The Only Democracy in the Middle East? Not According to Reality

The Only Democracy in the Middle East? Not According to Reality

One might think that although Israel is a Jewish state at its core, its Basic Laws (there are eleven) still guarantee equal rights for all its citizens, Arabs or Jews. But that is not the case. The initial draft of the Basic Law on Human Dignity and Liberty, which approximates the U.S. Bill of Rights, contained language that promised equality for all Israelis: “All are equal before the law, and there shall be no discrimination on the grounds of gender, religion, nationality, race, ethnic group, country of origin or any other irrelevant factor.” Ultimately, however, a Knesset committee removed that clause from the final version that became law in 1992. Since then, Arab members of Israel’s Knesset have made numerous attempts to amend that Basic Law by adding language that provides for equality before the law. But their Jewish colleagues have refused to go along, a situation that stands in marked contrast to the United States, where the equality principle is enshrined in law.

In addition to Israel’s commitment to maintaining its Jewish identity and its refusal to grant de jure equality for non-Jews, Israel’s 1.36 million Arabs are de facto treated as second-class citizens. An Israeli government commission found in 2003, for example, that Israel behaves in a “neglectful and discriminatory” manner toward them. Indeed, there is widespread support among Israeli Jews for this unequal treatment of Israeli Arabs. A poll released in March 2007 found that 55 percent of Israeli Jews wanted segregated entertainment facilities, while more than 75 percent said they would not live in the same building as an Israeli Arab. More than half of the respondents said that for a Jewish woman to marry an Arab is equal to national treason, and 50 percent said that they would refuse employment if their immediate supervisor was an Arab. The Israel Democracy Institute reported in May 2003 that 53 percent of Israeli Jews “are against full equality for the Arabs,” while 77 percent of Israeli Jews believe that “there should be a Jewish majority on crucial political decisions.” Only 31 percent “support having Arab political parties in the government.”

Israel’s treatment of its Arab citizens is more than just discriminatory. For example, to limit the number of Arabs in its midst, Israel does not permit Palestinians who marry Israeli citizens to become citizens themselves and does not give these spouses the right to live in Israel. The Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem called this restriction “a racist law that determines who can live here according to racist criteria.” Also, the Olmert government is pushing—and the Knesset’s ministerial committee on legislation approved on January 10, 2007—a law that would allow the courts to revoke the citizenship of “unpatriotic” citizens. This legislation, which is clearly aimed at Israeli Arabs, was labeled “a drastic and extreme move that harms civil liberties” by Israel’s attorney general.

Menachem Begin once said that “Palestinians are beasts walking on two legs,” while former IDF Chief of Staff Rafael Eitan referred to them as “drugged roaches in a bottle” and also said that “a good Arab is a dead Arab.” Another former chief of staff, Moshe Ya’alon, referred to the Palestinian threat as like a “cancer” on which he was performing “chemotherapy.”

-- From Chapter Three – “A Dwindling Moral Case,” John J. Mearsheimer & Stephen M. Walt, The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy, New York: Viking, 2007, pp. 88-89.

After examining the modern history of the region, one must ask oneself who the real “cancer” in the Middle East is, and then write to your “elected” representatives demanding that not one more penny of U.S. taxpayer money be given to Israel in the form of U.S. foreign aid, and that Israel begin paying immediate reparations to the United States for the U.S.S. Liberty attacks, the 9/11 attacks, and the subsequent wars that American soldiers have been tricked into fighting and laying down their lives for. In this regard, Israel should also begin paying massive reparations to the Iraqi people for the genocidal war incited by their political parties and intelligence services. Tell the Congress and the Senate that one more vote for AIPAC equals a vote to remove each and every treasonous official from their office. Stand up for the American people, or get the hell out of Washington. It is time for Israel’s karmic debt to be paid, and now is the time for it to begin. No more money for Apartheid Israel! No more wars shall be waged on behalf of this terrorist, pariah state. It is time for the world to unite and isolate this little, arrogant nation. America is waking up to who its real enemy on this planet is, and America is very, very pissed off.