Thank You Sceptical Meerkat for your interest in the Middle East issues. As you probably know, the Middle East is a very complex area. And any black-or-white kind of analysis is likely to be wrong and often is volontarily misleading.
The State of Israel itself is made of a variety of people having a variety of views & beliefs. That is why the President of Israel Reuven Rivlin declared in several instances (in several international meetings) that the main Israeli ‘’tribes’’ (as he says) should start to talk to each-other within Israel and that each ‘’tribe’’ should get ‘’equal budget’’.
Of course, the israeli citizens are quite divided : some want equal rights for all israeli citizens, others want a full religious State, and there are even some who claim that the citizenship of Israeli ‘’Arabs’’ (read : non-Jews) should be removed and that they should leave the country.
For the time being, we are in a transitory period, where those who call for equal rights are a minority.
In the Middle East, most States are religious states. And a state cannot be Religious AND Democratic. Indeed, a democratic state is characterized by full equality of rights and privileges for all citizens.
When the United Nations created the partition of Palestine into two states : a ‘’Jewish State’’ and an ‘’Arab State’’. The 1947 document stipulated that each of these two states must be democratic, as there are several articles within the text which give specific emphasis on equal rights & privileges for all citizens within each state. The 1947 document also requires that these rights will be cast in stone (if i may say) within the Constitution of each State. Israel was due to issue the Israel Constitution in 1948. As at today, Israel has no Constitution. Only Laws, which may change at any time according to the Knesset.
At this point, let’s remind that Theodor Herzl, the theoricist of zionism published his book “Der Judenstaat” (The State for the Jews)in 1896. This book was calling for a Refuge State for the Jewish people from all around the world. In fact, the main suffering & injustice was seen in Europe and Russia, because of an incredible level of antisemitism, everywhere, on very long period of time, which even culminated in pogroms. Herzl did not call his book ‘’Der Jüdisches Staat” (The Jewish State). The content of the book is always in the spirit of a Refuge State.
In 1947, the Western Governments voted for the creation of the ‘’Jewish State’’ having in mind that it must be democratic. That is whyn nowadays, the unofficial (but powerful) Israeli Communication -the Hasbara (הסברה)- claims strongly that Istael is a democracy (and, of course, the only one in the region). When the United Nations condemn the State of Israel for violation of International Laws and Human Rights, the Hasbara explains that the U.N. is inequitable, and suggest a latent antisemitism. The western Media often stread the Hasbara views without taking the time to vheck facts.
With internet, things are changing. Many western Judeo-Christians question the Media informations (or absence of).
In the Region, there are many States which hold national elections : for example Iran or Turkey. But are they democracies ? Can we say that there are “full equality of rights and privileges for all citizens” ? Obviously not. Israel is in a very similar position : there is no Constitution to guarantee the rights of all citizens AND there are discriminations among ‘’categories’’ of citizens.
This fact is for example detailed (in Hebrew and in English) by the Israeli Organization called Adalah : https://www.adalah.org/en/content/view/7189
Here is the Israeli Discriminatory Database :
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The State of Israel is recognized by most countries in the world, but this State borders have not been defined (nor have they by Israel itself). Which is quite unusual.
The current Israeli government claims that there is the threat than Israel is destroyed by some nuclear attack. But France & the U.S. made sure (in previous decades) that Israel will have means to deter any attack : they helped Israel to get nuclear warheads. Today, the State of Israel has several hundreds of them. The State of Israel has also the state-of-the-Art shield technology for protecting the country. Several countried declared (France, U.S., …) that they will attack any country which attack Israel. Today, the U.S. have dozens of military bases in the Middle East or close, with several thousands of nuclear warheads ready to destroy any State which would dare to attack Israel. There are several official declarations on that.
Therefore, Israel is NOT at risk. But the current government & the Hasbara like to spread the idea that it could be the victim of attacks. Instead, together with its allies, Israel is the most powerful State in the region (and in the world).
Israel has in hands all the cards which could enable it to become a peaceful modern respected dynamic democratic star in the Middle East, and in the World. That is if the Israelia Government chose to go that route. The Israeli Government (& the Hasbara) claim that the Palestinians and others have the power to stop the negociation processes….. when they only ask for what is in line with international laws.
The real problem within Israel is the power of the extremists & fundamentalists: their methods & expansionnism is not compatible with international Laws.
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Maybe could it be interesting, for your own benefit, to ask yourself why/ how you were brought to ask “ I wonder why the likes of you always select Israel for this?”
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Jean P. Ciron
