based on religion in lines with other states that are based on religion. The secular Israelis are horrified and for a good reason.
7
A better question to ask: Should Israel be a democracy in the first place?
Should any country?
If hierarchy and liberal democracy cannot co-exist, then the solution is clear. Liberal democracy must go.
1
And just what do you propose in its place? Or should all societies be apartheid states - though perhaps they already are. Or do you prefer authoritarian police states?
China and hong kong aren't so you are in the right place. Or are you planning to emigrate to canada?
Israel is not alone in trading democracy for tribal theocracy. It is a Christian Right plan for the US.
7
Which begs the question, was the two-state objective a false flag operation from the beginning? I'm Jewish. A reform American Jew that has spent a lifetime supportive of Israel because a) I understand what happens when Jews don't have their own state for protection and b) because the notion of democracy built upon the rule of law that allows fairness and opportunity for all is the lesson I interpreted from Moses and Exodus. What's confounded me for the past two decades is this tug-of-war between the ideal and the reality on the ground. In the midst of the Intifada, I would have backed a full-scale war that once and for all created one state under Isreal. The level of corruption and horrendous and relentless attacks by Homicide bombers incentivized by Saudi and other actors in the middle east deserved a full-scale response to purge the disease of anti-semitism. Eventually the wall is constructed and the era of Addelson and big-money funders led to what has become a huge push right, that feels to me, an insidious and perverse agenda that completely disregards 5,000 years of history. I am also quite clear that as an American Jew, I'm on the sidelines. I've never been forced into a situation on the ground in Israel to protect what is effectively the survival of Judiasm. It's ironic because I'm not very religious but I am committed to the survival of the religion that brought the rule of law and the notion of democracy to the world. How's that for counfounded irony?
2
This has never been about " the survival of Judaism". The vast majority of Jewish people live outside of Israel, and always will.
1
@LizMill easy for you to say sitting on the sidelines in a democracy that has allowed us to flourish. The question now, is America a democracy? Or maybe a corporatocracy that manipulates Christianity to control the majority? Is that the destiny of Israel? Is that the purpose of Judaism? Is Judaism more about autocratic adherence or liberal democracy based on the rule of law?
@LizMill also, you're wrong about a vast majority of Jews living outside Israel. It's about 50/50.
When Israel's Arab neighbors -- and by that I mean not just the nation states, but Gaza and the West Bank -- create societies with 15% of the religious, political, social, artistic, and sexual freedoms accorded to individuals, families, groups, religions, and political parties that every Israeli, even a hypothetical transgender atheist Arab Israeli of Sunni Muslim descent who hates the Netanyahu government enjoys, come back and write another op-ed. Maybe when those neighbors declare themselves and prove themselves to be liberal democracies instead of what they are now, Israel will change this law. At least it has the structures in place to do so.
7
Why compare Israel to in democratic, instead for the democratic states it claims as its peers? This is always the "what aboutism" that Apologists of Israel resort to.
1
I really don't understand this article or many of these comments. Have the Palestinians ever agreed that Israel has a right to exist? Don't they call Israel, the entire country, occupied? Isn't it one of their most basic beliefs that there should be no Jews in that part of the world? Does anyone really think that there would be peace if Israel turned some real estate over to the Palestinians? Does anyone want to talk about what the Palestinians have done for their people since the creation of Israel. I don't know what motivates the author of this piece or those that agree with it. I have my suspicions but I will just say they are delusional, care nothing for the facts, and leave it at that.
8
This is just a lot of theorizing. Not once in this article does it give examples of how anyone's life in Israel will change or has suffered as a result of not being Jewish. Israel has Arab doctors, teachers, and politicians. In 1967 when Israel gained control of Jerusalem they had previously not been allowed to visit major holy sites and many had been left in disrepair or vandalized. There are no such restrictions towards Arabs under Jewish rule. Nobody should be surprised or upset when the one Jewish country officially says they're Jewish.
7
Because they were in another country and they were in a state of war
Nothing prevents the Arabs in Gaza from declaring themselve a "state". The 13 American colonies did so - and since there's only one "territory", it would be trivially easy for the Arabs living in Gaza to issue a Declaration of Independence.
Of course, there's no way they would use Jefferson's 1776 Declaration, because then they'd have to violate their beliefs in their religion. You cannot believe in the inalienable rights to life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness, and also believe in killing Jews because they're Jewish. So they'd have to come up with something a little different, maybe removing that clause about "rights".
9
People in open air prisons don't usually declare independence because it doesn't change anything. Israel declared gazas independence a few years ago and has been tightening the noose since then together with egypt
This articles fundamental error is the presumption that Israel is unique as an nation-state and a democracy. In fact, in this regard Israel is perfectly ordinary.
3
It's painful for me to say, but I, for one, as an American Jew, am long past the point of being able to support the actions of the State of Israel with a clear conscience. This just puts them further in my rear view mirror.
16
Boehm may be a philosopher, but he is not a historian and is factually challenged. So let's get some facts straight here. The UN Partition Resolution did NOT call for a Jewish State and a Palestinian State in Palestine, it called for a Jewish State and an Arab State in Palestine. Up to this point in history there was no such thing as a "Palestinian People", a "Palestinian" could have been an Arab, a Jew, a Druze, an Armenian, etc....all living in the British Mandate territory of Palestine.
Boehm is correct in his population figures for Jews and Arabs in 1948, but neglects to mention that the UN Partition Plan divided up the territory so that Jews were the majority population in the territory allocated to them.
And Boehm never mentions that the Jews of Palestine accepted the UN Partition Plan but the Arabs of Palestine rejected it and went to war, backed by the surrounding Arab states, to wipe out the Jews (the Arabs lost).
Boehm never mentions that from 1949 to 1967 not a single Jew lived in eastern Jerusalem, the West Bank or Gaza, and that these territories were controlled by Egypt and Jordan who could have set up an Arab Palestine state at any time. They did not, choosing to continue to wage war on Israel.
And Boehm never mentions that Israel today has a 20% Arab minority that votes, elects its representatives to the Knesset, and has numerous laws protecting minority rights, none of which will change with this legislation.
7
@Ralph
The Zionists did not accept the UN Partition Plan. They instead launched a program of ethnic cleansing using mass terror. Israeli historian Illan Pappé has documented this in his book The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine.
1
You fail to mention what these less for Palestinians are
@Luis, start with the fact that Arab Israelis vote and elect their own representatives to the Knesset, who then draw big salaries and expense accounts paid for by Israeli taxpayers. And then use that platform to blast Israel (and if they tried that in any other country in the Middle East they would end up dead or in jail, but not in Israel....)
2
We live in a Judeo Christian society, yes, Judeo! Inherent to the core of Judaism is the recognition of the inalienable rights of the slave and the stranger. There is no other religion on the planet so open, inviting and accommodating as the religion detailed in the Torah. Fears that Israel will suddenly change into an unrecognizable, monster state as some of her neighbors is ridiculous and good old fashion fear mongering.
5
@Donn144
The Palestinians might have something to say about that.
1
It is already, ask the Palestinians that live in Israel and the West Bank
1
@Luis Have ever lived or visited in Israel? I do not know what motivated your words, but they are based in ignorance and lack of familiarity with Israel and the Palestinians. I suggest you look more deeply and honestly into the facts before you post anything again. I have seen with my own eyes the integration of Palestinians into Israel; strolling in door and out door malls, eating at the same restaurants, driving taxis, being Dr's, lawyers, professors and members of parliament. The Palestinians who wish to live WITH Israelis speak like this, "We in Israel"...I did ask them my friend and they told me!
Are you kidding? Did anyone ever truly think they were trying? I'm neither Arab nor Jewish, but Israel's objective has always been to defeat the Palestinians.
15
@tbs. On the contrary, it was always the Arabs who refused to accept any Jewish presence in the area. They initiated 3 wars for the expressed purpose to ‘push the jews into the sea’. In 1967 they called together all the Arab nations at the Khartoum Conference and declared that there would be no peace, no negotiations and no recognition of Israel. And when offered opportunities for their own state, all were rejected. But for you, it’s always been Israel’s objective to defeat the Palestineans. Wow !
Are YOU kidding ?
3
It so happens so often it’s almost predictable that nations fighting to establish their identity against hostile forces become like the forces trying to stifle them. Napoleon’s France was one, the United States and the Soviet Union, independent colonies of British, French, Belgian, German and Turkish Africa, the Middle East and Asia, others, and now Israel another, as it seeks to realize what its government leaders believe is the historical state boundaries of Biblical Israel. That means reducing Palestinian land rights, indeed, really, obliterating them.
But Biblical Israel, established by a religious inspired genocide against the non-Jewish Canaanites, would be internationally condemned and prosecuted today as a crime against humanity. Israel’s actions to displace Palestinian Arabs from disputed lands, of course, tries to fall just short of mass genocide, but it’s intent is genocide nonetheless, to wipe any trace of Palestinians out of the history of the Jewish state.
This reckless cruel policy is the goal of present Israeli leaders who believe that because the oil-rich Arab Gulf states are autocratic theocracies like Iran. Israel ought to become one,too. But they will soon learn how wrong they were to imitate dangerously unstable models of state survival. Jews, then, will be in the lead of ones condemning Israel’s government.
4
My only hope for Israel is with Israelis like the author.
4
The Israeli experiment in democracy has always been a conundrum. Though their nation mixes religion and ethnicity with democracy the Jews felt the need for such a nation after their adventure with near extermination in the 1940s. Without self-determination they were segregated, abused, stripped of educational and economic opportunity, raped and murdered in their adopted countries. Then there was the genocide. Why would the Israelis give away the ghost on who they are now? Would it make more sense to be overwhelmed demographically than it would to be destroyed militarily? If Israel ceases to be the Jewish nation where do the Jews go and how will they be treated? In the United States, the most tolerant nation on earth, where the liberal left seems to have an unlimited well of sympathy for the downtrodden, the Jews remain a target of hate. Israel, despite being a liberal democracy itself, is constantly singled out for criticism. The Democratic Party puts a Farrakhan man in its second highest position. The leftist born and supported BDS movement attempts to stain Israel at every turn. And America's academic institutions which are left wing as well, remain as hotbeds of anti-Semitism. So if the Jews lose their nation by arms, demography or philosophy, they will likely lose their souls too. Why would they give their country away? And why, with more than 20 Arab countries nearby, would anyone expect them to?
1
Wow, you are way off base. American jews are treated no differently than American Christians in the USA. At least In those intolerable liberal states you accuse of antisemitism. The only intolerance I have ever witnessed is when visiting deep red states, where they are intolerant of anyone not like themselves.
2
My Tax dollars at work? Israel is a democracy in the same way Mississippi was in the 1930's.
17
what's the difference now between Israel and any Muslim Theocracy?
8
@George Jackson
You could probably figure that out pretty quickly - book a ticket to each and take a stroll in their respective downtowns - it might become evident more quickly than you believe.
2
Your lack of education and critical thinking on the subject is the difference.
1
Two thousand years of anti-semitism is the blindingly simple need for a Jewish State. Nation states have historically identified protected status to certain of their citizens. For the Arab states who do the same thing to object when they do far more to restrict rights in their own country is ludicrous.
8
there is a letter in The Times today wondering why it is all right for Iran to be an Islamic state but Israel not to be a Jewish one.
When you are forced to compare your country to a repressive one ruled by non-elected leaders, you should know that you have a pretty weak argument. Perhaps the Israel should simply declare the chief Orthodox rabbi to be its ayatollah and let him make the decisions although on second thought that seems to be what the Netanyahu government seems to be trending to.
As to the letter writer's also mention of Britain as having an official church. Is there anyone on the face of the earth who believes that the Archbishop of Canterbury, the top person in the church, has much if any influence on the government of the country.
I had relatives involved in the foundation of the state of Israel. I'm sure they would be saddened by this new declaration and what it will probably lead to.
2
@Steve
First, Iran does not claim to be a Western democracy. Second, Iranians did not displace the indigenous population and then use ethnic cleansing to expand their state. Third, one criminal is not excused simply because another one has not been punished.
1
Hey! It’s not for the US to judge — Israel is a (sort-of) independent country owing its existence solely to God (and US taxpayers). All they did was just implement a little racial purity law and reinforce its official policy of apartheid. Lots of countries are doing that. For instance . . . well . . . there’s, um . . . Wait! There was that guy . . . uh . . .
6
The only way that is going to be long lasting peace in the region (as a whole) is if there is a TWO state solution implemented. The further that all parties get away from that premise, then the further we all are away from peace.
This particular action is the latest in a long line of actions (illegal and otherwise) that only entrenches positions and promotes the radically right policies of the Israeli government that is alienating too many. The United States supporting the state, regardless of action, does not help matter.
Peace in out time will not be achieved until there is an alignment at the same time of strong left of center, or Liberal governments within Israel and the United States.
4
The only way that is going to be long lasting peace in the region (as a whole) is if there is a TWO state solution implemented. The further that all parties get away from that premise, then the further we all are away from peace.
This particular action is the latest in a long line of actions (illegal and otherwise) that only entrenches positions and promotes the radically right policies of the Israeli government that is alienating too many. The United States supporting the state, regardless of action, does not help matter.
Peace in out time will not be achieved until there is an alignment at the same time of strong left of center, or Liberal governments within Israel and the United States.
5
The last time I looked Israel was still surrounded by many determined enemies bent on its destruction.
There is still time for the Palestinians to achieve a state of their own.
But first they must fully own the catastrophe they created for themselves by rejecting the re-establishment of the Jewish State in 1948; and relentlessly pursuing since that time their efforts to overturn what now has become a well established historical fact.
After this, many good things will become possible for them just as it did for Germany after World War II.
Failing this, the only alternatives left to them will be to continue building tunnels and wandering in the desert.
15
Is it just a tiny bit possible that the Palestinian inability to accept Jews living in a democratic Jewish state strengthens those who are concerned about Palestinians or Arabs living within the State of Israel or in the area captured from Jordan and from Egypt in 1967? Perhaps the Intefatas and the terrorist attacks have worked wonders, silencing or quieting those Israelis who want coexistence and empowering others who advocate something different? Right now the nonexistent state of Palestine will lead a UN Committee, Hamas will be sending a group of children to march to "reclaim their land" (better than educating them or wasting money on schools, better housing and job creation in Gaza) and to possibly send a few more kites with burning coals etc. over the border and somewhere, someone is dreaming of reclaiming Israel and helping family members by killing a few Israelis. While I personally disagree with some of the positions that this particular Israeli government has taken and with the tone of this new plan (there is no Constitution in Israel), I can certainly understand how a public revulsion to the constant attacks allows it to survive.
5
With the new legislation, Netanyahu and his cabinet have created an animosity toward the country unprecedented in its history. What he's doing is asking for it and there are plenty of terrorists around who would like to accommodate him. Furthermore, I thought America only supported democracies. You take it from there.
2
Thank you for this timely and clear piece.
Israel has been moving in this direction since the 1967 war, driven by several factors but in particular its right wing, which for some time has been politically dominant. It is not just that this is moment is some anti-democratic bubble in time; the momentum of the country is, and has been, decisively anti-democratic.
And why emphasize Israel's responsibility here (over Palestinian contributions to this debacle)? Simply because Israel very much has the power, and the Palestinians have virtually none. With that power -- which Israel has illegally augmented by settlements and appropriations and abuse of power in occupied territory -- comes responsibility.
8
Since when do Americans support a theocracy? Put aside the issues of occupation and discrimination, and address the nature of Israel's government. When I lived there for a while in 1966, people threw stones at cars on the Sabbath and many Israelis chose to get married in Cyprus, since Israel only recognized weddings (and divorces) certified by a particular faction of Judaism. One of the basic tenets of an open democracy is de facto separation of church and state. Certain factions in America want us declared a "Christian nation," but most Americans cherish the separation. We criticism Muslim nations for being theocratic, but enthuse over Israel. It undermines our own values of freedom of worship to defend Israel's religious authoritarianism. We could at least ASK them to be more tolerant.
12
There is a way for Israel to be a Jewish State and a Democracy.
The problem with the two-states solution is that it is just a phrase - an empty slogan - as long as the shape of that solution is not clearly - and realistically - described. Will the Palestinians have an army? Will it include Gaza? Will Jews be allowed to live in Palestinian territories? If so, who will protect them? Will Palestinian refugees be allowed to return to Israel proper? None of these questions have even begun to be discussed seriously by the parties, who are constantly using them to badger each other with accusations, suspicions, rockets, incitements, settlements, stabbings and wars. So, it is clear that it is not a solution.
May I humbly offer one possible solution. The Two-in-One solution. A Federal union of two independent States (Israel-Palestine), with clearly defined borders and full sovereignty for each within these borders. Regional defense is Israel's responsibility. Returning Palestinians can resettle in their Palestinian member State and be compensated by Israel and the international community. The actual people have been living together since the beginning of the 20th Century. They actually know each other quite well and have learned to live with each other, despite the turbulent politics on both sides. They will thrive when they finally adopt a framework that works for both of them, not as long as every politician in the world tries to extract the maximum spin out of empty slogans.
1
Mr. Boehm claims land from Israeli Arabs was confiscated in the north of Israel to build Jewish communities. What facts back up his claim? Much land in Israel is state owned, and that land is typically leased, seldom sold, for private use. Other land is designated for parks or no use, for ecological purposes. Arab towns both in the north or south have remained intact as such, but state owned land in the south that was used for grazing by Bedouins, or illegally squatted on by tent communities, is being taken back so that population growth can be accommodated through thoughtful planning. This writer isn't atypical of some Jewish and/or Jewish Israelis who accuse Israel of crimes or discrimination that are non-existent.
As to the law that the Arab Knesset members wished to introduce, a "neutral" country that isn't the home for the Jewish people, THAT would be the first step in guaranteeing that outside Palestinians fulfill their "right" of return. Refusal to allow that bill for consideration is an act of self preservation. Too bad most Arab lawmakers represent NOT their Arab citizens, but solely the interests of the Palestinian "Liberation" movements.
7
My experience living there for 5+ years is that Israel was never a democracy, perhaps was never meant to be; it just pretends to be. I’m cool with that, but why do we go along with the pretense?
5
““This country is Jewish and democratic: Democratic toward Jews, and Jewish toward Arabs.”
Sounds about right and given the implacable enmity shown the Jews by their neighbors it sounds eminently fair.
8
This may see an immaterial fact to some, but there are Palestinians who seek sanctuary in Israel avoiding persecution and possible extermination under Palestinian rule in the West Bank and Gaza -- their gay brothers and sisters.
6
American Jews of the baby boom generation were raised on a love of Israel and an understanding of what had happened in Europe under the Nazis. A national homeland for a people that had suffered terribly. Israel was going to be egalitarian and all were to live peacefully and happily with each other.
Today's generation of American Jews is, more and more, one that has no use for Israel as it has come to be. We love Israel as we love America. It's in our hearts, and it's hard (and maybe even impossible) to rip that out of our hearts, but we are not unaware of how terrible it is today in so many ways under the foul leaders it has elected.
10
Israel is a theocracy, not a democracy...just like Iran. If you can't beat them, Israelis have decided to be them.
4
I'm part Iranian. I always felt a special kinship with Jewish culture. My best friend since childhood is Jewish and I just think the values and culture match my own--certainly better than the Islamic State of Iran (though, admittedly, that isn't saying much, as that lot is a bunch of stone-age morons).
But my sympathy and empathy for Israel was and is based on the idea that one side--the Jewish side--seemed more egalitarian, modern, and, frankly, less racist. Without that moral high-ground, Israel boils down to just another middle-eastern race/religious war. I'm not interested in helping an explicitly racist government crush anyone.
What an incredible shame that the right-wing racist lunatics are in charge over there. The history of the Jews deserves a lot better than this.
17
Sorry, but this writer, who may be an Israeli philosopher, is unqualified to comment on the situation in Israel.
Only Jews who practice the Judaism that has sustained the Jews since the giving of the Ten Commandments at Mt. Sinai and as U.S. president Truman said, "civilized a savage, bloodthirsty, and barbaric world.
The Jewish destiny was not created in 1948 with the state of Israel.
They will fill their spiritual destiny in the very near future despite the corruption and perverseness seemingly overpowering the world.
The rapper Shyne, the Sean Combs protégé, (who converted to Orthodox Judaism) said it all (NYT Nov 10, 2010):
“All these rules, rules, rules,” he said with his hand on an open page of the Talmud. “But you know what you have if you don’t have rules? You end up with a bunch of pills in your stomach. When you don’t know when to say when and no one tells you no, you go off the deep.”
Get thee to an Orthodox yeshiva and learn who religious Jews really are:
God's blessing to humanity.
As the secular Israel government fades away and the religious Orthodox, Ultra-Orthodox, and Haredim come into ascendancy, you will see what the prophets of the Bible was said of the Jews about them becoming "a light unto the nations" come true.
Then, even the Palestinians and the Arab world will praise and honor them.
1
@Thom McCann
Thom, thank you for precisely defining Bronze Age lunacy.
5
@Ken G
This "lunacy" has sustained the Jews who were persecuted by Egypt, Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome--world empires that disappeared from the face of the earth--for 4,000 years.
God loves the Jews.
The Children of Israel have come home.
Despite the anti-Semites.
1
Since the roots of western civilization are deep in Jewish culture, we are clearly derived from that culture. But Israel must remain open and evolved. Why don't Jewish fathers stone daughters to death for sleeping with their lovers? Because people grew out of the old beliefs, yet want to preserve a special relationship with tradition.
At the time the books of the three great religions were written, there was little if any concept of democracy. To say that Athens was the birthplace of democracy is absurd; only the property owning oligarchs could vote. The situation was the same when America was born.
I, like many non-Jews, support Israel. But the founders of Israel seem to have had a better hold on the vision than present leadership. I hope they reconsider. The gifts of Jewish culture should not devolve into parochialism.
2
Most apartheid states are NOT Democracies.
9
When I was a little boy, in the late '50's and early '60's, Israel was kind of like a 51st state, and a liberal one at that. As a Jew, even a non-religious one, Israel liberalism combined with its toughness were a source of pride.
But the rise of Likud in the late '70's was the harbinger of the end of that. As we watched the small-minded injustice-collector, Menachem Begin torpedo the Camp David meeting at every turn till Jimmy Carter (metaphorically) took him by the scruff, the disintegration of Liberal Israel began. With the assassination of Yitzach Rabin by Egl Emir, a radical Orthodox Jew, and rationalizations of it by ultra-Orthodox the seeds of theocratic tyranny in Israel were sown and the dynamic equilibrium of a Jewish and equally Democratic state began to collapse.
The apartheid-ness of the Ultra-Orthodox is no secret. They created massive near-violent demonstrations to keep their schools segregated, and from whom? From Sephardic Orthodox! Not Arabs, not non-Jews, not Reform or Conservatives, but fellow Orthodox...of the wrong "flavor" and color!
Right-wing Americans and Europeans fantasize in panic that Muslim immigrants and refugees want to implement Shariat Law, but in Israel, it's clear that those who keep Netanyahu in power want to implement strict Torah-Orthodox Talmudic Law throughout Israel and Greater Judea.
Tyranny is tyranny and religious tyrants are the worst. It's been clear for years that Israel has been on this path.
18
Yet another Times article finding a way to bash Israel. Has there been, in recent memory, an equal but opposite article bashing the West Bankers and Gazans?
Many Arabs live in peace and comfort in Jewish Israel, but no Jews live in peace and comfort in all of Muslim Arabia. So, naturally, the NYT comes out with article upon article bashing Jewish Israel, and utter silence about Muslim Arabia.
Make no mistake about it, Arabia is Muslim and does not tolerate Jews in their midst; and the NYT is fine with that.
13
When Jimmy Carter wrote his book: "Palestine Peace Not Apartheid" in 2012, he was eviscerated for even mentioning the word, apartheid, in connection with Israel. Of course events have shown him to be the prescient prophet of human rights that he always was. This interview shows his thoughtful views on the subject:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ks7E1V-eNQk
Of course time has demonstrated that it is no longer is a minority that wants to subjugate the Palestinian people. The opening lines from the film, "Something of Value", depicting the Mau Mau uprising in Kenya has always stuck in my mind as being undoubtedly correct. It is as true today of the Palestinians as it was of the colonized African blacks:
“When we take away from a man his traditional way of life, his customs, his religion, we had better make certain to replace it with
SOMETHING OF VALUE”
― Robert Ruark, Something Of Value
Mr. Boehm's cri de coeur for standing firm for Israel's Declaration of Independence is powerful but futile in today's environment. However, the arc of history is long and hopefully bends toward justice as MLK said. In the interim, Israel will live with the consequences of its actions today and in the future.
5
You correctly state the obvious: Israel cannot be both a Jewish State and a democracy. The United States must admit this. Our blind support of Israel can no longer be justified by any idealistic reasoning; it is purely about having a strategic military ally, and this is why we are so disliked in the Arab world. We preach moral virtue - we say we support Israel because of its democratic ideals, yet Israeli “democratic ideals” are no such thing. We are perceived as hypocrites, at best. America must use its power to support true democracy in Palestine. If we don’t, catastrophe in the region is inevitable.
5
Reading this article reminds me that we should look at history carefully and learn from it. Having just finished reading the History of World War II and the Rise and Fall of the German Reich, wasn't it the German Fascist state that wanted to become pure, only German with only German thinking and morals? This Jewish State history begins in 1948 not long after the fall of Nazi Germany, where the annexation of Austria and other land was, to them, their right. One should watch carefully and see the fine line that separates a law to be fully "Jewish" and democracy. But, especially those politicians should beware of the fine line that separates the current philosophy of the conservative party of Israel and Knesset and that of the conservative party in Germany during the 1930s.
3
Israel is not a democracy at all ,it is an apartheid state .The Likud party has been in power since 1973 ,Likuds charter leaves no room for Palestinians ,& Likud never was an honest broker for peace . Don't act surprised ,NYT has been ignoring this reality for 60 years.
6
Like all peoples (including the Palestinians), the Jewish people have the right to self-determination. The expression of that is the state of Israel. This is and always has been anathema to the Palestinians whether the man on the street or Palestinian leadership. This is why they have never accepted a deal to split the land (offers made in 1948, 1967, 2000, 2007) and have a land of their own. To do so would require their acceptance of Jewish sovereignty (as it would require Israeli acceptance of Palestinian sovereignty). This is the core of the conflict.
13
Apartheid, officially. BDS.
2
It's unfortunate that this "democracy" has destroyed any possibility of peace in the Middle East. When I first became aware of the way the map of this new state was drawn it was clear that disaster loomed darkly. Was it purposeful?
Now Israel's leaders have pushed any supposed ideals out for land grabs, destruction of homes and villages and the destruction of Gaza - the Palestinians only connection to the sea. All this while we stand by insisting that this is the only Democracy in the Middle East and therefore whatever they do is OK.
Truly a failed experiment. George Marshall saw this coming. Nobody listened. What a sad outcome for the hope of so many.
5
I don’t see the utility of Israel’s decision to call itself a Jewish State as it detracts from the fact that Israel allows citizens of any faith to freely practice their it, to run for and hold elected office, and to do whatever a Jew can do. Name an Islamic Republic that allows the same for citizens of other faiths.
3
@SW As long as the U.S. is subsidizing the state of Israel to the tune of $3 billion (with a 'b') a year, I'm going to hold them to a higher standard. If you want to cut that back to a level on par with their nearest neighbors, then I'll happily expand my criticism.
4
"Israel’s policy of promoting Jewish settlements has created de facto apartheid in the occupied territories of the West Bank. The nation-state law now formally endorses the use of similar apartheid methods within Israel’s recognized borders." Correct, "formally endorses" because apartheid in practice has long been present in Israel, from the 93% of the land reserved for Jews, to land seizures, to benefits only given to Jews, to the ban on Palestinian history inside Israel, etc. The point is to end apartheid, the same way it ended in South Africa, by creating one democratic state from the river to the sea and bringing home all the refugees who want to come home. Web search "one democratic state Palestine Israel". Pressure the Israeli regime with BDS, protest its blockade of Gaza with efforts like the ongoing Gaza Freedom Flotilla 2018.
6
What a surprise! The NY Times finds a leftist Israeli to critique Israel!
The new law is one of those symbolic but meaningless events, which the Netanyahu government revels in offering to its political supporters but which changes nothing. Estonia is a state of the Estonians, despite having a significant Russian minority; England has a State Religion, despite having large numbers of adherents to other religions. Why is there no equivalent outrage at all other such democratic states? Where is the NY Times holding up the example of the insult to minority Russians sprinkled throught the Former Soviet Republics? Oh, the collective gasps of horror....how could the Jews expect a Jewish state...?
5
"Last week, Israel gave up on even trying . . . to guarantee equal rights for non-Jews . . . '
Pretending is the correct word, not trying, as when Pres. Trump stopped pretending about a Oslo-ized two-state solution, tossing Bibi & Friends the keys to Jerusalem, bowing to Sheldon Adelson and US evangelical zionists. Actually, the appointment of Ambassador Friedman was the first big "clue" things had changed.
7
Again, the NYT provides an op-ed that puts NO BLAME ON THE PALESTINIANS.
Over and over, the Pals had a chance for their own state - all they had to do was recognize Israel 100% and stop fighting.
Over and over, the Pals refused.
So, now, it's too late?
TOO BAD.
7
Not all the Palestinians had to do. They had to allow Israel to tell them who could live in Palestine, whether it would be a home for Palestinians living all over the world after being driven out of their country, or only the numbers that Israelis decreed. Would they be permitted an army? Would they be recognized by Israel as a fully and freely functioning sovereign state open to all who wished to live there without interference.
3
As a Christian that believes our mandate is to treat others as we would ourselves, I can no longer support Israel. If God is God then God doesn't need any help protecting them. Bibi Netanyahu, who is both corrupt and immoral, is who they worship. Israel is setting themselves up for worldwide condemnation and isolation as South Africa did with Apartheid.
7
Hogwash. The fact that every Arab state in the region never recognized Israel since 1948, and has been hostile to Israel ever since, including multiple attempts at invasion, negates the author's entire article. His comments are academic and meaningless.
14
When a nation states: we are going to institute "Shariya Law" the United States objects and sees it as downright evil. I suppose it means that the Koran is the law of the land. How is what Israel doing anything other - declaring that the Talmud is the law of the land - only it is a total violation of the Talmud - since it marginalizes and denigrates the stranger instead of welcoming them as we are commanded to. This is a step into the dark ages and the Crusades. Netanyahu's Israel is the greatest promoter of Anti-Semitism in the world. For the great masses of people everywhere who (mistakenly) equate Israel with Judaism, all they see is ugly. Gestures like this promulgate not only anti-Israeli sentiment (including among Jews like myself), but anti-Semitism against all of us both in Israel and the Diaspora. How does that help? Whatever happened to the high ground of the founding principles? What about ahavta v'shalom? Dead with Ben Gurion.
1
Netanyahu is allied with the far right religeous parties, whose proponents block local streets on Saturday, encourage strikes by airline workers (on Saturday), and pass laws prohibiting the raising of pigs, even by non-jews...the list goes on. These are not behaviours of a democracy. Many Israelies see what many a Americans do not: Netanyau needs the Arab-Israeli conflict to smolder (at least) to contribute just enough fear to keep him and his anti-peace coalition in power. Israel's population shifted dramatically when immigration from Russia and Eastern Europe increased. One analysis suggests that people who once lived in oppressive societies normalize the condition and will then tolerate oppression directed at others. it's notable that Putin & co. were working social media to roil the political landscapes in the US and Europe while Bibi was invited to give his mendacious PowerPoint sermon to Congress.
5
The “Jewish” state vs liberal state tautology is over and done with. Israel will be a Jewish state and a liberal one for Jews within its borders.
1
Immigration and population bring unexpected guests. Just think, 120 years ago, the land that is now Israel had a tiny percentage of people who were Jewish.
Some terrorism (eg the Stein Gang), some wars, a holocaust and 50 years of occupying or ruling defeated peoples and now we have the great Jewish state of Israel.
But Democracy? Justice? Integrity? Equality? Pah! You can't have everything.
4
The creation of the state of israel in the middle east was a huge blunder.
12
@libdemtex
Israel is the ‘reconstitution’ of the Jewish Homeland upon their own indigenous ground. Israel exists exactly where it should exist, where it has existed for 3000 years...long before Arab warlords came riding out of the Arabian Peninsula, swords drawn.
3
Didn't a crazy leader last century use the preposterous pretext and cult of a superior race as the establishing principle of their state to justify their subjugation and attempt to destroy those who were not 'equal' to them?
Jews should have learned from their own painful history last century of what can happen to vulnerable groups at the hands of of those with ideologies of superiority - like the insane cult concept of the superiority of an Aryan race.
From confiscating homes and burning down businesses last century to confiscating land and demolishing homes in this century - both are abominable acts.
Inequality is the founding principle of the existence of Israel. "equal rights for non-Jews"? Since when have Jews in Israel and occupied territories treated Palestinians or Arabs as equals? Even among Jews, some are more equal - the more orthodox they are - than others Jews. When a people claim rights over others because of their so called religion or cult, you get an Israel or Germany and the subjugation and eventual cultural and ethic purging of others.
If Netanyahu follows through with the annexation of the West Bank, the UN should revoke the 1947 resolution that established the state of Israel and return the entire area back to the Palestinians. Israelis have proven repeatedly they never had intentions of abiding to a two state solution. Indeed, Israel should be treated by the world in the same way Israel treats Gaza - a gargantuan human prison - see how they like it.
6
Why are we still rehashing that Israel decided to restate the obvious--Israel is a Jewish nation? Isn't it time to move on already?
I hate repeating myself but why are the knives and scalpels out over evey single thing Israel does or doesn't to? This is old news.
8
In Toronto when I was 12 years old in guidance class we watched a film strip. The narration told a largely Jewish group of students in a public school that we were living in a Christian country. After it was over I mentioned that to the teacher. She reiterated that yes, Canada was a Christian country and you people better get used to the fact. She was not amused.
The incident made me feel excluded from being a true Canadian and it also made me angry. So I can only imagine how non-Jewish Israelis feel. Luckily for me the attitudes in Canada changed quickly after that. Israel on the other hand seems to be walking backwards into the future. Trouble ahead, I fear.
4
@LorneB I get your point, but non-Jewish Israelis feel like they've won the lottery. Israel is definitely the best country in the middle-East to be a citizen if you're an Arab Muslim. And particularly if you're a woman or homosexual Muslim.
3
Democracies that are under near constant military attack tend to some degree of authoritarianism during the crisis (the U.S. throughout WWII, for example.) Unfortunately for Israel and its democracy, the military crisis has lasted for 70 years and that can be really wearing on a democracy.
Israel also faces the problem of being a (reluctant) colonial power with authority and responsibility for millions on non-Jews who were meant to have their own government and territory. Maybe if Israel just created some somewhat arbitrary borders by fiat, gave back a bunch of land and declared the West Bank a nation, it could go back its democratic ideals. But I guess they sort of did that in Gaza and it hasn't worked out so well.
2
Plato claimed that democracy is a poor form of government; Aristotle disagreed. Thomas Hobbes disagreed with Aristotle; Rousseau disagreed with Hobbes. It's obviously a moot issue.
Democracy gave America, very recently, LBJ, Nixon, Reagan, G.W. Bush, and DJT. Really not things democracy wants on its resume.
Maybe Plato and Hobbes understood the ignorance of John Q. Citizen's foolishness that would quickly and decisively lead the body politic to the cemetery.
Ideal governments are pipe dreams. Reality is war, gulags, and inchoate tribalism. Welcome to the jungle.
The settlement program has disrupted Palestinians and in practical terms ended any opportunity for a Palestinian homeland. Why is the existence of Israel acceptable but not Palestine? Denying Palestinians the right to their own state is hypocritical at best on the part of Israel and the world. It is time that the United States withdraw all financial and military aid until the settlements cease, and land previously taken from the Palestinians is returned. A two state solution seems the only fair and reasonable solution.
2
Trump, Pence and their evangelical cronies want to make America an official Christian State. Time for a major push back against this dangerous trend towards theocracy. Freedom From Religion means less division, happier and more resourceful citizens.
7
Democracy requires equality. Equality requires freedom of religion. Freedom of religion requires separation of church and state.
3
A look at the map of the U.N.'s proposed partition of Palestine in 1947 (resolution 181) will show that it was hardly unfavorable to Arab interests. However, the Arabs unanimously rejected resolution 181 and adamantly opposed any Jewish state in the Holy Land. Five Arab nations tried to crush the infant state of Israel in its cradle, with the resulting consequences.
The Palestinians have also refused sincere two-state proposals made by Israel in 2000, 2001 and 2008. There is no doubt that the present situation in the Holy Land is unfortunate, but it is essential to view Israel's current actions in a larger historical context.
14
@Fred Hutchison Fred, move out of Albany take all your neighbors in a 200 mile radius with you. You will not be compensated for the loss of your homeland, because a people who lived in the region of Albany 2,000 years ago want to move in. Are you cool with that?
1
Too bad the professor lives in the United States right now. His progressive Jewish voice is needed in Israel.
6
Israel will continue to grow the apartheid system in the occupied lands as long as the US Congress provides unconditional support. Israel does not share our values of equality, freedom and self determination. A recent NY Times report that the Israel Civil Administration for the occupied areas released shows that over 99% of all building permits for Jews are granted, while less than 1% of Palestinian permits are granted.
As long as Israel continues the path to apartheid, the BDS system will only get bigger.
18
I don't understand how any country can be defined by [x] particular religious-ethnic criteria and be democratic in practice, unless its constitution prohibits the establishment of state religion. That said, I defended NM public servants and government entities against Establishment Clause (and other constitutional) claims for years, and can attest that even the existence of a corollary to the First Amendment does not guarantee a democracy free of, in our instance, Christian bias and manifest discrimination. With a blatant bigot in the White House, his spineless lackeys in Congress, and the Supreme Court exhibiting increasing hostility to democratic principles and fondness for concentrated power, I wonder whether: (i) our constitutional democracy is itself facing an existential threat; and (ii) what will rise from the ashes of our Great Experiment.
2
This is quite right and alarming. Israel used to proclaim itself the only democratic state in the Middle East. Now, it's neither alone, nor one. By some indices of democracy, Tunisia is the Middle East's most democratic state.
Will this stop US support? Not by a long shot. Given the US's support for autocratic states like Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and now Russia and NK, Israel will continue to be the beneficiary of US taxpayer dollars (continuing its role as the country that has received *the most* foreign aid in the past decades from the US).
I guess all that yelling and shouting about supporting the ideals of democracy from the US is, and has always been, hubris.
5
This fostering of an apartheid solution is surely the result of the right-wing, nativist ideology and predicated by the current generation of Jewish 'settlers' who consider themselves chosen by God (an exceptional people). Which is the other 'great ' nation that can do whatever it wants to others because it also is an 'exceptional' nation: the US of A... 2 peas in a pod.
8
Israel is just following its own internal logic. If you want a Jewish state, you have to find a way to set up either an apartheid system, or you have to expel the Arabs.
I think we need to question the logic of a religious state. Israel starts from the assumption that Jews need the protection of their own state. Yet it seems that Israel may be the most dangerous place to be a Jew, and the policies of Israel generate the greatest animosities towards Jews in the rest of the world.
The long-term solution for Israel can only be full democracy and the end of the fantasy of a Jewish state.
6
Always such a big fuss over such a tiny place. Does anybody really care anymore what they think they are?
3
If the slaves threatened to revolt it would only be natural to stop them being able to vote or giving them equal rights.
So how too could the Jewish state of Israel hope to survive if those who live within its boundaries now and in the future are given equal democratic rights regardless of religion or ethnicity?
1
As usual the Left shoots itself in the leg.
The area has different names: Promised land, Holly land, Palestine, Land of Israel, Land of milk and honey and even Zion.
The (Israeli born) author chooses Palestine. That terminology already tells you something.
And then this:
“The Declaration based itself explicitly on a 1947 United Nations General Assembly resolution that called for the establishment of two states in Palestine: one Jewish, the other Palestinian.”
That is simply not true. It is probably done intentional.
The two-state solution declares a Jewish state and an Arab state.
The way the author presents it makes the false impression that The British Mandate for Palestine was populated by Jewish people and Palestinian people. This for sure is misleading.
Both Jews and Arabs were Palestinians. I’m in possession of a Government of Palestine ID card. it says ‘Jewish’.
To be clear, I think this law is unnecessary and shows right wing rejection of liberal democracy.
7
Much of the world refuses to accept the idea that the Jews have an indigenous homeland known as Israel. Instead, many consider “parts” of the land to be regrettable concessions made to the Jews after the Holocaust. In reality, Israel was and always will be the home for Jews around the world. Unfortunately the distaste for the idea of a Jewish homeland overshadows blatant facts about democratic characteristics Israel possesses, which no other country in the Middle East shares. Within Israel are thousands of churches and mosques. Where are the synagogues in other Middle Eastern countries?How often do we hear about churches firebombed in Israel? Never. Israel may be the only country in the Middle East to have a publicly organized gay parade. Where are the gay parades in countries like Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia, etc? While, like any other country in the world, Israel still has a lot of work ahead. However, as Americans we should be promoting our ally’s democratic achievements, rather than throwing mud.
25
Somehow EVERY article on Israel misses an incredible nuance; Arabs living in Israel (not including West Bank or Gaza) make up 20% of population.
That is a greater share of the black population of America by nearly 60%.
These Israeli Arabs can vote and hold any job; there are no apartheid-type laws on the books.
Israel remains a Jewish democracy, the citizens of WB and Gaza are not Israeli and never will be. The "no democracy" is a semantic rabbit hole that is essentially used to try and chip away at Israel's legitimacy.
22
As the writer states, the idea of a Jewish Ethno-state was always in contradiction with the ideals of liberal democracy. How can you guarantee the rights of a non-Jewish minority if they threaten becoming the majority? I don't see this as a step backward for democracy, rather this is a step forward towards the truth. As many other commenters point out, Israel was always founded as a Jewish state. It's time for everyone to face that fact. Liberal supporters of Israel have tried to delude themselves into thinking that Zionism and liberal multiculturalism was compatible, but how has that worked out? It's time to see Israel as the apartheid regime that it is.
4
@Simon
You confuse self-preservation, self-determination, and self-defense...with apartheid.
2
I don't care anymore! The entire Middle East is overrated. Let them sort it out themselves.
2
It took the United States nearly 200 years to become a democracy. In comparison to, say, antebellum South Carolina, Israel comes out ahead, I guess, but that's a very low bar. Which is to say, who are we to judge, as Americans, with our bloody, genocidal history?
1
@bb5152 I agree. As I keep reminding anyone who cares to think about it, visit an "Indian Reservation," near you...and, not just those that have casinos. There are plenty of ancestors of the original land owners of the USA still out there, restricted to a fraction of their ancestral lands.
2
Israel hasn't been a democracy since the sixties, when they took control of the population of the occupied territories but did not give the population there a voice in the national government.
8
Israel may be unique in that the Jewish people have been uniquely persecuted for thousands of years and will continue to be so unless they have a place where they can defend themselves. Unfortunately, the manner in which Christ died, has through misinterpretation, given some people the misguided idea that the Jews were responsible for the killing of Christ. It was only recently that the Vatican absolved the Jews of this "crime". Many forget that Jesus was a Jewish Rabbi and that many of his followers were Jewish. It seems that antisemitism is still alive and well in this chaotic world as Jewish people flee France and other European countries and have in the past fled "Muslim" countries that were distinctly Muslim.
Perhaps and until the world changes, Israel needs to be a Jewish State. Oh, and by the way, Arabs are not fleeing Israel to go to surrounding Arab countries.
6
This post is from Kenneth Freeman (Randy Freeman's Husband)
Mr. Boehm's article has some factual basis. Sadly that is out of necessity.
After the horror of the Holocaust, European Jews' right to integration was rejected by many countries, who wanted to relegate Jews to the next brand of fenced camps. Then when the UN awarded the Jews with the State of Israel, the area's Arabs were told by their own Arab brethren to leave while they endeavored to destroy Israel from the start. This chapter has been replayed several times, thankfully to no avail, as Israel has prevailed in the face of each existential threat.
But the threats continue. Hamas for one has never recognized Israel's right to exist. The minds of the Palestinian children in both the West Bank and Gaza are poisoned from the start to hate Jews.
If Mr. Boehm has a better alternative to Israel's current Jewish State reality, he should let us all know what it is.
1
@Randy Freeman It is easy to poison the mind of a Palestinian child while he watches his playmate shot dead.
The catchy headline of this opinion piece is really a cover for a radical left wing professor to write an anti Israel bashing article. The writer may claim to be a philosopher but his theories are supported by his pro Palestinian politics.
Israel is a democracy and is clearly the nation state oif the Jewish people. All of it's citizens including the 20% that aren't Jewish vote in free elections and are represented.
There are 22 Arab countries and not even one of them is democratic and human rights abuses are prolific. If the Palestinians really wanted a State they would had one by now. What they really want is the destruction of Israel and the Democratic and Jewish Israel will not give it's enemies a helping hand and commit suicide so that the Palestinians and their Arab and Iranian backers can achieve their evil and murderous goals.
16
Egypt is Arab, Muslim, no Jews allowed. Lebanon is Arab, Muslim, no Jews allowed. Syria is Arab, Muslim, no Jews allowed. Saudi Arabia, Yemen, the Emirates, Arab, Muslim and free of Jews. Jordan, majority Palestinian, Muslim and Judenfrei. The proposed Palestinian state will be Muslim with no Jews allowed. Israel is 40% Jews with roots in Europe, 40% Jews who were expelled by force from Arab lands were they had been since before Islam with all their property taken. And 20% are Arabs of many faiths, Muslim, Christian, Druze etc. All Israeli citizens have equal rights, freedom of worship, access to education and the rule of law. Israel is the one place on earth where Jews can go to escape hate and violence. If you think these are things of the past then read the newspaper. Flawed like all countries, Israel has struggled mightily to balance democracy with its reason for being, to be the single nation and safe haven of the Jewish people. Why does this tiny country in a vast Muslim sea so dominate the daily news??
37
@RJR "before Islam"? Seriously?
1
@Darren McConnell
Yes, Jews have been in the middle east since Biblical times. In Iraq for instance they came in 586BC. The prophet Muhammad was born around 571AD, about a thousand years later. In 1884, 25% of the population of Baghdad was Jewish. All the Jews were kicked out....
1
Ask any Palestinian who has been living under Jewish military occupation, or any Israeli Arab, whether Israel is a democracy and you will get your answer. Or bettter yet, read about the 400 to 600 Palestinian villages erased during the Nakba.
https://972mag.com/mapping-the-palestinian-villages-erased-and-replaced-...
8
Had the combined armies of Araby not invaded in 1948 and again time after time it might have been a different picture.
3
@Christy
Ask any Arab Israeli if, given the choice, they would prefer to live in an Arab-majority, Arab-controlled state called Palestine...and you will get your answer.
2
Imagine an article entitled "Did Apartheid South Africa just stop trying to be a democracy." See, you can't.
Israel, by definition, has never been and will never be a democracy. It is a European settler state that imposed itself through violence on the indigenous population of Palestine.
Any vote, now or in the past, would send the same resounding majority message from the Palestinian population to the settlers - go away and leave us alone.
16
Of course, religions and democracy are not really compatible, furthermore why do you want that isrezl stay a democracy ? Strange idea in the front of the reality : who lead Israel : people who believe that there is a god and this god gave them special right and obligations. The demographic tendencies won't change and the craziest believers will have more and more power, you add the ride of the populism as in the other democracies around the world, and you can understand e erosion of the liberal democracy in Israel. But it is the choice of the Israeli citizen, why could you criticize it ? I would bet that the future of Israel is a theocracit republic, in Iranian way, with a larger porportion of democracy. Nothing new on our old world
I have walked through the Shia regions of Lebanon and through the streets of Jerusalem on a friday night. I have seen what a theocracy looks like. For 3000 years the Jewish people have had to renew themselves. Now those such as Dr. Boehm must be part of the hardest renewal of all. I invite all the democracy loving and humane persons of Jewish descent in Israel to consider emigration. There is and will be a vital Jewish culture, but it will not be in Israel under Bibi's version of the Mullahs.
4
This issue seems to be another example of singling out Israel for doing things that do not justify a yawn in other countries.
Is anyone complaining to Queen Elizabeth II for heading an Anglican country ? Is anyone claiming Great Britain is not a democracy ?
Most if not all Arab countries in the Middle East proudly proclaim their national religion is Islam, and several European and South American countries have enshrined in their laws their national religion of Christianity.
And for all the complaints about not being a democracy, this article points out "...Ahmad Tibi, an Arab-Israeli member of the Knesset....".
So Arabs and Muslims in Israel have enough clout to elect one of their own as a representative to the Knesset.
In other words, this article is another attempt to delegitimize Israel, so we should stop wasting our time here.
10
“This country is Jewish and democratic: Democratic toward Jews, and Jewish toward Arabs.”
Indeed. If the Israeli Government were even nominally democratic, then they would have to recognize the rights of the Bedouins, the Baha'i, the Druze, the Coptics, and the Palestinians. Instead, the Knesset has chosen to democratize racism.
But I suppose that's the rub.
5
I used to love Israel. American hasbara made me love it. Then came the invasion of Lebanon in 11982 which made me look closely at the history of the region. Remember when Hillary was castigated for using the dirty word "Palestine." That word was expunged from the media and discourse in the U.S. until about twelve years ago when it began to be allowed in the press. That Israel was founded on terrorism, and that Israeli confiscation of Palestinian lands expanded the new state was kept out of U.S. media. With U.S. aid and protection Israel has become a success at the expense of the Palestinian population. Israel never intended to let the creation of a Palestinian state happen. The 1947 interloper now gets to decide the fate of the people it displaced. And, Americans still wonder why we are hated. Look at what we have done in Iraq, Iran, Israel/Palestine. Still, no politician dares to buck AIPAC. Israel wanted us to invade Iraq, a country that had no role in 9/11, no wmds, --how could we say no. How many bills are now circulating in Congress condemning BDS, in short, proving how much our legislators love Israel, or rather love their jobs. They won't even notice Israel's new law--elections are approaching.
8
Mr. Boehm pontificates endlessly about the unfairness of a single Jewish state in the midst of two dozen Arab states in the region.
He blithely ignores Hamas' call for the extermination of all Jews in Israel, as that would convolute his argument. He ignores the history of multiple offers of a two state solution including 97% of the West Bank and land swaps to make up the other 3%. Offers that were apparently so unsatisfactory to the Palestinian Authority they didn't even bother to counter. (Almost as if they didn't want to make a deal).
He ridicules a desire that those who serve in the Knesset not try to destroy the country from within. Essentially what Trump has been doing to the U.S. since elected. Why, after all, should Israel have any of the same protections every other country has.
The two-state solution is the only real hope for Jews and Palestinians alike. If the Palestinian leadership, undemocratic and incompetent as it is, would recognize that, perhaps this half-century stalemate could be eased.
15
Who cares?!? Just keep sending billions of our tax dollars in military aid! No better use for our money!
3
The author neatly summarizes the obvious. That is not a criticism. It is necessary - but not sufficient - to state the obvious over and over again, in order at least to have a record that some people weren't fooled by, or complicit in, the colonization of the remaining Arab lands of Palestine and their incorporation into the Israeli state. What had been undertaken, at least in part, by stealth in order to accommodate the sensitivities of foreigners, will now - Presto! - culminate as a requirement of Israel's basic law. But the looming demographic moment of truth hasn't receded; when Jews no longer make up a majority in the lands under Israeli rule and the very meaning of "democratic" has to be changed. Unless of course Plan B - making life so unbearable in the Arab ghettoes that a mass exodus takes place - is accelerated, one way or another.
Two extremely important facts:
1. To make a Jewish majority state, non Jews living in the area had to be displaced.
2. Israeli policy is being dominated by people who claim that supernatural forces have decreed that Israel belongs to the Jews.
Could Israel have been established early in the 20th century as a secular, democratic state to serve as the homeland for anybody who wanted to consider it their homeland? I think so. And I feel there will no peace until the mistaken vision of Weizmann and Ben-Gurion is corrected.
3
As far as I can tell, Israel has never been a democracy. They have always been a theocracy and that is why, as an atheist, I nave never believed in assisting Israel in it's conquest of Palestine. Too much of their Jewish mystique has is nothin more than mythology that the Palestinians have suffered under.
9
Thank you Prof. Bohem for your humane and kind truths. Even Israel’s rescue of the Syrian White Hats this week only demonstrated the hypocrisy of Israel acting to save an Arab group only if it meant that Israel did not have to let them live in Israel.
Slowly many Americans are beginning to understand what the meaning of Israel’s definition of itself as a “Jewish state for Jews” really means, but editorial board rooms fear to publish their misgivings lest they instigagte a boycott, cancelled subscriptions, and political attacks.
Israel’s present government is certainly to blame for the future hole that the country is digging itself into, the ironic thing about it being that having escaped ghettos in other countries, Israel’s pariah status has become another ghetto, only super-sized with its every seizure of Palestinian territory.
And many know historically what happens to anything in nature that keep expanding: it expands by division, like the universe of each star, until it implodes in its destruction!
The Palestinian Territories are not and never will be reservations like our tribal native ones. Nor will they ever behave as Mexico after it conceded its territory lost after the Mexican-American War. No, Israeli Jews need friends in the region, because now it has none, and Palestinians ought to be its best, closest friends, in one nation state with full equal rights with Israeli Jews. This can happen but the opportunity is vanishing with each generation of Jews abroad!!
2
Israel has turned into a brutal Theocracy. Millions of Palestinians are forced into the large cage of Gaza. They are then being slowly exterminated. Netanyahu is doing what Trump is doing at our boarders but on a much more brutal and massive scale. What is happening in Gaza is a epic tragedy unfortunately not covered much in the news. Just like our other friends the Saudis who have blockaded Yemen with our air support and weapons and are causing massive starvation and war crimes.
5
What’s happening in Gaza is what happens when a people choose a terrorist dictatorship to rule over them. Apparently, you must believe that a terrorist government ruling Gaza is not a problem. When Israel left the Gaza Strip several years ago, an entire agribusiness foundation was left intact. Instead of making use of this, Hamas had it destroyed. Instead of creating a new start for the people of Gaza, Hamas simply moved the missile launchers closer to the new border and started firing. Apparently, also not a problem for you. Instead of using all the Israeli humanitarian truckloads to help the people of Gaza, Hamas used much of it to build tunnels into Israel for the sole purpose of killing Israeli soldiers. Apparently, THAT is not a problem for you either. As a result, the embargo against anything used for military purposes was instituted by Israel, although they still deliver humanitarian aid everyday. The people of Gaza are suffering because their leadership would rather continue their conflict with Israel than helping their people improve their lives. It is why Hamas uses their own as human shields because they can always rely on people like you to shed a tear when the photoshopped pictures are released to the world by this terrorist dictatorship.
4
Israel has never had any real choice but to react to the hostility of the Palestinians and surrounding Arab states. The Arabs have had choices, in 1948 and at any time for most of the 70 years since then to create their own state and live in peace alongside Israel but instead sought to drive the Jews into the sea.
8
@james haynes
I agree--Israel is in a rough and unkind neighborhood. But to be morally righteous, you need to be *better* than your enemy. This is just weakness and fear--the Jewish people and their long history deserve better than this.
@J c
Not to get too argumentative (as though Israel were a contentious subject) but when you are a country of seven million surrounded by 200 million that seek your extinction, fear is the only sane response. But weak? Many a foe that thought so has been handed their heads on a platter.
Existence first, Omri, and being nice second. What happened in Gaza once Hamas got its hands on it has buried the very possibility of a two-state solution. Are you really in the dark about that?
.
9
proving (again) that theocracy (in any guise) is always a bad idea.
5
Israel is ultimately a foreign country and can drift away from being a democracy if it wishes. It is still far better than its neighbors.
What should be completely unacceptable are restrictions placed in the US on criticism of Israel, and recognition and open discussion of the Palestinian plight. The Israel lobby in the US is a cancer on Israel since it prevents effective feedback, and the Israeli government gets carte blanche to move even further to the right. Sadly, this is what is known today as "pro Israel". Until this changes, Israel will continue its moral decline, and those that claim that there is "no light" between the US and Israel will continue to try and drag the US down with it.
1
@Baddy Khan
"What should be completely unacceptable are restrictions placed in the US on criticism of Israel,"
I don't get this at all. Who is restricting people from saying whatever they want? This is America.
2
Mr. Boehm didn't think through the declaration in 1948, with thousands of Jews who came immediately from the refugee camps in Cyprus, followed by those in Europe-all Holocaust survivors. Plus, more came, some voluntarily, many forced out, from nearby Arab countries. In all, at least 800,000 Jews, who were kept out by the British, the latter who brazenly inverted the whole mandate set up exclusively to encourage/increase/enable Jewish immigration/development of the entire mandated Palestine for a Jewish state, recognizing and enforcing the rights of its minorities. Democratic, equal rights was/is not the same as self determination for its Arabs. Just as democracy in America or elsewhere isn't to establish new countries for its minority members.
The Druze minority, Arabs but not Moslems, are steadfast supporters of Israel but are alarmed by the new legislation. Largely because Arabic is no longer an official language, only a special one. And possibly because they fear a loss of expanding Arab towns as their populations increase. Yet the new law was devised to prevent the opposite-the building of new Jewish towns in the north has been vehemently opposed by the Israeli Arab communities, using intimidation, or even vandalism. If Jews cannot build in pre-67 Israel, as their population increases, what becomes of the Jewish state? By the same token, Palestinians need to move ahead with serious negotiations if they want a separate, sovereign state.
2
There are a number of self-designated Muslim nation states in Israel’s immediate neighborhood, and not one of them is a functioning democracy. Why? Inevitably, when a government identifies one group of its citizens as “more equal” than others, it undercuts one of the core operating principles of democracy. Our founding fathers recognized the potential danger. Hence we have the First Amendment which prohibits the government from favoring one religion over another. Israelis should take the cue from the world’s longest surviving democracy.
1
Iceland appears to approve of boycotting Israel produce from occupied territories, I`m not sure the Israelis can stomach cues from such a country.
1
Israel is ultimately a foreign country and can drift away from being a democracy if it wishes. It is still far better than its neighbors.
What should be completely unacceptable are restrictions places in the US on criticism of Israel, and recognition and open discussion of the Palestinian plight. The Israel lobby in the US is a cancer on Israel since it prevents effective feedback, and the Israeli government gets carte blanche to move even further to the right. Sadly, this is what is known today as "pro Israel". Until this changes, Israel will continue its moral decline, and those that claim that there is "no light" between the US and Israel will continue to try and drag the US down with it.
3
Someday the fantasy of a "Palestinian State" might just happen. Seriously though I doubt it. Seeing the corruption and in fighting among the Arabs, the region doesn't need another dysfunctional state. Many "Palestinians" will never recognize Israel's right to exist and many of the residents will still terrorize Israel.
4
The fact that there is a fundamental contradiction between liberal democracy and ethnic democracy is clear; that Israel has faced this dilemma from the beginning has always been obvious. American Jews who somehow argued that the West should "support Israel" because of "shared values" were always deluding themselves; none of them would ever want to return to a US where one's religious identity determined, in principle, the value of one's citizenship. What makes Israel's new law truly unique is, as Prof Boehm notes, that it is another step in the dispossession and subjugation of the indigenous Arab population of Palestine. Thus, the people who were on the land when the Zionists first arrived, whose claim to that land is far more unimpeachable than the befuddling claims of Jews from Europe or other parts of the world, are being legally stripped of their legitimacy. In this, the plight of the Palestinians mirrors the plight of the African people of apartheid South Africa or the continuing oppression of native peoples across the Americas, more than anything else. Just as in these cases, legal mumbo-jumbo is used to take away their lands and rights and give them to the descendants of colonial settlers who will only be satisfied when they have stolen everything from the native people. The fact that all of this goes on with the connivance of the US and the acquiescence of the rest of the Western world makes it only more shameful.
2
Israel can call itself what it wants, but someday the American people may at last wake up and realize fully that our support for that nation implicates us in her cruelties to non-Jews--and that in doing so Israel and America are together helping to destroy the moral credibility of Christianity and Judaism. Many crises yet stand between today and the dawning of that day, but if it happens Israel will face some very, very hard realities. Today, like too many Americans, she lives in a dream world of illusions and empty hopes.
2
Fortunately, all nations are nourished in a shared hypocrysy (a pretense!!). At least YOUR nation is different, by ideological definition!! Other nations are guilty---never your own. Nothing new in all of this. I suspect that to true believers, Israel is a special case--perpetually innocent and incapable of harming others--well, that how the Americans like it; on this both parties are equally hypocritical, however they express themselves! Actually both are wedded to the same policies--does this make me an anti-Semite? Most of my Jewish friends seem to think so--I no longer have any Jewis friends, being, as it were, excommunicated! Well I am, at least in good company--a Spinoza figure!
1
Israel has now become the light onto all the new ultra nationalist nations .Poland, Hungary, Italy, Greece, Turkey, India,Pakastan, Japan, Myanmar, should I go on ? I forgot the growing trend to say that our founders created a christian nation that must be made great again.
VOTE AS IF YOUR FREEDOM DEPENDS ON IT
1
When you cut through all the verbiage and rhetoric one is left with an inescapable conclusion. Israel can do whatever it wants because it has Nukes and the full backing of the United States. Although the Nukes are not going to disappear, uncritical U.S. backing just might. As demographic changes alter American voting and governance patterns among groups with less of a total and indefinite commitment to Israel, along with an eventual (two generations? three generations?) drying up of petroleum resources that will make the ME a less strategically important region, the U.S. will no longer see Israel as an indispensable weapons/intelligence platform for which it pays billions of dollars annually. This does not happen overnight, but given current trends, it is somewhat likely be the end of this century, especially after America becomes a "minority majority" country less enthralled with right wing Republican ideas. Insofar as the American Jewish community is concerned, every rant by Netanyahu and every right wing power play like the one described in this article drives more and more of them away from supporting Israel.
108
@Jason Shapiro
As long as Congress gets kick backs from the billions sent to Israel, I doubt there will be lack of support.
2
What in the world does nuclear weapons and US support have to do with internal Israeli developments?
1
@Jason Shapiro Sorry, what is it about Israel being a Jewish State that is driving you away? Is the idea of a safe haven for the Jewish people or the only Jewish majority in the world..?
1
I never understood why America openly supports a "nation" that derides all other faiths and proudly discriminates against those same people within and outside its borders. Isolation through hubris and perceived superiority will simply hasten one's humbling.
117
@Pilot - you're talking about Saudi Arabia, right? Oh, wait - they don't have people of other faiths within their borders, it's against the law there.
2
Perhaps the writer is unaware of the quite respectable freedom of religion practiced in Israel. A visit to Jerusalem alone would bear that fact out. Perhaps the writer has never been to Jerusalem.
6
Easy to understand. We do the same at home.
1
Israel and to be fair that general region stopped being a democracy from the days of Abraham thru Moses and Moh.
When religion was introduced to the state in this general area, it has gone downhill for thousands of yrs.
We can thank the founding fathers for separating church and state and Lincoln for saving it so today we do not live in the horror story that is that general area now.
25
@Paul I guess that only holds true for Judaism and Islam? As we all know European nations are democratic despite that they are all Christian states. They have been model nations for hundreds and thousands of years, there was no Inquisition, no Pogroms, no Inter-Christian wars, no Crusades, no Holocaust, etc. They have been model nations where people live in Freedom and equality since the beginning of the European city-states. They weren't the cause of two World Wars. Nope only the Middle East has been going down hill since Abraham introduced Monothesim.
Before Abraham there were no wars or battles between the tribes and nations in the region. Egypt didn't try to conquer their known world.
Think you should take a history lesson or two.
2
@Paul
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.
4
@m1945- let me elaborate on what I said, parts of it were poorly written but the last paragraph is still true and powerful.
From the the BC period to 1948, I don't believe there were any democracies in the general area. Greece became the first and only one circa 400BC but did not last. Israel was then the next one unless I stand corrected.
Israel is still a technical democracy but falling farther and farther away from it. The reason is perversion of religion on all sides ie introducing it to the state which sooner or later will destroy a democracy. History has taught us that.
Nothing but good news these days, on the democracy front.
Fukuyama better start writing a new book.
It is ironic that rather than being 'the only democracy in the middle-east', Israel is neither democratic, or even allowing that, the only one. All ethnicities & religions of the citizens in Iran & Iraq have equal political & civil rights. It is interesting to compare the US' friends & foes against our rhetoric. They don't match up very well, at all.
49
@Riley
Israel is ranked #30 on the Economist's Democracy Index.
Iraq is ranked #112.
Iran is ranked #150.
3
@Riley
The Bahai faith is hardly treated as equal in Iran. Some of its citizens have suffered arrest/death/confiscation of private property/its married women treated as harlots because their marriages are considered illegal, as is their faith. As to equality in Iraq, are you kidding? Only in the Kurdish region. What the Iraqi government thinks is largely irrelevant, because enough of its citizens are murderous and Christians still get killed. Jews? None live there, nor would they ever return.
This is fanciful, deceptive, and appeals to the ignorant.
7
@Riley
That reminds me of the old point in history class: "It was called the 'Holy Roman Empire' - but, in fact, it was neither 'holy', nor 'Roman', nor an 'Empire'."
The myth of the 'democratic state of Israel' is now exposed.
It's not a democracy - it is a theocracy.
See what one week of passing laws can do to a country?
1
It's a lot easier to believe in Democracy when you are in the majority.
32
David Ben-Gurion warned Israel at the end of the 1967 war to immediately return the territories conquered in that war. Why? Well he saw this coming, that is, if Israel tried to manage the occupied territories it would destroy its soul as a liberal democracy.
His prediction has come to pass. Israel, rather than being a state founded on liberal principals and Jewish religious culture, it has become essentially an illiberal religious state and will not uphold it's founders ideals.
231
@Mike
Israel was prepared to immediately return the territories.
A few months after the 1967 War, Israel offered to return all the areas taken in that defensive war and to immediately enter into peace negotiations.
At the Khartoum Conference in late Aug.-early Sept. 1967, the attending Arab nations responded with the 3 No’s:
No negotiations with Israel
No peace with Israel
No recognition of Israel
13
And Israel was more than ready to return much of the land acquired after the ‘67 war...for a ‘written in stone’ peace deal with its neighbors that they would never again initiate a war to annihilate the Jewish state. Unfortunately, soon after the war, at the Khartoum Conference, Arab members decreed the infamous three no’s....there would be “no peace with Israel, no recognition of Israel, no negotiations with it”. It is easy for all the ‘armchair generals’ to forget that such a conference ever took place, but it is also essential to remember that the neighboring countries missed every opportunity to make peace in those years after the ‘67 war. I am not a big supporter of this new nation-state law but also understand the lousy reality that Israel finds itself in after 70 years of conflicts with its neighbors who have never accepted the presence of a Jewish state anywhere in the Middle East.
2
@On My Mind
That was more than 50 years ago, and the inhabitants had just seen about 60-70% of their territory handed to a religious movement, most of whom were coming there from other countries. Times have changed. In fact the Palestinian leadership did negotiate and recognize Israel as a party to the Oslo accords.
Dr. Boehm's population estimate excludes the Gaza Strip, with nearly two million people, all Arab and overwhelmingly Muslim. Also, I strongly suspect that the Jewish count includes Israeli Jews living outside Israel, of whom a large portion certainly will never return to Israel. It would appear that the area controlled by Israel is already majority non-Jewish. Israel is now digging its grave as a Jewish state by its settlement policies. If Israel is to survive as a Jewish state, it must create a Palestinian state.
129
@John Walbridge
How can Israel create a Palestinian state when the Palestinians have no interest in having their own state? In 1948, the Palestinians could have declared independence. Instead, the West Bank Palestinians asked for union with Jordan.
1
@John Walbridge, you say Israel "must create a Palestinian state." What does this mean?
In the late 90s and early 2000s, Israel made multiple peace offers that would have resulted in a Palestinian state. None were accepted and there were no counteroffers, just a terrible barrage of suicide bombings in restaurants, on city buses, and in shopping centers. Israel also tried unilateral withdrawal (from Gaza) with no peace agreement, and the result is a de-facto Palestinian state ruled by a terrorist organization that pours all its resources into attacking Israel. (Attacks from Gaza are ongoing but they don't make the US news anymore.)
Most Israelis would sacrifice a great deal for a Palestinian state that would live in peace with its neighbors. The problem is that most no longer believe this is possible.
2
@John Walbridge: your comment gets to the most important issue of the Israeli Palestinian conflict, that is the survival of Israel.
The Israeli government heavy handed massage of demographic statistics hide the fact that Jews are already a minority in Israel.
Righteous arguments such as how mean Arabs are and God's promise to the Jewish people would not change the progressively worsening demography.
And all of this would have been a non-issue had the Arab states and the Palestinians recognized the State of Israel at any time during the past 70 years.
76
@Eitan
Numerous Arab states have recognized the State of Israel, the largest of them being Egypt and Jordan during the past 70 years, in case you don't know.
And how on earth could "the Palestinians" do so not being a state?
6
@Eitan
In the Oslo Accords, the PLO did recognize the State of Israel. It had no effect on the Israeli right wing’s determination to prevent a Palestinian State at all costs.
5
Not really.
1
You can't be a democracy and a theocracy. Israel used to brag about being the only democracy in the Middle East. Now that they've given up on that why should we keep paying their bills?
296
@KirkIndeed - the notion of what has always been and today is clearly revealed even more baldly than ever as a "theocratic democracy" serves as the very definition of the unfortunate term "oxymoron."
1
@Kirk Where in the bill does it say that Israel is or will become a theocracy. Read the bill itself and not what someone writes picking and choosing to support his/her view.
3
@Kirk: a democracy is a country that has regular elections and citizens who can vote. It has nothing to do with the religion of that nation or the national language.
Many Arab nations are theocracies -- REAL ONES -- where religious leaders are also political leaders and all law is based on religious texts.
That is NOT TRUE in Israel. They have elections. They have a sizable Arab minority as well as Christians and other religions.
Israel has rights for gay and lesbian citizens, as well as women's rights. How many Arab nations have that? most Arab nations KILL or imprison gay citizens!
If Israel had suspended elections, you might have a point. Otherwise...no, it's just anti-Jewish animus in disguise. And BTW: we send billions to ARAB nations that HAVE NO RIGHTS to vote, nor womens or gay rights.
3
Thank you for writing this! As an American Jew I am so ashamed of what has become of the state of Israel. The victims have become the perpetrators and the world is right to shame them for it.
249
@Gordon Hall
Whether you are Jewish or not is irrelevant. Why not call out the shame on the majority of Palestinians, and much of the Muslim world even outside the Arab countries, for the venal anti-Semitism that is proudly taught and accepted there? You might be ashamed of an orthodox Jew in religious garb going to services on Shabbat; unfortunate. But neither you, nor I, would ever cringe at any Muslims wearing their traditional clothes. But I condemn anti-Jewish rhetoric, especially when it enfolds as part of religious dogma. And so should you!
5
@Gordon Hall I could not disagree with you more. Ashamed of Israel? Please - give me a break
Perhaps the writer is unaware that Israel is the most interesting example of state-building in modern history. Perhaps the writer ought to spend more time being ashamed of being an American for all of the diminution of democracy we are currently experiencing, even before Trump. Perhaps the writer should save his shame for a national electoral system that permits the minority to elect its national leader.
2
This article is so out of touch it is astonishing. Israel was founded as a Jewish State - a return to the homeland of the Jewish people- the only nation in the world with a Jewish majority. Singling Israel out amongst the world's democracy is very questionable.
Israel is by no means alone in having an official state religion, identity, or preferred religion. For example: Islam is the official state religion in 27 nations and the preferred religion in another 3 nations.
Similarly, Hebrew is and should remain the official language - 90% of Israeli Jews and the majority of Israeli Arabs, speak it fluently.
This law, like recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's capital as Jerusalem, simply reinforces facts we already knew to be true.
64
@slh259 - "Islam is the official state religion in 27 nations and the preferred religion in another 3 nations."
Citing Islamic countries is a very low bar. I am a Jew. I want us to do better.
74
An official religion is not what this article is talking about.
58
@slh259 - Dear Contributor, With respect I cannot agree. There is no mention of the over 150 UN Resolutions or the ruling of the International Court of Justice concerning the 700 km "wall". The ICJ, the UN and entire EU condemned the so-called "wall" which has been built to take the indigenous land of the Palestinians. Jerusalem according to the UN is occupied territory; please see UN Security Council Resolutions 476 and 478 which condemned Israel's "eternal claim" to Jerusalem as NULL and VOID. The US allowed these Resolutions to pass and become law and the UK. China and France agreed explicitly that Israel had violated international law with the "Basic Law". Palestine is a UN non-member STATE and recognised by about 70% of the world as a STATE. The UN has registered Palestine with over 50 of its Agencies. The ICC is investigating claims on behalf of the State of Palestine. The Vatican recognises Palestine and the EU Parliament recognises Palestine in principle. There are no EU Resolutions which agree with your view. What UN Resolutions do state is that the Palestinians have a right to national self-determination and that illegal settlements for settler only settlements and accessed by settler only settlements are illegal. A two-state solution is the only way forward in the Holy Land and Israel does not accept this with the Nation-State she has accepted. Incidentally, the EU have Settlement Guidelines and Settlement Labelling.
3
It is very difficult, in fact impossible, for a country in a perpetual state of war to behave as a liberal democracy.
99
@James B
Then perhaps they should end the war.
2
@James B
Israel has managed to be a liberal democracy despite being under attack. Israel has done a better job than we have. We locked up American citizens of Japanese descent during world war 2. We confiscated Joe DiMaggio's father's fishing boat because he was of Italian descent. Arabs in Israel are not locked up. They can vote. They can hold office even though Israel is still at war with Arabs.
3
@James B
True. Israel continuously illegally acquires new territories, because it must have them, ensuring continuing conflict. Actual, liberal democracy would interfere with this process. One must have priorities. The land is real, the liberal democracy can be talked of, as a distant dream, regrettably impractical at the moment, or for the forseeable future.
Here is the way it is supposed to work according to some, including some former Israelis:
To the west of the Jordan River there is a state of Jews and Palestinians. Anything done to further the Jews is considered harming the Israeli Palestinians. More Jews in the Negev, Galilee, Sharon? Certainly not in this view.
To the east of the Jordan there is supposed to be a Palestinian state. One that according to the Palestinians will be only Arab. No Jews in their view allowed. Arabic is their language and Islam their official religion. So in their constitution.
(As for Gaza, well frankly they are the enemy of the State of Israel and also of the Palestinian Authority)
So the Arabs get a state and a half, in addition to the other 23 or so in the region and the Jews get a limited one in which anything they do is considered an infringement of the rights and privileges of the Arabs.
And you wonder why some wanted a law calling Israel a Jewish state.
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@Joshua Schwartz - And how is the situation ACTUALLY working out?
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@Joshua Schwartz
There is no legal basis for such a state, other than the right of conquest. Israel rejected the original partition plan by immediately attacking Palestinian areas, and annexed them into the Jewish state.
Further, while "some" envisioned your plan, the victims on the ground, the Palestinians, did not.
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What I’m wondering is why you deftly totally ignored a two state solution.
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What is the difference between this move and Russia's annexation of Crimea? Or apartheid South Africa's development of lands where only impoverished blacks lived,with no viable economy? Will western democracies continue to support Israel's latest move? What is the definition of hypocrisy?
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@Kevin Somerville
The difference is that a religious book was used as casdastre, and unfortunately following fairies takes for adults to make stupidities is always more accepted
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@Kevin Somerville What an absurd comparison
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@pierre, spot on. And a wonderful use of the word "casdastre"; I had to look up it's meaning.
Israel was explicitly established as a Jewish state. There was no need to establish one more Arab state, nor one more Muslim state. Just look at the map. A single Jewish state. Period. What the Arabs want is not a two state solution, one Jewish and one Arab, but instead one Arab (with NO Jews) and one in which they believe some day the Arabs will be a majority, resulting in a two Arab states solution.
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@older and wiser - Dear Contributor, That is with respect wrong. There are of course extremists on both sides - Kahane Chai, price tag settlers etcetera and we could go back even further to the Irgun and Stern Gang (outlawed by the British) and the Stern Gang condemned for the murder of the UN Mediator Count Bernadotte by the UN Security Council. Nonetheless, there is a consensus to resolve this conflict between Israel and Palestine and that is a two-state solution. The Nation-State adopted by Israel promotes illegal settlements which are viewed as a war crime by the UN. There are over 150 UN Resolutions which Israel's current government sadly rejects including UN Security Council Resolutions 476 and 478 which condemned Israel's "eternal claim" to Jerusalem as NULL and VOID. Settler only settlements on land stolen from indigenous West Bank Palestinians is wrong. The International Court of Justice, UN and EU (all the members) condemned the 700 km "wall" built in and around Jerusalem and deep into the West Bank. That "wall" pushes Palestinians into smaller and smaller pockets. The settler leaders and their supporters in Mr Netanyahu's Government do not want to part of a Palestinian State - though Palestine is a UN non-member STATE and just today was accorded as a representative chair by the UN to represent 134 nations including China. It is sad that Israel does not recognise Palestine's right to exist or rejects a two-state solution.
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@older and wiser, but if Israel annexes the West Bank, sometime in the not so distant future there will be ONE state with an Arab majority.
Actualy I do not think that will happen since before that there will be one state with a majority of Arabs and ultra orthodox Jews (whose birth rate is very high). Then there will be a bloody civil war.
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@Ruby Why would one recognize resolutions a body who for all intents and purposes is anti-Israel. Other than in 1948 has that body made 1 pro-resolution about Israel?
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Yes, and our Conservative politicians refer to America as a Christian nation. Does that prevent us from being a democracy?
Wait, don’t answer that until after November.
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@Billy The Kid But we have the First Amendment which states:
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion..."
Contrast that with the law Israel just passed.
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@Billy The Kid
In my French definition of democracy, yes. For example you don't have a direct election of your president, you don't have an universal healthcare and you still apply death penalty. And for me, without these 3 thing, USA are not totally a democracy
@Billy The Kid
There are minority extremists everywhere, including the US.
But neither theConstitution nor any law make the US officially a”Christian nation. “
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I don't see anything that prevents Israel from being democratic; the desire to be liberal has never existed. Israel is tolerant of minorities and provides protection for minority rights as it should. Nothing about being a Jewish state interferes with this approach.
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@Dixon Duval I am in favor of a Jewish state but annexing land belonging to Arab Israelis does not protect minority rights. Read the article.
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@Dixon Duval Then you are not paying attention.
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@Dixon Duval You're joking, right? Or perhaps your lens is skewed to only men.
https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Study-finds-stubbornly-high-gender-ine...
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Professor Boehm's excellent article intriguingly suggests the presence of an imaginary line between an Israeli democracy and a Jewish apartheid state. The title asks "Did Israel Just Stop Trying to Be a Democracy?", and I would ask this philosopher: when you stop trying to be something, at what point do you cease simply being that thing? If I were to "stop trying" to be a writer, I think that the lack of words on the page would quickly indicate that I had stopped being a writer. The longer that state lasted without corrected, the less of a writer I would be. In the same way, it seems that Israel has ceased to be a democratic state; if the denial of the rights of Palestinians and non-Jews continues for too long, reasonable people will have to declare Israeli democracy dead.
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@Me: you can do anything you want, but by your logic...the US was not a democracy from the get-go because we had slavery from Day One. And we were not a democracy under Washington or Jefferson or Lincoln....did we start being a democracy after the end of slavery and the Civil War? oh right -- no. Because of Jim Crow.
So by your logic, we've never been a democracy, I guess. Which nations are there, that are so perfect in their human rights policies from their inception, that we can use here as a role model?
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I don't like the legislation, but let's not overreact. Many constitutions are nationalistic in character. I would guess that most, in the Middle East especially, have similar clauses. What is frustrating is that Israel should be moving forward to a more multinational state, and instead seems to be moving backward, a bit as if the U.S. were to repeal the Reconstruction Amendments and go back to its previous way of doing things. Of course, at this rate, that may be next.
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@Mike Livingston: OK -- how many Middle Eastern nations are democracies in any sense, or have regular fair elections or rights for women -- or religious minorities? How many have sizable Jewish populations vs. the ones who EXPELLED all of their Jewish citizens (and seized all their property and assets)?
How many Arab nations permit Hebrew to be spoken or taught, or on signs?
Why does ISRAEL ALONE have to be "multinational" but all the Arab nations can be monarchies or cleric-run theocracies?
Why is OK for Great Britain to have a state church (Anglican Church of England) and an official state language -- ENGLISH -- but when Israel does it, its immoral and wrong and means they are not a democracy? Is Great Britain a democracy?
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@Mike Livingston This is happening in a context of rising right-wing nationalism, both in the US and in Europe. To over-state the grave importance of that fact would be impossible.
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@Concerned Citizen - Oh, CC, wrong again! England does not have an official state language. In Wales, Welsh is an official language, and it is the only officially recognized language in the UK. And, while it's true that the Church of England is the "Established Church" in England, it has almost no power in modern day England outside of the fact that about 26 bishops have seats in the House of Lords and that members of the royal family are affected by certain laws concerning their relationship to the CoE. Ordinary citizens are not really touched directly by the fact that it's the "established" church. As Cole Moreton said in an article in The Guardian: "The Church of England is no longer our national church, in the sense of being an institution whose values we all share and which is intimately bound up in all our lives." Although the country is majority Christian, there are no laws mandating any kind of religious affiliation and there are no laws discriminating against or prohibiting other religions.
Jews of the world need a Jewish state. If there needs to be a choice, then the choice is easy: Israel MUST be a Jewish state.
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@Adam
Many white South Africans felt the same way about the country they had created -- if they gave blacks equal rights they would lose their homeland -- and they were correct. That still doesn't justify apartheid, there or in Israel.
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@Adam Atheists of the world need an Atheists state. If there needs to be a choice, then the choice is easy: Israel MUST be a Jewish state.
As you can see, this comment made no sense.
In the wake of the Holocaust and the right of the Jewish people to a homeland that guarantees their fate, I have no problem with that nation defining itself as Jewish as opposed to the gauzy "world citizens" that expect every diverse "people" to have some rights in your country -- except your own. Same problem in America.
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@JOHN Then forget Democracy and they are like all the rest of us. They get to defend themselves with their military not their ethics or morality.
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I would say that this approach is certainly not unique within the region. Israel’s neighbors are equally concerned with maintaining their religious identity while being less concerned with minority rights within their borders. Of course, many of these nations don’t position themselves as democracies. Israel’s insistence on being Jewish is an overcompensation for what they see as an existential threat to their self determination. One can hope that someday this whole region will catch up to the rest of the modern world in forming nations that provide security and support to individuals no matter what their beliefs are.
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@John
Israel has been proving for the last 70 years that a country can be both Jewish & a democracy.
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Israel is simply following the rest of the liberal world order down the rabbit hole of nationalism. This will not end well.
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Maybe this philosopher can explain to us why there are virtually no Jews in surrounding nations.
Jews are essentially banned from living in Arab nations.
Israel NEEDS to be a Jewish state.
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@Tuco Yes, but that is the end of their claim to Democracy.
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@Tuco
There are 25 synagogues in Iran and there is a synagogue in downtown Beirut.
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@Michael
Iran is NOT an Arab nation.
Why is Israel, a country the relative size of a postage stamp, the Worlds one and only Jewish state always singled out for opprobrium no matter what it does. The Arabs have 28 plus countries. Is it too much to ask that they can have a law that makes it official that its a Jewish State? Can't Jews have one little state of their own?
Israel is a Democracy..This law does not change that. It has a vibrant press, minority represention in its democratically elected legislature, and an independent judicial system that acts as check on the executive and legislative branches. As is typical, If Israel is not perfect the anti-Semites and Anti-zionists will take one element they disagree with and conglate it to portray all of Israel as "a Nazi state" and demonize it as a threat to World peace. Of course they say nothing when the true dictatorships demonize Israel, point out Israel's flaws as existential threats to "their Palestinian brothers" while ignoring their own brethrens terrorism, racism, and militirism.
Israel as the only Jewish State will always be outvoted by the far more numerous Arab and Muslim States. The author cites " Israel's right wing government" in a pejorative sense. If it can be categorized that way its because the People democratically voted it in. If it fails it can be voted out. Thats democracy.
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@pirranha299
Israel aspires to be treated as a modern liberal democracy like those in Europe and North America. Those countries do not have separate classes of citizens based on race and religion. Israel is no better or worse than most of its neighbors, but should not claim to be any better; certainly not a liberal democracy.
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Hi Omri;
I'm a holocaust survivor's son with many relatives in Israel. I am also very much an anti-Trumper and my architectural partner is of Palestinian origin.
I disagree with your position a bit in the following way;
All countries on earth have a dominant "religion" whether they claim it or not. Every single country. The United States is overwhelmingly Christian (and racist) of course. The Arabic nations? Do I need to answer?
France- Christian. Denmark - Christian. Russian- Christian. And on an on.
I am agnostic. In effect, Atheist (I'm actually a Singulatarian ala Ray Kurzweil). In any case, I am a critique of the typical Jewish Prayer book as I am a critic of the prayer books of all the religions.
Yet I am, indeed, stamped a Jew. I often joke that as a Holocaust Survivor's son I am a tattooed Jew down to my core. It doesn't matter what I believe.
In this sense, Israel should remain the "Jewish State" by law and by constitution simply as tribal definition. Palestine, I hope will one day comprise Jordan and perhaps some of the West Bank. I hope one day Gaza will go to a peaceful Egypt as an extension of the Sinai.
Meanwhile, inside Israel proper Palestinians and all other minorities must be given full rights to even become Prime Minister, of course, should they win the vote inside a state that is, by "law" Jewish. No apartheid allowed.
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@David Kesler Jewish is a matter of family as much as of religion; even if you do not practice or believe in the religious aspects, you are still part of the family (Israel).
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Growing up as a Jewish child in the United States, I was taught that without the complete separation of church and state, we would never be equal citizens in our own land. Any hint that the United States was a Christian nation would jeopardize our sense of equality. And sure enough, as a member of a minority religion, I have enjoyed an unparallel sense of belonging and equality for which I am eternally appreciative.
Yet I was also taught that Israel is a Jewish state and that Palestinians were hateful not to accept this fact. This seemed wrong to me as a child. I could not reconcile the double standard and I could not imagine what a just solution for the Palestinians would be, given the inherent contradiction.
When Israel was founded, Jews were a minority in historic Palestine -- the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean sea. Today, there are roughly in equal number of Jews and Palestinians in the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean and also roughly the same number of Jews an Palestinians in their respective diasporas. The ethical implications should be obvious.
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@P. Greenberg Take a look at the 'cancerous' border (spreading) What happens when they spread all the way to the Mediterranean?
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There is no inherent inconsistency between a democracy and a religious state -- if we mean by democracy "majority rule". The people vote and the people rule.
Of course liberal democracy has come to mean more -- that the government and power of the majority is limited in order to protect the individual and the minority. But there is no clear consensus that a liberal democracy in this sense cannot have a state religion so long as freedom of thought and worship is protected.
Ireland had Catholicism until the 70s and England still has the Church of England. Apparently a total of 8 European countries still have a state religion. Not to mention many Islamic republics are both democratic and officially Islamic.
A state religion is just a manifestation of the will of the people, akin to other values codified into law. It's not necessarily anti-democratic.
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@Mmm I'd appreciate a list of the Islamic countries that are both officially Islamic and a Democracy. I don't know of any, except a few outliers.
Turkey has been removed from that list. It's now basically a dictatorship.
Indonesia was a great hope, but they've gone down the tubes with their incredible oppression of minorities.
Uzbekistan? Dictatorship. Afghanistan, Iraq, Egypt and Tunisia? Nope. Maybe in ten or fifty years. Maybe.
Sadly, that leaves Senegal. Whose President is now locking up the opposition. So I encourage you to do some research and please prove me wrong. I want to be wrong.
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@Mmm US democracy is firmly grounded in the notion that "all men are created equal". This is antithetical to having a state religion.
Other countries can be "democracies" by this definition or that, but we set the gold standard, and attempts to fuzzy it should be rejected. Israel is not a democracy like the US. At the most fundamental level, therefore, we don't share values.
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@Mmm You might do well to look at the awful legacy of oppression under the Irish Free State/Republic's unholy alliance of church and state before using that example...
By what standards are we to judge Israel? If by western liberal-democratic standards, then this is appalling. If by the standards of the neighbourhood they live in, then it is not so perverse. With this law, Israel is no more 'western' than, say, Jordan or other countries in the region. For better or worse, instead of countries around Israel normalising to democratic values, the reverse is happening to Israel. So long friends of shared values, and hello alliance of convenience.
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@Dino Gobbi We should not judge Israel at all, except to question whether we need to have such a close alliance with a nation that shares our democratic values less and less. And despite Trump, America is still strongly democratic, and will continue to be long after Trump is consigned to the dustbin of history. We have diplomatic relations with many non-democracies but we don't give them special treatment.
1
For some American Jews, Israel is the Jewish state, a permanent home. But for many of its Zionist founders, Israel was to be more than that. David Ben Gurion spoke of " אור לגויים", a shining light among the nations. Israel aspired to be a shining example to the world.
Now it is moving from universal principles enshrined in the Declaration of Independence to a single notion of ethnicity and religion, to the exclusion of ethnic and religious minorities (including non-Orthodox Jews).
Sure, this is happening in other places. But those who founded the state imagined being a shining example of what Jews can build, not shrug that “Slovakia does it too”.
Happy Tu B’Av!
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@Dr. S. Levine
Not only has Israel demonstrated for 70 years that a state can be both Jewish & a democracy, but Israel has also demonstrated that a state can be a democracy even while under attack. There are so many examples, even the USA, where leaders of countries under attack would deny rights until the crisis was over. Israel's example shows that people don't have to accept that excuse & can demand that countries remain democratic even in crisis.
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@Dr. S. Levine
I'm not quite sure what you mean by "Slovakia does it, too." What is Slovakia doing to destroy its minorities' rights? Minorities in Slovakia actually enjoy complete equality and even have minority rights towards teaching school in their own languages. Maybe you were just being hyperbolic, but, yeah.
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@Dr. S. Levine Perhaps cite back to Isaiah 42:6 and 60:3 to place Ben Gurion's statement--and Israel's existence--in context.
Certainly this law is a bad idea. The current government proposed it much as Trump governs; with an eye towards their nativist base. But seriously, the Arabs are complaining about Israeli democracy? Seriously? There are 22 Arab countries (occupying 99+% of the land in the middle east), none of them are real democracies and all of them have Islam as their official state religion. If the Palestinians decide to actually make peace with the Israelis, and set up the 23rd Arab country, it too will be a dictatorship and it too will have Islam as its state religion.
There is much to criticize Israel about, and all of that criticism will be prominently displayed breathlessly all over the NYTimes, but listening to the Arab world comment on Israeli democracy is like listening to the Russians or the Iranians complain about unfairness in the US political system.
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@Chazak
True enough, but Israel promised us it would be different.
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@Chazak
Whattaboutism is not a justification -- at best it is an excuse.
1
Israel has the unfortunate conundrum of having a large percentage of its population that is hostile to the very existence of Jews in the Holy Land. Arabs in Israel and in Judea and Samaria have advocated a Palestine from the river to the sea by driving the Jews in to the sea. How would the US or European countries react to such animus? Unlike Jim Crow era blacks in the US or black South Africans under apartheid who rightfully demanded a seat at the table politically and economically through peaceful methods, Palestinians have resorted to terror, hatred and other means antithetical to rational cooperation. It's no wonder Israelis are at their wits end.
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@Iconoclast Texan
Yes, but the Jewish Israel's keep taking Palestinian land Illegally, inflaming the situation- and ironically, with benign support from their neighbors and +50 atomic bombs, they are in full control.
If someone took your land illegally, you most certainly would be hostile. Europeans took land and property from Jews during the Holocaust (Not evening talking about life). Even now there are efforts to recover property from that time (Art, Money, etc..). The new Israeli law will simply be used to take more Palestinian land.
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Thank you, Mr. Boehm, for this article. The contradiction in the Israeli Constitution recalls a similar contradiction in the original U.S. Constitution. The US Declaration of Independence says that "all men are created equal", but the Constitution made allowances for slavery and every slave was given 3/5 of a vote — for the masters to cast! This gave the whites in the slave-holding states more votes than in non-slave states, and so kept the blacks enslaved. Lincoln said "A nation divided against itself cannot stand". Indeed, the contradiction tore the country apart and the Civil War cost 600,000 lives. The creation of a particularly Jewish state was the result of anti-Semitism in the U.S. and U.K., which imposed tight limits on Jewish refugees from the Nazis. Anxious to locate Jews "somewhere else", these nations turned a blind eye to the fact that a country cannot be both democratic and racially/religiously defined. The mideast has since contained an unhealable wound, a chronic source of hate and violence that can only be healed by equality and self-determination for both peoples. But after some 75 years of assiduously trashing the democratic part of its Constitution, Israel has formally renounced it, forcing the world to tolerate still more horrific suffering of the Palestinian people.
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@Anne Sherrod You forgot to mention the original owners of the land in the USA, who remain limited to the "reservations" and made wards of the federal government, who by and large ignores standards of health, education and well-being afforded the general population.
A comparison to the stituation between Israel and Palestine is apt.
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@Anne Sherrod, you seem to suggest that at the inception of the Modern state of Israel an unhealable was created. Are you suggesting that the existence of Israel is the wound? At the creation of the state Israel had no control of the west bank and Gaza, no settlements and no occupation. Why was there no peace then? If there was no peace before Israel took control of the west bank and Gaza then how can anyone expect peace by Israel giving up control of the territory?
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@Anne Sherrod Please remember that the United States corrected this 3/5 rule in the constitutional amendments after the Civil War.... also a period of some 75 years.
The current Israeli government is betraying the vision of Israel's founders, and the image of Zionism that has been taught to generations of American Jews. Nevertheless, there is no conflict between political democracy and the definition of Israel as a Jewish state (which is, of course, its very raison d'etre).
As the nation-state of the Jewish people, Israel is not defined by religion (most Israeli Jews are secular) but by the fact that Jews are historically a distinct people, an ethnic group unique in language, culture and customs. It is the expression of, and respect for, these aspects of Jewish peoplehood that make Israel Jewish. Non-Jewish citizens of Israel should be able to accept these aspects of national culture, just as American Jews adapt to our Anglo-Saxon heritage and the pervasive impact of Christianity.
As a democratic Jewish state, it is essential for Israel to hold sacrosanct the civil and political rights of every citizen on the basis of equality. The new law violates this principle expressly by lowering the status of the Arabic language, and by implication because the process surrounding the legislation was clearly motivated by a desire to depreciate the standing of Arab Israelis.
Israel can only be true to itself and to Jewish values by respecting and upholding the equality of every citizen, especially including minorities. The current government's unnecessary violation of those principles displays foolhardy hubris.
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I agree with except for that Israel is not defined by religion.
"Please be aware that in terms of Israeli civil law (as very distinct from Jewish religious law), what is prohibited is to *display* leaven items during Passover."
Sounds not very neutral to me. This intrusion of jewish law into civil will only become more extreme with this new law.
Religious extremists and intolerance are the danger of all religions - but in a theocracy much easier to enforce. Unfortunately...
3
Yes, most Israeli Jews are secular. But, they still have to conform to orthodox rules (for example,marriage) on too many issues. If one believes in true separation of Church and State as a fundamental requirement to be a true liberal democracy, then Israel is a flawed democracy. It is very flawed compared to Western and Northern European democracies and Canada. Indeed, Israel is the only example of democracy in the Middle East. But, in a neighborhood like it, it is easy to qualify.
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@Elliot Jews (or anyone else) in America who don't adapt to "our Anglo-Saxon heritage" (which is hardly the heritage of all Americans anyway) aren't faced with discrimination and apartheid. Discrimination based on culture is no more valid than if it is based on race or religion.
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Strategies by definition must change with reality. Strategies which never change are called beliefs. And when one holds a belief against all evidence that is called messianism. The two state solution is messianism. It is not a strategy because since 2000 the world has changed too much. Those who still propose it have been deluded into waiting for a messiah that will never come.
As such Israel has no choice but to pursue its national interests as defined by a democratically elected government. Both Jews and Arabs voted in this election thus the apartheid nonsense should not just be ignored but renders this entire article unworthy of being read.
This law is necessary because Arab negotiators recognize Israel's right to exist in English and then explain in Arabic, "we are referring to an Arab state of Israel." Bibi said that, the NYT ignores him.
Strength means security. Negotiations result in terror. This is the lesson of the last 3 decades. Israelis and the administration understands this, perhaps you do not-keep waiting for the Messiah.
You can preserve democracy and declare a country the nation state of the Jews. They aren't mutually exclusive nor does a terror state on your border ensure democracy. There are democracies with state religions and parties named "Christian Democrats". No one calls these countries non-democratic let alone apartheid.
Time to face reality. Israelis can declare their country whatever they want. This law changes nothing.
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@jkemp Great job turning the messiah aspect on its head. It's really the Judea-Samaria settlement movement that has always been infused with dreams of Moshiach.
Democratically elected? Yes, except for the fact candidates now cannot run unless they pass an ideological litmus test. A little bit like in Iran.
I love Israel, and this just breaks my heart.
3
What if Israel could be satisfied with Israel proper instead of wanting to include the West bank? True peace could happen but not by making the West Bank Israel.
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@R Kling Define Israel proper would you? What borders and peace treaties exist and have ever existed between Israel and its neighbors, except for those with Jordan and Egypt. And it is borders that define the proper limits of a state.
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@R Kling The bigger question is: what if the Palestinians could be satisfied with just the West Bank and not the rest of the state of Israel? Israel repeatedly made such offers -- 98% of the land plus swaps to create 100% and they were rejected at every turn.
@R Kling
Israel accepted the Clinton Parameters which gave the Palestinians 97% of the West Bank.
1
The short answer is: "Yes".
3
Israel was founded as a Jewish state, a homeland for any Jewish people who wanted to live in a country for Jewish people. Democracy, liberal democracy, is government by the consent of the governed. With so many non-Jews living in Israel, democracy means including non-Jews in government. A majority of non-Jews could result in a non-Jewish government. Would Israel still be a Jewish state with a non-Jewish government?
7