Israel and Democracy
Today the Drudge Report posted an article about British attitudes toward Isreal.
While Israel is far from the "least democratic country" in the world, it may the least democratic of those countries that claim to be democratic.
In the Untied States, as well as most democracies, full citizenship is based on where one is born, not ethnicity. In Israel it is the opposite. Jews born in Brooklyn can easily obtain full Israeli citizenship but Arabs who were born in what is now Israel but happened to be on the wrong side of the front when the 1947 war ended cannot. This is not democracy as most westerners understand it.
I've read quite a bit about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and I still not sure what Israel had in mind when it occupied the West Bank & Gaza more than 35 years ago. If the intention was to make these areas part of Israel, then the people living there should have been granted citizenship a long time ago. If not, they should have been given independence a long time ago.
While Israel is far from the "least democratic country" in the world, it may the least democratic of those countries that claim to be democratic.
In the Untied States, as well as most democracies, full citizenship is based on where one is born, not ethnicity. In Israel it is the opposite. Jews born in Brooklyn can easily obtain full Israeli citizenship but Arabs who were born in what is now Israel but happened to be on the wrong side of the front when the 1947 war ended cannot. This is not democracy as most westerners understand it.
I've read quite a bit about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and I still not sure what Israel had in mind when it occupied the West Bank & Gaza more than 35 years ago. If the intention was to make these areas part of Israel, then the people living there should have been granted citizenship a long time ago. If not, they should have been given independence a long time ago.
posted by Dancar | 3:06 PM
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